Just writing something here to make sure my title is centered.
Worship
There was a woman with hair the color of cherry blossoms. There was a man with a heart as black as the branches. And just as flowers fall away from their trees, she too scattered herself to the wind.
I.
A man and a woman stand still, electric blade to slender neck, slicing palm to exposed chest, silhouettes backlit golden by the setting sun. In a tremolo of wing beats, a group of crows takes off from the surrounding trees.
"Let me take your burden," the woman says at last. The teal of her eyes are placid and her voice is steady.
The man says nothing, smoldering. Finally, he drops his weapon and shoves the woman against a tree, shoves his lips into hers. She leans into a wedge in the trunk and gasps, needing no words to open herself to him. Moaning as his hands pry into her, grip tight enough to snap bones, touch rough and cold as stone. Years and years have been leading to this, and it is not wonderful, but she devours every second hungrily. Years and years she has waited, and she does not care anymore if this is for hers or for his sake. The evening passes, shared in desperate breaths and cautious ecstasy.
While she sleeps, he builds a tower up from under her, encircling her in silk and moonlight, and illuminating the work of art that he's bruised into her skin. Beautiful night blooming like black lilies in a field of white. Standing between his woman and the window frame he has created for her, he unfurls a large scroll. That night, blanketed in the man's shadow, the woman dreams of unending loneliness and hatred.
When he has finished the ritual, he sits down beside her panting, solemnly guarding her tired body until dawn. As the sky's color begins to change, he leans down and whispers to closed eyelids, "Wait here for nine months. Grow your hair long. When I return, let it down from the window and we will be together again."
He doesn't need to hear her response. He knows that she has heard him and he knows that she will obey. He is on the windowsill before the woman's eyes flutter open in alarm, and halfway to the horizon before she can open her mouth.
She sighs, wondering how it was that he made her so slow to react. She moves a hand to her abdomen. There are, of course, no physical signs on the surface yet, but her expert hands need none. A child has just begun to grow inside of her, a child that will continue to bear the burden of its father. The woman stands and looks down at her stomach. She almost laughs when she realizes. The symbols around her navel swirl in a sinister dance and she feels a rumbling in her womb, an ancient power struggling to break its seal. What a man she had given her heart to who would make a demon of his own child.
As she steps toward the window, she closes her eyes. Imprinted on her eyelids is the image of his back, a web of scratches, her last plea for him to stay. She reaches the opening and looks down. She is at the top of a stone tower, maybe nine stories high. Below her, the forest is awakening commanded by the morning's light and at the base of the tower, a peculiar plant grows, tall and spiny with thick stems flecked with burgundy. She can't tell for sure from her height the exact species, but she's willing to make a bet.
"Little fox," she chimes. "Won't you lend me some aid in growing my hair? As long as your nine tails connected end to end."
II.
The sun sets, and the man wakes from his slumber, strangely serpentine in slowness, willing each joint to move as though the body weren't all his. The crackling of bones ripples through the trees like the song of a dying bird. He has reached the forest where his woman waits for him and only a night's journey to the tower remains.
For the past nine months he has devastated the lands surrounding his birthplace, earning for himself a reputation so terrifying that even the wildlife keeps its distance. He is silent and the world is silent around him as he treads toward his prize, the power that he needs to destroy the village that destroyed what he loved most. The sun is rising as he steps into the clearing where the tower looms above the trees.
"I am here," he calls.
A nude figure floats to the window with the elegant poise she developed solely to face him the last time they met. She smiles down at him warmly. Her body is a ripe fruit, belly round, breasts swollen, and he blinks, wondering why, standing in the frame of the window, she looks like a painting of something divine.
"Welcome back," she says. "I have done as you asked of me."
"I know you have."
She leans against the windowsill, roseate hair wrapped around her shoulders like a shawl. After a pause, she says, "You put a demon inside of me." There is boredom in her voice, as though were speaking of the most casual occurrence.
"I did. And do you still love me?"
"Yes."
"Then let down your hair."
She does so, first wrapping her hair around the hook beneath the window. Then she flings the rest outward allowing it to unravel in waves of sunset. It hangs, just brushing the weeds before his feet.
He climbs, and she watches him, minty eyes smooth as water. When he is near enough, she leans forward, holding a hand out to him. He reaches for it and in that instant something inside of her shatters, cool gaze replaced by the eyes of an abandoned young girl, the pained eyes of a woman sacrificing her everything for a greater everything. In one swift motion, she uses her palm to chop through the thick cord of hair, slashing his left eye in the process. He falls, making no effort to stop himself. Those eyes are the same eyes he saw on his brother years ago.
As he waits to hit the ground, he watches her hurdle out the window following him, stray hairs billowing out around her like a firework. He can't help but think that he is watching something rare and sublime, the self-destruction of a goddess who loved too much.
The corner of his lip quivers up into an arrogant grin. "What a fucking cunt," he thinks. And then the crunching of his skull turns the whole world red.
XX
Thank you all for reading!
Did you know that in the story of Rapunzel, there is supposed to be a hook under the window for her to wrap her hair around? The story makes so much more sense now that I know she doesn't just have like a steel neck or something. Anyway, this is the original ending I had planned for the story when the idea first came to me. Then, when I actually looked up the story of Rapunzel, the parallel was too good and I had to write another ending. See Chapter 2 for that. :)