Nocticadia

by Keri Lake

“You’re far too young to live a life without mistakes.”

Calling her beautiful was like calling the sun lukewarm.

Some kisses were said to feel like fireworks. His felt like a slow-drip anesthetic, silently siphoning my senses, until all I could smell, taste, and feel was him.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to stay away from you after this. But let me be very clear,” he gritted through clenched teeth as his hand gripped my throat. “I don’t share. If anyone else so much as looks at this pussy, I’ll take pleasure in dissecting him, starting with his eyeballs.”

“Jealousy is a callow schoolboy’s emotion that ends in hard feelings and bloody noses. What I feel for you, Miss Vespertine, would destroy lives.” Palm to my jaw, he kissed me hard and bit my lip to emphasize his point.

A beautiful complexity that was as pure and thrilling as it was forbidden.

“Eyes on me. I want to watch you come.”

The dead teach the living.