Atalanta

by Jennifer Saint

a forest sharp with fangs and claws, trickling with venom, pulsing with life and beauty. There were a thousand interconnected threads crisscrossing through it: from the ancient roots soaking up water deep beneath the earth so that the trees could lift their mighty crowns toward the sun, to the insects that burrowed into the deep crevices of the bark, to the birds that nested in the boughs, to the deer that trotted lightly and the stalking predators ready to pounce. And in the heart of it all, there was me.

“It’s my choice,” Jason said. “I decide who joins us, no one else.” I wondered, if that was really the case, why he felt the need to say it out loud.

But the bright morning air seemed to sparkle, the day made fresh and new and beautiful, cleansed by yesterday’s rain.

The darkness that lay beneath the wealth and golden light felt like a palpable thing, a menace surging like the blackest depths of the ocean.