He had the sweetest way with words. I fell for every…single…one. His face is a vivid memory and his smile is as fresh as the sound of his voice in my ear.

Je t’aime…mon petit chou d’amour (my little darling of love).

I can almost feel my kindled heart flutter at his sweet words. Words that once meant so much to me now fill my heart with what should be rage and somber.

Mon amour transitioned into mon doux tourment. I want to feel indifferent to it all but my soul remains restless to the uncertainty. Could I have been different? If I was not so translucent I wonder how someone would view me. A woman…perched on a tree branch in the middle of a swamp, pondering her past life. At one point in time, I would be called a witch and threatened to be tied to this very tree. How could a woman possibly climb a tree? Burn her immediately. HA

Hm?

“Imagine how beautiful this would be with fairy lights”. I peer down over my branch and below and behold. The object of my restlessness. With him is what I can not deny is a beautiful woman. He paddles the boat forward with a single paddle while she admires the atmosphere in awe.

The sun may have just set but it reeks of rotten eggs while the ambience is next to dull.

It’s a swamp, hardly anything to awe at.

I look around at the interwoven, overgrown vines and can admit she has a point. If the fireflies shined a little harder, moved a little more to the rhythm…this could work. I look up at the evening star and smile at the distant childhood memory.

“I can see your vision mon petit chou (my little darling)”. My neck snaps to him just in time to see that smug smirk on his face.

Ugh

I am not surprised he reuses and recycles but the instinctive feeling my heart creates after hearing those words makes me unsettled. I hate missing it.

Deep breaths.

A calm spirit makes a calm mind.

A calm mind leads to perfectly executed revenge.

That familiar spark of joy lit a candle in my heart.

I draw the currents with delicate precision, angling them towards my silhouette, careful not to disrupt the balance of the bayou.

“What is that?” I smirk at the tremble in their voices while their gaze is locked on my dark shadow.

They can not help but stare deeply into my dark abyss. My silhouette is of a woman, scorned and alluring. Without a single word, I coax them down a narrow path, deeper into the swamp.

Let the bayou carry you

I savor the dark amusement in silence.

“Are you sure this is the right way?” I hear the woman ask him.

“Of course”

“How can you tell?” her tone is a little more skittish.

“I just have a feeling, ma chérie” he reassures, not knowing the current has already claimed him.

I have always loved how beautiful nature can be. In the daytime, you have natural light to show you the vines dancing around the trees, the bees playing tag with the flowers that bloom as the product of sunlight and rainfall.

Then you have the nighttime that shows you a different kind of beauty. The moonlight illuminates the face of those who look up at the constellations in awe.

Look

They both tilt their heads up at the sky. The trees form a close canopy over them but we can still make out…

Orion and oh…the Big Dipper

Just as I thought…the moonlight illuminates their faces exposing the woman’s beauty. Him…c'est toujours ma beauté. My heart flutters again with the thought of the sky being their last sight instead of each other.

Lovers?, I scoff. A lover and an emotional parasite maybe.

The sound of rushing waters brings a wicked smile to my face. My wrath is for him alone, though the current drags them both.

Do you hear that, my love?

Still eloped in my spell, he paddles the canoe in the direction of the crashing waters. The paddles snap against a rock hiding just beneath the surface. I witness the sense of alarm finally registering in their eyes as they are slapped back into reality.

A rumble in my chest as I imagine the questions that rush through their head. Probably as fast as the water rushes under their too fragile canoe.

No longer enchanted by the dark silhouette, they scramble to find something to push them against the current.

This feeling…almost euphoric. This man I wanted so badly to love me, scrambling for something that could prevent what is already written in the stars. I close my eyes as I revel in the spine-tingling screams.

Yes…spine-tingling.

How I wish I could feel the atoms of my spine jolt pleasantly at the sounds. The croaking of the canoe blending with the melody of the currents and distant screams…fading…until there is nothing but the whistles and chirps of the nocturnal voices.

Once again, at the branch I began, I looked up at the night sky. The memories flood through my mind.

The giggles, the whispers…

the promises, the cries…

the highs…the lows…

the sorrows, the tears…

the blood…the night…

the sirens…

The love I still had even after all of that.

Love and hate truly are a very thin line.

Hm?

Was that star always that bright? Hm? I turn to my left and another star is gleaming on the opposite axis.

Oh.

I can not help but tilt my head back in laughter, amused by the irony of it all. In the end, he did not get what he wanted. Instead he spends eternity alone. That is enough to let my soul rest…. … ….