by Ayushi Chandra
Along a sunlit lane down the Formosa Street lived a girl in the house of Blue lantern, where beauty hushed down in slow crescendoes and the dappling red light over her face showed no hint of pain but numbness of ages old. She was quiet not in ways haunting but a slow deep water rustling in the forest. I have glimpsed upon her often whenever she ran outside to bring rice for her lady. Her yukata was always white with red flowers, depicting the blood of young women in pain or perhaps a dead dream.
There was the sea in front of the windows which beckoned every time she opened her eyes. There was no way out of the prison.
No way out of herself. A red light flickered above her balcony, luring men from all sides whosoever wanted to taste her skin. However that day a young man with jet black hair came to her. He smelled of raw fish and new adventures. The grey in his eyes shone lividly under the broken bulb. He just stared at her as if he was gazing at a painting. She didn’t move nor did he.
‘I want to touch your pain’ he whispered softly, lifting her blue eyes she looked straight at him unable to speak as her lips wavered. He was dripping like a saturated sunrise, beautiful and everything right about a world where chaos was what she believed in. He came closer to her silently and looked straight into her eyes, gazing into them, as he saw his own reflection. The man didn’t move.
‘Can I kiss you’ he asked with his fingers tracing down her peach lips.
The girl. Nodded gently unscathed. Suddenly she felt an immense surge of colors when he touched her lips. It was different and real. Profound and chaotic. Everything at once. No one had ever kissed her like this. Both of them. Shared the same breath, the same air. Love felt so long and old and so melancholic. It felt like an old parchment floating in the air carelessly, it felt like warmth and tasted like cinnamon tea from her childhood, it was the beginning of chaos in short.
‘you have ruined me’ she said, pulling herself away from him.
‘because your in love’
‘no, because I can not be myself again’
‘well that’s good, you ought to fall in love once in your life and remember how beautiful the world is’ the man said and stood up.
‘but you can never fall for me’ she sobbed.
‘I am not meant to love’
‘no one can decide your fate, Cho, it’s the stars where our fate is written’.
‘You look sad’ she said looking at him.
The man wasn’t looking at her, towards the sea which was now a silent roar.
‘because I am’ he replied in a low voice, walking away from the window towards the door.
‘that’s how it is, Cho, your sad and you wreck, your empty and you wreck, you are messed up and you do all the things that will kill you in the end’.
His voice faded into a soft muffle, a deafening silence.
Cho stood near the alley, under the diminished red lights, and felt a soft kiss linger on her lips. It had become a memory which she would tuck inside her bosom forever, safely allowing herself to feel once more, a taste of joy, in a floating world like hers, where nothing remained inked.
About the Author:
Ayushi Chandra comes from a small town in West Bengal. She is currently pursuing a film design course and has a knack for writing stories and randomly sketching.