Green

She was staring at something I couldn't see, something past my eyes limit. Her eyes were sunken and foggy but they held a secret, something important, something worth giving everything up for. Her lips were ever so slightly blue and parted in a silent declaration of wonder. The leaves and twigs seemed to have purposefully braided through her hair, joining with her, making her beautiful. The dark reds and purples and greens of the autumn leaves were made more vibrant and vivid and passionate against her palest pale skin. She was almost entirely covered with vines and grass and twigs and soil. The earth was embracing her. One foot was free of the earthy hold, the toenalis coated in chipped green nail varnish, as if she had known, as if this were a date she had prepared for, primped and powdered and perfect. The shoulder on display was glourious, the delicate collarbone defined. The creamy white skin of her breasts and stomache contrasting stunningly with the dark purple of her back and thighs. Her wrist was thin, so thin and the skin covering the delicate blue veins was so smooth and clear and papery and I wanted to touch it. I wanted to trace the retired vein, feel the complete lack of flowing blood. But I couldn't, I couldn't touch her, I couldn't taint her, corrupt her with life. Her hair was red, deep red, a darker red than the blood pooled around it from the perfect gash on her left temple. It was beautiful, it was much too beautiful and my eyes hated themselves for their weak need to blink and miss a single second of this. There was nothing pumping through her body, nothing tying her here, she maybe should have seemed heavy as her organs settled and her skin fell but she didn't, she was so perfectly nestled in the moss and so very beautiful that she seemed so much more alive than the walking, talking, breathing bodies I knew would soon intrude. I sat beside her. The action overwhelmed me, I could feel every muscle work as I lowered myself to the ground, I could feel my heart beat, I was too aware of the air invading my lungs, of my weight on the soft wet ground, the hairs on my arms rising in the cold. Maybe I should have been scared, not of the body in front of me, but of the jealousy that flared up inside me as I watched her in her state of peaceful stillness and simplicity I could never achieve. She wasn't broken, she was whole, she was complete, she had no poisonous thoughts tainting her, no badness, no defences, no lies. Nothing. She was pure and she was perfect.