09-29-2019, 10:53 PM
<link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Monsieur+La+Doulaise' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'> <style type="text/css"> .lilian_container { position: relative; z-index: 1; background: #a58474; width: 600px; padding: 0 0 0 0; border: solid 1px #38253b; border-radius: 0px 0px 300px 300px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 10px 1px #000; } .lilian_container p { margin: 0; } .lilian_image { position: relative; z-index: 4; width: 600px; border-radius: 0px 0px 300px 300px; } .lilian_text { position: relative; z-index: 6; width: 580px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: -40px; background: #e4d9ce; border: solid 1px #38253b; border-top: none; box-shadow: 0px 0px 10px 1px #38253b; } .lilian_message { position: relative; font: 12px 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: justify; color: #000; padding: 30px 50px; } .lilian_name { color: #a58474; font: 70px 'Monsieur La Doulaise', cursive; line-height: 0.8; padding-bottom: 10px; } .lilian_quote { font: 12px 'Times New Roman', serif; background: #a58474; color: #e4d9ce; padding: 20px; letter-spacing: 1px; border-bottom: solid 1px #38253b; }</style> <center> <div class="lilian_container"> <div class="lilian_text"> <p class="lilian_quote">I never cared for anyone so much. I was born with a bomb inside my gut.</p> <p class="lilian_message">
She is too stunned to scream.
The sphinx begins to tip and she cowers, quivers, sucks in a sharp breath.
She thinks it will crush her.
Instead, it opens its great mouth and swallows her whole.
Her first thought is that she’s arrived in hell. The heat is so oppressive that it makes her head swim. She is disoriented from the fall – or the slide, or whatever it had been – and it takes several moments for her to force her vision to focus. She sucks in a sharp breath that makes her woozy and she stumbles, staggers, struggles to regain her balance.
Sweat gathers along the crest of her neck, drips down her chest. She staggers down the path without making the conscious decision to do so. Because it feels good to move, even if it is so hot that she can hardly breathe. It helps to stop the swimming in her head, which is reason enough to continue.
She doesn’t know where she’s heading or why but there is nowhere to go but forward. She doesn’t know how long she walks, but by the time she reaches the clearing the sweat is dripping down her face. She loses all of the breath she’d managed to gain when confronted with that mountain, that castle, the radiant heat of the magma. She swallows thickly, desperate for water.
It does not occur to her that, if she is thirsty, she must not be dead. She is too preoccupied with thinking that this is hell. Her belief is cemented when she catches sight of the dragon breathing smoke in her direction. Its eyes are slitted, narrowed and she spends a long moment staring back at it.
Something dark and cowardly twists in her gut as she swallows and shifts her focus back up to the castle window and the face staring back at her. It is only a glimpse. But it is enough. Enough that she can feel the girl’s fear in her own heart. There is only a moment of deliberation.
She feels a strange sense of disconnect as she takes a step toward the dragon. She has already been damned, she thinks. There is no one coming to save her. So, she tips back her head to look the dragon in the eye. She drags in a staggered, stunted breath. “<B>Take me,</b>” she says and the dragon lowers its great head, blinks at her. Its breath is hot and she feels faint, sways on her feet.
“<b>Take me,</b>” she says again. “<b>Let her go and take me instead.</b>” The dragon lifts its head and peers at the window, blinks its great eyes. But she feels no fear, despite the way her muscles quiver with exhaustion. The dragon tilts that enormous head and nods. ‘Tell her.’ It’s as if the dragon speaks directly into her psyche.
She swallows and edges her way across the rickety bridge, her heart pounding in her throat. It is difficult, as a horse, to navigate the stairs but she scrambles to the top of the tower. The girl stares at her, stunned. She is beautiful and Lilian smiles. Here, in hell, all she has to do is open her mouth and say, “<b>you can go.</b>” The girl goes on staring a moment longer before, apparently willing to take her chances, scurries down the stairs. Lilian turns to the window, tugs open the curtains, and peers out in time to watch the girl hastily cross the bridge and run down the path that had delivered Lilian here.
She turns then and eases herself onto the hard stone floor, lays her cheek to rest on her knee and tries to find sleep in the oppressive heat. If only to escape her crippling thirst. </p> <p class="lilian_name">lilian</p> </div> <img class="lilian_image" src="https://i.postimg.cc/WtLf5jM5/lilian.png"> </div> </center>
She is too stunned to scream.
The sphinx begins to tip and she cowers, quivers, sucks in a sharp breath.
She thinks it will crush her.
Instead, it opens its great mouth and swallows her whole.
Her first thought is that she’s arrived in hell. The heat is so oppressive that it makes her head swim. She is disoriented from the fall – or the slide, or whatever it had been – and it takes several moments for her to force her vision to focus. She sucks in a sharp breath that makes her woozy and she stumbles, staggers, struggles to regain her balance.
Sweat gathers along the crest of her neck, drips down her chest. She staggers down the path without making the conscious decision to do so. Because it feels good to move, even if it is so hot that she can hardly breathe. It helps to stop the swimming in her head, which is reason enough to continue.
She doesn’t know where she’s heading or why but there is nowhere to go but forward. She doesn’t know how long she walks, but by the time she reaches the clearing the sweat is dripping down her face. She loses all of the breath she’d managed to gain when confronted with that mountain, that castle, the radiant heat of the magma. She swallows thickly, desperate for water.
It does not occur to her that, if she is thirsty, she must not be dead. She is too preoccupied with thinking that this is hell. Her belief is cemented when she catches sight of the dragon breathing smoke in her direction. Its eyes are slitted, narrowed and she spends a long moment staring back at it.
Something dark and cowardly twists in her gut as she swallows and shifts her focus back up to the castle window and the face staring back at her. It is only a glimpse. But it is enough. Enough that she can feel the girl’s fear in her own heart. There is only a moment of deliberation.
She feels a strange sense of disconnect as she takes a step toward the dragon. She has already been damned, she thinks. There is no one coming to save her. So, she tips back her head to look the dragon in the eye. She drags in a staggered, stunted breath. “<B>Take me,</b>” she says and the dragon lowers its great head, blinks at her. Its breath is hot and she feels faint, sways on her feet.
“<b>Take me,</b>” she says again. “<b>Let her go and take me instead.</b>” The dragon lifts its head and peers at the window, blinks its great eyes. But she feels no fear, despite the way her muscles quiver with exhaustion. The dragon tilts that enormous head and nods. ‘Tell her.’ It’s as if the dragon speaks directly into her psyche.
She swallows and edges her way across the rickety bridge, her heart pounding in her throat. It is difficult, as a horse, to navigate the stairs but she scrambles to the top of the tower. The girl stares at her, stunned. She is beautiful and Lilian smiles. Here, in hell, all she has to do is open her mouth and say, “<b>you can go.</b>” The girl goes on staring a moment longer before, apparently willing to take her chances, scurries down the stairs. Lilian turns to the window, tugs open the curtains, and peers out in time to watch the girl hastily cross the bridge and run down the path that had delivered Lilian here.
She turns then and eases herself onto the hard stone floor, lays her cheek to rest on her knee and tries to find sleep in the oppressive heat. If only to escape her crippling thirst. </p> <p class="lilian_name">lilian</p> </div> <img class="lilian_image" src="https://i.postimg.cc/WtLf5jM5/lilian.png"> </div> </center>