Unraveled // nanette

[charade]

mood music

nanette
emsworth

He loves me. It’s worth the pain just to hear him say that. A thousand daydreams come to life in an instant, a thousand stolen looks repaid by one. He’s always been worth more than me. Maybe I have been his protector, I never thought about it that way. I just wanted to be the one to soothe him, bandage his wounds with love and attention and care.

There is no need for Dustin to apologize. I never needed a protector, just someone to hold my heart in his hands. But I hate to see him cry. I’m scared too. A bear lumbers past us. Another canon goes off. The arena is chaos, a cacophony of sound. I try to shut it out, even when there is a sharp pain in my leg when something nips it as it passes.

I just want him. But then there is pressure coiling around me. I look down in horror to see that the snake has found me. I scream and grip Dustin’s hands. It’s getting harder to breath.

"No, no!" I can’t hold on. The beast pulls me away from him, tightening around my stomach, slithering up my chest, the weight of it pulling me to the ground. Oh god, it’s burrowing into the wound the lion left. I can feel its teeth inside me, oh god— my hands are slippery with blood, I can’t stop it; my fingers just slide off its scales. I scream. I can feel it digging, searching—

oh god the pain—

“Dusty!” I howl, the world growing dark.

“Dusty I lo—