Forum Thread

Toshiko reminisces about a date in the apple orchards. A battle rages outside. [A Drabble. 500 words or less.]

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tw:// gore

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Apple Orchards


“Hey, Kaya? I’ve been thinking about colours, lately.”

She stroked Kaya’s hair, revelling in the way the cold, wet strands slipped over her fingers, flopping into her lap sadly. Kaya didn’t like wet hair, she was all fire. Red, red red, a fierce colour.

“There’s a difference between maroon and carnelian. Your hair is carnelian. Your clothes are-” she closed her eyes and inhaled sharply. “...maroon. You love distinctions, don’t you?”

The war outside raged on. A girl stared down the monster, her purple hair rippling in the wind.

Burgundy. Not purple. A shade between red and purple.

Her name was Chizu, Toshiko knew, though she did not know how she knew. The Chizu flew up to the monster. It whipped out a hand and she splattered, liquid against the stone wall. She was not a Chizu any longer. The maroon liquid rained down into the cave, pattering by her feet. Toshiko shivered.

“I think I learned that on our third- no, fourth date. The one in the apple orchard. You remember that, right?”

Toshiko checked Kaya’s face. Kaya's face was expressionless, prompting her on.

“There were so many apples that day. So much red, red, everywhere. And orange too. It was really your day.” Toshiko closed her eyes, losing herself in the memories. “You could only take a step and there’d be a crunch.” A crunch, crunch crunch, of bones being shattered against a wall. “Each tree would bend beneath your palm. You could take a whole handful of those tiny red fruits.” A whole handful of red, red, blood. “And you could look across the orchard and see your pretty eyes- orange against red, the perfect combination. And you told me that I should be more creative with my colours.”

Toshiko laughed brokenly. “I’m still not, am I?”

The battle against Walpurgisnacht raged outside.

And Toshiko held the dead, broken body of her once lover, dreaming of a sunny day in the apple orchards, when she couldn’t care less if red or maroon blossomed in the trees.

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