You slinked up to me silently and waited to be seen. I glanced at you coyly but for half a look. I saw you pretend not to see me. I saw you setting your trap. Still, I could not resist this baited back and forth. This push and pull, the drawing out of me to you.

Eventually, our eyes collapsed into one another, and you sauntered my way. You asked politely if you could take my hand and dance me into the moonlight of the woods. You told me I would be the sun you revolved around for as long as I would allow. You said such sugary-sweet things that I lost myself in the taste they left in my ears. I recognized the lies on your lips, but they were foreign to what I wanted to believe. I wanted to trust, be everything, and be whisked away… by you.

I placed my hand within your cold, firm grasp, and you pulled me nearer to you. I gasped at the force with which you took me. A part of me enamored by the thought of being yours. You whispered languages in my ears that only my heart could understand, and I fell. My heart fluttered and flew away with you. Leaving me unprotected against your whim or fancy. You smiled knowingly, but I was only oblivious. You had lulled me into your lullaby hymn, so perfectly.

After a while, you asked delicately for but a bite of the flesh of my hand. Appalled, I denied you. How ghastly. How gruesome. For this request was monstrously absurd. You agreed. You had lost yourself. Nodding solemnly. Expressing you had been swept up in the movement of us. We had swayed, and spun, and sliced elegantly through the cool crisp air. Causing you to lose your sense of reality. You swore you would not do so again. You would only hold me, warm me, care for me. Nothing more.

We slipped effortlessly back into our rhythm. Feet stepping in sync. My hair brushed softly against your neck, and I nestled my face against you. Time faded once more, and I warmed to you all over again. Seeing my ease, you meekly reminded me of the taste you so desired. It would show you the depth of my trust. You could know me. I could prove myself. You wondered if I cared for you, as you did me. You questioned my heart, my care, my love.

You persisted down this path… until…I gave in.

How could I not?

We danced on as though my flesh were still intact. I glimpsed the gaping wound as a sign of your devouring devotion to me. You were enthralled, I had to be yours in every way. I had shown you. I had given myself over, in the only way I should. It was enough. I was now enough.

Your gorgeous smile shimmered amidst the moonlight, and I knew you meant me no harm. You only loved me so much that it should hurt, one of us. Those seductive lips promised me you only needed a single bite. I had been gulped into your gullet at last, granting you peace. I gazed up into your dark, sultry eyes and felt my belief. My weakened hand torn by teeth was no more than a symbol. Knowing I could survive. We were now stronger for this. Me, a part of you, forever. You sustained by me. I did this for us. I brought us to here.

We danced on, blood dripping down my dainty wrist. Sloshing on our shoes. Our footprints leaving trails of me all over the trodden forest floor. You looked deep within my eyes and made another request. May I have a drink, my dear? Just a sip, one small drop? Just a touch upon my tongue?

I would have said no, but I saw the sadness in your eyes. You longed to be quenched by me. Only I could sate your starvation. Only I could bring you life. Yes, my love. Of course you can. What is mine is yours. I am to fulfill you. I am, for you. So you eagerly drink of my blood. You draw back from me as you do, grinning from ear to ear. My warm spirits trickling from the curled-up corners of your mouth.

You drank, and I cried, only just a little. You drank, and I hurt, only just a smidge. My pain was nothing compared to the fullness you now felt. What I shared was not a sacrifice, not really, not at all. It was an honor. It was a joy. It was a blessing for us both.

The night wanes on, and we dance. We dance. With each new question you ask me, I succumb until I unflinchingly approve. One bite is now three. One taste, moves to more. Bit by bit, I disappear into you. Into you. I never ask questions of my own. I never thought of taking from you to refill what I have given so freely. We dance and make memories for all the trees to keep. We dance and leave a blood-soaked trail behind my trembling feet.

As dawn approaches, you have taken me so far into you that I can only stand with you holding me. You are my backbone, you are my legs. You prop me awkwardly against you as we teeter above the slickened ground. It smells of iron and warm, wet death. It smells of submission and something else.

Still, you never pause or hesitate but keep up our morbid dance. You hold me tight and talk of love and sacrifice. You tell me that one can only exist in the presence of the other. You tell me that I now know love because of what you have been offered. I look to your eyes for reassurance as the light fades from mine. Not knowing if what I’ve given has truly meant anything to you. Will what I’ve done have mattered? I haven’t the ability to ask.

As the sun bleeds above the skyline of this forgotten forest, you look down at me once more and ask.. “My love, can I? May I have just one last bite? A nothing, not a nosh. You won’t even notice.”

I can no longer speak, or stutter, or let out a sigh, for my tongue was taken. I cannot utter a breath, for you severed my throat four steps ago. I blink, perhaps in approval or to simply let you finish this devilish dance. No matter my will, you take my silence as consent, and with it, you leave me at this last bitter end.

As I lie here, dying alone, I see your enticing silhouette hovering just above. A glint of satisfaction in your eye as you turn to walk away from everything I was. I have nothing left for you and now you have nothing for me.

As you and life leave me, my sole lingering thought is, “When will we dance again, my love? When?”