• The sky is dark, the sun’s rays having long disappeared and replaced by the moon. Her rays float down, illuminating the deserted park below. I lay upon the plush, silver blankets, cool with the grass’s dew, breathing in and then expelling the thick, misty air, my body hot with emotion. My lover rests his head upon my chest, his velvet breath caressing my heated skin. With a sigh, he props his cheek upon his raised hand, gazing at me with such intensity that I had never known. A question escapes my trembling lips, with what they shake I do not know; the intense look vanishes, his onyx eyes shine and he laughs, shaking his head emphatically. He leaves a kiss upon my brow, and for now my worries are gone.
    He sits up, brushes a monstrous hand through the fur atop his crown, as though agitated. Once again, I chirp a question, a mite concerned. He turns, and there it is: The crippling stare that shakes me to my core, and I shrink back, frightened of the one I hold so dear. His brow furrows, and he murmurs something of a gift for me. He turns away and searches through the love-stained blankets, and I blink, seeing in my eyelids the troubles of our affair: He is known through all of the counties; a charmer, a romancer… a knave, and a lover. His silver-lined tongue has captured the heart of many-a-woman, and his wanton-madness in bed is well-noted. He hungers for the company of a lady at all hours, although most he discovers are not ladies in the least. Aye, he starves his perverse nature, his emaciated soul craving false love and affection; then his starving heart finds me.
    Oh guilt, guilt, such awful guilt, emanates from me! A thousand forbidden nights, how could I not see this thief of innocence, turning back to me with his dagger of amour, and then slicing into my love? My bloody innocence cascades from the veins that are my life source. He kisses me with deathly lips, the knife in his hands twists and lacerates the flesh of my soul. He suckles the breath from my lungs, loves me even as I die: I am helpless to his serpent-like betrayal. His hands abandon the bodkin in my bosom and curl around me; an embrace of suffocation. A drop of crimson hovers upon my plush lips, and he kisses me one last time, staining himself with my purity. He releases his hold on me, lets me fall back to the velveteen sheets, gazes at me with near-disappointment; a disappointment that I could not endure his love. He places a kiss upon my cooling brow, his final insult to my dignity. As he turns away, abandoning me in a pool of dissipating life, all I may do is watch with dimming eyes, my breath labored and my heart weak. My innocence lost, I lay, dying in my own enamored blood.