The Original Works of Casey Jewels - Lucky

It was a hard way to get here.

She pressed her palms against the rough bark and let her head drop, with her mouth hanging wide open. Her body rose and fell with each short and sharp breath she took, and sweat dripped down her skin, mingling with the blood that flowed from her scrapes.

Had she outrun them?

She sucked in a large lungful of air and held it in, just listening to the forest around her. Nothing stirred, in the blackness. The thorns choked out all life, leaving her vulnerable and alone; there was no comfort in the silence, only fear.

Her breath came bursting out, shattering the stillness, but not the fear.

How much longer before they found her?

She pushed herself away from the tree, into the thorns. There was no cry of pain as fresh blood was spilt, but instead she just kept pushing forward on her wavering legs. She couldn’t stop, couldn’t rest any longer. It wasn’t safe.

A branch snapped back, against her forehead, but she just pushed it back aside and kept going. The silence was gone again, broken both by the crackle of the bushes and by the light thunder of hoof beats. She didn’t glance back, but simply increased her pace, fighting against the thorns for escape. As her noise grew in volume, so did the other.

The branches she was fighting against melted into vines and curled around her arms and legs. She cried out, fighting hard to escape, but with each vine she loosened herself from, two more grabbed onto her. In the dim light, she could see dark flowers sprouting on the vines—Agelia.

The girl bit at one of the vines as it curled around her neck, yanking the dark plant upwards, but still it tightened around her. No, they couldn’t take her! She threw herself against the vines, but none would release her, only hold her tighter.

A warm, fuzzy something touched her cheek, and she looked up with startled eyes to see a black horse standing before her. The horse’s dark eyes focused on her and then he pulled his head back, ripping off the vines surrounding her neck. She drew in a deep breath and then threw her arms up, around the horse’s neck. It was best not to question the large animal’s presence, not in this situation.

The horse pulled back, as the crazy laughter of the sorceress Agelia filled the air. His ears flattened and he pulled back harder. The girl bit back a scream as the vines dug into her body and scraped across her skin. Then she was free and the horse was turning, running. She landed on the horse’s back and grasped tightly onto his shaggy mane.

Her head turned and her black eyes searched for those who had been chasing her, but all she could see were the vines.

Comme les fleurs du mal—as the Flowers of Evil.



This is a scene from a really vivid dream I had awhile back, about a teenage girl who lived in a clan. She accidently stumbled across a plan by some of the members to take over and was forced to flee. They gave chase, causing her to flee into some forbidden woods.

In the woods lives this mysterious boy, and it is this boy who came to her rescue, as he can change into a large black horse.

Oh, and the woman Agelia... She reminded me somewhat of Bellatrix. It's not really shown in this piece, but she's pretty crazy.

This dream worked perfectly for Task 56 of deviant365's tasks. The prompt was to:
For today's task we want you all to put your music player on shuffle. Take the first line of the first song that comes on. Then move to the next song and take the last line. What's the story? Draw it, write--whatever works best.

My first song was Show Me the Way by Elis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI7Qd3QAkf8

My second song was Fleur Du Mal by Sarah Brightman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMYDhSvkWpM

The title comes from that last line, 'Comme les fleurs du mal', which means 'as the flowers of evil' in English.

The songs just influenced how I told the dream, and didn't actually change anything that happened in it.

It's amazing how much it can hurt when you lose somebody close to you, even when you know it's going to happen, and have time to prepare.

She came into my life when I was seven.

I first became aware of her when I was denied the experience of spending the night at my aunt's. My siblings all got to go, but I didn't. Even without yet having met her, she was already influencing my life.

When my birthday came, I opened my presents to find mostly dog things, even though my parents had said 'no' to me getting a dog. Then, for my last present, from my mom and dad, in came a beagle/golden retriever puppy. I named her Lucky, and it didn't matter that she wasn't a Dalmatian. I loved her all the same.

I remember my parents forcing me to take dog 4-H with her, to train her and me. And I remember the greatest source of frustration being 'stay'. My dog loved me so much that she would whine when I told her to 'stay', and then she would come to me anyways, unable to stand being apart from me.

I used to lay on her for a pillow sometimes, just to be close to her, and she would let me. I always made sure to be gentle, not wanting to hurt her on accident.

The times that I would cry, she would be there. I could just hug her and cry into her, and she would simply sit there, unjudging, and let me get it all out. She was the one I would cry too, but now there's nobody to catch my tears as they fall.

As she grew older, as all things do, she began to spend much of her time sleeping. But she always loved it when I would call her inside, and she would follow me around, and then sleep beside me when I came to a stop.

And when she knew she was dying, and I had her there in my bathroom, her whining would die down when I was touching her and talking to her. She had this complusive need to shove her nose into the corners of the room, but still she would occasionally stumble her way over to me, and just let me hold her for a few minutes.

I wanted to be there for her last few moments on this world, but she passed away while I slept. I was up until I dropped, unable to actually go to bed, not when faced with the possibility of her no longer living when I woke. But she was still there, when I woke briefly this morning, to check on her and make sure my sisters got off to school. I was exhausted and thought that she had a little more time.

But the next time I awoke, she had passed away.

I know that she is in a better place, and that she is no longer in pain, so then why does this hurt so much?

I guess it's like how that song describes it, 'when a heart breaks, it don't break even'.