The Heartwood [m] In what appears to be a ritual "Godspeak" song of the Rieklings

Mature Content Warning

This thread has been marked as mature. By reading and/or participating in this thread, you acknowledge that you are of age or have permission from your parents to do so.

The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: Depiction of self-harm/attempted suicide

I am so sorry. Making some assumptions, let me know if it should be changed!

@Heda was leaving.

Again.

And it was her fault, of course it was, it had to be her — because she had been the first to shatter the peace of their island, the first to bring blood and echoing screams to their beautiful flowered life. If only she hadn't hurt John, maybe Abel would not have left, and Ava would not have been hurt, and their parents would not have fought.

She'd been visibly unsettled to hear of her mother's plan to leave; turning clingy, growling faintly at her siblings when they requested Heda's attention, hackles always slightly aloft. Hyper-vigilant; Ana watched her unblinkingly, in silence, oddly absent of her typical clicking cheer. It was when she rose, seeming as if she intended now to leave, that Anathema finally broke her silence.

A growl rumbled deep in her throat, and she lifted herself, advancing for a moment as if she might turn on her mother the same way she'd turned on John. Then she went very still. Heda was leaving. Leaving her — hurting her — and she couldn't stand it, she wouldn't, and if her mother insisted on hurting her this way then —

Then she would hurt herself first.

She whipped around wildly, hyperventilating now, and her eyes fixed on the trunk of a tree. For a moment it was all she saw, and then blood staining it, her blood, and with a strangled shriek she slammed her skull against the bark. Again. Again. Again, and there was blood and she couldn't stop she couldn't stop she —