Her eyes are unfocused as she stirs her cup of tea. The hand not holding onto the small, silver teaspoon clutches the pendant at her throat like a lifeline — a tether to the reality she knows. The chain is golden and sturdy, with small fastenings that interlink to form a sweeping arc around her throat with an emerald at the front. Her birthstone. I bought it for her two years ago. My May Day love. A moment passes and another goes by. A minute more and she's still frozen in the simple motion. T

One step, one glance, one word. That's all it took for me to fall. The cracks reverberate beneath my feet, spreading outwards and reaching for him before I can stop them. Like a deadly kaleidoscope, they surround me, bigger cracks interweaving with the smaller that branch from them. Small buds of water occasionally spill from the gaps that puddle where I step and I find myself dodging more and more as I go.

The garden was a mystical wood, a park and mountainous region all, stretching and wrapping around three corners of my house. The door shut with a click and I turned for the holly tree. Crouching low beneath the bough, I pulled the hood of my coat tighter around me, careful to turn my face from the spikes.