The Orchid

She was in The Orchid, standing on the forbidden ground and breathing in the forbidden air, and she was euphoric in her glory. All around the pale blue canopy of the sky, vapour trails of thinned-out clouds stretched back and forth, like criss-crossing angel wings. Small droplets of crystalline water still clung to the blades of jade coloured grass, occasionally catching the light of the morning sun and reflecting a glittering prism of colour.

She curled her toes in anticipation, and felt the soft velvet grass brushing against the bare soles of her feet as she stepped into the forest of golden trees bedecked with the ruby gemmed fruit.

Thin streams of light broke through the twisting branches, shining down and dancing above the forest floor, shimmering through the emerald tangle of leaves. Ribbons of ethereal warmth hugged her body, as she breathed in the air tinged with respect and reverence for this spectacle of divine beauty.

With a reckless, somewhat childish abandon, she leapt as high as she could, catching the lowest branch and swinging once, twice, before looping her legs around the bough. Deftly, she pulled herself up as the world righted itself again, and continued upward. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the unmistakable crimson peeking through the leaves within her reach. A smile spread across her face and she let out a small delighted laugh. Gingerly, she reached out with her free hand and plucked the forbidden fruit from its glorious perch. The world was still, and held a collective breath as she brought the apple to her lips and took a bite into the succulent white flesh, breaking its red skin.

And heaven let loose its wrath at the sinful she-devil who dared to mock its ancient ideals, etched in place since the beginnings of time. The ground beneath opened up, swallowing her whole, and she was falling down, down, down through layers of darkness…

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Scarlett awoke gasping for air, mouth opened in a silent scream. It took her a moment to recognise the familiar shapes of her room. Moonlight poured through the drapes, bathing everything in that strange bluish cast of midnight. Her sheets felt woven together with sweat, and she peeled them off her still shaking body.

It was just a dream, only a dream, she thought to herself over and over, like a healing mantra, until her breathing returned to normal and her heartbeat fell back into its steady rhythm. A stray breeze drifted in through the open window, catching the quiet sigh that escaped her lips, allowing it to blend into its gentle whisper.

It was not the first time that Scarlett had been awakened in the middle of the night by that dream, and it scared her. It was a crime to enter the heaven-blessed garden and an even greater sin to eat its fruits. This fact had been ingrained into her by her mother and her teachers since she was old enough to understand the words. But as long as she could remember, she had always been fascinated by The Orchid, and her curiosity piqued by the unattainableness of the forbidden fruit.

Whenever she walked past the golden gates, a great yearning always possessed her, seeping into every pore of her entire being until all that she could think of was biting into those apples, hearing the satisfying crunch, tasting the sweet tang. But afterwards, she would always feel guilty and ashamed because good girls weren’t supposed to think like that.

She rolled over in her bed, trying to squash the images in her dream, but they seep out and climb back inside her head to be replayed again. The hours go numb around her as she lies there, watching the first rays of light pierce the heavy sheet of night.

She awoke again to the crackling sun of morning. I must have fallen asleep, Scarlett thought drowsily to herself. She got up and after making her bed and washing up, she went downstairs into the kitchen where her mother was bent over the stove, cooking breakfast. On the table, she noticed a basket covered with a red and white chequered cloth. She wondered what it was for, and was just about to ask, when her mother turned around and saw her there.

“Oh Scarlett, you’re awake already! Breakfast will be on the table soon. Your father and I will be busy today in town, so you’ll have to visit grandmother by yourself. I’ve made her a nice big roast chicken and some pastries”, she said, indicating to the basket as she placed a bowl of porridge on the table.

“Now I want you to be careful, Scarlett, and not to dawdle on the road like you usually do.” Scarlett resisted the urge to roll her eyes and instead, she murmured a polite “I won’t mother” and sat down to eat.

She finished her breakfast, and with the basket of food dangling from her arm, she set out for her grandmother’s house.

The sun shone down from a clear expanse of lucid blue sky, and the air was fresh with life, tinged with a gentle summer day. Up ahead, children were playing an imaginary game that only they could understand, and the soft cadence of their laughter, pulsing bright, drifted over, carried by the airy breeze.

Scarlett let her mind wander. Unconsciously, her thoughts returned to the dream, the images resurfacing, and she turned them over in her head, carefully examining each as it appeared in her minds eye.

Suddenly, as if waking from a trance, she found herself alone in front of the golden gates of The Orchid. She stood there, slightly dazed as to how she came to be here in the first place, and it was this second that suspended to hover around her and close her in.

The breeze was gone.

An eeriness slipped over her skin, and quietly made its way inside her, gnawing at her thoughts and burrowing deeper into her consciousness. The hairs on the back of her neck tingled in anticipation until she could take it no longer.

Scarlett spun wildly around, and there, standing a few feet behind, was a young woman staring intently at her, a faint smile playing on her lips. Scarlett opened her mouth to scream, but her throat constricts and no sound comes.

The basket is on the floor and its contents strewn across the pavement.

The woman took a step closer.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, Scarlett.”

Scarlett tensed. How did she know my name?

Her mother’s warning about strangers resounded in her mind, but there was something so compelling about this woman that drew Scarlett to her.

The woman’s clothes were torn and ragged. Rough, dark ringlets framed her heart-shaped face, and her eyes seemed to glow golden as she watched her. There was a feline grace, an almost wolfish agility about her lithe frame. Wild. Dangerous.

Finding her voice, Scarlett manages to choke out, “Wh-who are you?”

“Most people know me as Eve”, the woman replied in her hushed, mellifluous accent. Eve chanced another step. She was ready to pounce.

“I know your hearts desire, Scarlett, and I can help you fulfil it.”

Nothing more needed to be said. They both knew what she was referring to. Scarlett could feel her heartbeat shake the inside of her like the giant clanging of a bell.

Beat. beat. beat.

Beat. beat.

Beat.

“H-how?” Her voice sounded distorted and alien.

Eve didn’t reply, instead walking past Scarlett, her left hand trailing across the wall. She stopped when she reached a rose bush, peeling it back to reveal a dug out hole that went from under the wall, just wide enough for a body to squeeze through. Eve looked back, feral, amber eyes boring into her, before disappearing under the wall.

And all Scarlett could think of was tasting the sweetness of the apples, and feeling the juice run down her fingers.

Scarlett feels something kick in her stomach and before she could think about what she was doing, she pulls back the rose bush and wriggles through the hole. Thorns scratched painfully at her, leaving thin crimson trails down her face, arms and legs. They clawed at her red hair and tore at her clothes, and she can taste the metallic tang of her own blood in her mouth. All at once, she is through, and Eve helps her up. The Orchid is exactly as it was in her dream, and the pain melts away, insignificant to its glorious beauty.

Eve smiles at her and she finds herself smiling back uncontrollably. She is exultant. Scarlett takes off her shoes and runs barefoot over the velvet grass to the magnificent forest of trees, vaguely aware of Eve’s presence behind her. She reaches the nearest tree and begins to climb, just as she did before in her dream. Ignoring her aching muscles and the sweat mingled blood running in blistering rivulets down her skin, she retrieves her prize and climbs back down.

Time seemed to rush on and suspend itself simultaneously, as she stares at the single perfect apple clutched tightly in her right hand. Her breath bleeds and her heartbeat drowns in her ears. Without looking at Eve, she raised the apple to her lips and takes a bite, because she was ready to trade her existence for this one moment of freedom, of truly living.