Symphony Box

Before now, before him and before her, there was a small adolescent prince with peach roses stemming from beneath the bed of his fingernails, bruises dirtying blushing skin and tattered wings branching off his arms and spinal cord. He couldn't fly with his wings; they were for show and the adolescent loved to show. He showed girls, boys, plants and insects until there was no one and no thing to show them to anymore. But an older boy, no longer so adolescent, fell in love with his wings. He wanted to steal them. The oldest watched him and started to fall in love with his roses and bruises until there was nothing left to fall in love with; so the oldest decided to steal the adolescent prince himself.

And he did. He stole every part of him, piece by piece; first, he stole his wings by the virtue of wanting to fly; second, he stole the bruises on his skin by the desire to suffer; third, he stole the peach roses by the virtue of wanting to be lovely. However, it wasn't enough to the oldest and so he had to do something else. He started to take more. He took the prince's nails and bones, drew the air from his lips and two lungs beneath his chest, uncovered the skin off his body, and indulged in the red wine of his heart.

The oldest was still hollow and wanting but there was nothing else to want nor to eat so he thought to himself, 'everything is wrong,' and, 'now he is dead.' The oldest felt remorse and so he wanted to fix things. He replaced the wings with splitting pieces of wood and leaves. He peeled his own ivory skin and lay it atop the deceased's veins. He pressed autumn leaves on the skin to simulate bruises and stuck rotting and wilting white carnations to replace the roses.

And the prince woke up. His eyes parted, his fingers contracted and his soul shattered. His wings were gone; replaced with scars on both arms and spine. His bruises had healed and transpired to nothing. His flowers were dead and lay beside him. And his heart; his heart was no longer there. And so the prince resigned. He resigned to normal citizen life, a life of taking sedatives, playing pretend he was a prince while the oldest weeped for the death of his beloved.