The Garden of Stories

When the Rain Falls | The Water Lilies Challenge

With closed eyes, Verena lifted her head to the sky. The raindrops fell on her face, a cool relief to her hot skin. She counted to herself, waiting for the storm inside her to be subdued into nothingness.

Feelings were a waste in the city of the damned. If she allowed them in, she would never stop. Yet, her body wouldn't cease shaking, her breath coming out ragged as the fire kept burning, even in the rain.

"Verena," the familiar, powerful yet velvety voice sounded through the garden of the Keep.

Atlas had made her feel this way. The hole in her heart grew too big for her chest as she lost almost everyone close to her. Atlas was fixing it — until he wasn't. For the first in a very long time, Verena believed someone cared just as much as she did.

Verena met his sky-blue eyes. "Go away." Her voice came out rough, but stronger than she thought it would sound.

"You need to listen to me."

It was a good thing the clouds were letting their tears drop, so Atlas couldn't see hers.

"I don't need to do anything. Not with you."

"Verena—" He stepped closer, his hand reaching towards her, but she avoided his touch.

"You lied to me ... over and over." Her voice broke into a sob. So much for hiding her emotions behind her carefully crafted mask.

"I..." His face fell as he begged with his eyes. They both knew he couldn't deny it.

"I am so stupid." The tears streamed hot down her face, fanning the fires which burned inside the hole where her heart should be. "You're Eurones. My enemy. I knew not to trust you." Her fingers closed into her fists, and she stamped her feet as thunder drummed between the mountains in the distance. "Why did I trust you?!"

"I never intended to hurt you."

"Why?" She stepped forward as a power surged through her. "You're Euronea. A conqueror. You people only bring pain to others."

"That's not true, Verena, and you know it. We're here to sa—"

"Don't you dare say save. We're not some weak victim waiting for you to become a hero. We're the people of Berulex who have been plagued by power-hungry leaders."

Her heartbeat pounded against her ribcage as if it wanted to escape. She blinked the rain away ... or maybe it was her tears.

Verena stepped forward, making Atlas step back. It was quite a sight to see — a tiny girl like her, making a tall, broad guy like Atlas backup — if she wasn't too distracted by her whirlwind of thoughts. "I'm done with people such as you! Using us as if we're not even human beings."

Atlas shook his head. "That's not how I see you. And that's not why I'm here. I don't care about being a hero. I'm trying to fix the city just as much as you do."

"Don't you dare compare me to yourself. I grew up here, watched my mom's dead body in my front garden because of rebels hating what your leaders did." She pointed at him with violence behind it. "While you grew up in a perfect, safe, and green city."

He opened his mouth and closed it again. "Why don't we go inside? You're shaking from the cold."

Trust me, it isn't the cold doing this; she thought as the rain hid her tears.

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

For another Datura challenge, I decided to combine this with my NaNoWriMo project. So this is a small sneak peek of: City of the Damned, my enemies to lovers, slow burn, dystopian romance novel.

⚔︎ Entry to the Datura Challenge for November | The Water Lilies
⚔︎ The prompt: Write a story that portrays an emotion of your choice without just mentioning the emotion. Your story needs to contain two people meeting in the rain.

Word count: 569