Love More than Love~Accepting critque

[Crystal Gems]

And we loved a love, that was more than love, I and my Annabel Lee
-Edgar Allen Poe

I'll be using bits and pieces of Edgar Allen Poe's works in this, and I'll always make sure it is credited to him, and this is based off of Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe by Jonathan Christenson

[Crystal Gems]

Lilly woke with a start, sweat crawling down her back. The final whisper of a demon filled her ear. "The final chime," it said, and a cackle escaped its lips, ringing in her ears. She cried. This was her passion, her dream, and she'd given everything for it. But those words were not her own anymore. They were the demon's. They were the devil's. Lucifer's.

[Crystal Gems]

Lilly sat in her room, watching the snow flurries dance in the window. A paper, as white as the frozen blanket outside, sat before her, taunting her. She took a deep breath, and sat her pen down, creating a black dot. And then it all came rushing to her, and the paper was filled with the swirls and spins of lettering. And she lifted her pen and saw her work.

The black feather of a raven
It dances in the wind
Pirouetting through the air
And a another entwined
The love of a pair

A poem had sprung to life. It's words filled the page, the room, the world. She just had to put them there. She continued the poem, filling the paper with more words to feast upon.

Hearts together
By love, newfound
Gently filling life
Forever bound
Though however, may strife

The pen fell form Lilly's had, her heart pounding. This was different. She'd never written anything this beautiful. And she was scared. But she picked it up again, and set it down in the ink filled paper. There was more to be said.

At death they will part
Cold of mind
Frozen time
No longer kind
The final chime

Lilly's set the pen down. This was beautiful. Beautiful, and dreadful. This wasn't the world of a girl. This was the work of something else. She tucked the paper away, hiding it. This wasn't for the eyes of other humans. Not yet.

She closed the door behind her, the chill meeting her face. The snow had stopped, leaving a kingdom of ice to explore. The trees had occasional wisps of the snow sprinkling down, and their boughs were filled with glassy icicles, sparkling in the winter sunlight. The bushes were hidden under this blanket, and it was so perfect, it almost pained Lilly to step on it. As she walked to the woods, the layer of snow got thinner, the wisps of snow more frequent.

The winter has sprinkled
The forest with care
Every inch is glistening
Even the air

Snow covers
The boughs of all
It weighs me down
Makes me small

But I am grand
The ruler of paradise
The winter home
A glorious surprise

The winter has sprinkled
The forest with care
Every inch is glistening
Even the air

Lilly sighed, the frozen air filling her lungs. She was alive. Time to live, live free.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea
-Edgar Allen Poe

[Crystal Gems]

Lilly sat on her pink bedspread, looking at the mahogany desk across the room. She thought about the poem, hidden in the drawer. It was killing her, not writing more. But she couldn't, not yet. She wasn't ready. Instead, she sighed, and put on her pink chiffon pajamas. They floated around her, light as a cloud. She slipped under her covers, and pulled the cord to her lamp. The room went dark, and for a moment she was scared. But the feeling went away slowly, and the dark soon cradled her. Lilly fell into a sleep. But just as she did, her dreams were interrupted.

Lilly wandered through the dark corridors, her hand tracing the wall to guide her. After what seemed like hours of pacing the halls, she saw faint firelight, spilling out from a crack under the door. She heard two voices, one deep, masculine, and cocky, the other a mouse-like female. "She mustn't stop writing, not like Poe. We must make her stay," the man's voice said. The mouse-like one responded, "Of course, Lucifer. Poe was too strong will. We let him grow up, without us to guide him. This girl will not get away so easil-," and the voice cut off.
"She is here," the deep one, said, then continued, "Come in, Lilly. We have much to tell you."

Her heart beet loud, her palms sweat, her legs refused to move. But her arms, they decided that they would open the door. It screamed on its hinges as it swung open. A thin, tall man, dressed in all red sat on a golden throne, his eyes completely black. A women stood next to him, with pale paper skin, mouse colored hair, and a very pointy nose. Lilly slowly walked in, feeling inadequate in her pink pajamas. But just as she thought it, her clothes melted into a golden dress, beautiful, and medieval style.
"That's much better, my dear. Now come, sit down," he said, gesturing to the more petite obsidian throne that appeared next to him at the snap of his fingers. Lilly looked wary, but sat down. She took in the room, the walls covered by shadow. Or maybe the shadows were the walls. The floor was polished obsidian, black as night. The only furniture in the room was the thrones and the ash covered fire place in the center, filled with black flames, giving off an eerie light. The mouse women kneeled next to Lucifer's throne. "Now, my darling, you must listen to me. I am the devil, as you may have already found out, but I prefer Lucifer. You are an incredible writer, Lilly, and we shall help you succeed as one. All you must do is cooperate," he said to Lilly. With a sudden burst of bravery, Lilly spat at him, "I will write. But not for you."
"Ah, my dear, that is were you are wrong. Have you ever heard of Edgar Allen Poe? Dead by his own madness? That was my doing, and the same will happen to you. But we need not worry about that yet, because you've already written something wonderful for me. Read it to me, hmm?" he asked Lilly. And the poem came to her, black as Lucifer's eyes.

"The black feather of a raven
It dances in the wind
Pirouetting through the air
And a another entwined
The love of a pair

Hearts together
By love, newfound
Gently filling life
Forever bound
Though however, may strife

At death they will part
Cold of mind
Frozen time
No longer kind
The final chime," Lilly said, reading her poem, hidden from the eyes of all else.

"Ah, yes, Lilly. That poem you wrote is quite spectacular. You'll continue it in the morning, eh?" Lucifer asked, and Lilly, regretfully, nodded.
"Splendid!" he cried out, and the mouse women started repeating the last stanza.

"At death they will part
Cold of mind
Frozen time
No longer kind," she said, and as Lilly felt waking on her dream, the women muttered the final line.

"The final chime", she said, and the voice rung in her ears. Lilly looked out the window, and saw the night sky outside, blotted out by the thick snow falling. Her eyes brimmed with tears, but she choked them down. She ripped her blankets off her, and slid into the chair by her desk. The paper was were she left it, buried under the pens and pencils. It seemed to beckon her as she set it on her desk. Her pen seemed to form words by itself, and she could feel Lucifer guiding its ink.

The hearts
Death and tears
Cold heart mourning
Proceeded through the years
That dying warning

The bell
It lives on
Above the world
Its death never dawn
Love not unfurled

At death it will part
Cold of mind
Frozen time
No longer kind
The final chime

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee
-Edgar Allen Poe

[Crystal Gems]

Lilly woke with a start. She'd fallen asleep on her desk. Again. She sighed and looked at the poem in front of her. It was her snow poem, the one she'd written in the woods the day before. She read it again, remembering that this one wasn't created by the demon inside her. It made her remember that not everything she may write would be one of theirs. She looked at the window, and saw strings of light on the frozen horizon. She changed out of her pajamas, then went outside. Last night's snow had covered her old footprints, perfecting the land once again.

She leaned against the cool trunk of a tree, its bark scraping the exposed part of her neck. She closed her eyes, and the devil's face appeared before her. "Write," he said, his bittersweet smile on his lips. She shook her head and opened her eyes. "Not now," she mumbled below her breath. One she said it, she felt bitter liquid filling her mouth. She spit, and the snow in front of her was splattered with small drops of reds. A steady stream of blood dribbled from her open mouth, creating the stain in front of larger. Lilly coughed once then it all disappeared. A relieved sigh escaped her lips, and she collapsed face first in the snow. She could still taste the blood on her tongue.

The paper ridiculed her from its perch on the desk. It was blank, intimidating and somehow wrong. It needed to be filled. As she picked up her pen, she saw the black ink dripped with red, and it grew, taking over the pen. Lilly took a deep breath, ten started writing, the paper soon Christmas white and red. Her neat print covered the once blanket of snow. She stopped on the fourth stanza, looking to see what her hand had created.

With the winter
It gleams and glows
Tender and whole
Warm as it snows

Window shades
It hides the hate
That brews within
It cannot wait

Snow is splattered
The red of blood
Shouts and bangs
Crimson flood

The calm before
It startled me
For it was shadowed
It pained thee


Lilly was shocked by the power of the words. They had felt all her own, but she was smarter than that. The principles came from her dream friend, Lucifer. But, this writing made her stronger, safer, freer. Even if it meant having ties with the devil, listening to demons, betraying her family, her friends. This was her choice. Her time to shine.

Lilly woke up in Lucifer's throne room, this time the mouse women gone. She bowed to the devil, who was seated in his throne, same blood red clothes and black eyes. "Welcome back, darling. How's the poem going?" he asked her, and she took her seat in the obsidian throne next to his. "It's wonderful. Very dark, as I assume you'd like it," Lilly replied. "What a smart girl you are," he told her "Now, today we talk agreements." A rough piece of parchment appeared in his hand, and he started reading the blood red words written on it. "I, Lilly Marie Sullivan, swear my soul to the devil, to write his poems and stories, without complaint or resistance. I, Lucifer, swear to give Lilly Marie Sullivan the most amazing writing talents, second only to those of the angels, which he has no control over." A pen popped into Lilly's hand, and the document floated over to her. She took a deep breath, and signed her name in cursive scrawl on the dotted line. As she finished, she felt a pain, blazing in her forearm. She lifted her blood red sleeve, and saw golden swirls tracing their way on her arm. She screamed and dropped the pen but then the burning sensation was gone.A relieved sigh escaped her lips as a cool erupted.

[Crystal Gems]

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[Crystal Gems]

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[Crystal Gems]

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