Deadly Nightshade

( Belladonna )

[private]

The city feels positively crowded these days. And I daresay it is about to become more so.

There is a stirring in the air, I feel it; something taking form, though I know not what... or perhaps it is all in my dreams. (They bleed. Everything bleeds and intermingles, blurs the vision; shapes into shapes, colours into colours, fiction into truth.)

'Strength in numbers,' they say, and yet, 'survival of the fittest.'

(Let's not lie; I am fit for the grave.)

Numbers, then. Carefully now.

[Nightshades]

Sisters, brother? Mandragora, Hyoscyamus, Datura? I feel you here. Have felt you.

It has been a long time.

One month. One month, and Beladóna shall rise from the soil once more. For the Sabbat approaches, and soon-- soon, the faithful will gather. Soon the May dancers will weave the old rituals and the fires of Bealtaine will burn bright, and the Devil will slip out of the garden. Soon.

Just one more month.

[Marijuana]

Do not be too hard on her, Hashish. She is only a child; she did not know that she was betraying anything private.

Belladonna's gifts arrive on Christmas morning, wrapped in floral paper with a single flower stuck through the gold ribbon. Each present lies cushioned in a nest of dried belladonna leaves, suitable for smoking or drinking in a tea.

( Gifts for Salvia, Cocaine, Marijuana, Laudanum, Heroin, Morphine, Opium, Shrooms, LSD, Rohypnol, GHB, PCP, Ecstasy, Ketamine and Inhalants. )

( Scribbled on the back of an envelope during a delirious panic in the wee hours of the morning; upon rediscovering it later in the evening, Belladonna burns it. )

[private]

The girl is slipping away fast.

And so am I.

She must not be allowed to escape.

[private]

Blessed Organic, the rush. I'd almost forgotten what this felt like-- to have one so deeply under my sway. Her dreams are mine. As she thirsts the dryness leaves my mouth. As her vision blurs I find mine clearing. Strength is relative these days and I could not have been much weaker, but I feel... more functional. Less fragile.

She is powerful, this one.

I want her.

[private]

In the dream, they took my eyes first. The razor claws ripped through my skin as though it were no more substantial than fine silk, and my cheeks streamed with blood and vitreous. Blinded, I yet watched as they violated me again and again; felt my flesh bruise and my bones crack, saw them tear at my clothes. A final indignity. They left me there, broken and blind and naked in the wilderness. My shaking hands sought the dirt, but the earth was salted and barren and even the Organic would not accept my roots.

Vision's still blurry this morning. And I can't remember where I put my glasses.

[/]

I fear I have been a neglectful sibling. I've been in this city near a full month and only now do I learn just how many of my brothers and sisters are also in town. I do hope you will forgive your older sister, and chalk my inattentiveness up to nothing more than the myriad distractions of relocating a business.

How are you all, my family?

( Atropa belladonna: fact box )