Red String

By Parmita

Posted on September 1, 2024

A young woman in a red dress is turned away. She looks longingly at a red string tied to her pinkie finger.

Illustration Title: Red Strings

Illustration By: Breana Kirby

Medium: Digital

Classification: Illustration

Size: 2360 pixels x 1640 pixels

Year: 2024

Regal red, they say. A color often associated with both evil and love. Glowing red roses; the most iconic flower. All of its petals so delicately arranged together shining brightly red. Coated with the shades of conflicting ideologies, it lights up any girl's face.

Feverishly addicted to the chimes the roses ring in her heart, she brazenly ignores the specks of thorns.

The softness of the petals morph into silky thread. Tight knots of fate dance on the fiery flames, forming red string. It looks magical from afar. Flavoring the air and adorned with all shades of red, as if an artist’s up and coming masterpiece arose. Dipped into the elegance of a ballet dancer and dried out in the sun, letting it mimic the trance of sunlight. As she steps closer to it, entranced by its beauty, she unknowingly gives it the power to be bound to her. At least, that was what she assumed.

She remembers playing with the same string when she was younger. Giggled at the way she could make it swirl and the way it snuggly coiled around her finger.

She lightly tugs at the string, trying to let it go slack. Yet, it wouldn’t budge. Glancing down at her shadow, the string coaxes her to let it stay, still glimmering as red as can be. She shut her eyes tight from the sharp rays of direct sunshine . To no avail, the sunlight seeps through her eyelids, coating her once black and empty world now red. She pulls at it now, desperately aching to be free. It seems to have a life of its own.

The other end of the string is a constant mystery. Binding me and him across the warps of time and logic. Once tugged, it ties itself into the kind of knot that cannot come undone.

Slowly, she grows accustomed to its constant presence. One day when her body disintegrates and her shadow crumbles into dust, she joins the red string. Connecting souls together, like hers once was.

[Author’s Note]

This piece is open to interpretation! Feel free to connect parts of it to your own experiences for an anecdote feel.

[Writing Editor: Christina Yan]

[The End]