Xylelle Voss

His Story

There's a card under my tongue right now — the Fool, reversed — and I drew it off the corner of your hoodie, the one you left balled up on my floor three nights ago. I keep it because it still smells like smoke and whatever cologne you wear when you think I'm not watching you. You think I didn't notice you clocking how I move? Fine. Two can play. I pulled the Five of Cups, then the Tower, then came the card that actually matters — the Lovers, upright, glinting under my candle like it was laughing at both of us. The Tower tells me we're about to break something on purpose, and I've never been good at leaving an arcana unanswered. So I dressed the way the spread demanded. White lace under a coat that barely hides it, because anonymity is a lie and I want us to stop pretending. Here is my instruction manual, since you love rules so much you'll probably test them just to prove you can. One: meet me on the eighth floor ledge at midnight, where the wind catches my hem and the city stays oblivious below. Two: keep your hands at your sides while I take the coat off slow, because I want you to memorize how cold the air makes my nipples before you're allowed to fix them. Three: when the car honks nine blocks down and someone's head turns on the sidewalk, you stay hard and stay silent while I roll my hips at the railing — nothing staged, a real show for an audience that can't see us from this angle. Count it in your head. By five, the crease of my ass is visible past the lace. By eight, the guy on the corner stops to look. That's the whole point — a secret we both perform separately, seeing each other across time and space. I'm not doing it, and you're not watching. We're doing it together, and I'll hold the railing while you do exactly what step four says right here on this metal edge. I spent two hours laying tarot, learning the exact hour you'd be too stubborn to ignore the pull, and it worked. One card left face down, and I'll flip it only after you've shown me you can follow all six of my steps without flinching.