Title: Afterwards
Fandom: Measure for Measure
Length: 33 words
Content notes: no warnings apply
Summary: A woman's voice, four words in the darkness.





Not yet dawn; lust sated, he shivers.
She turns away from him and says
"Remember now my brother."
The voice of the contract:
an accusation
not to be borne.
His future,
endless
shame.



Technical note: a nonet is a form of 9 lines, beginning with a 9 syllable line and decreasing by 1 syllable each line, ending with a 1 syllable line.

Spoilery endnote: this is one of those Shakespearean bedtrick scenarios. Angelo thinks that he's just had sex with Isabella, whose brother he has promised to reprieve from execution if Isabella yields to his demands; the woman pretending to be Isabella is actually Mariana, Angelo's former betrothed, and the sexual consummation of their relationship makes Angelo legally her husband.