Blog#56--Cowboy: Chapter Four--

Four

There was a demon. His eyes glowed with crimson hunger, and she stood helplessly as he circled around her, his dark body enveloping her with immense heat. She breathed out and he shivered and brought his arms toward her.
He was beautiful, and she could not resist holding him passionately as his mouth found her jaw line and traced it with his tongue. He was flaming, hotter than the sun at high noon. She clutched his carved shoulders, as he lifted her leg to his flank, making her shudder with unwanted anticipation. She felt her back arch and downy feathers caress her shoulder blades, as the light overhead seared down over them, and the fire glowed below. He raised his hand to her throat and delved long, sharp claws through her skin. He pressed his body onto hers, lifting her leg and pushing his hips deep into her.

Mariette awoke with a start, sat up abruptly and looked around for the fire, the light, the demon... he was beautiful, she wanted him like no other... but he was not there. He was gone, he wasn’t even real. She frowned and buried her face into her hands. Things were different... but they were right. All felt new, but also, so wonderfully pleasing. He’d... he would have... She lay back down, her full weight flattening her pillows furthermore. She had wanted to see him again, for all that he was.

She lay awake, her eyes closed, the soft cotton of her sheets caressing her skin. She groaned softly and sat up again. Her leg joints were sensitive and she took her time to walk downstairs and grab a glass of water. She was careful this time about being indulgent. She did not want what had happened yesterday to reoccur.

The demon... the vision of him was still so clear in her mind. She closed her eyes and felt the warmth again, hot and enveloping. There was silence in the house, and darkness all around, and so she lit a small oil lamp near the water basin. She frowned as she realized how late it really was. The only light out was the moon’s, half-full.

“Belle...” she whispered. Mariette climbed up the stairs slowly, careful not to awaken her father with the cracking of the steps. She opened her sister’s room door and peeked in. It was empty. She could feel it. She closed the door again, her heart hammering. That boy... he seemed too good to be true.

She went downstairs and searched every room to see if she was there, but she wasn’t. She did not want to go out, knowing that it could maybe endanger her as well, but she also knew that she could not let her baby sister be harmed. And if she was already...

Why are you thinking about this so much? Mariette it’s fine! Chief was a good young man and you saw it. Why the tremendous worry?

“I don’t know,” she responded, gasping to herself at what she had said. Why did I just respond to myself? She shook her head to clear her mind and focus on what was important: it was dark and her sister wasn’t home yet.

She grabbed her cloak from the closet and put it on, hooding her hair. She walked out into the cool air of the night and it took a few seconds but her eyes finally adjusted and she made her way toward the water tank. She could not hear anything from this direction, but... he had to be there guarding the thing!

When she arrived, she found a shadowy figure leaning on the buggy’s wheel. He had a pale hat over his face, one knee up toward the starry sky, and one out. The moonlight gave off a blue light that seemed to reflect off his skin, making him pale as the great orb itself.

“Chief?” she asked. Oddly, she knew it was not him. He was too tall.

He lifted his hand to the hat and tapped it upward. “I’m not Chief. You lookin’ for him?”

“Yes, sir, please, he went out with my young sister tonight, and she is not back. It is night and I am worried.”

“You speak nice, lady, maybe I should attune. Chief is with that girl in the farmer’s barn. He’s a good boy, though, you shouldn’t worry.”

“Good boys caress girls, make it all feel so natural, comforting and—”

“—maybe she wants this,” he interrupted.

Mariette puffed her cheeks and scowled deep into her forehead. “You don’t know anything, sir, I beg you to shut your mouth and leave me to find her!”

“As you wish. Good night, Mariette.”

“Good night,” she told him firmly, before leaping in large strides toward the Cannings’ barn. How dare he? What an ingrate! Who was he anyways? She picked up her dress and started to run toward the barn. There was a light on in the high window of the round roof. Mariette’s heart rushed.

But that cowboy was right... what if she did want this? Mariette did not know if her sister was still a virgin... what exactly she had done with all those boys... She could not bear not to know, but also, it pained her to barge into her life. What if she could listen to what he was saying, what was going on...?

She arrived at the front doors and pressed her ear upon the door, closed her eyes and stopped breathing to hear Chief’s voice:

“I think they look beautiful. Don’t worry about it. No one notices stuff like that anymore. Hell, one of my friend’s back where I lived in Ohio, his dad was also his uncle and he had a weird-looking nose, well, no one cared. He married a beautiful girl. Really, Belle, your name says it all.”

There was silence for a moment.

“You don’t have to. I don’t want to force you.”

Mariette breathed a little and then stopped again. She had to close all her other senses if she wanted to focus. She was deep in concentration, and she heard a shuffling of clothes and a body moving on the straw. She also heard a soft moan, and knew it had come from her.

“Do you do this a lot with other boys?”

What were they doing? Mariette did not want to jump to conclusions, but also did not want to be too nonchalant and ignore his maturity, the charm he was obviously imposing on her.

“Lay down, don’t be shy.” More shuffling. Mariette was starting to feel pain in her heart. She was stressing, and bile was rising into her throat. She needed to do something, but all she could think of right now was to cry, and she did. Tears fell from her eyes and she pressed her lips together as she heard Lucibelle moan a little harder, her voice magnificent, a rare jewel she wanted to continue to hear. This wasn’t her place. She was happy here, and disturbing this peace would be sin.

She turned back and clutched her stomach as she made it back toward her house. She could not stop thinking about her sister, about the things Chief would do to her, and she would do to him. Why? Why could she have a loving affair with a young man and not her? Was she really cuter? Was it because her silent treatment made her seem more innocent and easy to manipulate? She saw the water tank and went back to it.

I owe the cowboy an apology. Who is he anyway?

She marched up to the lying man and coughed. He chuckled and popped up his hat again to look at her. She was looking everywhere, obviously embarrassed about the scene she had made earlier.

“I’m sorry, sir, I should not have said the things I said. You were... right about her wants and... I’m so embarrassed!” she squealed, placing her hands in front of her face. “I don’t know who you are, but I wish you...” She turned her back to him and gasped, horrified. This was why men didn’t like her. She spoke. She spoke her mind, and acted like a man.

“Don’t worry about it,” he told her, his voice sweet and smooth as honey. It was a comfortable tenor that made her ears shiver with pleasure. She could not look at him, despite that he rested his hand on her shoulder, she shook her head and refused to turn around.

“I’m sorry, sir. Please, forgive me.” She took off, running toward her house. Once she got inside, she turned into her mother’s lounge and looked up at the black urn that held her ashes. She closed her eyes and clasped her hands together.

“Mother, tell me what happened. Tell me why...? You left us with unanswered questions. If I would know...” She touched her ear, the one that was pressed against the barn door and felt another tear flow down her cheek. “...then I would understand... but you left! You left us with nothing, and everything and it’s unfair! How could you? Father... father loved you! We all loved you!” Mariette dropped to her knees and rammed her fist into the flooring. “You were not allowed! You were not allowed to die like that and leave us! I hate you!”

She swallowed her tears. “I hate you,” she repeated, before dropping her whole weight onto the floor and closing her eyes to sleep.

            And the demon returned. He was beautiful; his eyes glowed a fiery red, and his hands... the hands were burning cold. It felt as if her eyes were sewn shut, and all she could see were shadows, and his eyes... He was comforting, and in the blur of the space surrounding her, she found peace of mind that made her smile and bring her eyes close to his own. Her lips found his and they kissed in the deep bosom of the night.