DECODE. // Dracule Mihawk

08. Something Real

THREE YEARS AGO

HE looked at her like nobody, especially no man, had ever before. His eyes swirled with a darkness she could only pinpoint as desire, and it drew her right in. Though any attention would have done so, the only men she knew was her father and the regulars who needed to confess sins each holy day.

She didn't know better. If only she had the tools to understand each touch or word spoken of false sincerity, she'd have kept more dignity than she'd have cared to share.

Deacon Percy, who was vying to be a priest, would be staying at the Monastery a few months, along with an unnamed Cardinal, and small entourage for business too classified for lowly nuns. Sabine and the rest of her Sisters knew for men to be allowed to stay upon their grounds outside of prayer and confession- it was for good reason. Never would such temptation freely walk the halls.

So when Percy looked at her like she was the vast sky and all its glittering stars, like he'd drop everything to be with her- Sabine knew it was fate. It had to be! The silly ritual she performed years ago was legit!

Nights sneaking about under the different cycles of moons.

Meetings behind stairwells and in the emptied kitchens. Him taking her along the grounds, past the cemetery, chasing her about as she giggled in glee safe from prying ears.

He talked as if he knew, saw, and understood the entire world. A glimmer in his eyes as he told her stories of great religious feats he'd seen, of masterful care towards the needy he sought out to bring to the world. Her innocence was to his advantage, open ears he could manipulate with ease as she had not taken permanent vows.

He thought Sabine to be the most beautiful woman ever, his own version of Virgin Thais in a sense. The lost girl at sea to the mercy of the Father.

Percy would wonder how to make her his loyal follower, how if he could transfix her permanently, perhaps she could bring others along with her. His own little coven of nuns. The great Father must have had this in mind the whole time!

He took Sabine's first kiss.

But it took a turn when he tried to take her virginity, one night under the full moon, where the white moonflower bloomed. Where the dense waft of seawater met the rocky shores of the Monastery, under a large willow tree past the gates down a gravel path.

"I- No. Kissing is one thing." Sabine glowered at him after she'd shoved him back. She readjusted her habit that he'd tried to shed from her skin.

Red blared in her mind, in her vision. The last couple meetings her stomach had been churning with all the wrong feelings, this only reaffirmed her gut instincts. Anger and sadness swirled in her, her blood feeling thick as it coursed painfully inside her veins. Bubbling resentment threatened to boil out from her at him.

"You should feel ashamed." She crossed her arms as she stared down at Percy, having gained feet between where he still sat.

"Sabine, we'll be as one, it will be okay. I love you, you know that."

The words were on the tip of her tongue. She was a fool! He'd used her! Nights of losing sleep, of doubt gnawing at her, of tears in the washroom, a loss of appetite. And oh how her Sisters knew something was wrong, trying to carefully help her escape his orbit. But a man who loved her would not make her choose or feel pressure, make a laughing stock of her as she stood there with tears cascading down her cheeks.

"Do not talk to me again." And she was off, racing back up the path, past the gates and inside the Monastery. Breathing heavy through her sobs as she collapsed in her bed, shaking and cold, doing her best to not wake her roommate.