Love was something I never thought I'd get to experience, not for the likes of me anyway. The day I fell in love was the day I knew my life would end, but I never thought it would go this far. Fleeing from my village, weaving between trees, and dodging arrows flown in my direction was all because I fell in love, and they thought me a witch for it, but I couldn't care less.
Falling for the preacher's daughter was definitely the best thing that has ever happened to me.
Innocent.
The only word that could describe our affection for each other, at least that's how it started. Our simple touches and glances— oh how I craved for it, we were careful with our touch but careless with our eyes, only when I found out she had a betrothed I wanted more than innocent. I wanted raw unfiltered love; I wanted—no craved her, as if she was the very air I breathed. She was skiled, precise, and deadly with her beauty. It was and still is my belief that if God was in her presence, he'd be tempted to sin. One look from her and I was hooked, she was eager to take and I was more than willing to give.
While her father would preach about the sins and temptation of the flesh, we applauded him in public, only to laugh at his idiocy when we were alone, committing every sin he spoke of.
The day we truly gave in to our temptations was nothing short of cannibalistic. I took what she offered; her soul, mind, body, heart, blood, all of it, and ate like I've only ever known hunger. She ripped me open with her talons, fangs, and comforting words, and even though I laid bare, aching and bleeding from her assaults, I did not want her to stop; she was the huntress and I was her prey, and if she wanted me to be I'd be the very earth she walked upon.
I dreaded the day we got caught. Everyone looked at us as though we were vermin, they said that the devil took ahold of us, that I, a witch, placed a spell, nay, a curse on my beloved, causing her to do something as disgusting as loving me.
When they prayed over us, trying to cast out the devil within, my mama spared not even a glance at my direction, however, for the fleeting moment that I had caught her line of sight, it looked as though she had not a care that I was her flesh and blood, only hatred and shame was evident in her eyes.
In that moment, the only thought that was present in my mind was how they all knew my beloved was just that, mine. This beauty—this jewel loves something as wretched and ugly as me– I couldn't have been more smug about it.
When we fled hand in hand through the woods, our persecutors hot on our tail, legs burning, adrenaline rushing through us, with cuts bruises and scrapes along our bodies, I've never felt more alive.
When they did finally catch us, they thought we were unsavable, so much so that they placed us both at the stake, separate ones however.
When they asked us what we wanted to confess before our eternal damnation in hell, I simply told them that they would be joining us for this act they were about to commit. And even though when they burned us all we could do was scream and couldn't even reach out to each other. I felt no regret knowing that if given the chance, I wouldn't change a damn thing for I got what many couldn't, I got to live and die with my beloved.
