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Chapter 7
The party runs late into the morning. When the guests have gone I hear the patter of Vaun's footsteps making their way to my room. With no knock he comes straight in, catching me staring out to the vast woods around us. He comes and wraps his arms around my waist before kissing my shoulder affectionately.
"That wasn't so bad was it?" I'm glad he can't see my face, the hot swell of tears that threaten to come through.
I clear my voice, "yes it was very nice." We stand there for a moment staring out at the rain as it falls.
"Your friend Mitchell was quiet the joker, why have I never heard you mention him before?" Because he isn't a friend. Because his memory haunts me. Because he has tasted the forbidden and lived because of me. Because I hate him. Because he is still in love with me. Because I still might be in love with him.
I wanted to say it, to tell him everything, but would he still be there when it was over? Would I just be another failed attempt in the long history of butchered commitments. I may not have felt for Vaun what I had once felt for Mitch, but there was hope there. He was a good, kind man. He was the perfect choice, the only acceptable choice. I would marry him, and do everything an honorable wife is meant to do and everyone will be happy. Well everyone but Mitch, everyone but me.
But as I tell myself this, a single image flutters through my mind. It is Mitch's bloodied body that I see as clear and well as the night it happened all those years ago.
"I guess it never really came up. I'm so tired dear, let me get some rest now?" I turned facing him, pushing back those feelings once more.
"Of course, oh by the way Mitch invited us over for brunch tomorrow." he said as he kissed me then left to make the nightly journey to his home. See this house was more of a holding cell then anything else. It was isolated and the only way to get to it was a tiny dirt road that passed by the main house where Vaun and a few of his pals lived.
The reason they moved up the wedding when my father got sick was because he was afraid that the moment he died I would have no reason to go through with the wedding. Once my fathers condition got to where it is today they decided to move me here. Surrounded by hundreds of miles of forest they presumed I would have no where to run to. I could have saved them the trouble though, I had no plans to run out on Vaun.
I did have a plan to leave this house though, if only for tonight. Once I see his car pull out onto the muddy road I collect my things, grab a coat and escape into the forest. Had they put me in a city I would have been far more trapped than I am now. I knew the forest better than anything else and escaping was no major feat.
I was back in my tiny town quickly. I was lucky there was a storm tonight, it meant the streets where cleared of anyone that could recognize me. My heart pounded away. Should anyone see me, it would have ruined everything. No one did though and I made it to Mitchell's house just as easily as I had left mine
The sheep were still out tonight and it was frightening, the way their haunting cries filled the night air. I picked up the pace, quick to leave this place once and for all.
His door was unlocked but when I went inside I understood why. Music blared from hidden speakers. Lost in the erratic beat of drums a man sang about the joys of beautiful women and cheap drugs. Having only been here once I followed the music, sure that it would lead me to the man I was looking for.
He didn't see me when I entered the room. Three women were past out on the sofas, one way stumbling about like she was looking for a place to vomit and the last sat upon Mitch's lap. I tugged my coat closer to me, this had been a mistake. I'm just about to go when I hear the girls gasp.
As one hand gripped her thigh the other pulled her closer giving him the chance to lap at the blood that was now gushing from her neck. It was then that his eyes suddenly fall upon me as he releases the girl from his hold. She tries to kiss him once more but this time rips her from his lap sending her falling to the floor. She looks up with frightened eyes as she pulls the only other girl thats still conscious with her down the hall.
He wipes the Ore blood from his lips and smiles at me. "If I had known you'd be gracing me with your presence tonight I would have tidied up." His light curls bounce, as if moved by the wind though there was none.
My lips purse as I pull out a small pouch full of gems from my coat pocket. "Mitch I'm not here to play games." I ignore the way his name stings my lips.
He raises an eyebrow, "Then why may I ask are you here Miss Heathet?"
I toss him the pouch and as he opens it I see his face fill with amusement. My hands clench tightly at my sides, "There now that you have your money you can leave me and my father alone."
His laughter fills the room "Oh dear Anna," he says as he rises from his seat, "don't you read the news? I'm up for head Ordinent of Revlek when the old geyser finally kicks the bucket. I didn't come for money."
"Then what do you want Mitchell? Why after all these years do you suddenly barge back into my life?"
He walks to me, close enough that I can feel his breath on my face, "I came for you Anna" he tries to reach out and touch me but I slap his hand away.
"Michell I'm getting married! Its over, this whole little game of yours is pointless, you've already lost."
For some reason that seams to set him off. Suddenly his cool demeanor turns into anger and he grabs my arm as he pushes me against the wall. "It is not over," he growls, "He doesn't know the truth does he? He doesn't know that your tainted, that I've already had you in a way he can only dream of."
I try to sound confident; fear less ."Yes Mitch, once upon a time I may have had feelings for you and yes we may ha-"
His grip becomes tighter as his eyes dance in a sea of flames. "Feelings for me? Dammit Anna I loved you!" One of the girls now wakes now. His roaring voice startle her from a dreamless slumber.
"Mitch?" she says with a disgustingly sweet child like voice. Her hair is cut short, short enough to show the matured horns of a woman Ore. "Mitch who is she?"
"Shut up and get in the room with the others" he growls and we both flinch, but she is the only one that gets to escape.
When I see that she is gone I manage to push him away. "Mitch I don't want you." my voice is calmer now, "I don't lo-" he kisses me. Sweat and tender, his kiss brings me back to a time where I was free to be happy, to love who I chose. The feeling was fleeting. I push him away all to soon as I manage to slap him hard enough to send him back a few steps.
He smiles victoriously as he touches the tender skin of his cheek. "Tell me you hate me, tell me you're marrying that pathetic excuse for a man, but don't you ever tell me that you don't love me."
I stare at him for a moment, wanting so badly to hurt him the way he hurts me. "And if I tell you that I love him? That I love him more than your tiny heart could ever comprehend?" Just like that the fire in his eyes are out and I see his composure crumble away to nothing.
"You don't meant that." he says shaking his head.
"I do" I didn't, but the shock of what I had said kept him from seeing that.
I begin to walk out the room when he calls out to me, "Anniel" I turn and he throws the pouch back, "We don't want you hubbie knowing you were here do we?" I nodded and walk out leaving Mitch to his world and hoping me he would leave me to mine. I am stepping out into the rain when I hear him call out to me one last time, "I'm not giving up on you Anna! I promised I'd come back for you!"
I shut the door before I could hear more. Beneath the roaring thunder of clouds I let the pain finally consume me wishing all the while that I could be consumed by the rain; that I would never have to feel again. Wishing that I would never have to love.
