The Lordly Ones

-I Don't Need To Be Saved

Sunlight gently spilled  onto the hair of a young man, revealing glowing red tones hidden within the depths of his brown hair as he lay under the crystal white sheets and red fabric canopy of a four-poster bed. But he wasn't alone. Curled up against him, the fragile figure of Scarlett pressed to his warmth. She was so small, so delicate. A child. Turning his head, light trickled between the curtains of the canopy, pooling onto one side of his face. He reached out and gently stroked the pale cheek of his queen. Unbeknown to him a gentle smile spread across his lips. Perhaps it was the memories that she brought with her, his saviour, but he'd never let her know if it was. Even he struggled to believe that once, even this weak creature was an object of yearning and strength for him. Illusions perhaps. 

For that girl was no longer. He had taken care of that, bent her to his will, bent and broken, his little toy. And all that lay next to him now, all that clung to him were broken shards, cutting him as they pressed tighter and tighter, reminding him, fooling him. Weakness. Disgust. These bones disgusted him now. What were they? What were they? - Their relationship. To her? To him? He wished she was the puzzle he has once loved, and yet as soon as he had put the pieces together, caught the bird in his hands as it had hopped forward tentatively, as he tricked it with his supposed weakness, he had broken the pieces up again, smashed them against the walls. That one moment of splendor, when the puzzle was whole. He had to tear it. After all, what would be left after that shimmer faded? The puzzle was no longer a puzzle, it was a whole picture, everything was so obvious. 

"Do you feel better now?" Caleb asked as she slowly stirred from her child-like slumber, his little broken bird, snapped. Why did she have to wake?

Lazily he sat up, the covers of the bed sliding down his shoulders to his waist. But as he began to edge towards the side of the bed, her small hands grasped at his arm, creating a shocking contrast between his sun-kissed skin and her own tone of ivory.

"Don't go," she gasped as she tried to sit up, "It's hard to sleep when you aren't here," she told him, pleading like a little girl as she wrapped her arms around him, snugly fitting herself into the familiar shape of his strong back. "I haven't been able to sleep for so long since you became so busy."

Caleb let out a sigh and moved his hands to gently lift hers from his shoulders as he turned to face her. Reaching out his fingertips he made them dance and tangle in her black sea of hair as he pulled her closer for a goodbye kiss. She melted into him almost immediately and he took the chance to pull away.

"You know how it was before. I need to take care of that girl before she wakes up," he explained as she whined for him to return. Skillfully he ignored her and managed to slip on his underwear and trousers before she found the energy to clamour out of the bed.

"You might get caught if you leave now," she whispered into his ear as she stood beside him.

That didn't use to worry you before, useless girl.

Slowly he pushed her away and led her to her vanity table, turning her head to face the mirror. "You will always be the only one for me, always. You're beautiful. Remember what I said to you when we first met Scarlett?"

Softly the girl whispered, "I will never be without you, because now that I know true beauty, I can never truly leave." as she raised her own hands to hold his hands before he slid them away and left with his shirt.

Closing the manor door softly behind him the servants inside slowly woke one by one. The charm broken. Smirking, he buttoned up his shirt and walked lazily down the path to turn into the gardens next to the big marble gates.

It was no surprise that he had not been found out, he had special talents after all. Slowly winding between the trees that surrounded the sprite city, he hurried through the gardern, scattering flowers as he went until he reached the thickest part of the forest.