Songbird

“Won’t you sing for me, little bird?”
She did not turn from the window. She never turned away from the window when he came to her. He stepped farther into the room, reaching out and tracing his fingers along the carved wood of the bedpost. She could hear his footsteps, but did not turn towards them.
“I have not the heart for it,” she answered.
“You never have the heart for it,” he told her, disappointed. “Why do you never wish to sing for me?”
She turned to him now, her brunette hair gilded in the fire’s glow. “Can a caged bird feel free?” she asked him.
“Caged?” He looked around the room. “Does this look like a cage to you? I have given you nothing but the finest. I have spent unknown amounts of money to keep you comfortable and warm. Your bed is covered with the finest furs and is carved from the finest timber. You have the finest clothes that money can buy, silks from the East, velvets, dyed wools. You dress better than royalty, and yet you say that you are caged? I do not understand you?”
She smiled sadly and turned back to the window. She never seemed to leave this window and her gaze was always to the distance.
“A cage is still a cage though it may be dressed in silk,” she answered.
“My little bird, please.” He went to her side and took her hand. She did not flinch from him as she used to, but there was no emotion in her eyes when she looked at him. “I yearn for your sweet voice.”
“I told you,” she whispered. “I have no heart for song anymore.”
“What can I do, what can I do to make you happy again? What can I do to bring back the heavenly bell that is your voice?”
“Let me go home,” she answered. “Let me see my family again.”
“I cannot do that,” he replied. “You would not return to me.”
“If you do wish me to go, then let them come here,” she pleaded. “Only let my loved ones return to me, even for a short time. My heart is with them.”
“They will try and take you from me!” He took hold of her shoulders and shook her slightly. “I cannot live without you. Now that I know you, now that you are here with me, I cannot let you go.”
“I am not asking you to release me,” she answered. “I am only asking to be reunited with my kin. Let me see my mother, my father, my brothers, and I will sing for you. My heart will swell and I will not be able to contain my song.”
He thought about this for so long that she began to hope that this time, he would relent and let her go. He professed his love to her daily, but would never admit that he had kidnapped her, stolen her from the only home she had ever know away from the family that loved her, and locked her away. She always had to be accompanied when she left her bedchamber and he never left her side.
“Please,” she whispered. “I will not go with them. I only want to see them.” She stepped closer to him and placed a hand on his arm.
He did not look at her, but moved away from her. “No,” he said firmly. “I cannot let my little songbird out of my sight.”
She fell to her knees and let out a sob. He rushed back to her and tried to hold her, but she pushed him away. “Let me alone! I cannot abide you!”
“Do not say that, my love.”
“How dare you call me that?” she cried. “You who have no pity for my broken heart? You who stolen me away from all I hold dear just after hearing me sing? How can you call me your love when you do not express any?”
He stood up and pulled her up by her shoulders. “Do not say I do not love you!” he roared, a crazed look in his eye. “My love for you is stronger than you will ever be able to comprehend.”
“It is an obsession for which I suffer. Can you not see my misery?”
“Your strife causes me pain. What can I do to ease your suffering?”
“Let me be with my family!” she sobbed.
“You are with your family! You are with your husband who loves you with all his being.”
“We are not married.” She looked in his eyes, horrified.
“Not yet, but we will be. As soon as you say the word, we will be husband a wife.”
“I cannot marry you! I will not!”
He threw her onto the bed. “Do you doubt me love for you? Is that why you refuse me? Do you doubt my words?” He pulled a dagger from his side and held it up in the light. “I will prove me love for you.”
She clambered away from him, afraid of what was to come next, but he did not approach her. Instead he ripped his shirt open exposing his chest. The blade glowed red for only a moment before it plunged into his flesh, spraying the room and her dress with red. She shrieked and turned her face away as pain twisted on his face, but the knife cut deeper.
She could see the shredded muscle, the exposed ribcage and, the most terrifying sight she had ever seen, his beating heart. She backed away against the headrest of her bed, as far away as she could physically be from the carnage. He looked into her terror struck eyes with a pleading gaze as the knife drew back from his open chest. He was breathing heavily and with each breath, more blood spilled onto the bearskin rug beneath his feet. He stood, swaying on his feet, for what felt like an eternity before bringing the knife back up to and inside the hole over his heart. He did not let out a cry of pain nor did he express his feelings in his face. She heard the sickening sound of the sharpness slicing through soft tissue and then another horrifying sight was before her.
He stood heart in hand. The organ beat one last time before lying still in his palm. He took one shaky step towards the bed and then another and then one more before falling to his knees. He was soaked and stained red from his chest down to his boots. His face held the same longing gaze that it had when he started this monstrosity, only now it belonged to a near lifeless body. As he collapsed, his heart fell on the bed and rolled out of his hand.
“My…heart…” His words were barely audible, but they were his last.
She stared for a long moment at the bleeding muscle at the hem of her dress and then to the body the lay just before the fire. Her mind could not comprehend the sight in front of her and her own heart could not keep up with the stress that she felt being alone with a man who had just committed such a heinous act.
Separated from her family, and now being face to face with unholy obsession, her heart broke and she swooned, life fleeing from her body with a final gasp.