Hauntingly Beautiful Girls

"An Ordeal"

Lauren Cooper hugs her husband and follows an old thin man towards a range of hills.

The sisters there want to talk with me. As the walking puts us halfway between the standing portico of the noble lands and the hills, the man offers some views in whispers.

"The seven sisters never hold someone by force for more than few hours. They do convince many to stay. Many who would not have thought so beforehand. Not until the sisters show how much they care."

We walk on the sandy sparse trail into a round at the hills.

An encampment of tents and a place aside for cleaning clothes (done by the men).

I get taken by hand into a wooden shack to find inside six smallish thin women. It happens quickly. I am stripped naked and moved into a large wooden sided hot tub of very warm water.

They seat us in a circle with buckets to sit on. The bucket flipped over so the flat bottom is like a stool.

It is intensely unsettling for the first few minutes. At least two holding my hands. Two holding my shoulders. Two clasping my knees tightly together.

In time I realize they are touching nothing else. I had been pulling hands in an attempt to be free, but they let my hand move and remained steadfast in keeping their hands fluidly attached.

When I stop struggling, they tell me. They are not as they appear. They have lived a long time. Swapping into bodies of little esteem in this culture. A woman's body that did not grow strong and tall.

There leader thinks I ought to stay with them.

They want a chance to convince me.

Many people take a kiss as a statement. Authority. Ownership. Personal delight.

These women kissed only briefly with lips, but "kissed" very long in gazes and slow inspection. It was like they were reading my soul.

By the fourth kiss, everything went black.

I woke up laying flat and covered by many towels.

The was a conversation just behinds my head.

"She heat swooned? We need to get her away from here. Civilization here will crush her. Prepare the other two. Then I will kiss her myself."

When the voices move away, see my clothes and squirm quickly out a space carrying them.

As I run in the dark desert night sky, her a voice.

Perhaps the smallest yet. A woman with a red flower in her hair.

She pleads for a while. "Give up now. You will understand later in life. Just let me kiss you."

Lauren moves quickly towards the woman. Her compelling ardent voice playing a role.

Lauren lifts the woman to the toes by her face and kisses. Long and purposeful.

Lauren then turns and runs back away. You do not understand. I spent all my life complaining about men. How they had no conviction and fall away at the first hurdle. I have to be better. In a world where women are in charge. I could not abandon a spouse so easily."

The small woman stands and puts a hand to her lightly blushing face.

The flower in her hair was supposed to be placed on Lauren. An accent to the blush of a kissed countenance.

This woman had been out kissed. That would have never happen. Such a thing. Getting 'out kissed'.

The other six women come to find her standing.

"We need to break camp and move into the hills. We may have only one more chance to save her."