Spoiler
I tried to slow stuff down a bit. lots more thoughts and environment. this is just the 1 ch. so please tell me what you think!
One:
Jeremy and Aniline were outside the gate. “Are you sure about this?” he asked her, stroking her hair.
“yes.” Her heart was shuddering inside her chest, making her feel shaky and disoriented.
“Ok then.”
Anyone looking out the palace windows would have saw a young dark haired girl and a dark haired boy walking off the palace grounds. But nobody did, Except him.
The two ran through the small wood that surrounded the castle, as fast as they could incase of pursuers.
Aniline’s cloak flapped in the wind. Jeremy looked at her, the gorgeous one, he thought. She looked at him, his curls bouncing on her forehead, small beads of sweat collecting on his brow. I love him! I love him! Alleluia!
They stopped when they reached a road. It was well-traveled and narrow, with ruts and potholes. Moon dust hovered in clouds above the boulevard, to where the details of the road were unrecognizable.
“We need to change,” said Jeremy pulling her back into the woodland. He handed her a blue button up, a white camisole, faded ice blue jeans and a silver flower headband. She went behind a tree, stripping off her palace clothes and yanking the civilian clothes over her head. She felt alien to herself; As if she were to look in a mirror right now, she would not know who she was. “Now you look like a teen, not a princess,” he said kissing her lightly.
She frowned “you don’t have to sound surprised”
“I know” he kissed her again, making her heart flutter with a thousand butterflies.
Walking hand and hand beside the road, they talked quietly. “Tell me about what you’ve been doing” Aniline urged bumping him with her shoulder. He slowly shook his head “why?”
“It’s not fit for girls ears.” She rolled her eyes and elbowed him, “your mean”
“maybe.” He suddenly pulled her close, spinning her around; lifting her into the air, as it began to rain. He wrapped his arms around her waist, and kissed her, little kisses; long kisses and then as thunder shook the moon, one long drawn out kiss that seemed to the two to last forever.
If I should die, I should go remembering this moment. And the love I felt as I kissed the man. Aniline thought
If I get her killed, let damnation and the devil be waiting for me when I go, Jeremy thought as his hands went up and down her back, soothing the wounds that she had been nursing since he left.
~
“It’s so wet,” she complained as she picked at the mix of fruit and broiled roots he had cooked up over a fire.
“Maybe, but its wholesome.” She rolled her eyes and scooped another spoonful into her mouth. Wholesome? Wholesome?! This stuff is disgusting! Aniline thought bitterly, raking her fork across the plate.
“Come here,” he ordered, and she stood up coming to him; where he sat on the wet ground splitting wood. “I want you to listen and listen carefully” he took a breath and whispered in her ear “you can go back, pretend you never saw me; but you can’t tell a soul you saw me.” He looked into those serious dark eyes and felt the love he had for her well up inside him, threatening to swallow him up, leaving him lifeless in its stomach. “I won’t leave you.” She kissed him as the fire leapt into the air.
That night, snuggled in her warmest pajamas, Jeremy’s arms reaching around her, Aniline’s thoughts wandered, memories surfaced; ones she didn’t even know she had.
A lifeless form. Crying, a dark figure hovering over the figure. A ghost of an evil spirit, wafting through the cold room, trying to touch the mourners. Nobody else noticed it; everyone was bent over the figure, sobbing, splayed across the unmoving chest. But she saw it. Screaming the little girl pointed above the alabaster unflinching face. “Help!” she screamed “Help!” her mother, face as hard as stone flinging her from the room, telling her to calm down and shut up. The girl scurrying down the hall to a window, to see the dark phantom leaving with the night.
Aniline shook with tears, her heart throbbing with forgotten pain. That lifeless form had been her father. That specter had been a minion of the devil. But why? She thought through the pain. But why? Tossing and turning she fell into a fitful sleep.
They spent hours walking along the wet road, sometimes in the wood and sometimes in the open. His arm was constantly around her shoulders; warm and comforting. He still loves me! she thought; feeling so happy she could jump for joy, He still loves me!
His mind was filled not just with love for her but also doubt. I shouldn’t have asked her to come. If she finds out what I was doing all this time she will never, NEVER speak to me again.
Three:
“Wake up” the whisper came through the darkness, the voice cracked and damaged “wake up little darlings” Aniline, rolled over, coming from a dream of her and Jeremy living in a castle of ice.
“Who’s there?” she murmured stretching up and rolling onto Jeremy, who was wrapped tight in his sleeping bag, snoring. “Hmm?” Jeremy groaned as pulling her close “hi baby” he started to kiss her, his sour morning breath blowing onto her face. The voice came again; raspy “are you awake?”
Jeremy sat up, his eyes suddenly awake and alert. The darkness seemed to glow blacker as he slowly stood up; his black hair tousled with sleep. “You said you wouldn’t come looking again.” he yelled at the black shape, which came closer, into the lantern light. And then Aniline screamed.
The woman had grey hair caked with dirt, grease and an odd twig. It hung in straggles down her back, dragging through the ground behind her. Her dress (what was left of it) was once black but had been stained with red and brown spots. The sun had browned her knurly hands and feet, but her face was deathly pale. Aniline for the second time in forty-eight hours felt her powers draining away. Oh no, not another ‘sun’ minion oh, please not another one! She collapsed on the pile of her and Jeremy’s sleeping bags, her head knocking against a rock.
Jeremy felt his hands ball into fists. “Leave! I did what you and your hateful master asked, you branded me. What more do you want?” he bent down stroking Aniline’s face, “so you went back to her did you?” the woman’s voice went down to a low purr. “Leave” Jeremy’s heart beat faster, fearing Aniline waking up and seeing these to talking. I must get her to leave! If Aniline finds out… His brain screamed repeatedly, giving him a migraine. The woman turned, and then stopped “you’ll regret keeping secrets from her…” then in a puff of dust, she disappeared.
~
Aniline awoke with a pounding headache, her vision swimming. Strong arms held her, and a warm hand was spooning something into her mouth. “Jeremy” she said groggily, trying to sit up then falling back.
“Shhh” Jeremy’s voice came through the void that surrounded her.
“What happened?”
“Nothing much, a Sybil came and threatened-” he cut short and stood up, walking to the fire Aniline could barely see.
Aniline felt her heart sigh. When Jeremy got depressed, angry or annoyed he acted distant and cold. He wouldn’t finish sentences and would walk away when they were talking to each other. He obliviously blamed himself for not protecting Aniline and saving her from this half-conscious state. “It’s not your fault,” Aniline burst out, sitting up, her head spinning from the strain.
“What?” his voice sounded cold, and angry.
“Nothing. Never mind”
Jeremy watched Aniline collapse back on their sleeping bags he had stacked underneath her to cushion her head. She looked like an angel, but then she always had. His mind spun from the memories that he had pushed away, determined never to think of them.
He had stood there in that courtyard before. But, the first time had been an accident. He meant to be here this time. The flagstone was orange and red. The gate when touched burning hot. Yet here he was. “Your late” a voice rasped “one is never late, the others are simply early.” Was his smart-mouth reply, “you have spunk, I like that…” the voice said thoughtfully. “ Come here” he stepped forward towards the voice, hovering above a red stone bench. “Closer… Closer…” ‘One more step’ he urged himself coming closer. He felt the heat radiating off the presence. His mind screamed for him to move, but his legs didn’t seem to be working. As he found the power within him to move a hot pain seared his neck. “There” the voice screamed. “Remember this deed always, for the mark of the sun is branded on your neck forever!” and he was back, standing at the gate of Aniline’s palace, having left the sun and come to the moon.
Four:
Aniline felt better, she could see, though what ever had come that night had given her nightmares. Horrible ones. Jeremy wasn’t as distant, though sometimes Aniline caught him staring out at the horizon, his brow furrowed in concern. Once Aniline could walk, they decided to move camp to a cave Jeremy said was near. That morning Aniline stood beside him, her fingers laced through his and felt her heart well up in her throat. She forced it down with a cough, wishing she could run away and never look back.
Jeremy had his eyes sat on her lips. He hadn’t kissed her since she fell, feeling that he couldn’t after the thing he had done to her. The longing inside him was so great it threatened to swallow him whole. He felt as if he was on the edge of a large pit and one kiss would force him into to it. Love is painful he thought, turning away form her, away from temptation.
Aniline sighed as the walked through the rock country. Jeremy stopped often to make sure she was still ok, but it wasn’t enough.
She knew better than anyone that when Jeremy felt that something had happened and it was his fault he became a different person, completely not himself. It passed in time she knew as well, but until then he was a moody *bite your head off* kind of person. Aniline looked out along the rocky ridge they were climbing and felt her heart stop. She halted, pulling Jeremy, who had been holding her hand to a stop too. “Jeremy!”
He turned “what” then his eyes got wide and his mouth fell open. Sitting there among the rocks was a giant!
~
“h- hello” Aniline said shakily, her hand shuddering in Jeremy’s.
“Aloha” The giant nodded pleasantly and continued eating the stag he had spread in his lap.
“Who are you?” Jeremy said harshly, stepping closer to the beast.
“Hander, who are you?” the giant answered cordially
“Aniline Grace and Jeremy Starr” Aniline smiled kindly at the giant and waved up at him.
“The Aniline Grace?” the giant’s mouth gaped open, Pieces of half-chewed stag falling to the ground like rain.
Aniline nodded, dodging a piece of leg-meat that hurtled down to the rocks below.
“Well, I suppose I’ll let you pass then.” He said standing to his feet and turning to pick up his kill-bag.
“Thank you kind sir”
“Your welcome”
Aniline waved as the gentle giant walked from the mouth of a cave, leaving it uninhabited.
~
“Nice,” commented Jeremy, nodding his head approvingly as they entered the ingress of the cave.
“I do what I can.”
Jeremy did a one-sixty and reached Aniline just as she was about to fall. He caught her and leaned her against the cave wall.
She must have been exhausted by talking to that giant he thought looking down at her, so perfect, so un-flawed.
Her lips were parted and her black hair flowed around her face. He bent down, the lure to great, to brush her lips with his.
Aniline woke up to find Jeremy kissing her in her sleep. She let her lips latch onto his and let all the emotion she had bottled up inside her all day flow from her, the only thing that mattered was Jeremy, his lips, his arms and him.
~
“Do you like me?” the question came from the darkness, her words muffled by the blackness
“Rivers”
“Love me?”
“Oceans”
He rolled over, dragging his sleeping bag behind him, to where she was sleeping in the corner of the cave. His lips fumbled around until they found hers, pressing against her sleepy lips, one last time.
END OF PART 2
STAY TUNED FOR PART 3:
THE SECRET, THE CASTLE AND THE RETURN.
