my+back+turned+to+the+moon

I turned my back on the moon. All the night had brought me, or at least this night, the night of the full moon, was pain. He’d rejected me at my most vulnerable. He wanted a stronger woman, somebody strong at every moment of the day and when he’d caught me crying…I didn’t have him to count on anymore. It was horrible to see him turn his back on me, the way I turned my back on the moon tonight. I ran into the darkness, the inky black pulling me in the way it used to, before light had been my decision. I returned to the night, the starless night that had been my home for years. I dove into it and it engulfed me in welcome. The black was pressing in on me. It wasn’t comfortable the way it used to be. I looked for something in the darkness that was different but it was all the same. The same darkness, the same hopelessness, the same emotionless night engulfed me. I knew that the dark should feel like a relief but the longer I stayed in the darkness, the more frightened I became. I got on my hands and knees and climbed out. The moon greeted me in a light that was too much. I flinched out of the moonbeam and hid in the shadows, not touching the light, not quite submersed in dark. I flew through the forest like the angel that I could be if I would embrace the light completely the way I had embraced the darkness before I’d been found in the dark. He’d come with a flashlight and found me, half naked, nothing but the covering the night had provided. I’d been covered in all the places that needed to be covered but no more than that. He’d offered me his hand and I’d flinched away from the kindness in his eyes, not knowing what it was. The darkness had shown me cruelty and pain but it had also taken my emotions and locked them away and made it so that I wouldn’t hurt anymore. Centuries ago, when I was in my natural lifespan, my hair had been so blond and my eyes so blue, that the men stared. I’d held my head high and always been smiling. I fell in love with a man, and he’d shown me love in return. I’d had a cruel sense of humor and had a strong posture that showed my unwavering confidence. I’d caught him cheating on me one night and when I caught them in my bed, our marriage bed, I’d run away to never be seen by anyone in that generation again. The pain was so much that I searched everywhere for relief. I found this forest and it was magic. I knew this the way I knew I couldn’t go back to him. I’d searched for a long while and then I’d found the base of darkness. I’d been afraid of it at first, but then it coaxed me in and I embraced it completely. It had turned my heart to stone and taken my emotions. After five hundred years embracing the darkness, frozen in time and my body was frozen in the twenty one years it had been. As I embraced the darkness, each decade had turned my hair darker. Now it was so dark, against my pale skin it looked amazing. My eyes had started to get a black tint to them and with my sky blue eyes it had become this incredible dark blue. It was the color of the night sky. My skin was starting to become dark as well, but then he found me. He pulled me out of the darkness and stared at me. My skin had looked like it wanted to be darker but it was snow white in the moonlight. He’d stared at me and he’d taken me home. I’d embraced the light, the sunlight joyfully. My hair was pitch black and my eyes had astounded him. When I’d come into the sunlight my hair had been so black and my skin so white that the contrast had gotten the attention of everybody in the village. I was still barely dressed and he rushed me to his home. “Hattie!” He’d called to his sister. She saw me and gasped. She rushed me to a guest room and grabbed a dress. I’d put it on willingly enough. It was a deep rose red. I’d stared at myself in the mirror in shock; my black hair went past my waist now, though my hair had gone barely to my shoulders before. It was still thicker than anybody else’s hair. She’d given me a brush and decided there was too much crap in my hair so she’d sent me to the tub. I’d expected the cool water that the servants had brought me in the thirteen hundreds. The water was warm and I’d relaxed so easily. She came in and saw me relaxing for the first time in five hundred years. My face had been so peaceful she’d started crying. She’d washed my dark hair gently, gazing upon it in shock. I was thin and tall and I’d towered over her when I’d stood up. She started to put a corset on me and I had my hands up not understanding what she was doing, and then she gave up on it. “Sweetheart, you’re so thin you don’t even need a corset,” She said to me. I smiled unsurely. She slipped some kind of undergarments on me and then put the dress on me. She had me sit down and she brushed my hair. It was long and thick and it took about an hour to brush it. Then she’d put some kind of makeup on me. Later I found out it was an eye liner. She brought me out to him and said to him, “Richard, where did you find a beauty like this and why wasn’t she dressed?” He looked puzzled and stared at me. “I found her in the woods and I think somebody hurt her bad. I want to make it better but she hasn’t said a word to me yet,” He’d looked at me hopefully. I stared at him a moment and then my mind kicked in. I opened my mouth and felt the darkness scatter at the light that poured in. I cleared my throat and when I spoke my voice was husky and low the way darkness had lured me in. “A word.” I said and he stared at me in shock. They had a totally different accent than mine. Theirs was a French lilt and mine was olden Irish. They blinked at me and he stepped forward. “Where are you from?” He asked me. “Ireland,” I answered thinking him a fool. I hadn’t gone all the way to France that was for sure. “What were you doing in the woods…undressed?” He asked me looking awkward. “Running away from something,” I said and started walking. I let my eyes wander about, my feet carrying me barely slower than they had on that fateful night. He followed me at a shocked jog. “What were you running from?” He asked me. “Emotion.” I answered and fell to my knees and cried for hours, silent, heaving sobs. It was then that I fell in love with him. Now he’d hurt me and I was running from the world. Now I had nowhere to go. I ran in the darkness with nothing more than pain and emotion as my company. I sobbed and ran. Hattie had become my next best friend after Richard, but when she’d seen me crying she’d walked out as well. She didn’t know how to deal with tears. Her upbringing hadn’t allowed tears and she didn’t know what to do with them. The women of the village had been jealous of my beauty and they’d all yelled at me and they’d been cruel to me for the six months I’d spent outside of my darkness. I never told them why I was running, where I’d lived beyond Ireland and never mentioned my past. Today the women had been so horrible I’d run home crying. They’d all converged on me and demanded to know where I was from and why I was here when nobody wanted me. They’d torn at my dark hair and kicked at my long legs. They’d clawed at my flawless skin and spat at me. It was horrible and I couldn’t do anything back. I’ve never known how to fight and what was once childhood muscle has grown weak and abused though I’m thin. I’d always had servants doing the major work, or anything that could leave me sore or muscle. I knew nothing of how to fight back with words or otherwise. I’d run home and collapsed on my bed and sobbed and shook with fear. My hair was abused now and I had marks on my face from their nails and bruises on my legs. Hattie had come in, took one look at me and left. I felt her rejection and I cried harder, the sobs becoming audible now. Richard came in a while later and I had gotten up and tried to hold him but when I’d tried to hold him, he backed away and the look on his face was that of pure disgust. “I think you’ve overstayed your welcome.” He said and left the room. I took off the dress I was wearing and put on the undergarments the darkness had given me centuries ago. It was dark by now and I’d climbed out the window the way I’d used to, to see my future husband. The husband who had cheated on me though I’d never been anything but faithful and submitting; the one who’d broken my heart for the first time. It was a little harder than when I’d been only eighteen, but I could still manage. This window was a little higher than my one before had been but I landed safely. I bunched my muscles and threw my long legs into motion. I ran on moonbeam. Now I ran on the shadows. I tripped and fell on my knees. I fell on a stick that shot into my palm. It hurt but the physical pain outweighed that of my emotions. I laughed at it because I could deal with this easier. My hair was splayed on my back like a blanket and I smiled at the brush of my dry hair against my back. This feeling was familiar and comfortable unlike the darkness. I looked up and saw the end of the trees up ahead. I got up and walked in the shadows till I reached the edge of the trees. I didn’t let the moonlight touch me at first but then I stepped out into it. My skin was luminescent in the moonlight. I smiled into the beauty of it. My hair was tied back for doing laundry, so I took it down and it brushed my waist more thoroughly and I reveled in the feeling. I saw a beach in the distance. I ran to it, remembering the feel of the waves on my skin from when I was young and innocent. I felt myself settling into a stride that wasn’t my own. I looked up to see the light in swirls around me. I was settling into the lights’ stride, its’ comfort. I got to the beach and took off the clothes of darkness about twenty feet away from the water. I walked naked into the water. It was tepid but comforting. I waded in neck deep and let the waves wash away my fear. The mysteries of the water put me into a trance that had me shocked and calm at the same time. I let it take away all my bad emotions, strengthen me. I waded back to shore and when I searched for my clothes I saw the light burn the darkness away. I was confused but an intuition told me to go towards the thin wisps of light. It swirled around me and I felt my years of pain melt away. I looked into the base of the light and said aloud, “I embrace you and goodness.” A magnificent gown came into being and I put it on. It was perfect on my body in a way that clung so that it felt like I was born to wear it, born in it. My dark hair stayed dark and I knew my eyes would stay dark, but my skin became barely whiter, it couldn’t get much whiter, but before it had looked slightly unhealthy. Now it looked full and young and beautiful. The cuts and bruises didn’t heal, but they didn’t hurt anymore. I wandered by the sea and sat down on a fallen tree. I stared out at the ocean and let the sounds and smells of this place become the only thing in the world. Everything was too quiet. I began to sing in time to the ocean and the winds and the birds. What came out wasn’t the husky, low voice that had become mine. What came out was the voice of an angel. I let my voice carry my pain, my sorrow and my joy all mixed together and become the song of the ocean, the birds and the wind. My voice braided itself into each of these things and I felt everything join in a harmony that was impossible and indescribable. I sang like this for maybe hours. The sun came up to my voice swelling with joy and burst above the mountains with a sweet joy that was life and day. After sunrise I stopped and listened again. Everything was in harmony now. I rose and found slippers by my feet. I put them on and felt my spirit fly. I ran and my feet left the ground and I looked back to see wings. I was an angel now. I flew above the ocean and soared with everything in me, knowing that I would never be the same again. I couldn’t hide in the darkness anymore. “But singing feels like the same thing except happy.” I told myself. I flew and landed on the beach. I ran toward the forest and when I ran through it I felt my wings absorb into my body and I felt my slippers glistening just above the ground, my dress flowing around me though I had to be going faster than ever before. I came to the window and climbed back up and into my bed. I took the dress off and put it where I had hidden the clothes the darkness had given me. It was a little box that was beneath the bed and I washed myself till the salt of the see was out of my hair. Hattie came in as I put on the rose colored dress. “Sweetheart, it’s time for you to go home… Richard doesn’t want you here anymore.” She told me. I turned and stared at her. “Something’s different,” She said accusingly. I stood up, straight and tall and let my old etiquette and posture lead me downstairs. When he saw me he glared. “I’ll bring you home, but that’s it.” He said to me and I felt my eyes widen. “Why are you doing this?” I asked him. His eyes and Hattie’s eyes got wide when my old husky voice was gone and this voice that sounded like an angels, came out of my mouth. It was an angels’ voice because I was an angel. “You don’t belong here and nobody wants you here. I’ll take you home but if you come back, I won’t protect you.” He said to me. I felt my eyes go wide and pain so intense it twisted my insides with a dull knife seared through me. I almost cried out, I almost cried but the most that came out was a muffled groan and a small lurch. I had been staring at the door the entire time I’d spoken to him; I could see the form of a woman there, ready to pounce. I met his eyes in a way I never had before. I let him see me, no guard up, nothing from my soul. His eyes narrowed. “Don’t you dare try to guilt me into letting you stay. I’ll take you home but that’s it.” He said cruelly. “I’ll go get my things then,” I said. “But I don’t need an escort,” I said when he followed me up. “I’m watching you; you’re not taking anything that isn’t yours.” He said. “I wouldn’t dream of stealing!” I said, insulted beyond further words. Where I came from, stealing was punishable by death and not even the family came to watch the persons last moments. They didn’t get a coffin and they didn’t get a funeral. Thieves were the lowest of my society. I marched upstairs and grabbed the dress that I had put away. As I reached for the box under the bed he stared at me. “What?” I asked him, challenging him with my one word. “Don’t you disrespect me!” He yelled coming close. I stood up and though he was taller than me I felt the darkness of centuries seep into my eyes and I could feel a flame of anger there as well. He took a step back. “Witch,” He said and ran downstairs. “Not witch, never witch, just trapped. Trapped in darkness, now I’m freed by light. You think I’m a witch? Look at your women. Beating me like a rug for nothing besides being a bit different.” I said to myself. I grabbed the dress and put it on, sliding the slippers on next. I heard him coming up and I was afraid. I thought of jumping out the window, but when I looked out, the whole hoard of women who had attacked me yesterday was there, waiting for me to jump. I shivered at the thought of doing that again. He came up and pointed a gun at me and I stood there and stared at him. I felt my dress flowing around me and I approached him. His eyes got wide and he put his hand on the trigger. “I’m not afraid of death. I’m afraid of life. Killing me that simply would be a gift.” I said to him. When I was five feet away I heard the clicking noise that meant the gun was ready to shoot. I lurched forward and aimed the gun at the ground and he shot. It had barely missed my foot. “If I was going to hurt you, I would have done it last night, when you hurt me. If I was going to hurt anybody, I would have hurt those girls who attacked me.” I said and walked downstairs with him staring at me. When they saw me they ran upstairs thinking I’d hurt Richard; when they saw him standing there dumbstruck they chased me. Hattie saw my dress and gasped. I came out the door and the women all surged forward and started up where they’d left off yesterday, but I ran and they couldn’t catch me. I ran into the forest and they chased me, though they lost sight of me. I felt my wings trying to burst out of my back and I let them, the dress molding into them. I flew just above the ground and they couldn’t hear me anymore. They kept running. I found the opening in the trees and surged forward, the wind and trees flying by at deadly speeds. I burst out from the trees and flew into the sky, heading toward my old home. They burst through the trees a few minutes later and stared at me. They saw me for what I was now. They knew I was an angel. My long hair reached further than it had before and it was still incredibly dark. But now, instead of a black that promised evil, it was the black of the night sky on a moonless night. The contrast of the dress and my hair, the redness of my lips and the blue of my eyes, each held a different captivation for me as I saw a bit of still water far from the forest that I’d stopped to drink from. I was beautiful. My dark hair cascaded down from my head, around my waist and I looked wild and free. I laughed at the irony. I’d never be free of emotion, never be free of pain. I went and stood upon the grave of my long lost husband, the child he had with the woman he’d cheated on me with. He’d married her after me, and nobody knew what he had done. I took off the wedding band that I had worn for five hundred years and dug a small hole above his grave. I buried the wedding ring and said goodbye, forever, to the pain of this man’s sin. I forgave him, then and there for everything. I sobbed on his grave for hours, ignoring the passerby who stared at me in confusion. This grave was so old and a young woman was crying over it. After a long time I stood. I had no regrets anymore, no pain, no sorrow, no…need. The need to forgive had been quenched and now I felt my heart and soul soar and I laughed out loud. A man who had been watching me for a little while came over and stood next to me. “What are you doing?” He asked me curiously. “Forgiving.” I answered and stood up. I looked him in the eye and he took a step back. He gaped at me and I smiled. I remembered this happening often when I was young. When I was sixteen the marriage proposals had started but I told my father that I wouldn’t marry the most money. I would marry for my heart, and I did. But then he broke my heart. I walked away and once I was out of sight I ran, and once I was covered by trees, I flew. I let my heart guide me and I flew with my eyes closed and I didn’t hit a single tree. An hour later I opened my eyes and found myself at the beach again. It was sunset and I sat on the same log as before and I sang. The sweetest sound came out of my mouth and the octaves and scales came easily and flawlessly. I sang through the night and when I stopped at sunrise, everything was sparkling with a new life and joy. I stood and wandered into the waves, letting them splash at my feet. I took off the dress and the slippers and waded into the water. My skin practically glowed in the sunrise. The waves washed away my tears and the gulls overhead washed away my fears. I came back to shore before I got all prune-y and put my dress back on. I sat on the log and decided to find some kind of food in the forest. I found an apple tree and climbed it. I ate a few apples and sat in the tree happily for a while. I braided my dark hair in long thin braids that were as unplanned as they were beautiful. I sang for a while and braided and my voice rang out joyful and free, the way I’d wanted to be for five hundred years. I had my eyes closed and when I felt the branch under me shake I opened them in shock. Richard was trying to get up on my branch with me. My reaction was complete and absolute. I climbed higher into the tree, weightless and I hid there until he wasn’t under my tree anymore. He turned and left. I climbed down and walked toward my beach. Strong arms came down around me and when I struggled they became tighter and eventually I couldn’t even move. I was gagged and blindfolded. I was thrown over somebody’s back and when they stopped holding my legs down I had my wings carry me away, trusting my heart to guide me out of the trees. My heart was panicked and unwilling and I ran straight into a tree. I brought my wings back into my body and hoped to God that they hadn’t seen them. I was caught by strong arms again and they held my legs down securely. I put up such a fuss, kicking with all my strength and punching anything I could. They were shocked at my struggle and when they lost hold on me I hit the ground running. I let my spirit guide my feet and ran blindly through the forest. I jerked at the blindfold and when I could see again I let my wings carry me weightlessly toward the beach. When my feet hit the sand something dark caught them. I looked down to see darkness winding up my leg leaving deep bleeding welts up my flawless legs. “God, Savior, help me! Light I call you!” I yelled and a bright light washed away the darkness. I got up but I was losing blood fast. I ran into the ocean, trying to get my wings to carry me above the ocean, but the salt water invaded my cuts and I screamed. I fell to the ground and my consciousness slipped away. I woke up in my room, in Richards’ home. I was mostly naked under the sheets. My dress hung next to my bed and I was tucked in nicely. I looked at my legs and was shaken to see the cuts on them. I got up and couldn’t even begin to understand the pain. I went and washed, undoing the braids and staring at my red lips and rosy cheeks, my twilight blue eyes now surprising me. I looked every bit the angel I was. I put my dress back on and slipped on my slippers, unsure how to proceed. Something tugged at my spirit and I eventually closed my eyes and let my body carry me. When I stopped I was in front of Richard. I didn’t understand, why was my spirit doing this? I felt my brow furrow and his strong arms came around me. A tingling in my stomach caught me by shock. He’d never hugged me before and this feeling deep in my heart, this warmth that was spreading within me. I broke away and went into the kitchen. Hattie smiled and gave me some bread. It was still warm, the way I liked it best, and I ate in silence after sharing a smile with her. Richard sat next to me and I felt his presence like the sweet warmth of a fire. Hattie brought me a tall glass of milk and I drank it all at once. The liquid coated my throat richly. I cleared my throat and when I spoke Hattie stared at me in wonder. “Why?” I asked him. “I’m sorry. We were all afraid.” He said. He took my hand and a burning desire spread through me. I stood up, pulling my hand from his and went back to my room and took my dress back off. I slipped into bed and slept till sunset. I woke to Richard sitting on the end of my bed. “It’s time for dinner,” He told me gently. He sat and waited for me to get up and I reached for my dress. He got the point and stood, clearing his throat and hurried out of the room. I smiled to myself and grabbed the red dress I’d worn the day I’d left and brushed my hair out again. I smiled indulgently at the reds on my face and how they were brought out by the dress. I came downstairs and he stared at me in awe. We sat and ate silently. When I was done I got up and washed my dishes and headed for the door. “Where are you going?” He asked me sorrowfully. I smiled at him. “I’ll be back,” I was barefoot and when I picked up my dress and he saw my ankles and my feet he yelled at me to stop, but I ran through the forest not letting my dress get torn. “Light, surround me,” I said and I felt an aura of light come out from my heart. I sat on my log and sang into the night. There was a new tone to my voice that I couldn’t place but I sang through the night anyways. At sunrise I ran back, feeling my feet barely even touching the ground and smiling at my swift movement. I came into the house and the lack of sound of my arrival surprised me. When I’d opened the door before, it had always creaked and the floorboards couldn’t take five pounds without creaking. I looked down at my feet and they were hovering just above the ground. I smiled indulgently and climbed the stairs. I came into my room and got into bed and snuggled into my pillow. Maybe a half an hour later Richard came in and sat at the foot of my bed. He just stared at me, though I pretended to be asleep. He stood up and climbed on top on the covers and lay next to me. I could feel my heart pounding and feel his wish in the air between us. I took his hand and I’ve never seen anybody jump so high. I tried unsuccessfully to muffle my giggles and his shocked expression. I heard a long sigh and I rolled over. His hand was rough and strong holding my frail, weak hand. I smiled and scooted closer to him. His eyes got wide. I stared into them and I lost myself completely. I couldn’t even breathe for a moment. I realized that I was moving and that I was leaning over him now and I really didn’t have much covering me. I blushed and covered myself and lay back down. He blinked and realized what had happened and cleared his throat. I was blushing furiously and when he looked over at me I felt his eyes probing for mine. I looked to him and he leaned over me. He took my face in his hands and kissed me slowly. It was amazing and my heart just about pounded out of my chest. I trembled as his lips left mine and hesitated sweetly about an inch away. He smiled and lay back down. I lay there waiting for my heart to slow down, the butterflies in my stomach going crazy. He rubbed soothing circles on my hand and I relaxed. I closed my eyes and I wished to the heavens that he would hold me. It had been five hundred years since somebody had held me. My body wanted it. I recognized the song from the night before. The tone had been of love. Of want and need, being untouched and untouchable for five hundred years had me wanting so much. As I processed this in my mind I felt him move closer and when I looked at him again he was staring at me. I rolled on my side so I was facing him and I couldn’t take it anymore. I climbed out from under the covers and snuggled into him. His eyes were wide and shocked and he was stiff for a moment, not prepared for me to make a move like this. Then he wrapped his arms around me and I felt myself melt into him. I fell asleep there, and when I woke up, Hattie was staring at us from the doorway. Richard was asleep as well and I almost laughed at the expression on Hattie’s face. I tried to slip out of his hold but when I started to move he woke up. He looked down at me and let me go, and when he saw Hattie his face was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. I turned my face away and tried not to let them hear my laughter. I went to my wardrobe and slipped into a simple navy dress. They stared at each other and I grabbed a brush and fixed my hair. Hattie snapped out of her shock when she saw me slip into my shoes. “Well then,” She said and went to make breakfast. Richard looked to me and did a double take. “You changed fast,” He commented. I shrugged and went up to him. I stretched onto my toes and kissed him. His eyes just about bugged out of his head. I smiled and went downstairs. Hattie obviously was trying not to gape at me and I appreciated it. He came down and brushed my arm as he passed me to grab some eggs. Hattie made a comment that I couldn’t hear and Richard blushed furiously. He said something back and she smacked him with the wooden spoon she held. I laughed to myself at their bickering. I stared out the window and felt my face turn peaceful and loving. In the back of my mind I heard somebody saying my name but I was still staring blankly out the window, imagining kissing him for a long time, snuggling in bed, him holding me… “Saphire!” Hattie yelled at me and I jumped. I looked at her alarmed. “What?” I asked her. “Do you want eggs?” She asked me completely exasperated. “Uh…yeah.” I said and tried to shake off my stupor. A plate was put in front of me with eggs and toast. I ate silently and Hattie and Richard did the same. When I was finished I washed my dishes and set out to work on washing clothes. After about an hour Hattie joined me. We didn’t speak, and the silence was charged with a buzz that had me slightly worried. At dinner that night as we ate, I looked up from my plate and saw her examining Richard and I. When I met her eyes her brows went up in a half question half suggestion. I blushed and looked back down to my food. When I got up to wash my dishes I tripped over the matt on the ground and almost dropped my plate, but Richard caught it. It was right in front of my hip and I blushed and tried to pick it up without dropping something else. I bit my lip and set everything down on the table and piled it up comfortably. I washed my dishes and went upstairs to get ready for bed. I sang quietly to myself while I brushed my long hair out. I sat on my bed humming joy and love. I spread my hair out around my head and lay on the bed with my legs hanging off, in nothing but my underwear. A knock on my door alerted me to somebody coming. I figured it was Hattie coming in, so I said to come in. Richard came in and his eyes got wide. He cleared his throat and I realized my mistake. I sat up and my hair pooled around my body. I let my hair fall around me and hide me slightly. He looked behind him for Hattie and closed the door. He came and sat next to me. I snuggled into his arm and pulled his arm around me. He stared at me with wide eyes. He was warm and he smelled good. He got up and paced. I crawled up and lay my head on the pillow. He sat next to my feet. “When did you become so…forthcoming?” He asked me. When I realized I was in love again. I answered him in my mind but I couldn’t make myself say it out loud. My brow furrowed and I looked at him. I scooted over and patted the bed next to me. “Answer me first,” He said. “I don’t know,” I said. He frowned at me but came to lie next to me. When he lay down next to me, I snuggled into him. “Really, you weren’t this forward before,” He said lifting my head so I had to look at him. “I love you,” I said and his eyes got wide. He opened his mouth to say something and then he closed it, repeating this a few times before he kissed me. The kiss started out gentle but I didn’t let it stay that way and he obviously had no idea what to do. He broke away from me and stared at me. He held me close and he didn’t do anything else for a while. After a while he bent his mouth to my ear and whispered “I love you.” I kissed him hard and fast and when he tried to pull away I pulled him to me more securely. He kissed me slowly though my mouth moved fast and furious against his. His hands explored my body as I kissed him with a passion barely short of violence. After a while he held me again and I slept. I woke up in his arms and I felt like I was flying. His soft snore in my ear was a strong reassurance that everything was fine. I stretched my neck and my toes and snuggled deeper into him. I heard the birdsong outside and whispered into his ear, “It’s time to wake up.” His snore stopped abruptly and his eyes flashed open. He looked oddly disoriented and then he realized I was in his arms. He slid his arm out from under my head and sat up. He looked confused and unsure of what to do next. “You do realize that…this means something to everybody in the village right?” He asked me. I’d been through all of this before. I shrugged and stretched, my body rested well enough to work another day. I got up and turned my back to him, pulling my top off to expose my bare back. I pulled on a new undergarment top and threw my head back so my hair would cover my butt. I slid off my underwear and put on some new ones without him seeing my completely naked. Once I had that on I put on a dainty yellow dress and grabbed a brush. I sat on the bed next to his feet and he just stared at me. “How are you so calm about all of this? It’s like you’ve done it all before,” He said accusingly. “I have. He cheated on me after we married and I ran away from him. He died a while back and I buried the ring with him.” I said sadly. There was silence. “You’ve already been married? But you’re only twenty one!” He said shocked. “I married at twenty when my father caught me sneaking back from seeing him. We had been married for about a month when I caught him cheating, and my birthday was the next day. As I ran, he didn’t even bother to stop me. I never went back to him and I think my father killed him when I didn’t come back. I went back a week ago and buried my ring. I am a free woman.” I said and looked him in the eye. “He really hurt you,” Richard said. I nodded sadly. He took me in his arms and I sobbed. Hattie came in a little while later and stared at us. “Are you going to tell me why you’re crying?” She asked me. Richard patted the bed next to him. I snuggled into them and started the tale from when I’d met him. “One day, when my hair was short and blond,” I said and they stared at me. “Pain and ink have dyed it black,” I said and they took this as acceptable. “My hair used to curl and bounce when I walked. All the boys would stare at me in town. It was fun to swagger around the town and watch their eyes bug out if I gave them a second look. At my sixteenth birthday, when I was eligible to marry, the first proposal came along. An older man of higher stature had proposed to me at the party. I had refused him. When everybody had stared, I told them I wouldn’t marry somebody I did not know. Every young man in town was suddenly my best friend. I laughed in their faces, became cruel and hard to deal with. Some of them stopped and started avoiding me. Others like the challenge. One day I was being particularly flirty and cruel in town, but one man, he was tall and strong looking, didn’t even give me a second glance. This intrigued me so I approached him. I began to speak to him and he made me laugh. I took to him quickly but when my mother saw me with him, she forbade me to speak with him. The challenge of wills excited me. I went against her wishes and snuck out at night to see him. I quickly fell in love, but we had to keep ourselves secret. I met with him once a week for three years, falling deeply in love with him. He asked me to give myself to him, but I told him that he should propose. It always started a fight that left me pouting and angry and him exasperated. One night, my father followed me and watched me kiss him and tell him I loved him. My father burst in and demanded to know what was going on. He held me against him with a knife at my throat and had the young man tell him everything to keep me alive. It made no sense to me if he killed his daughter who had the potential to bring him great riches but he wasn’t sane that night. He made the young man get down on his knees and propose to me right then and there. He made me except. We married a year later and after a month, I found out why he hadn’t wanted to propose. He had another lover and she was just as beautiful as I. He had a deeper connection with her, or her body, than he had with me. I ran out sobbing when I caught them together and I went to the forest and stayed for what felt like a long time. I didn’t go back.” I told them. “What of your family?” Hattie asked. “My mother died when I was eighteen and my father died a little while after my //husband// did. Probably put to death for murder.” I said, snarling at the word husband. Richard held me tight to him. I looked up into his eyes and only saw understanding there. “Well, it’s early, and either way, I’m still tired so I’m going back to bed.” Hattie said and I smiled softly. I knew she wanted to give us time alone instead of dragging us down for breakfast. She left the room and Richard lay down with me on top of him. I stood up and pulled off the dress and climbed back on top of him. His hard body was a comfort after reliving the horrors of five hundred years ago. He held me securely against him and I rolled over so that I was lying next to him. He rolled over to face me and we were so close that our chests touched. I smiled and thought of his reaction if I were to touch his chest, to pull his shirt over his head right now. I smiled to myself and started on the buttons on the front of his shirt. He sat there and stared at me completely shocked. Once his shirt was off I snuggled into him and his hard chest was warm and comforting. He held me to him tightly and I fell asleep quickly. I woke up to Hattie standing in the doorway muttering to herself in exasperation. I smiled and sat up, waking Richard up in the process. He looked at the high sun outside and swore. He shot out of bed and got dressed quickly and ran out of the house to get to work. I stared at the bed guiltily and Hattie was laughing so hard she was crying. “What?” I demanded of her. “He’s gonna hear it for getting up late. He never gets up late and they’ll all know something’s going on that he’s not telling them about.” She said and helped me into the pale yellow dress from before. We left the house without eating and started working with the rest of the women. They didn’t harass me anymore but I got a lot of looks today. We were working in close proximity with the men today and I heard every comment made to Richard. “What took you so long?” One man asked him. There was a general murmur of agreement and they all looked at him for an answer. “I overslept.” He said too quickly. I smiled to myself at his horrible abilities at lying. I had been worse, but after three years of getting up late and sneaking out and into my home, I’d become fast to appear tired and fast to make up a story that I could get a quick alibi with. They all looked at him and obviously could tell he was lying. “Saphire, what took you so long?” One man yelled at me. “What does it matter to you?” I yelled back in the voice I would have given my overly nosy servants if they caught me sneaking back in. There were a few excited mutters from both sides of the working people. “Honestly, are you going to report me? //Oh, task manager, Saphire showed up late to work, she should go without food for the day because I think that a bit of extra sleep here or there is a crime worth being punished!”// I said in a highly obnoxious voice and waddled around in circles imitating the head servant. I saw Richards face go red from trying not to laugh himself sick and Hattie couldn’t manage it. She fell over laughing so hard she looked like she was going to pee herself. The rest of the village broke into murmurs and giggles. They didn’t bother us again that day. When we got back from working in the village he stared at me. “You’re good,” he said reverently. I laughed. “Three years with some seriously close encounters with too nosy of servants.” I said and he laughed. We sat outside in the shade of a tree and I told him about one of my seriously close encounters. I’d come up with an alibi that was obviously not working so I made it look like I was sleepwalking and had to walk into wall after wall to get the servants to believe me. He was laughing so hard he looked like he could barely breath and I was laughing just as hard. I noticed a few of the men from the village watching us. I bit my lip, unsure how to proceed. Richard looked at me worried and looked to see them standing behind him. “Yes?” He asked them looking overly defensive. One of the men raised his eye brows in a suggestive way. I plucked a rock off the ground and with the an ease that showed how many times I’d thrown rocks at my //husbands’// window, I hit him square in the forehead. I bolted into the house when he came after me and I locked myself in the bathroom and he swore at me from behind the door. I heard a scuffle and came out to see him fighting Richard. He hit Richard in the stomach and when he doubled up gasping for breath and the man was about to hit him in a way that I knew to be paralyzing, breaking his spine, I threw myself on the man’s arm and with a strength I didn’t realize that I possessed, I flipped him onto his back with my knee in the small of his back and his arm twisted behind his back, jerking it up to strain the joint in his shoulder. He yelled and swore but he was trapped. He rolled over, my light body unable to restrain him and I was on my feet in a second and when he ran at me I threw my knee up into him in the most painful place you could hit a man. I ripped the rope I always had tied around my waist off and tied his feet together securely and when he tried to punch me I tied his hands. He was stuck. I dug my foot into his stomach and he grunted. I was gasping for air, but he hadn’t touched me. I laughed at the vividness of the repeated procedure that I’d done about five times now. My father had taught me how to do this because he knew I was beautiful and he saw the possibility of rape in every man’s eyes that looked at me. I looked up and they all stared at me in shock. I shrugged and said to the man, “You know, my dad taught me pretty well, don’t you think?” He stared at me shocked. “Why?” He asked me. “He was smart enough to teach me how to completely immobilize a man because he saw the risk of rape.” I said and walked away. I pulled off my yellow dress in my room and put on my angel’s dress. I slipped on the slippers and brushed my hair out and braided it in a few places. There was a vase of flowers on the far side of the room on a table so I took a few of the and weaved them into a crown. I put it in my hair and admired my handiwork in the mirror. I smiled and went downstairs. They were trying to figure out my knots. They looked up at me and they saw the angel in me over the human girl. None of them breathed for a moment and I went over to the man. I pulled one thread and the knot fell apart and I tied the rope around my leg. I stood and they were all staring at me. I walked out of the house and ran. I felt my slippers barely brushing the ground and when I got to the forest they didn’t bother to touch the ground anymore. I got to my beach and I sang again. I danced with the joy of having him know me. He knew who I was now. I twirled and jumped, dancing with an imaginary partner in a dance that my mother had taught me. I looked at myself and saw the luminescent skin and dress flowing around me in a graceful balance that was shocking. I sang till the moon was high in the sky. I ran home after that and climbed into my room from the window. I took off my dress and changed my undergarments in silence. I untied the rope from my leg and felt my body moving in the dance again. I looked at my luminescent skin in the moonbeam and sighed. I put on new undergarments. I let my body dance in the moonbeam when I wasn’t completely naked anymore, my hair flowing around me like a dress. My feet didn’t even touch the ground and I let myself flow with memories of another lifetime. I remembered when I was thirteen, having zits and blackheads all over my face, my mom had decided that I needed to learn to walk with a straight spine and to dance with grace instead of clumsy feet. I smiled at the memory. The dance instructor that she’d hired had thought me hopeless because I couldn’t stop giggling at the names of the moves I was supposed to be doing. Then a servant suggested that she just tell me what the moves were without telling me what the moves were called till I knew how to perform them. This worked well enough, but it wasn’t till I was fifteen that I could dance and walk with grace. By this time, my acne had cleared up and my hair was no longer greasy and I was out of the awkward stage of adolescence. I was woman enough to make it all look graceful. I smiled at the memory of my last dance lesson. The instructor hadn’t seen me in three months and she had told me to practice till I had perfected each of the dances. During those three months I had become a woman, filled out completely and grown out of my awkwardness. When she saw me, she gasped. I was a woman. When she watched me dance, she cried. I was the picture of grace and balance. I saw that now as I danced in the moonlight and I laughed, not loudly, but loud enough so that it filled the room. I jumped and twirled and moved with grace. I closed my eyes and let my body move in the dance with nothing but my memories guiding me. After a while I opened my eyes and saw Richard watching me. I stumbled to a stop and stared back at him. He smiled and came in, taking my hand and leading me into a dance that I didn’t remember well. We danced in the silence, me barely keeping up and him just leading me. I was lost in his eyes and I stumbled. He caught me and picked me up, carrying me over to the bed. I smiled as he sat me down. He sat next to me and I snuggled into his side and I looked into his eyes. There was so much love there that I gasped. I kissed him furiously, and he didn’t pull away. I knew he was as in love with me as I was with him. I thought back and remembered my husband and realized that he’d been in love with me body. Richard wasn’t. He loved me for me; not for my body but for the way I acted. He knew who I was and he didn’t care. I slipped his shirt off again and he didn’t mind. We woke up late again and we rushed to get ready. Once I was dressed he was too and then we realized that Hattie had totally gone on with her day without us. We rushed out and got to work and a lot of taunting greeted us. I felt strangely naked and I couldn’t figure out why. The men from last night were particularly hard to deal with. “So, Saphire, what did you do last night?” One man asked me. “Tied up your friend like a cow,” I answered. “That why!” I nearly screamed and ran. I found my rope and tied it around my waist. When I came back they were all staring at me. “I forgot my rope,” I said and none of them understood besides Richard. He tried to hide his smile but he just couldn’t manage. They didn’t hesitate to point it out either. They taunted him about not being able to keep a straight face around me. They were all ganging up on him and eventually I couldn’t take it anymore. I went over to them and yelled at the top of my lungs, “HEY!” It echoed off the trees and they were all dead silent. “I swear, I lived in a place where gossip reigned supreme and never was it worse than it is here. You act like old women sitting together knitting, pinching the cheeks of anybody who shows any kind of attention to anybody else. You need to stop.” I said. They stared at me in shock and then one guy got really close to me. Like way too close for public. If there was one thing I’d learned when having to deal with stubborn servants, it’s that you can’t back down from a challenge. When I didn’t take a step back he stared at me in shock. He put his hands on my waist and started to walk me back over to the women but I took a step so close to him that our chests touched. He froze. “Don’t ever try to control me.” I said to him. He picked me up and I hit him in the face with my knee. He fell to the ground with a bloody nose and I ran like darkness itself was chasing me. I ran into the forest and I laughed as I tripped and fell on the ground. I laughed for a minute till I saw something that chilled me to the bone. Darkness in its’ purest form was slithering toward me. I got up and it grabbed my ankle. I couldn’t summon the light so I used every ounce of my strength to pull away from it. There was a thin welt of blood pouring down my foot. I ran without touching the ground and when the men saw me running for my life they got out of my way. I ran and jumped and climbed into my room from the window and clutched my dress to me. My angels dress was a pure light and it brought me light. Then I saw the blood. I grabbed a rag from the bathroom and wrapped up my ankle. I lay in my bed shaking, fear wrapping around me so thoroughly that tears started to course down my face. I heard footsteps come up the stairs and when Richard came in to see me shaking on the bed. He held me and waited for the shaking to stop. “What happened?” He asked me. “Something wrapped around my ankle and left a deep cut and it was bleeding really bad. It scared me,” I said. He lifted my dress and looked at my wrapping. “Is it still bleeding?” He asked me. I nodded. “Okay, I’ll look at it when it stops bleeding.” He said to me. He held me for a long time and I sobbed into him. He held me tight and when I stopped crying he wiped my eyes. He took me downstairs and made me some food. I ate in silence and stared at him the whole time. When I finished I cleaned my dishes, limping badly. When I sat back down he told me to put my foot in his lap. I did and he slid my dress up my leg. At that moment a few men and a few women came in the door and looked at us. It was obvious that they thought we were doing something inappropriate. The women averted their eyes and the men wrinkled their faces. Richard hadn’t even looked up. “Stop!” One of the men said. “Okay, I’m taking off the bandaging,” He said to me. He took off the wrapping and I screamed. Darkness slithered in and invaded the cut. He dropped my foot like it was a bomb and stared at me. “Light come to me!” I yelled and from my heart a light surrounded me so thoroughly that the darkness withered and died. I was gasping for breath and I wrapped my leg up. It had made the cut bigger. All this happened in about five seconds so nobody besides me knew what had happened. All they saw was that I had a bit of a glow about me now. They hadn’t heard me call the light to me. I limped up the stairs and put on my dress and my slippers. I lay on my bed and Richard came in. “What just happened?” He demanded of me. “Close the door.” I said, not looking up. He shut the door and sat on the bed next to me. I pulled him down with me. He tried to pull out of my hands but I wouldn’t let him. He scowled at me. “Listen to me carefully. If you tell anybody what I’m about to tell you, I can’t come back here.” I told him. I instantly had his attention. “I want your word that you won’t repeat what I’m about to say.” I said. “You have my word.” He said. I saw that he meant it. “I’m an angel, I used to live in the darkness, and when I embraced the light, the darkness wasn’t very happy. It’s been attacking me, that’s what attacked me in the woods, and that’s what just attacked me. I can call light to me to protect me when I’m strong enough to call it, but otherwise I can’t fight it.” I said. “Prove it,” he said skeptically. I let my wings burst from my back and he gaped at me. I brought them back into my body. “I won’t ever come back if you tell anybody.” I told him. “They’d think I was crazy anyways. I’d rather not be taken to a facility.” He said and I laughed. He held me tight. “That’s why it shook you up so bad. I’d thought you were seriously overreacting but now I guess you weren’t.” He said and held me tight. “I’m in love with an angel. Doesn’t that figure,” He whispered in my ear. I smiled and kissed him. He sat up and pulled me into his lap and he kissed me for a long time. The door opened but neither of us cared if Hattie saw us. “Hey, come see this,” A man’s voice called down the steps. We broke away and I whispered into Richards’ ear, “Go hide in the bathroom and I’ll dance around.” He grinned and was quick about hiding. I started dancing around the room. They all came up and watched me dancing for a while with a lot of snickers behind my back. Eventually they got bored and left. When they were gone I went and knocked on the door to the bathroom. Richard opened the door and picked me up. “You’re an amazing dancer,” He said and kissed me. I laughed against his lips and he smiled too. “My mom had so much trouble teaching me how to dance.” I said to him. I heard a lot of laughter from the village. “You are absolutely brilliant,” He said. “I’ve had to do some crazy things to not get caught doing other things that I shouldn’t have been doing.” I said and he laughed. “I suppose.” He said and he took my hand and danced with me. My dress twirled around me with billows of white fabric. My hair twirled with my dress and we danced for a while. Hattie came in and watched us dance together for while. “You are so crafty,” She said to me. “I try,” I said with a grin. He twirled me around and I laughed at the freedom of dancing with him. She left shaking her head and smiling. He pulled me close and kissed me. He held me for a long time. At dinner Hattie just shook her head at us as we danced around each other. After dinner we crawled into bed together and he pulled me close and we slept. The next morning we finally made it out in time to not catch any attention. A bunch of the guys were mimicking me dancing without a partner. “Would you like to dance?” I asked them and took one of their hands. He flinched away and hurried back to working. “I’ll bet Richard will dance with you!” Hattie yelled over her shoulder. A bunch of the men pushed Richard over to me and I took his hand. We danced around as they worked and they all stopped and stared at us. I laughed at their dumbstruck expressions. I was in the rose dress and my hair was tied up. When my hand was free as part of the dance, I pulled the tie out of my hair and it flowed around me billowing out with my dress. I danced perfectly and we made a good pair. After a while we went back to working and nobody bothered us. When we went to eat there was a lot of whispering. As we made ourselves a meal, we danced around each other the entire time. I snuck a kiss in and that exact moment somebody burst in the door and we jumped apart guiltily. She didn’t see us but the guilty expression on Richards’ face gave us away. “Did I interrupt something?” She asked with a grin. “Not at all,” I said and sat down to eat. Richard was trying too hard to look nonchalant. Once I finished eating I washed my dishes and went upstairs to decide if I would wear my slippers or not. I sat on my bed and looked at my ankle, trying to decide if it was going to start bleeding again or not. Richard came in and sat with me. “Do you think this cut will open again?” I asked him, showing him the cut. He took my ankle in his hand and touched the dried blood. He got up and got a wash cloth and wet it and cleaned off the dried blood. The woman came up and watched us. “Does it feel like the cut wants to reopen?” He said pointing my foot. “No,” I said and he stretched my foot in another direction. “No,” I said and he stretched it the other way. “Okay, maybe,” I said and stretched my toes. The cut reopened and he wrapped me up again. I sighed and examined the rest of my legs. The cuts from before were almost gone and they didn’t look like they were going to be scars. “Do you think that will scar?” I asked him. “No, and those ones are almost gone too,” He said. I lay back and just breathe with my foot in his lap. “You didn’t even clean the blood off of your shoe?” He said and grabbed my shoe and took it in the bathroom and saw the woman. “What are you doing in here?” He asked her sounding annoyed. “Nothing,” She said. He rolled his eyes and went to wash my shoe. I examined the cuts on my legs and the designs they made. “Are you two together?” The woman asked me. “I’m sorry, I don’t partake in gossip.” I said and closed my eyes. “So you are.” She said. “I don’t remember anybody inviting you in.” I said to her. “You really are,” She said. I took my other shoe and threw it at her. She squealed and ran out of the house. I smiled and lay back down. Richard came in and saw the shoe and shook his head. “That was as good as gushing about being together.” He said. “You try doing any better.” I said and stretched. “And you have no issue with this?” He asked me. “Again, I say, I have been through all of this before, just with a super old fashioned and slightly insane father.” I said and laughed. He sighed and helped me up. “Time to do some damage control.” He said. “It’s gossip, you can’t do damage control on gossip.” I said and he sighed. “Or we couldn’t give them something to gossip about,” I purred at him. A wicked grin spread across his face and the butterflies in my stomach got so strong that I just about went crazy. He lay down with me and kissed me till I was gasping for breath. “You two are horrible.” Hattie said from the doorway. I blushed and sat up. He pulled me back down and kissed me until I couldn’t think straight. I was gasping for breath and my head was spinning out of control. “Richard, should I go get your friends?” She asked him. He sighed and sat up. I started washing my dress, my beautiful white dress had gotten to be pretty dirty. Once it was clean I put it on and felt amazing in the pure light of it. I put on my slippers too. I came out and a lot of whispering greeted me. I sighed and started back on my work. When the whispering got to be more than I could handle I went over to Richard. He was just talking to the guys trying to do damage control. “I take it back. It was better with the insane father.” I said and he laughed. “Even if he did hold me at knife point.” I said and he looked at me worried. I rolled my eyes. The guys were staring at me. I stood trying to think of something else to say for a moment and then somebody pushed me into Richard. I turned around and glared at Hattie. She laughed and I sighed. I started to walk away and a hand caught mine. I turned around expecting Richard to be the owner of the hand but it was a completely different man and he bent and kissed me forcefully. I stiffened and when I had my mind back in order, I drew my fist back and punched him with everything in me. I heard the crack of his neck as my punch threw his head out of order. He resumed with his hands on me and I tried to hit him again and he pinned my body against the house we were next to. “Richard!” I called to him, definitely afraid. Richard pulled the man off of me and fought till his eye was black and he was bruised and the man was on the ground unconscious. I ran to his arms and he held me tight. I shook there, remembering a time when one of my servants had cornered me and tried to rape me. I’d gotten one scream out and my dad had come and beat the man till he was within an inch of death. Richard took me back to the house and sat with me on my bed as I sobbed and blubbered about the servant. After a while I cried myself to sleep. I woke up at dinner time and we ate in silence.  I went up and got ready for bed and Richard came in and held me as I slept. I woke to him getting up. He got in the shower and I examined my cuts, the damage the darkness had done to me. I got up and started to get dressed. I was in my angels dress and brushing my hair when he came in nothing but a towel. The look on his face was priceless. The pure embarrassment and oh my God-ness of it had me laughing till I was clutching my stomach. He rushed out and into his room to change. I washed my face and saw the frantic red blotches across my face. I examined them and realized that he’d been kissing me quite a lot in my sleep. I remembered my husband complaining that I talked a lot in my sleep, wondering what I’d said in my sleep. I burst into his room and he scrambled to cover himself. “What did I say?” I demanded of him. “Wh-What?” He asked me completely confused. “What did I say in my sleep?” I asked him. “You were asleep?” He said and he looked heartbroken. I stared at my feet and mumbled an explanation about my sleep talking. “I talk in my sleep. My husband used to ask me questions in my sleep to get honest answers, I can’t lie in my sleep. It’s impossible for me to be guarded while I’m asleep.” I said. I looked up and he had gotten fully dressed. “So you were being honest?” He said. I glared at him. “What did I say?” I demanded. “I asked you why you loved me and you said because I was strong enough to deal with you even though you’re still hurt, and because you’ve felt untouchable for so long. You said you loved me. That’s about it.” He said. “I said more,” I said. “No, that’s it.” He said. “I wouldn’t have random splotches of red across my face for that little tidbit of information.” I said. He walked past me and I glared at his back. “I’m not going to be able to go out like this,” I said and he gave me a look that suggested that he was questioning my sanity. I gave him a questioning look. He grabbed my hand and brought me to the bathroom and grabbed some powder from beneath a counter. He put it on his hand and patted it onto my face gently. I closed my eyes and resisted the urge to lean into his hand. I looked in the mirror when he told me to, and all the splotches looked like absolutely normal skin. My eyes got wide and I examined my face for a while. He laughed and picked me up. He spun me around a few times, pure joy in his expression. I saw how he was only twenty three. Normally he looked like he was maybe forty, he looked so severe, but his face was utterly defenseless and full of joy in that moment. It was beautiful. He put me down and regained his composure. He went downstairs and stopped when he saw about five of his friends there. A quick movement of his hand told me to give it a minute before I came down. I was mid-step when I stopped and I ended up falling down the stairs. My dress flew up around me and showed my back, which was bare out of having no under dress on which normally I even sleep in, but I hadn’t had a clean one. My bare back was scarred from my husband and my father. They had both had an issue with drinking and they had both beaten me. I was quick to forgive that; I was an extremely fast healer. I was on the ground at the foot of the steps trying to get myself straight up without tearing my dress or showing anymore than what was already showing. Richard rushed to my side. “Where are these from?” He demanded. “I told you he was insane. Either way he had an issue with overuse of spirits.” I said. He picked me up from my arms and my dress fell back into place. I stood and felt the new bruises forming. I grabbed some bread and told them I needed to get away for a while and ran. I ran with my wings on the verge of bursting from my back. I got to the beach and I tore my dress off as quickly as I could and dove into the waves. I dove deeper and deeper and realized that I didn’t really need to breathe very often. I surfaced and laughed. I saw the darkness of the deep coursing up at me in time with the waves. I swam back to shore and put my dress back on. The darkness was still slithering towards me. I sang out and it cringed away. I sat on my log and sang the day away. An hour before sunset I ran home. The people of the village were still working. I snuck into the house and started cooking. I wasn’t a master chef, but I made a decent meal. When Richard and Hattie came home with a few friends and my hair was still wet from the dip in the water I’d taken before I came back, they all stared at me. I smelled like the ocean. “What’s that smell?” Hattie said coming up to me. “Have you been in the ocean?” She asked me. I nodded and took the bread out of the oven. I almost touched it right away then I remembered that heat affected me now. I sighed and didn’t touch it. Richards’ friends were grinning at me. “What?” I challenged them. None of them answered me. I sighed and turned around to try and grab the pound of butter from the top shelf. I jumped and let my body defy gravity for half a second as I grabbed the butter. I smiled in victory and slathered butter on the bread. I accidently touched the hot medal and I yelped in pain. Tears came to my eyes. I hadn’t been burned in five hundred years and the unexpected pain shocked me. I plunged my hand into the cool dishwater and closed my eyes. Hattie picked up where I’d left off with cooking. She didn’t have much left to do. She served everything up and we all ate in silence. I smiled as I ate, proud of my newly acquired cooking skills. I washed my dishes and found a brush and went back down to the couch. I didn’t sit here often, there was lot of shade and the shade in its darkest was a nice place for darkness to develop. When my hair had finally untangled and I’d sat there for a little while just thinking about what had been before I’d embraced the darkness Richard came in. “Hey,” he said and sat next to me. I raised my brows at him. “Can I ask you something?” He asked me. “You just did ask me something.” I said with a slight grin. He took my hand and got down on his knee and he brought out a ring. “Will you marry me?” He asked me. I was completely speechless. I slipped the ring on and it felt better than my last one had. Then from calm and examining, I tackled him in a hug. He fell on his back and I kissed him. His friends were hooting at us and we laughed. He held me tight to him and held myself against him so securely I swear we could have been falling from the sky and we would have landed in that embrace. I was sobbing into him and smiling hugely. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He said and kissed me. I let him up and he helped me up. He looked his age again and I imagine I looked my body’s age. The joy was so solid on his face that I couldn’t stop looking at him; his blue eyes alive and free, his strong jaw chattering away, his mellow lips set in a smile as big as my own. We entertained his friends for a while and about an hour after sundown I made myself yawn. Richard yawned as well so they left with big grins on their faces, obviously not fooled. I grimaced when they were gone and he laughed. He took me upstairs and helped me out of my dress. When he saw my back again he sat me down and made me tell him everything. “Well, I wasn’t exactly the angel I am now when I was younger,” I started out. He laughed and there was a glint in his eyes that made my stomach flutter. “I played on many boy’s hopes and crushed the hope cruelly when they proposed. The constant rejection of marriage gave my father the notion that I intended to become a nun and this made him very angry. He drank often to keep himself from thinking of my mother who died when I was eighteen. During these times, when he was drunk, he would search me out and yell at me, or when he really wasn’t himself he would hit me. Often I was in my bedclothes and about once every two months he’d come in with a belt and whip me. That’s what left those scars, and it almost forced me to marry. When he left I’d summon one of the woman healers and she’d care for me, obviously feeling bad for me. Servants were never beat; never hit in our city. Dismissed maybe, and if they did something that made you want to raise a fist to them, you ruined their chances of ever getting another job in our city. If they did something that was punishable by death in our city, they might get beaten, but most likely they would be taken to court the same as any person. When I did marry, once my husband beat me because he’d thought //I// was cheating. I’d never been anything but faithful.” I said. I looked up into his face. He was studying me. I felt self conscious in that moment and I went to put on my under dress. He stopped me and led me back to the bed. I laid down on my stomach and closed my eyes. I felt him climb into the bed and then I felt hands on my back. He was massaging the knots out of my back. I moaned and lay there feeling like I was in heaven. He chuckled deep in his throat and rubbed my back. About a half an hour later all the knots were out of my back and he lay next to me. I snuggled close to him and he held me as I fell asleep. In the middle of the night somebody came into our room. I almost woke Richard but it was Hattie with a bunch of the other women. I remained limp and they tied a sash around my arm and they tied it around Richards’ arm as well. I sat up as they were doing Richards arm and I shook his shoulder to wake him up. They tied quickly and when he woke up he jerked me off the bed going after them. I told my wings to carry me without being seen. My feet were just above the ground and Richard was pulling me with him when he went after them. They got away by locking themselves in Hattie’s room. “I’ll remember this Hattie!” Richard yelled at her and turned around to see me there. “How did you keep up with me?” He asked me. I pointed at my feet with were an inch above the ground. “Well, that works.” He said and dragged me back to the room. He looked at the sash and tried to untie it but just tightened it. I led him to the bathroom and looked at the knot in the mirror. It looked exceptionally complicated. I laughed and bent his arm with mine and started untying his knot. He just stared at me shocked. Once I figured his knot out about a half an hour later I showed him how to untie the knot. He untied me and watched as I snuck into Hattie’s room with five sashes and tied each woman together. He was rocking with silent laughter as I tied the last two women together so that it was a circle. We talked for a while about them waking up. I led him to the beach and I sang for him and we danced. I taught him a dance that was fairly simple and we danced it till an hour before sunrise. We went back to the house and we sat on my bed. We heard a scream in unison and exploded with laughter. We heard a lot of bickering and confusion. They all eventually made it to our room and I had to rush to the bathroom before I peed myself. I came back out and they were still trying to maneuver getting in the door to strangle Richard. He was laughing so hard that he rocked on the floor with it. “I’m a master knot tier and untie-er.” I said and they all tried to come after me. I was crying from laughing so hard after a moment. They managed to get in the door and Richard and I jumped out the window. There was big groan as we ran to a tree together and we climbed up it and held each other as we laughed. They managed to get out of the house and it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. When the rest of the village saw they laughed so hard that they all were crying. A few of the girls started crying from embarrassment and I snuck up behind them. I untied one knot so fast that they didn’t realize it till I was done. Then they all chased after me and I quickly climbed up the tree and they gave up on that and untied themselves. Then they were really after us. We’d already started running when they were untying themselves and we were already to the forest by then. We got to the beach and I took my clothes off and hid them. He stared at me in shock. I dove into the water and he took his off as well. He hid them with mine and dove into the water a few seconds before they burst through the trees. We hid behind some rocks and when they gave up I climbed up onto the rock. I was naked and I was laughing so hard that I fell back into the water. He climbed up on the rock, still wearing his underwear. I snorted and climbed up on the rock with him. I snuggled up next to him and he put his arms around me. When they brushed my bare breasts he stared down at me and I recognized the look in his eyes. Lust; bright and strong was in his eyes. Then I felt it too. I wanted him and I couldn’t help myself I dove into the water and went up onto the beach. I summoned the light and let it shine off my skin and when he saw me he gasped. I smiled invitingly at him. He took my hand and brought me close to where our clothes were hidden and let the emotion take over. An hour later he led me back to the village. We laughed the whole way, bursting from the trees and into the village with smiles. The women glared at us and the guys congratulated Richard . I went up to them and lifted my brows. “How did you figure out how to tie those knots?” Hattie asked, obviously speaking for the group. “I made Richard bend his arm and let me try to untie it. My dad taught me how to do knots before my mother died.” I said and Hattie nodded. She understood what I was talking about. Then the oldest of the women that I’d tied up came up to me with a woman in a slightly too small and slightly tattered dress. The woman looked like she was older than my body. Maybe twenty five. “Well, to settle this dispute I’m going to give you one of my servants. She is hardworking and strong enough to do most men’s work.” The older woman said. I felt the shock on my face but I nodded. The woman in the too small dress came to stand next to me. “What is your name?” I asked her. Everybody stared at me. “She doesn’t have a name, she is a servant.” The older woman said. “You may not know it but I’m uncomfortable calling a servant just servant. I’d prefer to know her name.” I said and turned to the servant. “What is your name?” I asked her a little bit more forcefully. “My name is Ginger.” She said. Her ginger hair showed where the name came from. “Well, Ginger, let’s go back to the house then.” I said and she followed me with Richard standing and staring at my back. When we got to the house she went to the broom closet and grabbed a mop and started with the floors. I frowned and grabbed a dish rag and started on the dishes. I frowned down at my clothes and went upstairs and grabbed an old dress that didn’t look like it had been washed thoroughly in a while. I shrugged and put it on. I came downstairs and started up on the dishes again. Ginger just stared at me. I smiled at her and she looked even more shocked. I finished with the dishes and started dusting the house. She looked lost. I gave her the duster when I realized that there were darker areas that would be unsafe for me. I gathered up a bunch of the rugs and started beating them outside. “Servant! Come here!” A man yelled at me. I ignored him, knowing my own identity. “Servant! I told you to come here!” The man yelled louder. When I kept banging the rug I had he came up to me and spun me around. He wide eyes showed his shock. “What are you doing? That is a servant’s job, and you have a servant now! And why are you dressed like that?” He asked me, looking like he was doubting my sanity. “I’m beating a rug. Just because I have a servant doesn’t mean I should get lazy and I didn’t feel like working with gossiping women who’d want every detail of my personal life. I’m dressed like this because I didn’t want to ruin a nice dress.” I said and he took a step back at the anger in my voice. I finished beating the rugs and I heard a scream. I rushed to Ginger and saw the darkness twisting up her back and it was touching her neck when I got to her. “Light, come to me!” I yelled and a light from deep in my soul laminated the room and freed her of the darkness. She fell to her knees. I picked her up and took her to the bathroom and bathed her. Once the filth was off of her and she smelled clean, I got bandages and wrapped her up like I would my own sister. She was still shaking and I could tell she was traumatized. I sang to her gently and my voice calmed her and I could see the trust develop deep in her eyes as she realized what had happened. I put her in my next worst dress and put on my angels dress. I brushed out her hair so it wouldn’t tangle and she looked like a whole different person. We started on washing clothes and she looked like she was so curious but unsure if she could ask me. “It was darkness.” I said to her and she looked up at me. “I can read the question in your eyes. What attacked you was darkness in its purest form.” I said to her. “How did you stop it?” She asked me. “I am extremely connected to light, and I summoned it to save you.” I said to her. “Thank you; you’re very kind.” She said. “Why are you doing all of this?” She asked me. “Where I come from, servants have just about as many rights as nobility. I was raised to treat servants well unless they attacked or betrayed me first. I’ve seen what happens to rich men who grow entirely lazy. They lose their riches and their waistline.” I said and she laughed. “My first owner became fat and lazy and when the house caught on fire when we all got out, he’d been right behind us and he fell and couldn’t get up because he was so fat. It was horrible, and his daughter lost all her riches so she sold all of us to get some money.” Ginger said. I sighed. I’d heard of men like that. Richard came in to see us working together, talking easily and he just stared. I smiled up at him and was hyperaware of the dirt smudged on my face. “You’re an angel to everybody aren’t you?” He said and smiled. My grin became more pronounced. I wiped my face and went up to him. He held me, though I was wet and dirty. He kissed me gently, and I questioned which of us was the angel. He held me to him firmly and looked at the girl who watched us. She looked down and I saw how lonely she was. I looked at her sadly. Then I had an idea. “Do you have a family?” I asked Ginger sitting next to her again and washing clothes. She looked up at me confused. “I do,” She said guardedly. “Will you tell me about them?” I asked her, giving her the choice. She looked at me shocked. “You’re giving me the choice?” She asked me. “Everything you do is your choice. There is always a reaction of some sort, positive or negative.” I said and she looked at me shocked. Richard nodded and went to start dinner. “Well, I have a husband who I haven’t seen in a month, I’ve been working hard during the day shift and he has the night shift.” She said. I nodded. “Don’t you all dine at one place, near the stream?” I asked her. I’d heard from Hattie that the servants for the day shift all ate at the same times and for the night shift they ate their meals at the same times according to when they were awake. She nodded confused. “Do you want to go down?” I asked her. Her eyes got wide and she stared at me. “You would let me go?” She asked me. “Do you want me come with?” I asked her. “It would cause the most raucous that this village has seen in a while.” She said and laughed. “Richard, I’m going down to see the servants and take a swim.” I said. He poked his head out at me and saw the glint in my eyes. He sighed and said, “Do I actually have a choice?” He asked me. “Well, you could try to stop me, but you’d have a hell of time trying to restrain me to anywhere,” I said and he laughed. “I don’t think it’s possible.” He said. “Should I dress high or low?” I asked her. “I’d say low so that people don’t recognize you.” She said and finished the dress she was cleaning and stood up. “You should wash up your face and hands so you just look like you dressed down and haven’t been working all day.” She said and I grinned. I went upstairs and took a cloth and cleaned myself up. I brushed out my hair and when Ginger came in her hair was torn in places and uneven. I looked at my hair and it was perfectly cut. I sat her down and cut her hair. She didn’t like it at first but when the split ends were out of her hair she looked young and beautiful. She gasped and hugged me. I put on my slippers and let her lead me to the servants’ meal area. I’d tied up my hair into a pony tail. She searched quickly and she spotted a man and a child and ran. She tackled him to the ground and a joyous reunion was watched by all the servants. Happy tears rolled down her cheeks. I came over and sat next to her, she had her child in her lap and her husband on her other side. “This is the woman that I was given to.” Ginger said. He stared at me in shock. “You do realize that you’ll be shunned for coming here, right?” He asked me. “I’ve been alone for a long time. I have a fiancé and I have a family through him. That’s all I need.” I said and I had the whole tables’ attention. “You wouldn’t think that if you were a servant.” The man said. “In this place no. The people here treat you badly. Where I come from, that’s all I would need.” I said and he stared at me. A strong man came up to me and grabbed me inappropriately. I had half the population of the servants in the villages’ attention. I could feel the scandalized look on my face. I felt the darkness that had enveloped me for five hundred years boil deep within me, the anger of it simmering in my eyes. “Get your hands off of me,” I said and I heard the steel venom that seeped from my voice like a dull knife in the side. The voice of an angel twisted in so much anger that it hurt to hear. His hands were automatically off of me. He’d reeled back, his eyes afraid. My hiss had been so low and quiet that only my table had heard. They looked afraid. I closed my eyes and called on the light within me to quiet my anger. I exhaled and felt my anger go with it. I felt the darkness that would forever be a part of me silence itself as a light strong and pure lit within me again. I opened my eyes and saw there was a faint glow to my skin. I smiled weakly and told the light to become less obvious. The man went and sat back down and they all stared at me. “I’ve had very…bad things happen to me and normally that’s how they start out.” I said and Ginger’s eyes got wide. There was a general agreement to leave the subject alone, though it was unspoken. Ginger let me hold her daughter, who had a strange growth on her neck. I recognized it a moment later as darkness. “You still haven’t gotten that thing off of her?” Ginger said to her husband. “It won’t come off with anything.” He said. I called the light to me and focused it in my hand and the darkness melted off with my touch. They were arguing about him not trying hard enough when I passed her daughter back to her. “All better,” I said and they stared, shocked beyond words. I got up and said over my shoulder, “Ginger, come back when you’re ready. Be ready by morning at least though,” I said. I saw her blush and her husband pulled her especially close. Her daughter followed me away from her parents. They didn’t really notice so I brought her back over. “Am I babysitting?” I asked Ginger with a grin. Her daughter climbed up on the bench and launched herself at me. Ginger was about to stop her daughter from jumping but she jumped before she could. As I caught her daughter her eyes got wide and she yelled “Angel!” I smiled down at her and she settled into my arms easily. “I’ll watch her for the night if that’s okay with you,” I said to Ginger. “It’s fine by me,” She said and looked to her husband. “Why are you so kind to us?” He asked me. “Where I grew up, we respected our servants and we didn’t alienate them the way they do here. We saw them as people, not objects.” I said. His eyes got wide. “I wish I’d grown up there.” He said. I shrugged and carried Ginger’s child home with me. When I got home I washed her and brushed her hair and she looked like any other three year old child. I came downstairs with the child on my hip and my dress of light on, the child staring at me in wonder. I ate and fed the child as well. The child told me her name was Hope, and told me everything about her. Richard came down and stared. “How do you leave with a woman and come back with a child?” he asked me. “I traded in till morning; she hasn’t seen her husband in a month.” I said. He nodded with a grin. “I wonder what they’re doing tonight,” He said sarcastically. I grinned at him and he came over and laughed with me at what Hope said. She was incomparably simple minded. She talked of things that were so innocent that I ended up crying at the simplicity of her life. At bedtime she curled up at our feet without any prompts and went to sleep quickly. I couldn’t sleep, I needed to move so I got Richard up and we danced. We danced in the silence happily, knowing how the other would move exactly. We danced for a while and when I got tired he led me back to the bed and we tried not to jostle Hope. I fell asleep in his arms and he held me securely to him through the night. When we woke up in the morning with Hope between us for warmth and we smiled down at her. I got up and showered and brushed my hair. I came into my room naked, my hair covering most of me. Ginger was standing in the doorway, staring at Richard as he brushed her daughters’ hair gently. Her husband stood next to her and I motioned for her to keep him from seeing me. She covered his eyes and I rushed to put on underwear and slipped into my dress. The angels dress looked even more beautiful with the kind smile that was warming my face. I picked up Hope and spun her around once. She laughed and squealed. I’d never felt this light before. Richard took Hope from me and handed me the brush. I sighed and brushed my hair out. Once my hair was straight and dry I came downstairs to see them all sitting at the table and eating. I saw darkness at the foot of the steps, in the doors shadow and I summoned the light to me. I was glowing with the light, and the darkness scattered when my feet…hovered above the ground. They all turned and stared. Ginger’s husband stared at me in shock. His eyes were so wide that I laughed. A beautiful tinkle of joy escaped my lips and Richard rose. He kissed me head on in front of all of them. I sat down to eat with them and they all still stared at me. “Thank you for what you’ve done for us,” Ginger’s husband said to me. I smiled warmly at him and I heard his breath catch. I looked down at my hand and realized I was actually starting to glow and shimmer. I calmed the light within me and ate as I normally would. “Ginger, will you get me some salt water?” Hattie said when she got up. “You’ll have to go buy it.” She said and started searching for money. “Why not just go down to the beach and get it?” I asked Hattie. “Because the beach is two miles away and I don’t trust sending a servant that far.” She said dismissively. “Then I’ll go get it.” I said and got up. There were a lot of wide eyed stares. “Yeah, because you can carry two gallons of water two miles.” Hattie said. I felt myself puff up like a cat smacked toad and I grabbed the buckets that she’d have Ginger take. Hattie rolled her eyes and Richard didn’t bother to stop me. Ginger and her husband looked at me worriedly. “Here, I’ll carry them,” Ginger said. “No, I’m proving a point.” I said and she just stared at me. I got the rod to carry them on my shoulders with and walked out of the house. I jogged to the forest edge and ran with my feet not even coming close to touching the ground and when I got to the beach I laughed with pure joy. I sang out and danced for a while, remembering my old life with a sad happiness. I took off my dress and dove into the water, my pale skin luminescent. I surfaced and my dark hair clung to my body in a caress. I slipped my clothes back on and filled my buckets. The weight bothered me at first but then the lightness in which I ran took over. I grinned and jogged back to the forest’s edge and ran home on the air. I dropped the water at the doorway and climbed the stairs. I flung myself on my bed feeling uncharacteristically tired. Richard came in and started rubbing my back. He slipped my dress over my head and I lay there in my undergarments as he examined my cuts. Ginger walked in and stopped at the sight of us together. She blushed and stared at the ground. I sighed and Richard stretched my leg back. I gasped in pain and a weak whimper escaped my lips. They were both immediately staring at me face. I rolled over and rubbed my sore cuts. The ones on my ankles started bleeding again. I sighed and cleaned them, bandaging them quickly. I examined the ones on my legs and decided that they didn’t need to be bandaged anymore. I grabbed a ribbon and tied up my hair in a bun with half of my hair hanging down still, it was so thick. I lied this section of my hair with another ribbon and I heard both of them gasp at the sight of my nearly bare back. Richard held me close and I pushed myself away from him. He stared at me shocked and I put my dress back on. I pushed past Ginger and ran, my legs pushing me farther and harder, my feet not bothering to even touch the stairs. I raced to the beach, pushing myself at unreal speeds. Once I got to the ocean I let my wings out and I flew back to my old home. I walked briskly through the city in my beautiful dress, people stopping and staring at me often. One man cornered me in an ally, and I ran around him. He chased me for mile and got tired. My feet were still gliding along the ground silently. I was running, but my feet weren’t touching the ground. I was shocked that he stopped chasing me so soon. He didn’t seem tired but then I saw the dangerous looking “No Trespassing” sign and understood. He was afraid of the owner of the place. Strong arms came down around me and I struggled violently. A knife was brought to my throat. I stopped struggling remembering that horrible night when my father had followed me. “That sign there says ‘No trespassing;’ can’t you read?” The man yelled at me pressing the knife harder into my throat. He had a thick accent, much like mine but more modern. Another man motioned the man holding me forward. They brought me inside the house and set me down. They put a rope around my neck and I tried not to show my indignity at being an angel with a rope around my neck like I belonged with the cattle. They sat me down on the floor and three women and another man came into the room. “What were you doing on my land?” The man who had just come in demanded of me. I’d hidden behind my hair once they’d started to bring me into the house and when I looked up and my face was visible their eyes got wide. I felt my red cheeks, embarrassment at being so potent and still tied up. My red lisps from being bitten as I tried to not scream in indignity. My fierce and dark eyes ready to object to anything they told me to do. I could feel my face, the picture of disobedience and beauty, uncontainable and uncontrollable. When my face was visible they all took a step back. They had my hands tied behind my back and I knew I looked like the image of a fallen angel. I looked into the man’s eyes and said, “I was running.” I felt darkness roiling around me, ready to aid me, ready for me to embrace it. I considered it, my anger at this foolish man blinding me. A little girl came running into the room, saw me and yelled “Angel!” and ran up to hug me. She hugged me and I wished with all my might that I could hug her back. The darkness fled from my easy love. Strong hands pulled her back and shuffled her out of the room. This quick act of unknowing innocence and kindness cleared my mind. I felt my eyes calm, no longer and deep and angry ocean, now a calm twilight. My face was still set in defiance and they all glared at me. “Running from what?” The man asked sarcastically. “A man,” I said and got up. The man with the knife was quickly coming at me. He brought the knife to my throat and I kneeled again and when he went back with the knife still drawn I flipped and let the knife break the binding around my hands and slipping out of the rope around my neck in the same motion. I could feel time slow and I stood there shocked that I had pulled that off. The man put the knife to my throat and pressed hard enough that blood was drawn. The darkness reeled around me, wanting a taste of drawn angel’s blood. The fear in my eyes satisfied him. He made me kneel again and when the darkness slithered up to me I got up and ran into the light of the open window. The darkness couldn’t reach me here without manifesting with more power. The people had scattered as I came towards them and they were all glaring at me now. The child came in again and again yelled “Angel!” and hugged me. I hugged her back. She motioned for me to pick her up so I did, not thinking of the other people in the room, only seeing the light and innocence in her. I was drawn to it, feeling that she had never been tainted by darkness before. I saw the darkness manifesting in the corner. “Turn on some lights.” I said to the servant who was hiding in the other corner. He stared at me in shock and then with an attitude. When he didn’t, I put the child down and told her to stay put and flipped a few lamps on. The darkness fled at the light and the people were staring at me in confusion. The little girl came up to me and I picked her back up. “Put her down. If you hurt her I’ll kill you myself.” The man said. “I’m not out to hurt anyone! I accidentally wandered onto your property. That you’re trying to hold me prisoner is not the poor child’s fault.” I said and put her down. She whined at me and I smiled. My smiled silenced her as she stared in amazement. I looked to my skin and saw that I was practically glowing with the light that the small child had coaxed out of me. I stilled my spirit and started walking out of the room. This used to be one of my richer possible husbands, one who refused to take no for an answer till I was married. My father had favored him so I was forced to visit often. I knew this house well by now and I even knew some secret ways out. I started down the hall to the nearest exit when the man with the knife was at my throat again. “What do you want from me?” I asked, pushing his hand away easily and facing them. They stared in shock at the easy strength in a girl. “And if you put that knife to my throat again, it’ll be at yours.” I said to the man with the knife, staring him straight in the eye. He stepped close to me and when I didn’t back up, he stepped close enough that our chests touched. When I still didn’t back down, though I was looking up at him and was obviously thinner and smaller than him and unarmed, he just stared. I turned and kept walking. This time to different but equally strong hands came down on my wrists. I raised my hands above my head and turned. A man my age had my hands now and he looked down at me with a grin. “You owe us payment for trespassing.” He said. “I owe you nothing, seeing as how I was chased into this and it was out of self preservation that I trespassed.” I said and jerked my hands from his. I headed towards the nearest exit. He grabbed my waist and I was forced to listen to him. “You may pay me by being my date to the ball tonight.” He said. “I owe you absolutely nothing.” I said and jerked away from him. His hands became iron fetters around my waist. “Then be my date to the ball tonight anyway.” He said. “I can’t. I have to get back home.” I said and turned and pushed off of him with all my strength. His hold broke and I started to rush. He grabbed me and he motioned for them to block the exit. They did. “You don’t have a choice anymore.” He said and pulled me into a kiss. I pushed away and restrained myself from hitting him so hard he wouldn’t be able to take anybody to the ball. I started running at a normal humans’ pace and when he easily caught up with me I stopped making my feet touch the ground and my speed picked up enough to leave him behind me. I burst into an empty room and searched for the loose stone. When he caught up to me he stared at me a moment till I found the loose stone and pressed it. The door opened up and I started through it when he grabbed me. “How did you know about that?” He asked me. “I know the architecture of most of the houses around here and their passageways.” I said struggling in his arms. “Come on, I won’t kiss you again if you just go to the ball with me.” He said. “When is this damned ball anyways?” I asked him struggling harder and harder. “In about two hours.” He said and I stopped struggling. I sighed and glared at him. “If you touch me like that again I swear I’ll kill you.” I said. “Is that a yes?” He asked me. “If you promise and follow through with your promise to let me go afterward.” I said. He whooped and let me go. I saw the darkness writhing around me and I ran to the door and found a sunny spot and sat there. “Why do keep running to weird places?” The boy asked. “The darkness is a frightening thing and I keep getting myself put into very dark spots.” I said and he just stared at me. “Well, can you dance?” He asked me. “I know maybe twenty dances and they’re not very up to date.” I said sighing. He gave me a questioning look and shrugged. He summoned an instructor and told her to teach me how to dance. She showed me new dances and they confused me. Eventually she led me through all of them and I’ve always been good at learning when I’m led right. I danced imperfectly the first and second times, but they could see I understood the dance. She led me through it a little faster, to the pace of actual music and I preformed perfectly. They stared at me shocked. She taught me the rest of the dances and I learned all of the new dances that I’d need to know in two hours. They stared at me shocked. “You’re definitely a fast learner.” He said. “May I know your name?” I asked him as he led me to my quarters, away from a sobbing teacher who was blubbering about how she wished every student she had was as gradifying to teach as I was. I smiled good naturedly at her praise. “My name is Isaiah.” He said. “May I know yours?” He asked me. “Saphire,” I said conversationally. He looked at me and nodded. “Only a sapphire can be as beautiful as you are in its’ mystery.” He said rather poetically. Richard had never quoted me poetry. It was cheap but not something that really gained my attention. I smiled good naturedly at his recitation of poetry. Many men had tried that on me and at first it had been so sweet and it had endeared me to them, but once other men knew I fancied poetry, I heard so much of it that it did nothing. It bored me. He led me to the room and the maids stared at me in awe. “How did he sucker you into this?” One woman asked me once he’d left. “I trespassed running from a man who intended to rape me.” I said. Her hands stilled for a moment and then she continued washing my hair. “You speak very openly,” another maid commented. “I don’t have much to hide; and I don’t want anybody thinking I fancy him.” I said. They laughed and continued with a happier pace. “Most of the women in the village fancy him, why don’t you?” One servant asked me. “I’m already in love,” I said and they immediately wanted details. I let the light in me show and I had a view of their minds. They just wanted gossip, something to talk about but they knew not to tell Isaiah. They knew he’d dismiss them at once if they told him and he paid well. I let my light subside and they were staring at me. The sunlight went behind a cloud and they let that be an answer to why I had gotten so brilliant for a moment. They brushed my hair and helped me back into my dress since they had nothing else that would look better on me. When they touched it I could see them shiver at the pure goodness and innocence that made it. I slipped into it and when they saw me back, my legs and ankles they stared. They’d been too focused on my hair to notice the cuts before. The one on my ankle was bleeding again and they wrapped it up demanding to know where they had come from. I told them the ones on my legs and ankles were from angering a force that wasn’t to be messed with. I told them the ones on my back were from my abusive father before he died. There was great respect for me in their eyes now, not just content at having gossip now. They respected me for what I’d gone through with my father. When I slipped back into my slippers and my hair trailed down my sides brushed and my eyes were calm again, after the pain of having my cuts touched, my posture and ease when I walked shocked them. They led me down to Isaiah and when him and his friends saw me, my splendor as I let enough light shine through to give me a faint glow they all gawked. I smiled at their faces, the shock on each of them. Isaiah went and took my hand and led me into the dining room and we all ate. They battered me with questions about where I came from and I tried to stay truthful. After the tenth question between a bite I put my food down and glared. “Is it really customary to interrogate a guest?” I asked them. They all went silent. I finished my meal and cleaned my dishes with all of them staring. When I was done cleaning my dishes I sat on a couch in another room. I crossed my legs and bowed my head and let the light from deep within me shine through. I let my hair cover my face and the light shined on my hands. “Carry my message to Richard: I’ll be home soon.” I told the light. I exhaled and felt the light carry my whisper. I relaxed and looked up. Something grabbed my ankle and I knew it was darkness and I let the light scatter it. My light had scattered it but it had drawn blood. I sighed and rewrapped my ankle. When the men came in with their dates to see me wrapping my ankle they stared. I gasped lightly when I accidentally pulled too tight. When the blood flow stopped I put my slipper back on and stood unsteadily. I let my wings slightly lift me so that not all of my weight was on my bad ankle. Isaiah came forward to steady me and his questioning look got my attention back from wistful thoughts of being with Richard. “It’s an old wound that reopens every once in a while.” I said. My voice shocked the men even more. He shrugged and led me to the carriage. We sat there and when we got to the ball he helped me out. My hair pooled around my waist thickly. I smiled as he led me into the ballroom. I’d missed being escorted to dances. People turned to stare at us, and gasped when they saw me. The band began and Isaiah led me into a lively dance that I didn’t enjoy much. It was more fun to dance with Richard. My light steps surprised him. Once the dance was done I went and sat by the edge of the dancing. He frowned at me but I didn’t mind his disapproval. I waited a couple of dances as he danced with other women who were shaky and stumbling because he gave them the time of day. When my favorite dance came up, an ancient one, most of the other people cleared the dance floor; Isaiah was looking for somebody who would dance with him. I tapped his shoulder and curtsied. He bowed and took my hand. I glided across the floor with the same grace that I had been able to perform for five hundred years. Now that I was an angel my grace was surreal. I glided and spun and jumped with such a grace that by the time the dance ended we were greeted with a great applause. I curtsied deep and returned to my seat. People stared at me. I braided random sections of my hair and eventually braided myself a crown. People stared when they saw me doing my hair. I smiled when I was done and knew it looked beautiful. Isaiah came up to me and offered me his hand and he led me to dance for the rest of the night. Around midnight I told him I was definitely late to go home. He shrugged and kept dancing. I pulled away from him. “Good bye,” I called to him over my shoulder. He didn’t try to stop me sensing I wasn’t afraid of making a scene. When I came outside the carriage pulled up. I waved it away and ran, a little faster than human speed at first. When I got to the forest that lined this village I picked my speed up till I was flying. I flew away, and flew for hours before I got to my beach. Richard was sitting on the banks crying. “Richard!” I called to him. He looked up and saw me flying to him. His eyes were shocked at first then they smoothed over and he caught me. He kissed me furiously. I picked him up and flew him to the edge of the forest and we walked into the village. We climbed into my room from the window to see Ginger and her husband having a moment of peace with their daughter. I climbed in the window thankful that I’d already brought my wings in. When we came in they stared at us. My hair was windblown and they stared at me in shock. I slipped my dress off and my slippers and climbed into bed. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. I woke up with Richard holding me tight and Hope next to me. I sat up and Richard woke with me. I smiled and he kissed me. I got dressed and went downstairs. “Why did you run yesterday?” Hattie asked me. “I needed a while to think.” I said. “Where did you go?” Richard asked me. “I went back to my old home.” I said. “Will you bring me today?” He asked me. I grinned at him. I sighed dramatically. “Well, I guess I could,” I said in a teasingly exasperated voice. He grinned at me. We finished breakfast and we went upstairs. I put my angels dress back on and he put on a dimple outfit that made him look even more beautiful. I led him to the forest and then told him to hold on to me tightly. He did and I flew us to my old home. He stared around shocked. I led him through the whole village, pointing out architecture and old gardens. He sat with me in one of the ancient gardens that was so overgrown it was horrible. I got down on my knees and started weeding it. About an hour later with my super speed, most of the garden was in good shape. I took the weeds and found my old house. It was sitting totally abandoned. The walls looked like they were going to fall down. I burned the weeds in front of it. I opened the door and saw what used to be my home. All the belongings were still there. I felt an odd chill. I scurried back out to see Richard and Isaiah talking. I gave them a total question mark look. Isaiah’s eyes got wide. “That’s why you didn’t stay then? You should have told me you were betrothed and I wouldn’t have made you through any of that!” Isaiah said. Richard was restraining laughter. I chill came over me and I scurried away from the chill and into Richards arms. He frowned at me and Isaiah laughed. “Yeah, legend has it, the place is haunted.” He said. Richard sat down on the grass and pulled me into his lap. Isaiah sat down. “Tell me,” he said. “Well, there was once a beautiful young girl who lived there. The most beautiful girl anybody had ever seen. Kind of like Saphire.” He said grinning at me. “Every man in the village wanted to marry her, but she wouldn’t marry anybody. Her father caught her sneaking out to see a man one night and he made them marry. The girl thought for sure that it was true love so she didn’t argue. She caught the man cheating on her one night and ran away. When her father found out why she ran away, he killed her husband. He was a rich and greedy man and when he got all of the money he was proud of his deed. When the law found out what her father had done, they sentenced him to death and his last words were ‘If anybody tried to take my house, unless it’s my daughter, I’ll kill them too!’” Isaiah said trying to frighten me obviously. My eyes were wide but for a different reason. Richard stiffened and stared down at me. “Five families have tried to move in, all of them a hundred years apart. The last one just died recently, most of them suicide and yelling of an angry father haunting them. The daughters of these families always run away, the mothers always die of fright, the ghost scaring them to death. The fathers always die because of the law. Nobody can even stay in that house for more than a night without going delirious.” He said. My hands were shaking and Richard told Isaiah to stop, looking concerned at my fear. He stood and took me to the garden and demanded to know how old I was. I looked into his eyes and then down at me feet. “I’m the daughter that ran away. I’m five hundred years old in spirit but my body was trapped in darkness for those five hundred years. My hair went from almost white blond to pitch black. My eyes were tainted black and when you found me, I embraced the light. Now you know everything I’ve ever hid from you.” I said and looked up into his eyes. They were wide with shock and frightened. Tears ran down my face and I walked away from him. He grabbed my hand. “Claim your house.” He said and smiled sadly at me. I kissed him with everything in me. He kissed me back and when neither of us could go on for need to breath, we separated. My knees were shaking and I sobbed into him. He caught me and took me to a bench. He held me till my tears stopped, his hands gentle. “You’re my angel, I’ll always love you.” He whispered into my ear. I relaxed into him and he held me tight. After my hiccups subsided I stood. He stood with me and I went back to my old house. I walked in the door and that awful cold was around me again. I kept hold of Richards hand as we went into my home. “Richard, I think I have to face this alone. I have a feeling my dad will kill you if he sees you.” I said. He nodded and went back outside. “You let her go in alone!” Isaiah yelled at him. “She’ll be fine. The worst that’ll happen is she’ll run away. Either way, she’s not staying a night she’s just looking.” I heard Richard say. I saw the darkness boiling in the corners. “Dad! I’m home!” I called into the house. A rush of ice wind attacked me, making me want to surrender to insanity. I called light to me. I was glowing and the darkness shied away. I let the angel inside of me out. I saw all the dead, all the people who’d died in this house. They all came and surrounded me as I walked into the living room. My mother came up to me. She took my face in her hands and kissed my cheeks. “I’m proud of you. You’ve become more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. You have light to make you graceful now.” She said. “What would have your spirit rest in peace?” I asked her. “Just seeing that you’re beautiful and alive is enough. I’m going to move on now, sweet. I’m sorry I wasn’t a better mother to you.” She said. She faded into nothingness. I felt a happy rush as she moved on. The next to approach me was my brother, who’d died a month or so after my mother. “What would make you rest in peace?” I asked him. “I just needed to tell you that I loved you. I knew you were sneaking out at night, and I knew who you were seeing. I told the servants to give you a hard time if they caught you out of bed late.” He said with a grin. “Rest in peace, brother.” I said to him and he faded away. The next to approach me was my grandfather. “What do you need to rest in peace?” I asked him. I asked him. “I need to know that you’ll be okay after this.” He said. “I have a fiancé that I love dearly, more so than the man who cheated on me. I know he loves me and only me. He knows all of who I am now and he’ll always take care of me. Even in death.” I said. One tear ran down my grandfather’s cheek and he grabbed my grandmothers hand and they faded away together. Then a family I didn’t know came up to me. “Who are you?” I asked them. “We were the last family to live here. We need you to make your father rest. That’s all we want.” The mother said. “Where is your daughter?” I asked her. “She ran away, but she’s still alive in the woods. Save her, please.” She said. “I will, I promise.” I said. A pang went through me and I knew I’d be haunted the rest of my life if I didn’t fulfill this promise. The other families came out of the air and they each asked me to save their daughters. I told them I would. My father approached me. “Why did you run away? You could have divorced him!” My father yelled at me. “I was hurting. I wanted nothing but to die. I thought that that man was my true love but I know now that I needed to wait. A few hundred years.” I said. He attacked me. He couldn’t even touch me. “Why can’t I touch you?” He screeched. “Because I’m an angel and I am solid good. You can’t injure me.” I said. “I ran away because as it was, even if I divorced him I’d have to go back to you!” I said harshly. “You were a drunk and you beat me often. I still have the scars. I would be the most beautiful thing on this planet but I have scars from a drunken father. I didn’t want to go back to that so I ran away. I didn’t have anywhere to go that I’d be happy so I ran from everything.” I said letting my words pierce him. He smiled. “I’ve been waiting for you to stand up to me for five hundred years. Now I can rest…” He said fading away. I fell to my knees crying and all the darkness in the house fled. I looked up to see my old pictures, I looked up to see my old possessions. I smiled. I rose and wiped my tears away. I walked out. “It’s not haunted,” I said looking at him like he was pathetic. He stared at me in shock. “I think it’s time to go home,” I said to Richard. He nodded and we started walking toward the forest. When we got there I stopped him. “Light, come to me!” I commanded. Light swarmed us. “Lead me to the lost daughters.” I said. It shone in one direction. I grabbed Richards hand and pulled him along. The light led me to the darkest area of the forest. I saw a rustle as something flinched away from the light. I moved the bush aside and walked into this shelter that the darkness had made for these girls. They all had black hair, though none as black as mine. They stared at me, flinching from my light. I grabbed one hand and pulled the girl up. She was afraid of me. “Your moms wanted me to come get you.” I told them. “Our moms are all dead.” One girl said. “I went into that house, and I’m an angel. I asked them what would help them rest in peace. They asked me to find you, to save you.” I said. “Why should we trust you?” The girl demanded. “What’s the worst that could happen?” I asked her. “You’ve hidden in this darkness for five hundred years at the most. If you died, it would be like the darkness without having to see the images of pain. Would that be any worse than this?” I asked her. “How do you know any of this?” She asked me. “I’m the daughter of the man who haunts that house. The first one who ran away. I embraced the darkness for five hundred years. I loved the darkness like I’d loved my mom. I knew I was safe there. Then I was found, I chose light when it stopped hurting. When my heart stopped hurting the light was the best thing that ever happened to me.” I said. The girl who held my hand as she swayed, standing for the first time in so long was hard. “Does it hurt to go into the light?” She asked me timidly. “It’s like coming from a dark place into a light place. Your eyes just need to adjust.” I said. I led her out of the darkness and I could see her eyes blink against the light but then she ran around. She climbed in the trees and I smiled. I offered my hands to the rest of the girls. They each grabbed my hands when I coaxed them out of the dark. I had five girls who had nothing but undergarments on. I led them back to my old home and grabbed them clothes. They got dressed and I could see each girl get more and more comfortable. Richard stayed behind as I took the first two girls to the beach where I told them to wait. I came back and took the next two girls and brought them to the beach as well. On my third trip I grabbed him and the shiest girl and we flew back. When I got back all the girls were crying, afraid of being in this new place without anything familiar. I got there and Richard grabbed two of their hands and I grabbed three hands. They let us lead them home. Hattie and Ginger stared at us in shock. “I don’t know how you do it, Richard.” Hattie said. We both laughed. We led the girls upstairs and we put them in my room and we slept in Richards’ room. I woke up to the girls crowding in to wake us. The more outgoing ones jumped on the bed and started rolling us off. The shy ones just stood in the doorway. I was easily rolled off the bed and I complained about a rude awakening as they scrambled to get me dressed, throwing my red gown over my head and brushing out my hair before I was even awake. I was dressed and ready to go before I was even half awake. They moreover pestered Richard to get out of bed. He got up wearing only his underwear and got dressed. They dragged us downstairs and I fell twice. Eventually they all picked me up. A bunch of Richards friends were here, looking mildly annoyed and greatly amused. As soon as the girls sat me down next to Richard, I fell back asleep with my head in his lap. They woke me up an hour later and told me to eat. I was at the kitchen table and I ate whatever they put in front of me. I heard a lot of muffled laughter and I looked up to see Ginger and her husband laughing at me. “Don’t you have work?” I asked him and he told me he’d quit his job as a servant. I shrugged and went upstairs, tripping over three steps. I flopped onto my bed and slept till noon. When I woke up the house was empty except for the five girls that I had brought the night before. I got up and made myself some lunch, and then I went back to bed. I slept till about four in the afternoon and then I got up. I brushed my hair back out. I showered. I went downstairs and the girls ignored me, talking about which things they were ready to get back to in normal life. I left the house and I walked to the forest. Then I ran to the beach and I took off my clothes and swam. I dove and let the salt water cure my aching being. Something deep within me hurt. I let my heart throb in time with the ocean, not breathing for a few minutes straight. I came back up and found that the water had brought me away from the shore. I couldn’t see the shore anymore. I flew out of the water and when I saw my beach and my clothes I flew back. I sat there and considered singing but there was dull ache in my heart. I couldn’t sing. I turned away from it all and just lay in the sand staring up at the too blue sky. I closed my eyes wishing that it could be true black and not just black tinted red. I thought of the numbing darkness and wished I was still part of that briefly. Then I realized what was on my heart. Before it was just a thought that my parents and family were gone. Now I knew with all of my heart and soul that I would never see any of them again. It hurt, and I knew now that I was mourning my loss. I walked home, not caring when the darkness crept up at me. It shied from the light that had become my aura and needed more power if it wanted to draw blood. I came in the house when Richards’ friends were home and talking to the girls who had just come. They stared as I slumped up the stairs, looking defeated. I heard Richard come up and when he held me I wept. He held me through it and I let my sorrow free, the mourning out. I felt as if there was no end, I only had him and that was all the connection I had left to life. I didn’t care to live anymore. I’d seen my old village and not even the descendents of the people I’d once loved really cared about the morals of those I loved. Eventually I pushed away from him and found a dark place. I let the darkness cover me, giving it the illusion that I’d embrace it but not. It comforted me and took my pain away for a short time. Once my mind had sorted through everything without the burden of emotion, I came back out. Everybody was calling for me, trying to find me. I went and sat on my bed and let my mind just be. I didn’t think, I didn’t move, I didn’t do anything but be. I let myself drift into sleep and I couldn’t do anything about the pain that engulfed me now. They found me and surrounded me and I pushed past them when they woke me. I went outside and climbed a tree. I sat there wallowing in my pain. Richard came and pulled me down and took me to my room. He undressed me and tucked me into my bed, grabbed a pillow and blanket and slept on the floor. I eventually fell into a fitful sleep. I woke up and showered and brushed my hair. I ate breakfast while Richard was getting in the shower. The girls came down as I was washing my dishes and I explained to them that they couldn’t say anything about where we came from, where we’ve been, only the here and now. I told them that they weren’t to speak of the light or the darkness or what that has made us. They each nodded in agreement. They understood. I made them breakfast and we were ready to leave by the time Richard came down. He rushed to me and planted a big kiss right on my mouth. The fire consumed me and my hands slid into his hair and I pressed myself against him with so much force that I could barely breath. He pressed me against him and we kissed for a while, our mouths molding to each other in incomprehensible ways. Somebody cleared their throat and we broke away to look at them. I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and blushed when Hattie glared at us. “Take it upstairs you two.” She said and turned to make herself food. I sighed and disentangled myself from Richards’ arms. The girls were giggling and whispering and I had to drag two of them out to get all of them. They definitely wanted to stay together. I looked at them. I really looked at them and saw that they were beautiful, to the point where some men might touch them without their permission. I grabbed each of them a rope and tied them around their waists and taught them how to tie a man up if he attacked them. They all looked worried until I told them that this was just because they were beautiful. They were each around sixteen but they didn’t remember that they were marrying age. Until now at least. Once each of them had been tied up tight and escaped we went to work. We were about an hour late but nobody really cared. They were shocked to see these girls who looked and talked so much like me. Especially the men were interested. Richards’ friends obviously were most comfortable around the new comers. At lunch we went home and the girls made their own meals, though I had to put out a small fire. I smiled at the girl and she blushed. She just made herself a sandwich after that. We ate and when Richard and his friends came in the girls scampered upstairs. They gave me a questioning look. “I taught them a couple of tricks but I had to scare them a bit to get cooperation. I think I might have scared them too much…” I said and headed upstairs. “They won’t bite!” I yelled once I was half way up the stairs. I found them all huddled together with their ropes ready. I sighed and convinced them that not every man is going to hurt you; just some of them. I eventually got them downstairs and they talked normally to the guys. I realized that I didn’t know anybodies names and I didn’t hear the girls or the guys using any names. “Okay, I think we need to get names down.” I said and everybody’s eyes got wide. “I’m Saphire, this is Richard.” I said and pointed to the girl who was closest to me. “I’m Abby,” she said. “Abby, okay.” I said and pointed to the next girl. “I’m Rose,” she said. She had really red lips and her eyes were pitch black. I could tell that normally she’d have really pretty brown eyes. Abby was thin and short but she had a little more muscle than the rest of the girls. I pointed to the next girl who had a wide smile and brilliant eyes that were always open in emotion. “I’m Jasmine,” she said. I pointed to the shiest girl, “I’m Iris,” she said shyly, blushing at the attention. She had a modest beauty and she an open nature. I looked to the next girl. “I’m Kori.” She said. This girl had the darkest hair and eyes and I could see a mystery about her. It was more than the darkness that she still surrounded herself with, it was something secret. She had that secret confidence about her like she knew something we didn’t. I was intrigued by her. I wanted to know her. I nodded. I looked to the guys. “I’m Jayden.” The first man said. I nodded to him. He had the same secrecy about him that Kori had. I saw her shoot a glance his way out of the corner of her eye. I smiled inwardly and nodded. I looked to the next boy. “I’m Raymond.” He said. I nodded and looked to the next boy. “I’m Tait.” He said. I looked to the next man. “I’m Blaine.” He said and I nodded. I looked to the last man. “I’m Koda.” He said. I nodded. “Okay, now we all know each other’s names.” I said and plucked a piece of bread off of Richards plate. He ignored my obvious theft and kept eating, me chatting away with Hattie about absolutely nothing. Eventually I sat in his lap and he kissed me while Hattie was talking and that ended the conversation rather effectively. I jab in the side later I broke away from Richard. I glared up at Hattie and she motioned toward Richards’ friends and the girls all staring at us. I was a little breathless and I didn’t have much to say anyways. I plucked another ­piece of bread off of Richards’ plate. “You’re robbing me of all my bread,” He complained at me. I shrugged and went over to the couch and squealed when a big spider crawled up my dress. I killed it right away and wiped it on the floor. Kori sat there with her head in her hands. I sighed and went upstairs. I lay on the bed for a while and prayed. I felt my God listening. I prayed through the light hoping that He would give me help to turn these girls to light. After a while I flipped on my stomach and put my head on the pillow. Richard came in and rubbed my back for a little while. Ginger came up and started rewrapping my ankles. “You’ve been attacked again!” She exclaimed and Richard stared at my ankle. “What happened?” He asked me. “I forgot that darkness is always surrounding me and let my guard down. It’s hard to keep it up all the time.” I said and he slipped my dress over my head. Ginger didn’t say anything. He started rubbing some kind of salve on my back after brushing my hair out next to me. “What is that?” I asked him through the pain it was inflicting on me. “It’s sea water and a few other things. It will help the skin seal so it doesn’t reopen.” He said and started rubbing it on my legs. His gentle touch on my legs sent a shiver through my body. After letting the salve soak into my skin for a half an hour he took a cloth and washed the rest off. He helped me back into my dress and brought me back downstairs to see everybody still there and just lounging around. I was stiff and sore so I basically floated. The girls stared at me. “I thought you said we couldn’t do that,” Kori whispered through the darkness. When her words reached me I flinched away from the darkness. “This form of communication is disturbing since you haven’t embraced the light,” I whispered through the light. She flinched away and nodded. I went and helped them all up. “We’re going to the beach.” I said to them. The guys looked at me in shock. “That’s a ways away. You might need some muscle,” Raymond said. “We’ll be fine.” I said. He shrugged and the girls followed me as I left. I started jogging and once we got to the forest I started running at the angels’ pace. They caught up with me a minute after a minute once I got to the beach. “Isn’t it beautiful?” I asked them staring at the ocean. “I haven’t swam since I was seven,” Abby said. I slipped out of my dress and dove into the water. She laughed and did the same. All the girls dove into the water and swam with me for a while. We splashed around for a while and when we swam back to shore the sun was starting to go down. They all wanted to go back but I told them to stay. When they complained about hunger I went and grabbed some apples from the tree I’d hidden in that night. I came back with three dozen apples and they rejoiced at the sight of food. We ate the apples and we talked about our past lives. I told them my story. They all stared at me, shocked. I told them about my mother, about my brother, about my brother, the servants, and the men who constantly tried to court me. They’d all been one of the most beautiful women in the village so they each could relate. We swapped stories till far into the night. I pointed out the ocean in the night and they all stared. Kori seemed a bit more hesitant than the other girls, a little less open and willing to believe everything I said. I started singing. They stared at me and after a while Abby started singing too. Her voice was deep and husky. Each girl in turn started singing with us. We became a six voiced choir and we sounded amazing together. I saw the light and darkness battling around us. They saw me staring and we each watched. As the night wore on, the light shone through more and more in the darkness and I saw a tear run down Abby’s cheek. Her dark undergarments melted away. The other girls watched, afraid. The light twirled around her body, snaking up from her feet and when it twirled around her head, an angels dress formed on her body. We all gasped and she shone like the moon. Her voice became like mine and our voices wove in a harmony so beautiful that it reduced us all to tears. As the sun began to rise Abby stopped singing; she was sobbing too hard. “Why didn’t you tell me it made the hurt go away?” She sobbed to me. “It’s something you have to find out for yourself.” I told her. “What does it mean?” She asked me. “It means you’re an angel.” I told her. “Really?” She asked me. “Sing some more,” I told her. “Let everything that hurt melt away and just sing joy.” I told her. Her song became unbelievably sweet, her voice strong and joyful. Her wings sprouted from the center of her back and she flew. I flew with her and she rejoiced. I looked down to see if anybody else was choosing light. They were all just staring at me and Abby. I smiled and led her back down. I told her to take her wings back in. She did and was amazed at the ease in which she could do this. I led them back home and Abby ran with me. I smiled at her and when the darkness lashed out at us I called the light to us and so much light lit the forest that I was sure that the village could see the glowing. The light burst from my chest, burst from my soul magnified by my mother, Abby’s mother, my brother and my grandparents, all the spirits that I’ve helped. It burst from me with a power that was awe inspiring. I sent up a quick prayer of thanks to God and I held Abby tight. She stared at me when my light faded. The rest of the girls caught up with us and stared at me too. “You’re glowing, like seriously glowing,” Iris said. I looked at my skin and I was seriously glowing. “Yeah, I’ve been known to glow every once in a while.” I said and grinned. “Once you turn, the dark hurts you if you don’t keep your guard up.” I said and showed them my legs and my ankles. “It was pissed when it lost me. Now it’s constantly attacking me. But my light is so much stronger. The peace I know is strong and the dark can’t fight back. If you hold a candle in a dark room the light fills it over the darkness, unless you let that light go out.” I said and fixed my dress. “Why didn’t you tell me that before?” She asked me. “You can choose to go back to darkness. Be warned, the light will follow you into your darkness and you will always want to know peace again.” I said. “I didn’t tell you this before because I had to learn this all the hard way.” I said. They followed me home. We came in the front door and the guys nodded to me, used to my beauty and but they stared in shock at Abby. She obviously relished the attention. Richard looked to me and I nodded. His face was triumphant. He came over and kissed me hard. I whispered to him that there were people watching. He sighed and put me down. “My little angel,” He whispered to me. I rested against him and held him secure against me. “We’re still here,” Kori said and I sighed. “Later,” I whispered into his ear and his face got seriously red. I gave him a flirty smile and I could tell he was melting. I giggle escaped me and I could feel my cheeks getting red too. I bit my lip and turned back to them to see Kori taunting me and the rest of the girls giggling hysterically. I glared at them and then turned to Jayden. “So, you guys seem to be hanging around here a lot more often lately,” I said and let my eyes slide from him to Kori. She went so red that there was obviously some attraction there. I turned around and stuck my tongue out at her so that nobody but Richard and the girls could see and she blushed even more furiously. I went upstairs, brushing Richard as I went. I was restless and I couldn’t sit still for more than a minute. I got up and though I was still in nothing but my underwear, I danced. I danced in the moonlight and let my old memories guide me. I heard the girls’ excited whispering and I didn’t mind. I bent back as if a partner was dipping me, and I almost fell over. I caught myself with my hands and I craved to run. I slipped into my dress and took my hair down, that I’d had tied into a pony tail. It lingered at my waist. I smiled at my long hair, the feel of it brushing against my waist. I slipped out the window and I heard the rustle of clothes as they all rushed to the window. “Your husband and his friends just watched you leave the house.” Koris’ whisper reached me. “Richard is used to me slipping out to run or to sing. He knows where I am and he’s smart enough to make sure his friends know I’m not cheating.” I said and I had a brief vision of the scene of what was happening at home. Richard was being confronted by all of his friends. They all thought I was cheating and they all wanted him to break the engagement. He was trying to convince them otherwise. “Bring them to see me then,” I whispered to him. His eyes got wide and he stood. “Do you want me to show you where she’s going?” He asked them. Their eyes got wide and they nodded with solemn faces. He brought them and I was sitting on my log and watching the ocean. I knew when they were there. I stood and walked along the edges of the ocean, letting the waves lap at my bare feet. I looked at the cliff and I knew I wanted to climb it. I found my first handhold and started climbing. I almost fell after I was twenty feet up but I clung by my one hand and I imagine I looked like a falling angel, but I got my other hand up as well. I climbed to the top and I sat on the top of the cliff, the normally gentle ocean breeze was strong up here. I stood and let the wind whip my hair and dress around me and I felt free in that moment. I felt their gazes like something so strong that I felt the acute //need// to turn and look them in the eyes. I decided against it and I backed about twenty feet away from the cliff, turned, and ran at the cliffs edge with everything in me. I dove off the edge, laughing the entire time. I pointed my hands and I hit the water with a shocking freeze that I screamed in delight. I had no air. I was in the deepest depths and I had no air. I surfaced quickly laughing. I floated for a while and came back to the sand. I peeled off my dress and hung it over a tree branch and sat in the sand in my slip. I lay there and stared at the moon. Richard came up to me and just shook his head before laying next to me. I laughed. “I wouldn’t advise it for anybody else, but that was fun.” I said. He laughed looking shocked. “How you have the nerve to do something like that I cannot fathom.” He said and I laughed. I looked up at all of his friends and they were staring at me wide eyed. The girls looked even more shocked. “Get decent, will you?” Abby teased me. I rolled over so I was soaking Richards side and shook my head. She averted her eyes and most of the girls did something to show how inappropriate this was and their disapproval. Kori just sat there shaking her head. “You don’t care if they see you like that?” She said. “Well, that dress wouldn’t cover much more than this would.” I said and she nodded, agreeing. I was seriously cold. “Swimming at night is not all that smart.” I whispered into Richards ear. He laughed. He tucked me under his arm and I just about fell asleep right there. Then Abby screamed and ran straight to Raymond’s arms. He held her looking for what had scared it. I saw it but they didn’t. The darkness was creeping towards us in a malicious way. “Distract them, make sure they can’t possibly see me,” I whispered to the girls. They gave me questioning looks. “Be creative,” I whispered. Abby wrapped her arms around Raymond’s neck and kissed him fiercely. His face was priceless but after about five seconds he was definitely occupied. Kori tackled Jayden and covered his eyes. Abby covered Raymond’s eyes while she kissed him. Iris stood there looking awkward. Rose grabbed Tait’s hand and dragged him into the forest. Jasmine followed her lead and grabbed Blaine’s and Koda’s hands. Iris still stood there unsure of what to do. I called my light and chased away all the darkness. It fled and I reigned in my light as soon as it was gone. Abby stopped kissing Raymond and Kori stopped covering Jayden’s eyes and leaped off of him. She ran over to me and hid her face behind her hair. Rose came running back with Tait trailing behind her. Jasmine was following her with Blaine and Koda. All the guys were staring at us like we were insane. I smiled innocently and all the rest of the girls did the same. I laughed and ran into the woods and we all sprinted the whole way home. Abby and I raced and it was a tie. We both climbed back into my room. I took off my wet clothes and put on some dry underwear and crawled back into bed. She smiled and climbed in with me. We were already asleep when Richard came in and got bombarded with questions about the sanity of all the girls that he kept bringing back with him. Raymond came in and Abby covered her face with her face. I grabbed a slip and put it on under the covers. I went up to Raymond and whispered into his ear, “Go sit next to her, grab her hand and wait for a reaction.” He stood there looking at me like I was insane. I gave him a little push toward her and he did as I told him. He sat on the edge of the bed and grabbed her hand. After about five minutes she peaked out from under her pillow, squeaked, and tore her hand away from his. “He’s not going to bite, and he already had the chance to,” I whispered to her through the light. She shivered with my light and peeked back out from under her pillow. She sat up and when she realized that she was only in her undergarments she blushed and covered herself. He kissed her. Her eyes got wide and she forgot about covering herself. Her hands entwined in his hair and she wouldn’t let him stop. He didn’t try to till he seriously needed air and she let him then. She lay back down and covered her face again. I giggled at her expression before she’d covered her face. She was definitely head over heels in love. The rest of the guys were staring at him and he let his hair fall in his eyes and rushed out. Kori pushed through them and when she saw Abby covering her face she went to her. “Abby, are you okay?” She asked. “More than okay,” She whispered through the light and Kori shivered. I came and braided Kori’s hair whispering in her ear what had happened. “You did what?” She demanded. “Does she look mad at me?” I asked Kori. That silenced her. She lifted the pillow up and saw Abby’s head over heels expression and sighed. I tied her hair up and got up. The guys were still standing and staring. “Shouldn’t you all be getting home?” I asked them. “Shouldn’t you?” Jayden asked me. “My family is dead.” I said bluntly. His eyes got wide and he stared at the ground. “Go home.” I told them and they left. Iris came out of the shadows and Rose came out of Richard’s room with Jasmine. I smiled at them and Richard picked me up. He brought me to his room and slipped my slip off once the door was closed. We woke up and got dressed and showered. Before I got dressed he rubbed salve on my back and my legs and ankles. I sighed at the burn and he made me lay down. His hair was ruffled and messy, just the way he woke up though he’d already washed it. He wiped the extra salve off as the sun came up and I got dressed. I put on my red dress and took my hair out of the braid that I’d done last night and the waves it had left were beautiful. Richard pulled me into his arms and I relaxed there, my hands on his chest for a while. “I love you,” He whispered to me as the sun burst above the trees. “I love you too,” I said and we had a moment of complete peace and happiness watching the sunrise. “Well, isn’t this sweet,” said a sarcastic Kori, disturbing us rudely. “You couldn’t stay in your own business could you?” I said annoyed. “We’re all curious about these girls you keep bringing here and when you take forever in the morning to leave your room, we’re going to bother you.” Jayden said surprising Kori. I sighed and said, “Well, you’re going to keep waiting ‘cause I’m comfortable.” I said. “Um, no.” Kori said out loud. “Miss feathers is going get her butt downstairs.” She said through the darkness. I glared at her. “Watch it,” I said through the light. She motioned to Jayden to go downstairs and closed the door in his face. “What am I watching? Are you going to shine a light on me and expect me to shrivel up? It won’t work.” She said. “You know the light isn’t that weak.” I said. “Do I? Enlighten me. Are you going to outrun me, or fly away?” She asked. “The darkness is stronger and you know it.” She said through the darkness. “Richard, go down.” I said. He looked down at me worried, but he did as I told him. Once he left I turned to Kori. “Do you really think that the light is weak?” I asked her. “Yeah, I do. I’m going home. This place is boring.” She said and started towards the door. When she opened the door I went and closed it before she could leave. “You’re going back to hiding? Are you really that afraid of emotion?” I asked her. She slapped me. I pushed her away from the door. “Don’t you ever hit me,” I said to her and I could feel the darkness pulsing around me. “What happened to Mrs. Innocence?” She asked me with a mean sneer. “Innocence wasn’t in the job description.” I said with a glare. “Oh, so you’re not all daisies then?” She taunted me. “It would be smart for you to be quiet right now.” I said, making my voice a warning. “I’m not scared of you.” She said. “You’d have good reason to be.” I said. “I’m leaving, and don’t try to stop me.” She said pushing past me to the door. “Oh, and one last thing,” She said. She stomped her foot on the floor and darkness slithered out fast from her foot and snaked up my feet so quickly that I didn’t have time to think. It left bleeding swirls up my legs and it quickly went up around my throat. I couldn’t breathe; couldn’t think. A brilliant light surrounded me, and I saw something amazing happen. I felt all the spirits that I’d helped all come and surround me and the darkness scattered. “You shall not hurt her,” each voice said in unison. “I won’t fall for a trick of the light, Saphire. I’m not stupid.” Kori said and stood her ground sending the darkness after me with even more power. It broke through them and when they saw it go for me they all attacked her at once, flowing through her, each of them taking a little more of her color away. She hit the ground with a hollow thud and I knew she was dead. Kori was dead. This was horrible. I was afraid, everybody would think I did it. Did I kill her? Did I do it of some unconscious survival thing? No. I knew what to do now. I’d prayed for a few minutes and I knew how to bring her back. I summoned all my light to me. I summoned the very essence of my soul to me and a blinding light surrounded my hand. I went and put my hand over her heart, her now still heart. “Live,” I whispered and a bright light shone on her heart. I put my hand over her nose and mouth, “Breathe,” I said a little louder. I put my hand on her forehead. “Think, be alive!” I said and she shone like the moon. Her eyes opened and she stared at me. My hand still glowed fairly bright and she stared at me. “I tried to kill you, and when those spirits killed me, you brought me back? Why?” She asked me. “Because I forgave you, and it takes a lot more strength to forgive than to hate. Believe me, it would have been easier on me to let you die, go back into hiding in the dark, and not deal with the rest of you. Maybe…probably not because then I’d be known as a killer though I didn’t kill you, the spirits did.” I said. She nodded. “You have so much…confidence. I want that, but does it come with love, or light, or power?” Kori asked me. “Love is light, but power never brings happiness. Only companionship and love bring happiness. Those give you confidence and, being as strong as you are, just your personality brings confidence. It comes with grace.” I said. “Can you teach grace?” She asked me. I took her hand. “I learned by dancing,” I said. She grinned. “I guess I’m learning to dance then.” She said. We came down hand in hand and Jayden and Richard gave us questioning looks. “Do you guys want to learn to dance?” I asked the girls. “Do you know how to dance?” Rose asked me with a grin. “Do I need to show you again?” I asked her. “What’s that on your neck?” Richard asked me. My eyes got wide. I touched my neck and sure enough blood came back on my hand. It wasn’t pouring out the way it normally was, it was leaking now. “You’re pale,” Kori said. I grabbed Abby and brought her up to my room. “Focus on your spirit and ask it to heal me,” I told her. She did as she was told, and I felt my cuts stop bleeding as fast as they were. “It’s not working,” She sobbed. I felt my eyes go wide, and I knew that I would die if I didn’t have an angel with a strong spirit heal me. Richard burst in as something incredible happened. A thread of light slithered into the room and snaked its’ way up Kori’s leg and her clothes were burned off of her. The light twined its’ way up her body and a gown as beautiful as mine or Abby’s shimmered into existence. I saw a light so beautiful that it shone through her engulf her. I watched her close her eyes and focus on her spirit. Her hand glowed blinding white, and Richard closed the door before anyone could see. “Light, the first thing I ask you to do for me is heal my sister.” She said and put her hand on my neck. Unbelievable pain shot through me quickly followed by a cool relief. I collapsed. Richard came up to me and the blood had stopped flowing. I felt tears coursing down my cheeks. “Do you feel it, Kori?” I asked her. “I’m not the same Korianne, I feel…lighter more flowy.” She said with a zest I hadn’t seen from her before. She went and looked in the mirror. She was sobbing immediately. “I’m beautiful,” She said. I nodded. “The light is a beauty that is absolutely unbelievable.” I said and she sobbed into my shoulder. “It feels so good, so free!” She said. I held her there and we went and sat on the bed. Her and Abby lay on the bed with me. After about fifteen minutes later we all were calm enough to go back downstairs. I looked at Kori and her eyes had a new shine to them, though they still held a lot of mystery in them. Jayden stared at her in shock. “Where do all of these dresses keep coming from?” He asked with a grin. “You’ll never know,” Kori said playfully. He grinned at her and I could see the flirtatious look in his eyes. Richard came up and sat me down. He pulled out the salve and I stood up. “I’ve had enough of that stuff for one day,” I said sounding annoyed. “Well, what are you going to do? Run?” He said. “Wouldn’t bother me,” I said. He caught my wrist and sat me down. I stood back up and he tried to catch me. We ran around the kitchen for about five minutes him chasing me without any type of strategy before he started using his mind. He ran me into a corner and when he started closing in on me I saw my mistake. I ran at him and barreled over his left shoulder and ran. I ran out of the house and I heard Kori and Abby fall into step beside me. Rose and Iris caught up after a little while as well. We lay around the beach for a while and then all the guys came and tried to catch all of us. I climbed the cliff lightning fast and ran on the edge of the cliff for a while. All the girls followed suit. We ran and there was a drop off. I jumped and Abby and Kori followed me down. “The waves can’t hurt the darkness either,” I whispered to Rose and Iris. They jumped as Richard reached them. He stopped at the edge of the cliff and I laughed at him. I started swimming toward the shore that they couldn’t get to unless they walked for an hour or two on the cliff. I got up onto the beach and the girls came after me shortly. We sat there cold and wet and eventually we huddled together. “Kory, you chose the light?” Iris asked her shyly. “Yeah,” She said timidly. “It’s not something to be ashamed of.” I said to Kori. She nodded. “Why?” Rose asked her. “Saphire and I got into a fight and I found out that there is nothing weak about the light. I found out that you don’t have to be that good or that innocent to be light, you just have to chose the light. It didn’t reject people.” She said. I saw a body dive for the water and I told the light to cushion the fall. The person was fine and they swam towards us. The person got up on the shore and I saw Tait come out of the water. He grabbed Iris and said, gasping for breath, “I caught you.” A smiled played at the corners of her lips. He collapsed next to her and lay in the sand breathing hard. He still had her hand and she didn’t pull away. “Aw…” I said loudly enough for her to hear. She glared at me and took her hand back. Tait sat up and grabbed her hand. She pulled it away. He grabbed her and messed up her hair. To me a guy messing my hair up would make me mad but she didn’t seem to mind. He pulled her down with him and she put her head on his chest. We all gave her crap and she ignored us. He held her close and I could tell they were definitely warm. We talked for a while, out of earshot of Tait, and we were all mostly asleep when the guys got there. Richard picked me up and I complained at being moved. He laughed deep in his throat at my weak protest. He was warm. I snuggled into him and when he put me down I wouldn’t let him get back up. He struggled with me for a few seconds and then I actually pulled him down. I snuggled into him and he held me tight. I felt him grab something and vaguely registered that he was going to put that stupid salve on me. I didn’t care as long as he stayed with me and kept me warm. He rubbed that stupid salve on my neck and wherever the darkness had hurt me. I complained at the sting. When I started wiping it off he kissed me and a heat that was deep inside me took over. I kissed him fiercely and my body molded to his and I didn’t bother to think anymore. A stick hit the back of my head and I looked up. I realized that I wasn’t really in an appropriate position for public. I got off the top of Richard and I sat there pouting. Kori grinned at me. I stuck my tongue out at her. She laughed. Jayden was coming up behind her and I grinned right back at her. She walked over to me and he followed with a frown. “Now why are you grinning?” She asked me. My grin broadened and she frowned. Jayden grabbed her by the waist and threw her into the air. She screamed, at first afraid and then when she realized what was happening she was squealing happily. I giggled and Richard just watched them with an amused expression. Jayden caught her and held her. She blushed and crawled out of his arms and stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. I crawled up behind her as they both just kind of stared at their feet. I stood up quietly and gave her a big shove towards Jayden and she fell right in front of him. I jumped back so that I was sitting next to Richard and then I kissed him with my eyes open trying to watch what was happening with them. Jayden glared at me and I tried not to smile. Richard broke away and glared at me too. Jayden helped Kori up and she was standing so close to him that their chests almost touched. I glared at her back. “Light, bring them together.” I said and the sand beneath their feet began to shift and Kori stumbled into him. He caught her gently and when she looked up at him their faces were inches apart. She just stood there like a fool. “Oh, my gosh, just kiss him already!” I hissed at her through the light. She smiled briefly and threw her arms around him and kissed him. “That’s better.” I said out loud. Richard was still glaring at me. I hummed a bit of an old love song that Kori would know. She had to pull away to smile at me. She started singing the words and her voice was beautiful. I joined her and our voices harmonized gorgeously. Abby joined her voice to ours and the three voiced choir that we’d started was so amazing that we were all crying by the time the song was over. I snuggled into Richard. He held me tightly, and I felt his tears soak my hair. Raymond took Abby in his arms and kissed her. I heard a wild gasp and looked at Kori to see her kissing Jayden with everything in her. Jayden didn’t seem to have an issue with this. I smiled and snuggled into Richard. He held me tight and kept me warm. “Okay everybody, it’s time to go home because half of us are wet and cold.” I said and most of the girls muttered assent. I’m not sure if Kori or Jayden heard us. Jayden’s hands were starting to explore Kori’s body. I grabbed a stick and swatted his hands. He broke away to glare at me for a moment, then realized what he’d been doing. He stared at his feet. “We’re going home.” I said. I led everybody home and it took us about two hours to get home. Nobody was too tired but we all collapsed in the kitchen dramatically. Hattie sighed and made us all some hot tea. Kori finished her tea quickly and went upstairs. I followed her to watch her lay down on the bed and hug a pillow to her till she strangled the pillow. “If that pillow were alive, it would be dying.” I said. She laughed. I sat next to her. Then I stood and slipped my dress off and put on new undergarments and a new dress. She lay there completely still. I pulled her up and she stood there barely awake. I slipped her dress over her head and hung it up next to the bed and helped her into a dry dress. I decided on a slip and just lay her back in the bed. I lay next her and Abby came in. She slipped her wet clothes off and I scooted over. Rose came in next and did the same. We all scooted over and Jasmine came in next. We all scooted over for her too and Iris came in, stared at all of us and burst out laughing. “Is that bed capable of that much weight?” She asked. “It can have another body,” I said. She mimicked what the rest of the girls had done and we all scooted over for her. We were all warm quickly and asleep even faster. We all woke to loud laughter and we all complained at the same moment. I picked up my pillow and launched it as hard as I could towards the noise. A loud “Oomph!” greeted by a whole new round of laughter told me I’d hit my mark. I smiled and huddled into the warmth of my friends. “It was time to get up hours ago. I want to know how you’re sleeping.” Hattie said sounding annoyed. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I sighed and climbed over Kori to get out of bed. I slipped on my angels dress and shut the door in their faces. I crawled back in bed on top of the covers and Richard came in. He picked me up and dragged me to his room. He slipped my dress over my head and crawled into bed with me. I smiled and snuggled into him. He kissed my neck, leaving trails up and down my neck of tingling skin that wanted to be touched. I wanted him to touch me. He had my whole mind and when Jayden burst into the room with Kori at his side and I was on top of Richard and he was trailing up and down my neck we all froze. Kori raised her eyebrows at me. “I never claimed to be all good.” I said and slipped over to grab my dress. She laughed. Jayden stared at me. I sighed and brushed out my hair and went into the bathroom to compose myself. Kori came in. “Did we interrupt something?” She asked teasingly. “Yes, you did.” I said my cheeks flushing. She laughed. “I’ll get you back,” I promised her. “Uh-huh,” She said sarcastically. I gave her a sideways glance and she laughed. I sighed and came back out to see Jayden and Richard talking. They went dead silent when we came into the room and I rolled my eyes. We walked downstairs and we grabbed something filling to eat. We went to work and the women gave us a lot of sideways glances. The rest of the girls came out about an hour later and the guys came out another hour later. When we were done for the day, we all started to head back to my house. Jayden caught up with Kori and took her hand. Tait took Iris’ hand and she blushed. She looked embarrassed but it was obvious that she loved the attention. Kori came inside at my side but soon enough I couldn’t find her anywhere. I went to Richard and he obviously knew where they were but was sworn to secrecy. “Light lead me,” I said. A flame burst into being and I followed it. Richard sighed and started making dinner. I laughed at his defeated expression. “You make it impossible to give somebody privacy.” He said. I blushed. “If you would have told me that they wanted to be alone then I wouldn’t have bothered.” I said and let my flame flicker out and I went and started making the bread. When I’d finished and started eating Jasmine sat down with me. “I really don’t know any of the girls that well,” She said knowing that I wanted details on what the rest of the girls were up to. Rose sat down next. “I don’t know either.” She said, but it was obvious she was lying. I gave her a disbelieving look. “Okay, I saw Abby and Raymond walking off towards his house but that’s it, I swear!” She said and I knew she was telling the truth. “Looks like our little angel isn’t very innocent anymore.” I said since nobody was around. They laughed. “Like you’re so innocent,” Jasmine said. I grinned. “I never said I was,” Richard came up behind me and I leaned my head into his stomach. His fingers traced the vein in my neck and he kissed my lips gently. “Okay, if you’re going to share a mouth at the table, then I’m only feeding one mouth.” Hattie said. “How long have they been alone now?” I asked him. “About two hours…” He said. “I say they can tolerate being separated for a little while.” I said and got up. “Light lead me,” I said and my guiding flicker of flame burst into being. I followed it to the spare bedroom and I knocked on the door. I heard a lot of groaning as they grabbed some clothes. I came in anyways. “Come on,” I said and grabbed Koris’ arm. She complained at me for dragging her through the house in nothing but her underwear. I brought her into my room and slipped her angels dress over her head. “Now we have to go get Abby away from Raymond.” I told her. She laughed. “And where are they?” She asked me. “At his house.” I said. She fell over giggling. “Or I could summon her by the light,” I said. “No way, we’re disturbing them thoroughly.” Kori said and climbed out the window. “You seem accustomed to climbing out of windows,” I said to Kori as I climbed out after her. “I’ve never been an innocent.” She said with a wicked gleam in her eyes that promised mischief. She led me to Raymond’s house and showed me which window to climb into. I pulled myself up onto the window frame and saw Abby snuggled into Raymonds arms contentedly. I climbed in and sat on her end of the bed. I shook her shoulder and she sat straight up and punched me in the face out of shock and fear. I clutched my lip and glared at her. Her face got so red that I almost thought that I’d picked a tomato to wake up. Raymond was laying there with the pillow over his head so embarrassed that he couldn’t look at me. “Wait, how did you get into my house?” Raymond asked me. I pointed to the window where Kori was half hanging half standing. He stared at her in shock and we both laughed. I grabbed Abby’s dress and stood her up. I slid her into it and she sighed. “Now we’re going to the beach with the rest of the girls.” I said to her. Her eyes got wide and she nodded. “Come on,” I said, leading her to the window. “You could use the door,” Raymond said. “But that wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.” Kori said and we grinned. He shook his head and lay back down with a sigh. We all jumped out the window and landed perfectly. We went and got Iris from Tait where they were cuddling in the living room and we got Jasmine and Rose from Koda and Blaine who had entrapped them with their argument on who had more admirers. I laughed and said loud and proud, “But I thought I had the most admirers! Oh, the pain of finding out otherwise!” I said and pretended to faint. Kori fell over laughing when I accidentally fell on my head. I jabbed her in the side and she stuck her tongue out at me. I grabbed Rose, Jasmine and Iris and we all ran to the beach. Abby and Kori fell into step behind me as if we’d been doing this for all of eternity. It was instinctual to lead them and right that they fell into step behind me. We got to the beach and song burst from my lips before I could stop it. Kori’s voice joined mine and Abby’s twined through in a harmony so complex and incomprehensible that movement came from it. I was dancing and they joined me. I knew we looked like the angels we were and I knew that we were magnificent in the moonlight and our pale skin and dark hair. Our wings burst from our backs in the same moment and I knew that we were our own beings and the same in essence. It was the most amazing thing that had happened to me besides choosing the light. After an hour of this, I realized that the other girls were just watching us, stuck on the ground. I came down and grabbed Jasmine’s hand and brought her up into the sky with me, Kori went and grabbed Iris’ hand and Abby grabbed Rose’s hand. We flew into the sky together and I could see joy and awe in Jasmine’s eyes. Her clothes melted away, and her dark undergarments were burned from her body. We were up almost to the clouds and the nearest cloud blazed into light and became Jasmine’s dress. She raged into a light so magnificent and I saw her become an angel. I dropped her and she screamed for a moment and her wings spread. She looked up at me with the insane fear still in her eyes but something better was in her eyes. I sang out and Kori’s voice joined mine, Abby’s voice next and then Jasmine’s sweet tinkle of a voice joined the chorus of angels. Rose and Iris stared in shock at their beautiful friend. I could see fear in their eyes. I landed and the rest of the angels followed me. “I think we need to know each other’s pasts so that we can understand each other better.” I said. “You can tell us about yourself first then.” Rose said. “I say we go in order of birth. So yes, I’ll be first.” I said and they all nodded. I sat down and I started to tell them my story. “When I was young, I was rich, but not important. People didn’t care who I was till I was fifteen. When I was thirteen, my mom tried to make me graceful. She had a dance instructor come and in my fifteenth year, she saw me a fit dancer. Once I turned fifteen, I hit my growth spurt, I completely filled out, and I became a woman. Men started looking at me differently. My dance instructor came to see me after three months and I’d filled out, become graceful in those three months. I was the picture of grace.” I said, starting with the earliest knowledge that Richard had of me. I told them the rest, I told them of the promises I’d made to their families. They stared at me in shock, not understanding what I had done for them. It would be hard to accept but they’d learn to accept me. Next came Kori. “I always had black hair, never as dark as it is now, but I look a lot like I used to.” She started out. “I was a strong girl. My parents tried to break my spirit all my life, always trying to make me easy to work with. When I was young I refused to bathe and would kick and scream at the servants. As I got older, I refused to even look at the suitors they brought for me and I would always look for a man who they’d disapprove of and I’d try to get him to propose. With one man, I actually fell in love and I snuck out at night to see him often. I lost my virginity to that man. He got me pregnant.” She said. We all stared at her. “He didn’t offer to marry me when I told him, and he didn’t offer financial support. He told me to get out of his house. Never to come back.” She said. Her voice had grown hard. “I was fourteen. I started showing and I had to tell at least the servant who kept catching me with morning sickness. She was considerate. She understood what I was going through. She started giving me dresses that weren’t tight, made for mothers and made them look like my own dresses. She was good to me. When it came time for the child to be born, I was fifteen. She went through it all with me, gagged me so that I couldn’t scream and helped me deliver a healthy baby girl. I breast fed the baby till it didn’t need to be breast fed anymore. I cared for my baby often but when my mom caught me playing with the baby, and demanded to know where it had come from, I told her it was the servants. She didn’t care, she just thought that it was going to get me sick or give me ideas. She told me to stop seeing the baby and I was with the baby till I was twenty one. Then my parents forced me into marriage with a man I hated. When I refused to…with him he ordered his servants to tie me to the mattress. They tied my hands and feet to opposite sides of the mattress and he raped me one whole night straight, letting up only briefly. When I screamed at him when he first started he made the servants gag me. I knew the servants hated him with every bit of their souls. He was forty something and he was raping a twenty one year old woman. I missed my baby but I didn’t want to bear this man’s child. That night I conceived, and I had to carry the child. I had to breast feed that child as my first and I hated him for it. I couldn’t hate my own baby, but I could hate the man. It was a baby girl like the last one, but he wasn’t happy with a girl. He wanted an heir. He had the servants tie me down again and raped me again, repeatedly. I hated him with every ounce of me. I didn’t get pregnant that time and I knew as soon as he asked the female servants if I was pregnant or not and they told him I wasn’t, I’d suffer another night of his constant rape. I ran away.” She said. We all stared at her shocked. “That must have been the hardest thing in the world.” I said. She nodded and I saw the pain in her eyes. She lay down and I held her head in my lap. I couldn’t imagine something so cruel happening. She cried into my thigh, and we all huddled around her, giving our light, our comfort. Light slithered up Iris’ leg and Kori watched, shocked, as Iris became an angel. “Why?” She asked her. “If you can live through that, and I can live through my life, and all of us can suffer the way we have and still have hope, then light must be strong.” She said. I smiled at her. “Who’s next?” I asked. “I am.” Iris said. I nodded. “My parents hate me. They’d always wanted a son, but my mom couldn’t have any children after me and they always blamed me. They constantly threatened to send me off, one way or the other. Growing up, I didn’t know any kind of kindness. One night, my best friend, was raped by a man who we both hated. She came to me a week later and told me she was pregnant. She killed herself a week after that and I ran away. My parents thought that I’d killed her. It was the worst thing you could possibly imagine to feel your own parents, the people who brought you into the world, think you a murderer.” Iris said. “I ran away.” I felt her pain with her. I hadn’t seen her parents. It had been her best friend who had made me promise to save her. “It was her. She told me to save you. She loved you enough to stay behind for four hundred years to make sure you made it out all right.” I said to her. Her eyes overflowed with tears. “I guess I’m next.” Abby said. “I feel pretty pathetic for this, but I ran away because I was so sick of the tedium of everyday life with my parents.” She said. That explains why her spirit isn’t very strong. She hadn’t dealt with the trauma the rest of us had. “I’m next then,” Rose said. “I was chased a lot and men were always after me. My mom only bought me the clothes that made me like a prostitute and that’s what men took me for. Except free. They’d come up and try to rape me and I’d run. One day a man chased me all the way into the woods and I lost him there. Then I ran away because I was sick of running every time a man saw me.” Rose said all of this quickly. Jasmine was last. “I ran away because my parents were abusive. My father killed my mother with his own bare hands, with me tied up and watching. I ran away after he beat me really bad. He told me if I told anyone he’d kill them in front of me and then he’d maim me till I begged for him to kill me. He said he’d cut off my breasts, stick a knife in my mouth, cut out my tongue. He said he’d carve my eyes out of my head slowly. I ran away out of fear.” She said. I held her close. Light snaked up Rose’s leg and everybody stared. She became an angel. “I want everybody to focus on their spirits, and I want everybody to ask the light to heal the damage that’s been done to each of us, and to help us to want to forgive in the least.” I said. A shining light was around us and I felt the girls losing pain they’d held on to for centuries. When the light faded I let a song crescendo from my lips and Kori joined me. Abby was next, and then Jasmine. Iris’ sweet voice joined us quickly trailed by Rose’s no longer monotone of a voice. Our six voiced choir had two melodies and the rest were singing intricate harmonies. It was beautiful. When we all came home, Iris climbed into Tait’s room and got back into bed with him. It was a little before dawn and when I crawled into bed with Richard he complained at me for being late. I told him that all the girls were angels now. He sat up and stared at me. “How?” He asked me. “Very carefully,” I said, too far gone to care. He lay down and pulled me against him. I was asleep in seconds. I woke up a few hours later and showered and brushed my hair out. An image behind me in the mirror had me spinning around. It was Iris’ best friend. “Thank you for taking care of her.” She said and she faded away. I felt a rush of joy as she passed on. I came out smiling sadly and put on my angels dress. I had the rest of the girls put on their angels dresses as well. Iris came in with Tait at her side. I smiled at her. I grabbed her hand and brought her upstairs. I closed the door to my room. “Can I ask you one favor?” I called into the light. Iris stared at me like I’d lost every bit of my mind. Her friends appeared in front of us. Iris’ knees got weak but she embraced her friend. They sobbed together for a while and they eventually talked. After about an hour I knew that Iris’ friends needed to go. “It’s time for you to go, or you won’t ever be able to pass on.” I said to her. She nodded and gave Iris one last hug and faded away in Iris’ arms. Iris wiped her eyes and hugged me. “Thank you. You have no idea how much I needed that.” She said to me. “It was obvious that you desperately needed some closure to your last life.” I said. She nodded. We went downstairs and Tait took her in his arms. Jasmine looked very sad and I grabbed her hand. I brought her over to Koda. She hadn’t spoken to him as much as Blaine. “Koda, you know Jasmine, right?” I asked him. He shook his head. “You’re both the same age and you’re both interested in history.” I said and they looked at each other. They were both interested in history and its’ effects on today. Their conversation started up quickly and I smiled. They were both totally interested. I looked to Kori and she was grinning. “Are you a little too happy this morning?” I asked her with a grin. She blushed and looked up into Jayden’s eyes and he held her tight. I smiled at their easy affection and sat down to eat. All the girls were beautiful and it was obvious we were connected. Now hat we knew what each girl had been through, we could support her and we all loved each other. Kori smiled at Iris who was being held gently by Tait. I ate my bread and Hattie came to sit by me. “What’s different?” She asked me. “We know each other a little better.” I said as the guys looked at me for an answer as well. I stood up with my bread in hand and moved to the living room to get away from their probing stares. Richard came in and sat next to me and I snuggled into his side. He got up and I pouted. He went and grabbed the salve and I complained at him as he started to come towards me. I stood up and walked into another room. He followed me and we were running around the house like maniacs before we could even realize what we were doing. I ran out of the house and he followed me. I let my angels’ speed shine and I ran without touching the ground. The girls all laughed and fell into step behind me. We all ran and when we got to the ocean we all dove. We swam out to the middle of the ocean and the guys just stared at us. We swam behind the cliff and let our wings come out. We flew back home. When we got to our old village, the girls stared. We brought our wings in and we walked around. I led them to my old house, which, I guess had been their house at some point as well. We all came in and stared at the still covered walls, the furniture, and we all climbed the staircase together in silence. Each of us was devoted to our own thoughts and nobody dared to say a word. For a while at least. Then I saw something. “What was that?” I asked, pointing to where I’d seen a flash of white. We all stared. An old servant came by and saw us. “What are you doing here?” She demanded. “What are you doing here?” I asked her. “I’m bound to this house, I cannot leave it for more than a few hours.” She said. “I remember you…” She said, staring hard at me. “You’re the first girl!” She said. “Yes, I am.” I said and she fell to her knees. “But that would mean you’ve been alive for five hundred years!” She said. “I’m an angel, what do you expect?” I asked her. She nodded. “And I remember the rest of you as well.” She looked at Kori and her face softened. “Your daughter was as beautiful as you are now. She married to a good man who treated her well her whole life through. I told your mother after you ran away that it was truly her granddaughter. She didn’t believe me till she saw the dark hair, darkening over time the way yours did, and her mouth like yours, so full. She looked absolutely nothing like me and she didn’t have any similar traits to me on the inside either. Eventually she accepted that it was her granddaughter and she trained her to be beautiful and graceful, the way she’d always wanted you to be. She was freer than you though. Her daughters’ daughter is still alive.” She said. She looked at Jasmine. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop him. The curse Saphires’ father put on me, on the house, wouldn’t allow me to save the people that moved in. I’d wanted to kill that man myself when I saw the way he was treating you. I actually grabbed a gun when he started for your mother. When you left and he started raping your sister, I shot him. The curse couldn’t control me then. He was a bad man before you moved here as well. I could tell by the way he looked at you outside of the house.” She said. “Well, I guess you all have a right to be here then.” She said and she drifted around the room, cleaning. “You’re free,” I told her. “The curse still lives. You have force him away.” She said. “Father!” I yelled into the empty house. He didn’t come. “I call you to me!” I yelled. His spirit was dragged out of the shadows. “I came back, I’ve claimed my house, and it’s time for you to leave.” I told him. “I’ll leave when I’m ready!” He yelled at me. “You don’t have a choice anymore.” I said. I grabbed him. “Light, I call you to me! Ease this spirits passing, and if he refuses to pass, make him.” I said. I burned with a light so brilliant that the girls all covered their eyes. I felt his spirit leave, I felt the house empty. I looked to the woman. “Now, you are free.” I told her. Tears formed in her eyes. “You truly are an angel to free a servant bound to you.” She said and faded away. I looked at my angels and they were all sobbing. “Come on. Home isn’t home anymore.” I said and led them all back downstairs. We left the house and we walked. Each girl come out of the house looking like a stronger person to the human eyes, but I saw what they were. They were stronger souls, stronger angels. I led them around the town and we all examined how the village had changed over time. Kori and I were the most shocked. We separated after a while to go to different places and again, the same man who had tried to rape me before came after me. As I was running at a normal human pace, As I was running at a normal human pace, I called thorugh the light to Kori, “I’m getting chased again.” I felt her laughter and she met up with me after a minute. She fell into step behind me and the man grabbed a friend. They kept chasing us so we got the rest of the girls to come join us. They grabbed more friends. I picked up the pace and the girls followed me easily. I brought them onto Isaiah’s lawn. The men stopped chasing us and we collapsed heavily, gasping for breath at having to hold so much of our will and strength. A shadow fell acrost us. I got up and faced the same man who had me at knife point last time. “Hello,” I said uncertainly. “She’s back!” He yelled. Isaiah came out running. His brows raised at the group of women gasping on his lawn. “Get up and run just barely faster than human pace. Get to the woods.” I told all of the girls using the light. We all stood up slowly. They had five men coming out to join us. “Now!” I yelled and we all despersed and I saw Iris get caught. The man had her at knife point and her eyes were wide and afraid. I punched him in the nose and heard his nose break. We ran at a definite angel pace, and we were away from them quickly. We slowed a bit and saw that they were chasing us. I sighed and kept jogging. Iris looked like she wanted to run faster and I told her, “Go ahead, they aren’t going to hurt me.” I said and she ran on ahead looking back at me worried. I kept jogging and they caught up to me after a few minutes, gasping wildly for breath. Isaiah came up in a carriage and jumped out. He grabbed me and put me in the carriage. I hopped back out. “If you want to talk, then you can stay right here.” I said. “And talking is the only thing I’ll do.” I said to make sure he didn’t have a choice. “You owe me money for being on my lawn.” He said. “I didn’t do anything bad to your stupid lawn.” I said and started walking. He grabbed my wrist and I realized that letting them catch me was a bad idea. I yanked my wrist free and started jogging again. He caught up with me easily. He got in front of me and I stopped. “You owe me something.” He said. “I owe you nothing.” I said going around him. He tried to grab for me and I dodged easily and ran to the forest. He followed me in his carriage. The girls were ready to fly. “Into the trees!” I ordered them and we all got high into the trees. The carriage slowed when it got into the forest and they were really searching for us. We all brought our wings in and crept silently through the trees. They were scanning the ground, never thinking that we would be above their heads. “Let’s go to the village again.” I whispered through the light. I heard murmurs of consent all around. They looked up for the first time and they saw a glimmer of my dress. Isaiah started climbing my tree and I swore. He came at me faster. Then he saw me standing there completely balanced. “You can’t run from me.” He said. //I could push you out of the tree. I could fly from you.// I thought darkly. I chastised myself for the first thought. He started creeping closer and I looked down to see his men waiting to catch me. I walked towards him and he smiled. I turned around and I rand and jumped from the branch to catch myself on a branch in the next tree. It broke under me and I caught myself on the branch beneath it. I felt my heart racing though I knew even if I fell out of these trees I wouldn’t get seriously hurt. They were all staring at me wide eyed. I sighed and jumped down lightly and ran like the darkness was behind me. They chased me and when I veered far off the trail and found myself back to where the girls had hidden for centuries I didn’t hesitate. I dove and hid. They passed by me, not noticing this hut and once I was sure they were gone I came out. I ran like an angel to the water. The girls were already there. I laughed and we all hugged. “You’re insane,” Iris said. “Of course,” I agreed. Then Isaiah and his carriage spotted us. “Oh, come on!” I yelled. “Into the ocean.” I told them. They complained about having to wash their dresses but they each dove into the cold depths before me. The carriage came at us with a speed that I could run at if I added a bit of my angels magic. I dove in next and the cold submerged me. I broke the surface again and I swam for the other side of the cliff. Isaiah took off most of him clothes and dove in after us. He was definitely a strong swimmer. I never had been a super strong swimmer. I sighed, tredding water and swam for the other side of the cliff. “You can’t possibly hope to swim the distance between lands!” Isaiah yelled. “No, we’re going to someplace else so we can be on land without being chased!” I yelled back at him. He got back on land and set his men to follow the seastrand. They did and when they were long out of sight we all burst out of the water with our magnificent wings. We sat on top of the cliff, our wings spread and our voices joined in song. I brought my wings in and the rest of the girls did the same. I sang an old ballad, and danced to it with Kori as a partner. We both took turns dancing the man’s part. Each girl sang in a harmony so sweet that they had to dance as well. We each broke off and danced separately and we were all magnificent dancers. Our six voiced choir was obviously a chorus of angels. We sang for a few hours and we relaxed and just sang while lying down for a while. I sat up. “I think it’s time to go home.” I said after another love song. “You just want to see Richard.” Kori said. “And you want to see Jayden.” I said. She blushed. I grinned at her. “You mean, after you pay me.” Isaiah said from behind me. “How long have you been there?” I demanded of him. “I just got here,” He said coming after me. I got up and ran and each girl fell into step behind me. We ran and I sighed as we lost sight of him. “Definitely time to go home.” I said. Iris started up with a sweet ballad of returning home. We each joined her, Kori on melody with her and the rest of us with sweet harmonies. When the song was over I sighed. “They can find us at the beach though.” I said. “I know, where can we go now?” She asked me. “To our old place!” I exclaimed. “We can’t sing there, people would get suspicious.” Jasmine said. I sighed. “That cliff by the beach was nice,” I said. “They’ll all hear us and it’s not hard to find either.” Rose said. “Well, I’m not so fond of sitting in trees right now so what are we going to do?” I asked them. “We should explore!” Abby said with enthusiasm. “We should teach your boy how to dance,” Kori said and we all laughed. “We should go home and figure this out.” I said. Jasmine started singing of loss. We each united her voice in a way that made even the trees shine. It was a sorrowful song but it sounded unbearably sweet. I started a song of spring next. Our voices twined in harmony and melody in a complexity that none of us understood, all we knew was that each girl sang her part in our group. After the final chorus we all relaxed, each using the stomach of the girl next to us as a pillow. “That was…unbelievable.” Isaiah said. We all looked up at him at the same moment and we each groaned. “Go away.” I moaned and got up. The girls followed suit and I got ready to dive. The cliff was maybe twenty feet away from the ocean. There weren’t any rocks at the bottom but it still looked dangerous. “Wait!” He said, coming towards me. I waited. He came to me and took my hand. He led me over to his men. “Sing something,” He said. “I do not sing for the pleasure of anybody.” I said and ripped my hand from his. “But you could be rich!” He said. “I don’t want to be rich. I ran away from rich. I like my life better now.” I said. I ran and I dove off the cliff. I hit the water cleanly and I felt the rest of the girls hit the water and we swam toward the other land. Once he was out of sight I let my wings spread and flew the rest of the way. The girls followed suit again. We got to the beach and we all lay there completely exhausted. “I didn’t have friends like this before now and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” Jasmine said. I nodded. We all fell asleep in the sand. We woke up when somebody yelled my name. I groaned and rolled over. “Saphire!” I recognized the voice now. “Oh, my God, he followed us home!” I said and they all got up. Isaiah was getting out of his boat and I swore. The girls stared at me. “My first husband didn’t care if he swore around me.” I explained. They all shrugged. “Come on,” I said and we all ran. We ran like angels once we were in the forest. When we got to the village we slowed our run to above average human speed. We got in the house and we watched from the window, in simpler dresses. Isaiah found his way into the village and we all hid. He asked Jayden where he could find Saphire. Jayden shrugged, and said he didn’t know where we were. Isaiah got irritated and found Richard. “Where is Saphire?” He asked. “I thought she was in your village.” He said and went back to work. “You don’t even care?” Isaiah said, looking scandalized. “She knows how to take care of herself and she’s with her friends who know how to take care of themselves. They’ll be fine.” He said. I smiled at how well he could deal with this. “Well, she owes me money.” Isaiah said. “For what?” Richard said, turning around to stare at Isaiah. “For trespassing!” Isaiah yelled back. “On what, your grass?” Richard asked. “She shouldn’t have been on my lawn!” Isaiah said. “She was probably running from a guy trying to hurt her! She wouldn’t have been on your lawn unless it was a last resort.” Richard said. “Then she should have explained this to me.” Isaiah said. “If she did now, would you leave her alone?” Richard asked. “I would, if the explanation was good enough and not that they just didn’t want to walk around my land.” Isaiah said. “I’ll find her.” Richard said. He came in the house and saw me immediately. He waved Isaiah over and my feet swayed back and forth, resisting the temptation to run. Isaiah smiled and approached me. “You owe me money.” He said. “Why don’t you ask the guys chasing us for money.” I said and turned back to my bread that was starting to burn. I took it out of the oven and put it on the table. I looked for some spices and couldn’t find them. //Light guide my hands,// I thought. My hands started moving towards a different cabinet and I followed them. I grabbed the spices I needed smiling to myself and sprinkled them on top of my bread. I smelled the spiced bread and decided to put some butter on it. I grabbed some butter and spread it over my bread. I smelled it again and it smelled just like the passing spirit had made it when she had served it to me. “Girls, I made a snack,” I whispered through the light. They all came at the same time with Kori leading them and they all stopped and stared at Isaiah. “Why is he here?” Rose asked. “He’s not causing trouble right now so I don’t have an issue with it. Do any of you?” I asked them. Nobody objected. I got a knife and sliced the bread expertly and handed some to each of them. When they tasted it a tear rolled out of each eye. “Just like she used to make it,” Kori said. I nodded, eating my own bread with a tear coursing down my cheek. We ate and they stared questioningly at us. We didn’t explain. “Why were you on my land?” Isaiah asked, taking a piece of bread. “Some men were chasing us and we were running as fast as we could. We ran onto some grass and they stopped so we rested for a minute and we were going to figure out how we were going to avoid them.” I said. He frowned at me. “What did they look like?” He asked sarcastically. I explained the man who kept chasing me. His eyes got wide and he nodded. “That man is an escaped rapist,” He whispered into Richards ear, not knowing that he was heard by everyone in the room though it was quiet enough that a normal human wouldn’t have heard it. I took another piece of bread and the rest of the girls did too. He nodded. “Tell me where he’s been.” He asked. I told him the place the man kept showing up at. He nodded. He said goodbye to us and left. Jayden walked in and saw Kori. He went over and picked her up and spun her around till she was clutching him for dear life. He grinned and stopped. He put her down on the couch and she leaned against him till her head stopped spinning. When she sat up, he kissed her. Koda walked in and asked Richard about how to fix the creak in his first step. Richard was at a loss in this area but Jasmine knew how to. He stared at her but brought her back to his house to help him. I grinned at her and she stopped. “No way…” She said. He stopped and stared at us. “You set me up!” She yelled at me. I smirked triumphantly. “Here, I’ll write it down.” She said. I sighed and grabbed her arm and dragged her to Koda’s house. “Now, stop being stubborn, you were happy the other day.” I said. She glared at me and I smiled. She helped Koda fix his step and then she sat down on his couch. He sat next to her and she scooted over so that there was the length of the couch between them. I was in the kitchen making bread, again, and I glared at her. “So, Koda, you should tell us about your family.” I said to him. “Well, my mom works here in the village and my dad…died a while ago.” Koda said. I could sense more to the story. “He was abusive to us…we didn’t see it as a loss.” He said. “My dad was abusive too,” Jasmine said. “He tried to kill my mom.” Koda said. He expected fear or sympathy. She one upped him. “My dad succeeded.” She said. He whirled around and stared at her. “I’m so sorry!” He said and he was at her side in an instant. “He tied me up and made me watch as he stabbed her repeatedly. He told me that was what happened when you don’t do as you’re told.” She said. Her hands were shaking at the memory. He held her tight. She crawled into his lap and sobbed into his shoulder. I took my bread out of the oven, it was a bit moist yet, and left them alone. I came home and I heard Jasmines’ whisper. “I needed somebody who would understand. Thank you.” I smiled and plopped onto the couch. “Well, somebody got into some trouble today.” Richard said. He picked me up and brought me upstairs. I laughed and relaxed in his arms. He put me down on the bed and slipped my dress over my head. As he slipped my slip over my head and threw it on the floor, I grabbed a pillow and got comfortable. He walked away from the bed and I pouted. He grabbed the salve and I got up. He pinned me onto the bed and made me hold still. I complained at him a lot but I flipped back onto my stomach and he put it on my back and neck and wherever else I was hurt. I relaxed after a while and as he waited for the salve to sink into my skin he rubbed my back, working out the knots. I sighed deeply and let my eyes droop shut. Some of the men I’d come across would be trying to impress me with poetry right now, but I’d had enough of poetry for one lifetime, from plenty of mouths and voices. It would have annoyed me but he just let me relax into silence. After a while he wiped off the extra salve and made me flip over. He applied the salve on my front where it was needed and he talked to me for a while, not being so overly touchy as many men would have been. I told him about the man who had been chasing me and what Isaiah’s home was like and what I’d done all day. He wiped the extra salve off of me. He helped me into my clothes again and we went down to dinner. As we ate, Koda and Jasmine walked in, talking about history. Jasmine’s face was still slightly puffy from crying, but I could tell that she felt lighter now that she had someone she could tell her worst nightmare come to life to. She smiled at me and I smiled back. They ate and then they went into the living room. I walked in after cleaning up the kitchen and they were kissing. I smiled and started back toward the kitchen. I walked into Kori. “Hi,” I whispered to her. She smiled at me. “What did you do?” She asked me. “I introduced them and gave them both a little bit of a push.” I said to her. “She looks happier and more…healed.” Kori said. I nodded. They broke apart and when they saw us they both looked horrified. I smiled at them. “What’s the worst that I would do?” I asked Jasmine. She took a breath like she was going to say something accusing and then stopped. She knew I wouldn’t do anything bad about it. She kissed him with a fervor that was barely short of violence. I laughed and led Kori out of the living room. She was smiling broadly when Jayden snuck up behind her. “Rah!” He yelled and she jumped so high that her feet left the ground and stayed off the ground. I could see that she was on the verge of letting her wings loose. Jayden picked her up and spun her around. After a couple of spins he put her down and she clung to him to make sure that she couldn’t fall on her face. When her head stopped spinning he held her even tighter and kissed her. She melted into him easily. Iris was snuggled into Tait and their deep connection was obviously timeless. She was three hundred years old and he only twenty four. 