Path of the Sinned [FANTASMICAL 2023]

The Charm of a Witch (WattpadWitches)

Date Unknown

I cannot help but think Baalam is mischievous. I knew at once I was above ground and in the forest just outside Paris. But as soon as I was conscious of my surroundings, I saw before me a beautiful woman. At the sight of her raven-hair and tight-fitting apparel, I thought she might be my Lilith. But when she turned at the sound of my voice, I couldn't hide my disappointment.

She must have known whom I really sought, for she laughed lightly and cast a spell upon me. I guessed the spell was to make herself more enticing to me. She needn't have bothered, but I respect her humility.

She told me she was Elaine, witch of the Gironde, and that she had been waiting for me. She had thought I would come sooner but my exploits dictated otherwise.

"What would you have me do?" I asked, "Perhaps if you had told me--"

"I did," she remarked, as her fingers fidgeted with my collar, "but every time, the voices beyond called you away from me."

I told her I never heard any voices.

"You didn't here," she touched my forehead, "But here, well, that's another story..."

Her finger wormed through the buttons of my cassock to tap over my heart. I smiled and drew back. 

"Our story ends here, Madame."

I attempted to leave her. She pursued me and pressed her body against mine. I was pushed against an oak. 

"So soon?" she asked, toying with my hair, her breath hot on my skin. "I've waited so long..."

I should have been angry or even worried, but the whole thing left me greatly amused. She kissed my neck and chin, but I raised my face so that she could not claim my lips.

She groaned angrily, pushing away from me. "You are cruel, Cedric Sanguiness."  

"And you're not?" I teased, "Dangling such forbidden fruit before a man of God." I clicked my tongue. "You're a shameless woman."

"And you fear the brand of priesthood," she sneered. "That's why you fail again and again."

I couldn't help but enjoy her candor, even if I found it strange to be such an open book before her.

"But still, as a man of God," she went on, undoing the laces of her corset, "you are duty bound to marvel at His creation."

The corset dropped to the ground as she opened her dress. The light material hung about her arms before it, too, fell from her body. 

"Tell me," the witch said, "do you marvel, deacon?"

Heat flushed my face, but I determined to act with poise. After all, Elaine spoke true. It was my calling to wonder at the beauty God brought to life. And beautiful she was. 

"I do marvel," I said, purposefully relaxing my stance. "Surely I would do the Creator a disservice if I did not."

Elaine approached me, her lithe body bathed in the golden sunset bleeding through the trees. She took my hand and placed it on her waist. Her skin was smooth and warm, almost a drop of sunset in itself.

I had never touched a woman's body before. Somehow it felt...natural to. Like catching a snowflake on the tip of your finger. Or letting the fieldgrass tickle your palm as you walk through it.

My mind drifted to Lilith. Would I ever touch her? Or would she withhold that from me even if I found her?

Elaine's brow furrowed. "You're thinking of her, aren't you?" 

Shaken from my thoughts, I drew her to myself. Her body pressed against the folds on my cassock, her bosom warm against mine. 

"Yes," I admitted. "But she has been on my mind for many months now."

She smirked, "As you have on mine, deacon. I saw your debacle. My magic has been with you ever since."

"I doubt that greatly," I smiled.

She wrapped her arms around my neck. "Why do you think Baalam spared your life? It wasn't for Uriel's sake...nor Lilith's."

Her skin felt soft in my hands. Her body nestled against me like a rabbit seeking shelter from the storm. I knew she wanted to tempt me to stay with her. 

"I have to go, Madame," I said, "I've walked this path for so long. Would you have me abandon it now?"

"Yes," she entreated, "Leave her alone, Sanguiness. She's not real, not in the way you and I are. And she cannot be. Even if she loved you in return, she cannot be."

"But you can?" I asked.

She started to answer, but no words came. I felt a sorcerous power pulsing from her hands, and I couldn't help but smile. Perhaps in my own way, I pitied that she would go this far for a man she did not know.

With one arm around her back, I took her hand in my own. Slowly I stepped back and forth, side by side. 

I saw her confusion, but she kept pace with me, her bare feet in step with my boots. The magic she wove hung in the air like a delicate mist. The forest breathed upon us but we hardly noticed.

"Why do you do this, Elaine of the Gironde?" I wondered. "I do not know you, yet you pursue me?"

She smiled at my question, though her lips trembled and her eyes grew moist with tears. 

"Wouldn't you understand such a pursuit?"

"I have seen her--"

"And I saw you," she said sadly, "A deacon who heard my last confession, who lied to give a dying woman hope. The hope to come back from death's door."

Her deep blue eyes gazed up into mine. And I remembered, remembered the woman wasting away in a hovel, who begged for a priest when I was the only one there. 

How far I had fallen since then. I was not the man she had seen. Not anymore.

"Elaine--"

She buried her face against my neck. I felt the war within her; I prayed a spell of my own as I held her close. Until I sensed resignation fall over her.

She drew back.

"Come back," she whispered. "Please..."

Then she fled into the forest, leaving me alone