Three days passed and she refused to move. She ignored him when he spoke to her and she ignored the meals he brought to her. He even begged her to at least eat and keep up her strength but she was busy thinking. She wanted out of all this, she wanted her life back even if that was in the village that turned their backs on her. She wanted to see her mother again.
“My father is coming tomorrow.” He eventually said to her and she closed her eyelids. She didn’t want to see his face in her peripherals anymore. She didn’t want to see the window boards, she wanted to cry. She could hear the sand in the hourglass ticking down her time and now with the arrival of his father her time was further running out.
She did not cry she knew there was no point but she did not move either. What was the point in that? Why should she try to occupy her time and while away more precious hours? She was savouring every second of her thoughts - her human thoughts - before they became the thoughts of a monster and she wanted blood to stay alive, and when she would not stare at the boards in the bid to see outside but as a creature of the night they would be a good thing for her and in her monsters mind she would be grateful they were up.
Perttu’s heart was breaking. He couldn’t’ get her to respond to him and he had taken to spending as much time as his heart allowed knelt in front of her talking to her but when it got too painful to have his Bride, his mate, ignore him to such an extent he left to go to his attic. No longer did he go to his private floor. It wasn’t his anymore it was theirs and he couldn’t walk in without seeing Lily in his mind or glancing over to the painting she had done, or even the chair she had fallen asleep in when he came back with clothes for her.
He locked himself in his attic with the bare walls and wooden floor that had dust all over it. It mirrored his mood and he took in the dark space and was tempted to board the windows of this place in. Instead as it was early morning, he gazed out at the beauty. The sun was only just rising so it was not too strong but he still blinked numerous times before he could adjust to such a strong and painful light. He had no idea how to rectify the situation and he was slowly following her into a depression he couldn’t shake. Mind you he had been slowly falling into the depression for years. He didn’t love his life like others of his kind did. She had given him hope when she came to house, she had been everything to him, and now that his hope was fading away he was back to that dark place again. Always the dark. Never the light. How could he welcome her into this life as well? Especially since she didn’t want it?
Eventually he left his attic and checked once more on Lily, no change, but he hadn’t expected any. He left her to her thoughts and walked down the stairs, his legs were numb to an extent and his steps were robotic, but he got to his room and he went to sleep for the day. Let the sun come out, let him miss the beautiful sight and when it was dark once more he would awaken and his father would arrive…
The door bell was loud, it woke her from her daze it was that loud and low as it echoed throughout the entire mansion. She had decided she would not move from her chair and she would not see this old man who was to be her father in law, so to speak. She would be around him as she was around Perttu. She moved her head back the inch it had moved so it was tilted to the left as she stared at the window boards. She knew when he walked in; bizarrely she heard his footsteps on the smooth stone floor – she had never heard Perttu’s. It frightened her.
“Father.” Perttu greeted. His father had a greying little beard, though it was clipped and shaped perfectly. The old man’s eyebrows were furrowed and his elbow bent, in the fold was the dainty hand of his Bride. Of Perttu’s step mother.
“Perttu. It is good to see you, but are standing here alone. The village kept their side of the bargain did they not?”
“They did, but not as we would have wanted it. They brought her to me chained and starved, wild looking and bruised. She was terrified, father, she had no idea my real intention.”
“I take it that is why she is not here?”
“Other things have happened.”
“Come and tell me, Berneice dear, I want you to stay today with my son.”
She heard muffled voices downstairs and knew they were talking, catching up on things while they had been away from each other, Lily merely blocked the sounds from her mind, until she noticed that there was no muffled talking anymore.
She nearly jumped from her chair when the door opened and that eerie footstep entered the room, it was not Perttu’s.
“Lily, my dear, so nice to see you. Get up, get dressed and washed, we are going out.” That caught her attention. She slowly moved her head from left to right and stared at the man. He was groomed well and even in age he looked powerful and full of authority. She wanted to fear him but for the crinkle at the corner of his eyes. He looked menacing but she couldn’t be afraid. He didn’t mean her harm, she could feel his pure intention. “Sir?”
“Father, would be a nice term but I understand if that is too soon. Sir is not an option however. You may call me Adon if Father is too much for you.”
She continued to look at him, wondering what this was about. She did not move.
“It has come to my attention that my son has yet to take you out of this house. He is currently entertaining my wife, so I will do the honours.” Still looking at him as if he had two heads she raised her eyebrows. “I don’t want to go out.” She replied stubbornly. She expected him to get angry then, to yell at her or at the least frown. What she didn’t expect was that he threw his head back and burst out laughing. And she was completely stunned.
“You fool no one little girl. Your staring at those boards as though you could burn a hole in them and run free. Come on trapped tiger, get washed, your hair needs it.”
Chuckling he left the room, leaving her feeling like a three year old girl who had just stomped her foot and stuck her bottom lip out and she was embarrassed that he commented on her hair. She didn’t grumble anymore she swung her legs off the arm of the chair and slowly got up making her way to the bathtub which as always was filled with warm water. She wondered when Perttu had filled it, she didn’t remember him bringing water in through the bedroom, but then again she had not really paid attention to him.
The water felt good on her body, days of not washing only now felt disgusting when she felt the water lap at her skin and remove the dirt and sweat from off her body. She wondered vaguely if her unclean state had maybe put Perttu off her, but then again, three days wasn’t enough to have her smelling terrible and she hadn’t exactly moved so she doubted she was hideous just yet.
She scrubbed at her hair and used the soap twice in order to get it completely clean and she hoped it looked alright. Wrapping herself in a towel she donned a random dress that was closest to her, one in the style from the village with its wide skirts. She found her hair pins and started to pin her hair up away from her neck. Just as she had put the last pin into her hair the door burst open and there stood her father in law.
“Ah, I timed it just right I see. Well come on lass, Berneice has decided to make you a meal while we are out, you can meet her on our return. She is excited to see you.”
Awkwardly she took the arm of Adon and let him lead her out of the room, he gently motioned for her to go first when they got the stairs and he walked rather close to her, always ready to maybe catch her if she should stumble. Very over protective but she found she actually liked it. She felt safe in this man’s presence. He was tall, and while she had called him an old man due to the colouring of his hair (black with small streaks of grey in it) he was a gentleman of presence. Tall, and filled out, she could tell he had muscles underneath his suit. He looked wealthy as well. His hair was combed back, she could see the comb teeth pattern on the top of his head.
Perttu or his step mother was nowhere to be seen when she made it to the bottom of the stairs and Adon was ushering her out of the mansion. When the door opened she couldn’t help but take a full breath in. It was as if she hadn’t breathed for days. The rush of fresh air into her lungs was cold and it woke her up, brought a smile to her face and she welcomed the feel of the cold night air.
“I’ll make sure he takes you out more often.” Adon mumbled as he led her down the path and past the forest. She took the time to admire her surroundings; she lived in a beautiful place it was full of wild flowers, some even looked exotic and she wondered if they would survive the chill and snow that often killed the plants and even animals around.
Adon walked slowly, letting her spend the time she wanted in looked at the snow that clung to the bare branches, fluffy outlines to the brown wood. She stopped to stare at some berries, little red ones that the birds would not doubt eat. They were so bright amongst the darkened world. It was not yet the darkest past of the night but that was slowly creeping in around them. Lily however barely noticed, so pleased was she to be outside for once. She heard the trickling of water and paused wanting to go to it, but Adon carried on walking, seemingly taking her away from the water. Through many more trees they walked, their feet crunching on the powdery substance covering the floor. The snow was very thick and she wondered at making a snowman; the children of the village had done that every year she was there, coming out in big coats and thick knitted scarves with little mittens covering their hands. They had shaped the snow into little balls and threw them and then rolled the snow into one big giant ball of a body and attached a head to it. Pebbles had always been found and a big smiley face had been pushed into the snow with the black pebbles. She never thought she would miss such a cold event but now she did. She missed the smiles and the innocence that came with childish games. She missed the freedom it spoke of to run around and play and explore new areas for stones for inconsequential reasons.
She almost gasped when she was suddenly right in front of a water feature, in the middle of the trees. The sound of rushing water took over her senses and she even smelled the clean scent of the water. Adon had taken her right to the water, even when she thought he wouldn’t.
“It is hard to get to the water feature, Perttu made it that way. He likes his things to remain private and unmarred. I still remember his face of concentration when he showed me it the first time. He was twelve years old when he created this and he has shown no one but me. And now I show you.”
“Why have you brought me here?”
“What do you see when you look at the feature?”
She let go of his arm and walked up to it. Carved from stone, grey, thick stone, was a basin, an oval forming a deep bowl that rested on a pedestal. The rim of the basin had little gaps in it that the water poured out from and fell forming a pattern. The water fell into a pool at the bottom, splashing down into the depths and created little circles where the water hit the surface. Behind the basin that was so tall it reached above her head was the extraordinary thing about the water feature. Crawling up the pedestal leg, like a snake was root and it was as thick as rope winding slowly around and upwards to be joined by many more. There they interlocked and created a design of intricacy until it wound its way to the top of the basin and fanned out to join together in one thick stem and from the stem was the image of one of the exotic flowers she had seen earlier.
It was still made of the grey stone, but the petals were fanned out, and in layers they bloomed open, ten petals there was, spreading out to one side of the basin. That caught her eyes and the sound of the water caught her ears.
“Beauty.” She replied.
“Even though he did not paint it?”
“Eh?”
She looked at the man stood behind her wearing a little smile. “I asked him if he was going to paint it when he showed me his master piece. He looked offended. Why would that be?”
“It doesn’t need painting.” She replied. “It’s beautiful the way it is.”
“But it isn’t colourful.”
“Doesn’t need to be,” She mumbled stepping closer to the water to lightly brush her hand across the surface of the pool. She longed to sit on the edge and let her feet dip into it while she sat back and look upwards at the flower and basin. She could imagine standing in the pool and letting the water pour onto her and Perttu’s head.
Her and Perttu? She could see them both standing in the pool, enjoying the water while his artwork was positioned over them and they were laughing underneath it. She swallowed hard and turned to Adon.
“Doesn’t need to be colourful. That’s the thing my dear. The darkness will take one thing from you, but there is still beauty in this world of ours. There will always be beauty. Perttu had never known the bright colours of the day so he did not paint his water feature, he left it grey, he left it as he knew the world to be, but he still made the most beautiful thing. In remembrance of his mother he build this but he built it with the intention of showing his Bride. Of creating a space where he could bring her and it would no longer be only his private space, he would share it with one other. I was allowed a glimpse, you Lily – you are allowed a lifetime to come here and enjoy it. Because he made it for you. He made a beautiful place for his Bride, using the skills his mother had taught him.”
Stunned she gazed another minute at the beauty in front of her but then she noticed that Adon had gone and she turned and hurried after him, taking one last glimpse at what Perttu had made.
“Twelve?” She yelled out to the darkness around her, hoping Adon would come back for her. A hand suddenly reached out and grabbed her shoulder from behind and he appeared smiling, “in human equivalence.” He grinned.