Breaking Away (The Man in the Shadows) (12 page)

First his fingers, then his arms, then his entire body began to tremble and shake with a rage as large as an earthquake. “What choice do I have?” he asked the air around him, his voice taking on a vibrato in his trembling stupor. He surely didn’t want his High Lord to find out what he had done, and he knew that even though he said he wanted to die, he didn’t really want to be subjected to death... he was young and had so much more to accomplish... His left eye began to twitch as the magnitude of his one, solitary action hit him like an avalanche. He would have to live a lie for all eternity to protect himself and his honor.

Honor.
He had no honor left. His soul could turn black for all it mattered, he was just as evil as the dark ones that hid in the cracks, in the forgotten depths of the forest. In the shadows.

Chapter Five

Ethan awoke not by the rank smell of mildew, deafening silence, the swirling darkness he had found himself in, or the tortured screams of Zareh, no... but by sunlight.

He sat up with a start, astonished by his locale. Skeptical, he turned his head around slowly to take it all in. Yellow sunshine greeted his frightened eyes. A soft breeze rustled the vibrant green leaves and vines that were all around him. The gentle chirp of birds peacefully glided in and out of the trees and bushes, in one ear and out the other, like a surround sound stereo system.

Touching his hands to the ground where he sat, he felt warm grass rather than the cold, slimy stone of whatever dark cell to which he had been banished. Still confused, he then brought his hands up to his face. He seemed real enough, and so did the grass, and the fresh air, and the happiness that welled up in his stomach.

A glare caught his eye off to the left, and to his surprise there on the ground next to him was his acoustic guitar. As usual, it called to him, begged to be strummed and played; a painter might have a similar feeling sitting in front of a palette full of color. Thinking this was all an elaborate trap, or some sort of holographic mirage, he yelled at the top of his lungs, “WHAT THE FUCK?!”

Off in the distance, as if a residential neighborhood was nearby, he heard someone call, full of discontent, “Shut up!”

Amazed, he knew he was home. “Wow, nothing like an insult to welcome me back from... wherever I was...”

Getting to his feet, he stretched to his full height, lifting his hands up above his head. For some reason he felt like he had been sitting in the same position for an eternity, completely stiff, almost like tangles of dust and cobwebs were falling off of him while he moved. Quickly he felt his face again, but this time to make sure he was still 25 years old, and not suddenly 65. Sure enough, he hadn’t aged unexpectedly, rapidly.

Moving slowly towards his beckoning guitar, he noticed a movement close at hand. Not human... no. It started off in the distance, vague, unfamiliar. Working its way closer to him, like a burglar stalking in the night, it was like the entire landscape was flipping over, changing color. Now more color was bursting around him, and in that split second he realized just where he was: a rose garden. And in that very instant, every single rose in the entire vicinity bloomed synchronously, like an a crop duster had just flown over and dropped a million gallons of red and pink paint atop the lush green foliage. Shocked, awestruck, an involuntary smile appeared on his face.

“Where am I?” he asked himself out of nowhere. Peculiarly, his voice dropped off as if his head was in a bucket.

Treading lightly, reinvigorated, he reached his guitar, and a force that wasn’t quite his own took over his hands. Picking it up, he felt as if his soul was pulling and stretching out of his body, like gum off the bottom of a shoe. A beautiful unfamiliar song radiated off of the strings as his fingers plucked each one, resonating through the wooden body of the guitar and out over all of the freshly erupted blooms. Typically, he wrote and played upbeat songs, mostly in the key of C major. However, this one had a sharp intonation to it, he guessed it was in D minor; beautiful yet sad, full of sorrow and misery. He no longer wondered where he was, but he did wonder if he’d remember this melody, the order of notes, and the mysterious patterns so he could play it for his band mates. It might just become their one hit wonder.

The garden around him began to morph as he played, and the dirt beneath his feet began to rumble and move. Still, he kept playing his melancholy tune, raising a suspicious eyebrow to the sky as he did, which was curiously a pastel shade of purple. The rumbling became more intense and hence harder to ignore, shaking the brain around in his skull. His vision began to blur, yet he played still. A moment later, he took heed of separate and ever re-spawning spots on the ground. For a great distance around him, it began to bulge upwards, the soft soil cracking and moving aside, making way for... something. Like a dolphin coming up for air from a vast and unending ocean, branches of great length and girth began showing themselves, dirt falling off of the new, tiny leaves like potatoes off of a moving wagon. Ethan noted that these were not just branches, but branches attached to full grown trees. They rumbled higher and higher, the trunks pushing out of the ground with great speed and ferocity, like capacious statues being thrust into the sky.

Stopping his vigorous strumming suddenly, he stood up and twirled around in a circle, again, and again until he felt dizzy. The trees were in a calculated pattern, forming a mighty circle all the way around the area where Ethan sat, as if his song had coaxed them out of hiding, and they stood around him hoping for a peek of his skill. The trees towered so high that they almost consumed the sun entirely, casting him within a cool, welcoming shadow. Ethan swallowed, unsure of himself, and ran his hand through his long hair, not knowing precisely where he was, but somehow content with his circumstances nonetheless. Sitting on the grass again, he tilted his body in reverse until he was lying amongst the newly sprouted blades that tickled his arms, back, and neck. He laid still, letting the wind tease his eyes shut.

He was practically naked. How had he not noticed this right away? The blades of grass caressed every bare pore that was revealed to the elements. He wore jeans, but that was all. Normally, being the fashion conscious guy that he was, he’d be concerned where his shirt and jacket had gone, but at this moment, in the now, he just didn’t care. The only thing he cared about was how great he felt in this spot in the wilderness, the one in which he gratefully found himself. Savoring the scent of roses that drifted to his nose, he relaxed; it was all around him, like the air was made of rose petals.

“Why, hello,” a gentle female voice greeted him seductively. He knew that voice. “How did I know I’d find you in this place?” She laughed, her pleasant voice sounding pert. “Lying here, like sleeping beauty...”

Delighted, he rolled onto his side, and his breath was taken away by her glowing radiance. Her beauty slapped the smile off of his face, her brilliance striking him dumb. He had never seen her so beautiful, and he was utterly entranced. Her black hair, ordinarily worn straight, was pulled back from her face to reveal her ear, and held in place by a single red rose. Dazzling red lipstick adorned her lips, and her jade eyes were outlined in pure black. Her eyelashes soared from her eyes like black birds, and her skin glowed flawlessly like freshly fallen snow. In all the years he had known her, she had never worn an elegant dress. Now, she wore a long, flowing strapless gown that hugged her hips and bust perfectly. She was simply resplendent.

Breathlessly, he implored, “Maika?”

Laughing pleasantly, she walked through the murky shroud of flora towards him, her voice like the singing temptation of Sirens out at sea. His compliments had gratified her, and her shoulders fell back slightly, unwinding. “Yes, it’s me,” she answered. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

“Have you?” Ethan felt as if he was shrinking in the glorious grandiose vision of her. Humbled and thrilled, he continued, “I thought you didn’t want to see me...”

“Didn’t
want
to see you?” She laughed again, her jewel lips parting to reveal her flawless smile. “Why would you say such a thing? I’ve longed to be with you since the day we met.”

It was Ethan’s turn to laugh as he said, unthinking, “I doubt that.”

Still walking towards him, her feet bare, flattening the grass beneath them, her long dress rubbing on her toes, she continued, “Oh, yes... why do you think I tried to kiss you? Because I was drunk?” Smirking, she reached where he was sprawled out on the ground, halting. “No, it’s because I’ve lusted after you for so long... I had thought maybe, just maybe, you felt the same.”

Those words made the corners of her impeccable lips angle down in a pout. The red hew only accentuated her disappointment, her innocence, her loveliness. Feeling the need to comfort her, to tell her she was wrong, and yes, of course he felt the same, it’s only... only,
something
stood in the way... he vaulted to his feet.

Miscalculating how close she had come to him, they were now literally face to face, his bare chest pressed up against her bosom. Yearning taking over him, he couldn’t help but place his hands on her lower back, feeling through the thin fabric of her dress and to her skin.

“Maika... I love you.” The words fell out of his mouth like rain from the firmament, but this time he didn’t feel regret for saying them. He said these very words once before, when he knew she wouldn’t be able to hear them, but now he wanted to declare it to the world. He wanted to shout it, regardless of what the rude shouting neighbors had to say, regardless of what she might say, regardless of what the Père had to say. He repeated, “I love you.”

Maika’s eyes locked with his, and wouldn’t let go. Her look of disappointment evaporated like steam off of cup of hot tea, and her smile grabbed his soul by the collar, and thrust him into her, like being tossed into the deep end of a pool. A strange feeling overtook him, like he was queasy and disoriented. The most striking feature of this feeling was the perception that not only his thoughts were reeling in his head, but so were hers. And vice versa. Their souls had literally merged, their thoughts intermingled.

Tracing the outline of her lean back, he ran his hands up the length of her body, pressing his fingers firmly to her skin, with no regard for messing up the configuration of her dress. Maika’s hands found their way to his face, and in an instant their lips were together, a volcano erupting between them. New yet familiar, that heat came over him again, making him flush hot and exhale sharply; his lust for her grew exponentially knowing that he had no restrictions. At first wondering if she could hear
his
thoughts, then relishing in the thought of it, he twirled her around in the shadows of the trees, her dress flying out like a boat’s sails in a flurry of wind.

Hearing her thoughts, she clearly said,
Kiss me with all the passion of the world.
Titillated by knowing her exact thoughts, he pressed his lips to hers firmly, and a giggle of pleasure came from her, muffled by the pressure. His tongue found hers; he couldn’t believe that he was savoring every part of her.
Believe it
, her thought rang out in his head.

Falling back on the grass, she ran her hands down over his unclothed chest, and thereafter over his biceps. Her lipstick was smeared over her mouth and cheek, as well as all over his mouth and chin, deep and unbridled. The rose fell out of her hair then, letting it escape like a curtain caught in a breeze coming through a window. He wasn’t used to having someone literally hear his inner most thoughts, yet the idea that ran across his mind was,
I want her right here, right now...

Backing her face from his, their breathing heavy and heaving, her fingers found their way to his hair again, but this time she grasped it in her fist fervidly, and she sighed, “Take me...”

Sexual desire taking him over, he clumsily began to hike her dress up, higher and higher, revealing her long, slender legs. At the same time, she was tearing at the button and zipper of his jeans. His mind reeling, he thought,
I can’t believe this is happening... My soulmate! We’ve denied our attraction this whole time but I knew it was right...
He stopped himself as his brain almost revealed the reason he hadn’t asked her out on a date all those years ago.

“Take me now,” she murmured, looking directly into his eyes, then the lids fluttered shut languidly.

Shaking from side to side, he looked at Maika to see if she was distracted by some sort of external jolting motion, but her eyes were still shut, her cheeks flushed, waiting. He couldn’t help but to have his attention diverted by this, seeing as a circular formation of trees had sprouted up out of nowhere with a similar earth shaking earlier. “Maika, what’s going on?” he found himself saying, as the shaking became more violent. He looked down at her, but she didn’t seem to notice that the was earth moving from side to side, the look of longing and joy still on her face. “Maika, what’s happening?”

“Ethan.” The voice startled him, and he toppled over, falling to the ground. He looked over to see if Maika was okay, but she had vanished. Not only that, but everything had vanished. Blackness began to take over his vision, blurring it, as if he was underwater, sinking deeper and deeper until he couldn’t see a thing or move.

“MAIKA!” Ethan wailed, disorientation and alarm littering his tone.