The Great Wide Somewhere

Chapter 6

With a single glance and vivid memory of my father's cottage, I was home. The clear air of Adan's Provincia was replaced with the strangled bitterness of Earth air.

"Daddy?" I hollered as I burst through the front door. My eyes landed on him and Luke. My father's eyes were rimmed in red and his face aged by anguish.

"I've gone mad." My father's eyes grew wide as though he were looking upon an apparition.

"Then we share in the madness," Luke managed through his own ashen gaze.

"I'm home." I looked between their faces.

"You're gone. We just got the word. You were captured by a ruthless beast and certainly dead by now." As Luke spoke, he rose as though I were going to morph into a beast myself.

"No, he is not a beast. He is a gentle soul that cares for an entire universe. Heavy are his shoulders. But he is not a beast. He has allowed me a visit."

"Allowed? So, you are tether to him not by will." Luke had my shoulders now, inspecting me for scars.

"I am tethered to his planet, but only by will. It is a fascinating planet with so much to learn and explore."

Luke pulled me deep into his arms. "My Bell, my beautiful, fascinated Bell." He murmured before he pulled away and turned to my father, "she is back, our Rosa is back."

Life flooded my father's face again, obscuring that Luke had staked his ownership of me.

"My Rosa," my dad lept from his seat and pulled me into his arms. "I had thought I had lost my light."

I spent the next few days in the beam of constant attention from my father and Luke. When my father was at work, Luke was there.

"Don't you need to go to work?"

"Perk of the last name. Gaston's can choose their schedule," it was a crude admission that he hid behind a tease. "What shall we do today?"

"I was going to go to the woods, but I know you don't care for my exploration. I can go alone."

"No," he stiffened as the word hit like a bullet. "I will come with you."

I did not want the company but tried to be patient with his raw response to my near-death. Still, I found myself growing frustrated as he thrashed through the bushes beside me.

"Careful, the bushes have never harmed you," I cautioned.

"Of course not," he laughed.

I found the tree I had been looking for, the one my thoughts has slipped to on Provincia. It was an old Elm tree that sprawled and tangled with other nearby trees. I had always struggled to climb it in my youth. I laid a hand gently on the trunk and felt the vibrations soar through me. I softly reached for a low-hanging branch and felt it bow to me helpfully. With hardly a leap, the branch cradled me and lifted me. I continued up the tree until I was overlooking the whole forest.

I glanced down to see Luke still struggling to conquer the lowest branch and laughed to myself, but then he gave the trunk a frustrated kick that surged through the tree.

"Hey, do not harm this tree," I called down.

"It's just a tree, Bell. Come down here before you hurt yourself," his annoyance permeated his words.

I sighed, knowing I would get no peace in his company, and began to descend the tree.

"Bell, when are you going to put your childish ways behind you," he thinly veiled his irritation with a smile that felt more like a grimace.

"Childish ways?"

"Don't you think it is time to settle down?"

"No, I do not think it is time to settle down. I have dreams to accomplish."

"Bell, I can't wait much longer for you to grow-up. You know I plan to make you my bride." His voice was confident as though he had just bestowed the highest of compliments.

"And if I do not long to be a bride?"

"That is your immaturity speaking. Your father has already given me his blessing. It's time." His hand swiped at my waist, gathering me in a bear-like grasp and pulling me unwillingly into him.

"Let go of me, Luke. I do not think of you that way, and I do not want to be a bride."

"You can't say no to me."

His face sunk closer to me with intention, and just as he was about to force his lips on mine, I drove my heel into his foot. His grasp released me and I did not wait for any further reaction. I ran home, arriving out of breath.

"Rosa, are you ok?"

"Luke, he tried to... he wants to..." I couldn't get the words out to my father, but I didn't need to; he already knew.

"Luke is a well-positioned man from a good family. I have given my blessing to him."

"Father, I told you I am to return to Provincia. How dare you attempt to contrive a life for me?"

"You owe nothing to that beast. He is a captor, not a teacher."

"You are the captor. Luke is the beast." As I spoke, I pulled the mirror from my pocket and let my mind wander to what I desired. In a heated flash, I was back in the great cavernous hall. "Adan," I called out into the silence. But all that returned was my echo.

I raced down the long hall and burst into the garden expecting to be welcomed by the warm sun and teasing blooms, but the garden was blanketed with darkness, and the joyful flowers that had teased my fingertips were now gnarled and twisted branches.

"No," escaped from my lips. "This is not a reflection of me." I tried to peer through the inky darkness. "Adan," I called out again as tears of fear fell from my eyes.

From my will, a path cleared. I clamored down it until I found him. He was heaped on the ground. "Adan!" I dropped to my knees by his side. "Are you sick?" I turned him in my arms and pulled his head to my lap.

"Rosa?" His words came through labored breaths.

"I'm here, Adan. What has happened?"

"You will take over now. Bring your love here; carry on for me."

"No, we will carry on together."

"There is no carrying on together." He struggled to raise a hand to my cheeks. "Tears."

"For you, Adan; these tears are for you."

"I saw you. I feared I was losing you while you were away, that you wouldn't return. So, I looked in on you. I know it was unfair, but I saw you in the arms of another. The one you intend on marrying."

"No, Adan, that was not what you saw."

"I want your happiness." A whisper was all he could muster as a warm breeze began to twirl around us.

"I want you," it came as barely a whisper lost in the wind.

But as I spoke, Adan's eyes closed on me, and his breath began to falter.

"No, I want you," I let my face drop, resting my forehead on his. "You are kind and knowledgeable. Yours is the face of beauty. I want you."

I clenched my eyes tightly, willing the desire. I knew it was selfish. It would tax the giving planet, but I needed Adan. A warm breeze blanketed us; the cool, damp soil began to warm.

"Rosa," it a weak call.

"I love you, Adan."

A strength surged around us, filling him. His arms rose to me with vigor and pulled me to him.

"I love you, Adan," I called again, willing more strength to fill him.

"The beast, you love the beast." As he spoke, he tipped my face up. I open my eyes to be flooded with Adan's scarred face and deep black eyes. "The mirror," he managed. I pulled it from my pocket and held it up to him. "I am still a beast to you. This reflection is what you see."

"This reflection is you. This reflection is the man I love. There is no beast here."