XI :: A Darker Side

▲▼▲▼

MORBID BITE

Chapter Eleven :: A Darker Side

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

▲▼▲▼

A hot breeze ran through the centre of the village. Very few people wandered the streets and it was almost silent, except for the constant buzzing from the village tavern that ironically was placed next to the church. Outside the tavern stood two thoroughbred horses; their black and white coats shimmering in the sunlight, their tails waving vigorously to ward off the flies that swarmed around their rears. Inside, the bar was full of life, men drank while the whores danced around them in bright pink dresses, their pushed-up chests - almost falling from their clothes. Their faces were smothered in layers of cheap white tar, along with crude make-up that lay plastered on their grinning red lips like bright incisive cherries.

Nicholas and Sébastien sat in the very corner talking in hushed voices. The alcoholic haze that lay across the room almost hid the two men who would have stuck out like lions among mice. Sébastien held a drink that he occasionally brought up to his lips to take a delicate sip. His concentration hanging on each word Nicholas muttered, not even the whores that danced around him with great eagerness, could tear him away from his friends' disputes. Nicholas tapped his ringed fingers on the table in a fast beat, his eyes constantly flittering between the ale in Seb's beaker and the large barrel that held litres of the abhorrent liqueur.

The tavern owner slandered over, her huge body squeezing between the tightly packed tables. She'd painted her round plump face with her best make-up. She had pretty features, but after years of too much alcohol and unhealthy mercury concealing, she had begun to look like an old blood hound whose face contained folds and wrinkles in all the wrong places

"Good afternoon gentlemen," she tried her best to hide her common accent, "would you like anything else, we have food and some very good whiskey..."

"No thank you Francette," Sébastien answered sharply, his voice stern and harsh, making the woman turn up her nose in discouragement.

Nicholas sighed, running his hands through his greasy hair a worried expression covering his face. He had run the conversation with Belle a thousand times through his head and he could not draw an answer.

"Do you think she will say yes?" Sébastien asked, leaning back and picking up his cup to allow Francette to clean the table.

"I am not sure." Nicholas closed his eyes and clenched in jaw. He could not cope with the uncertainty, the waiting "She just said she had a lot to think about."

"She means no, monsieur," Francette butted in, her lips pursed as she filled up Sébastien's cup.

"You think?" Nicholas asked, all the colour draining from his face.

"She's one of those girls!" A male voice supplied from the other side of the stall. A man stood up his tight black curls wet with sweat and his face was dripping as he staggered around the bench to push in next to Nicholas, pulling a whore behind him.

"One of those girls?" Nicholas asked, as he backed away from the drunken man who had now moved the wench to sit on his lap.

"The ones that lead you one with promise of more but when you offer it, it's all 'oh I can't I'm sorry I'm promised for another, oh sorry'" he imitated a girly laugh as he burrowed his face into the neck of the laughing woman in front of him. "Or 'I only saw you as a friend.'" The bitterness was clear in his voice.

"Oh." Nicholas looked down at his folded hands as he gulped down the sickness that rose in his chest.

"Yeah. It seems every class has them." The man laughed, a cruel deep sound that burrowed a hidden hate.

"Don't be so horrible, George." The whore teasingly hit him on the head and he kissed her neck. "For all y' know she could just be confused or unsure what she wants." The woman turned her head to look at Nicholas her eyes sincere but vacant like her true self had been lost a long time ago.

"Ah!" George spat. "Like girls don't know what they want," he lustily said as he picked up the woman in his lap and carried her away. As her laughter died into moans, Nicholas swallowed again, his hope lost, his heat beating faster than it had in a long time. His eyes caught a glimpse of Sébastian's full cup of ale. His heart and his brain battled against dominance over his sobriety. But his torn emotions won, and he grabbed the ale unable to supress the edge.

"Nick!" Sebastian shouted in surprise as he placed his hand over Nicholas's gripped knuckles. "You said you wouldn't drink again." He looked around before leaning in to whisper. "Remember. After Paris." Nicholas slammed his fist into the table making Sebastian jerk back into the bench.

"Fine," he said standing up and shaking his head. "I'm not standing here to watch you shred apart whatever contentment you have left."

Sébastien threw down some coins, placed his hat upon his head and left but not without one last look back at his friend. Nicholas sat alone his eyes focused on the alcohol that swum around in front of him. For a moment he thought about going back but he knew he could do nothing to stop the inevitable.

Marriage. The word burrowed into her brain as Belle said it again and again twisting it this way and that to try and make sense of this word. It was not the thought of it per say but the idea of it with Nicholas. She liked him very much, but she just was not sure she could spend the rest of her life with him the memory of Raoul pulled at her heart strings like the cruel puppet master constantly toying with her emotions. Two brothers, so similar, both had the same power when it came to her feelings.

Belle sighed as she stared down at her father's grave. All she wanted was to be a little girl again cuddled up in his arms as he told stories of daring adventures, out of this world inventions and magical places that you could only enter in your dreams. She missed him so much and now more than anything she wanted his guidance. Feeling the sadness swelling in her chest she pushed it down not wanting to cry.

The graveyard was alight with colour and it reminded Belle of home. The small garden they had had in Paris had always been planted with exotic flowers her father would bring back from his travels. Belle tightened her grip around the white rose she had taken from Raoul's garden. He had not been home when she had wandered towards his home in a dreamlike state, unsure where or who she was heading for. Now she stood in front of the cold grave stone, her father's name etched harshly into the patched marble.

Kneeling down she brushed away the mud and placed down the rose, its ivory petals nestling into the ground like it had always belonged there. A slow thump of footsteps made Belle turn her head towards the church where she saw the priest, his hands nuzzled in his wide sleeves. His eyes were concentrated on her, but she could not look at him – it did not feel right to her.

"Papa," she whispered as she placed her hand on the gravestone. Her throat caught, and a sudden guilt took over her. What would he think of her actions? Would he disapprove of her like her sisters had? She could not bear it if he knew of what she had done, what she had hidden. Standing up she brushed the dry mud from her dress.

A sudden wet drop fell down the back of her neck and she shivered. Looking up at the sky she saw the mackerel clouds, their ominous prediction a warning to the ground. Belle felt her body shiver again at the drop-in temperature and moving away from her father's grave she headed towards the church her mind ablaze with the yearning for absolution.

The priest had gone inside and as Belle pushed open the side entrance the calm coolness of the church engulfed her. As she walked over the stone floor, the noise echoed off the walls, crushing her with each step. The small wooden structure of the confessional loomed in front of her. The door to the priest compartment had just clicked shut.

Taking in a deep breath she pulled open the door and sat down, her hand making a cross motion over her chest as she sighed out her breath.

"Father, please forgive me for it has been months since my last confession." Belle swallowed back her words as she tried to compose a sentence in her restless mind.

Nicholas stumbled out of the tavern his breeches hanging loosely around his hips. He glanced around the village, his head swimming with visions of unknown colours and shapes. As he staggered towards his horse he noticed a sudden flash of white in his peripheral vision.

"B'ew'l," he whispered in a slurred tongue as he tried to say Belle's name. He jerked his head to follow the white cloak as it rushed towards the church. He felt like charging towards her, to demand an answer. Instead he followed her, his hands tightening the belt around his waist. He tripped over his feet but persisted onwards, arms outstretched so to keep his balance.

Nicholas stopped before the stone wall around the churchyard and watched Belle as she kneeled down before her father's tomb stone. She stayed there, her body tense as she stared at her father's etched name. Her brown hair gently blew around her face, the loose strands falling over her high cheekbones and delicate features. He watched as her dainty hands cleaned the ground around the gravestone. His body ached with lust and he leaned upon the wall to gaze over at her.

Suddenly she stood up and walked towards the church. She opened the door and went inside. Nicholas intended to survey her, to watch her every move until she answered him, but he had not stepped forth in a church since the dreaded event in Paris and right now he was in no fit state. However, the thick alcohol drove through his blood and with every pump of his heart it sent a new disillusioned through his mind. So, with trembling limbs he entered the church. He glanced around the decorated room - the stone walls and the gold-leaf frescos made him flinch at each reflection of light. Belle's voice drifted quietly from inside the confessional and lurching forwards, Nicholas pressed his ear to the wood, eavesdropping on Belle's secrets.

"I have hurt so many people, father." Belle sniffed and wiped her nose with the edge of her dress sleeve, unable to use anything else. "I have been selfish and only thought of my own happiness. I am holding so many confidences that I distress I may explode." Belle stopped and tapped her foot on the floor.

"Please my child you are safe now," the priest murmured, unaware of Nicholas who sat, slumped against the wall, listening to all.

"The beast is a man." The words tumbled from her mouth like blood from an open wound. "Father, forgive me, but the monster that plagues this town is Raoul and...and...I fear I am in love with him."

Nicholas's hand dropped from his cupped ear...all emotion drained from him: the promise of love, the truth of his sister's words and the inexistent pain that clung to his lifeless body. She did not love him; she loved the monster that killed her father, the thing that had destroyed his family. She had no intention of marring him and in that moment, he was lost.

"You see father," Belle continued, Nicholas now deaf to her words. "I am in love with a monster, but I could be engaged to a gentilhomme. To Mr Lyon, who has given me so much, who loves me and who will care for me." Belle leaned forwards and hugged her knees.

"My child. You must do what is right for you and what you think God wants you to do. God gave us free will, we are not perfect, but we can strive to live by his word and carry on his greatness." The priest sat stunned. He could not believe what she had said and being tied to the rules of confession, felt helpless with such information. He could kill two problems with one piece of knowledge, but he could never use it.

"Thank you, father." Belle whispered and again drew the cross over her chest with little enthusiasm.

"I absolve you from your sins. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen." Slowly Belle pushed open the door to the box and left the church, her mind ablaze with decisions.

In Nicholas's mind, he imagined the touch of her soft lips and feel of her pale skin as he ran his hand over her arm. The thought gave him a shiver of desire, but anger shortly shadowed in its wake. He made a fist and a murderous haze took over his heart and he stood up, making his way over to the altar.

The priest shortly stumbled out of the confession box, to find Nicholas sitting on the stools looking up at the Virgin Mary; her empty stone eyes staring at the wall in her vague statue form. The priest suddenly recognised who it was, and a small cruel smile tugged at the corners of his almost non-existent top lip. He limped over to the stool and slipped in beside him.

"My son what is wrong?" The priest placed a tentative hand on his shoulder.

"I have sinned father." Nicholas said so matter-of-factly you would think he was simple

"Tell me what bothers you my son, come make a confession." He gestured towards the uninviting wooden box as he began to rise from the bench.

"No!" Nicholas snapped, his head jerking round in a sudden flash of terror. "What I have done cannot be forgiven." He reached up and took a hold of the priest's arm.

The priest gently sat back down, his lower arm held in Nicholas's tight grip that he felt might snap it.

"Whatever you say to me, you should know, shall be heard in front of God, my son, he has the only right to forgive." The priest nodded his head in a slow pace as he stared at Nicholas with all eagerness that he hid with an expression full of sincerity.

Nicholas clenched his jaw and brought away his hand to make a fist upon the bench in front of him. With one last look down at the Holy Bible that lay daunting him he uttered the words he most feared.

"I have sinned against the fifth commandment."

The priest's eyes opened in shock and terror as he stared at the young man, whose face was bowed in a mocking prayer.

"I have killed."▼▲▼▲

...Another curve of a character...sorry I know how much some of you guys liked Nicholas but he has his dark secrets. I did try to scatter evidence of his darker side through out the earlier chapters so I really hope you can notice them now!!! If you think it was too sudden I shall add some more things when editing!!

Vote, comment and share if you can!!

Only a few chapters left!!!

Movie posted by MadelineSane