Betrothed

"The Dark Stranger"

© VeGirl 2014

Days have lost meaning when there is no sunrise or sunset to feast your eyes on. When there is no night or day, and nobody needs to sleep, days cease to exist.

Existence is a long stretch of time that is impossible to separate into minor parts.

Over the time that passes I feel that I more and more pull back into myself. My mood keeps changing back and forth in a way I have never experienced before, but I am under exceptional pressure in a way I can't remember ever having been under.

The more I can keep my mood in check, the more often I am allowed to leave my room and socialize with the other people living there. No, sorry; angels.

Everybody smiles respectfully, but their smiles never reach the eyes.

My highlight of the day is meeting Vincent. We are still not allowed to meet in public, or it could be the fact that we have a hard time keeping our hands off of each other and we really need to stay cloaked. In his quarters I am soon recognized and they smile friendly at me.

"Why can't my stuck up parents treat me with this kind of love. All they care about is respect."

"With the fear of sounding like I sympathize with them, they have spent their entire existence up here where everything has been done the same way for millenniums." Vincent has a sympathetic look on his face. "Cut them some slack."

"I'll cut them the exact slack they're cutting me; not a mill."

Vincent wraps his arms around me and all the anger simply run off of me. "My love; you are not petty. You must rise above all this to get out on the other side."

I pout my lips while my brows are pressed low enough to cast my eyes in shadows even in this bright place. "Why can't I just leave?"

"It will greatly benefit you to make up with your parents. Perhaps you can even make them understand your point of view."

"Yeah well, think again..."

"This place could need a good portion of passion."

"I couldn't agree more." My eyes seek out his talented lips. 'So don't let my parents keep us from passion one more second.'

'My naughty, naughty girl...'

* * *

Vincent is not allowed to stay for especially long at a time, but he has returned often and we have been practicing our internal communication skill. One day he simply stops answering.

I walk around inside my room calling him, and I patrol the hallways looking for him.

Finally I decide to seek out the authority and ask. "What have you done with Vincent?" My tone of voice mirror the irritation more than the worry. "I haven't seen him for several days." At least I think it is for days...

"He is not with us anymore."

My heart almost stops dead in my chest. "What...?" My voice cracks and my eyes fills with tears and I notice how my father looks strangely at me. "What have you done with him?" I squeak out."

"He left."

"What...?" My fear that he has been taken out of the equation makes my ears ring so loud that I can't really hear what he says. "He... left? So he's okay then?"

"I don't know..." He shrug his shoulders and walk away.

I nearly fall on my knees and cry over the fact that Vincent is okay. The relief over his safety quickly fades into grief over my own loss and tears fall down my cheeks. I'm not sure how I manage to find my way back to my room, but somehow I roll up in a ball on the bed and tears flows freely. He has left without saying goodbye?

When my head hurt and my eyes looks nothing like I am used to seeing them, I actually fall asleep.

When I wake up, five minutes or seventeen hours later, my head is spinning with questions.

The guy who has searched after me for two hundred years has just abandoned me now? It didn't add up. Have they casted him out or had he fulfilled his obligations and was now free to leave? Was I the pawn for him to get a free pass?

My heart feels like it will never mend again, as if it is made of eggshells that can never heal when broken. I don't even want to believe that, but it creeps into my mind like poison.

I feel utterly, utterly alone when I no longer have Vincent to confide in.

The days or hours or weeks pass by so incredibly slow and the only thing I have to pass time is looking through my looking-glass at the life I once had; the friends I once had.

When the confinement of my room is threatening to choke me I walk the hallways. The people that call themselves my parents, I do my best to stay away from. I don't trust them one second. I walk along the hallways, holding my head down and my eyes on the ground, but secretly finding a reason for this existence.

Without getting noticed, I keep tabs on people around me.

One of the girls; no sorry angels, keeps pretty much to herself and one day I see her sitting in the huge assembly hall next to the wishing well.

"Hi." I approach her carefully as she flinched at my word. "I'm Sam."

"I'm Aoleon..." Her voice is sad even through the chiming pitch.

"Wow, what a beautiful name." I take a seat next to her with a heavy sigh. "So, is this where the action is in this place?"

Aoleon's sigh is just as heavy as mine. "Yes it's a riot."

"So, what's your story?"

"You don't want to hear, it's depressing." She sighs and her eyes follow someone passing though this hall. "Not even the Seraphim had the energy to listen, and they're counsellors."

"They sent you to the counsellor?"

"Yeah, I wanted to leave so... that's standard procedure..." Her voice held the right amount of sarcasm for my liking.

"Oh... then I better watch out. I'm sure I'm next in line." I hold my voice low and does the secretive face, but Aoleon whip her head around in surprise.

"Really, you want out?" she hiss and worried look around to check that nobody has heard us. "Come!" she is amazingly quick on her feet, grabs my hand and hurry along some hallway. Her room is much smaller than mine but just as sterile. "Are you really ready to get out?"

"Hell yes!"

* * *

One day there is a knock on my door and a man I've never seen walks inside. "Hi?" I say surprised. "What can I do for you?"

"My name is Aurelius and I am the one that will rule this kingdom by your side as your parents step aside."

Huh?

He has a proud posture, I have to give him that and he is a sight for sore eyes, but risking to be repeating myself; I am spoken for. "It is nice to meet you Aurelius, but I don't think so."

He looks utterly, utterly surprised.

"I mean it's not you, it's me..."

Aurelius looks at me as if I speak a foreign language, and I might as well. "But we have been decided to be best for breeding."

Now it is my turn to gawk. Breeding?

"I understand that it seems forward and all, but I am a purebread like yourself and..."

My eyebrows are even more an indication of the surprise and then the irritation I feel. "So they've decided that you and I should hook up?"

His brows are just as much an indication as mine. "Hook up?"

I sigh. "Don't you think that we should have anything to say in this matter?"

His brows fly impossibly even higher in utter surprise. "What do you mean? Our genes have been decided to be the most compatible."

My mood is getting deeper by the second as I realize that we are at so completely different standingpoints that we might as well be speaking different languages.

"You have changed over the millennium you've been gone."

I blink surprised; millennium? "I need some time to think. Would you please leave?" I use the vainglorious, formal tone of voice and a posture to mirror that.

"Certainly." He almost bows as he quickly removes himself from my room.

That was the language he knew; hi-hat.

I'm standing there, holding the same regal posture he had.

So I have changed over a millennium? Duh! What do you think, jerk! His comment indicates though that he knew me a thousand years ago.

So this guy thinks he is supposed to marry me? I don't think so!

What are they thinking? Are they expecting me to forget about Vincent totally and drown my sorrows in somebody else? Have this been the plot all along; to get me to dump Vincent and then slide in someone they approve of?

I'm starting to really dislike my parents...

* * *

Guards come and follow me every time my mother and father wishes to see me. I do my best to keep track of my surroundings, but this is a big place and it seems that they keep showing me to different routes to make it harder for me.

"We've have words from the Malakhim of your whereabouts..."

Malakhim? I render my memory and recall that they are the angel squad that are in charge of messages; like spies...

"Why have you been avoiding us to this extent?"

"I haven't!" I defend myself vigorously. "I had no memory of you!"

"That is just the last twenty years or so. You had so much time to get back before that." Her anger is appalling. "Why did it have to take so long for you to get up here?"

"Why not simply smite me?" I snarl to the woman who looks shocked. "That would be better than keeping me here like a caged animal." I turn on my heel and walk toward the door where I know a guard will meet me. "Take me to my room, please." I hold my head high as I walk out on them.

My eyes are fixed straight forward and I don't turn my eyes to look at anybody or anything on my way over to my room. I haven't noticed that our paths crossed with Aoleon before her words flutter into my conscience. 'Can I come in?'

"Sure." I exhale in a tired sigh and the door flings open.

"They have hooked you up with someone?" Aoleon hiss as she enters my room. "Are you staying here now?"

"Hell no!"

* * *

Time passes in the strangest way when you don't have a sun's rise and fall to connect it to. Never could I have imagined that I would miss the way time passes.

Complaining about how time passes too fast is something old people complaint about, but has anyone ever heard someone bleat about time passing too slow?

Oh right; kids on Christmas...

The feeling I am going through has nothing to do with the giddy exhilaration that kids in Christmas go through. I have no idea when I might get away from here but I know I have to make it on my own.

One day I am summoned by the Opanim and feel agitated as I stand here before the elders of this community. For as far as I can remember, I have never met these angels that are supposed to be symbols of God's justice and authority and I am curious at what business they have with me. It feels like I stand before a court of law.

"We've set the date."

"The date?" Confusion make me feel defensive and hotheaded. "Is there such a thing as a date in this godforsaken place where no sun sets a time?" I know I am supposed to be more respectful towards them and I notice the surprise on their face when I lash out.

"The sun can't set time; only the powers decide."

I roll my eyes in a very visual way; of course they would say that. "What is the date set for?" I sigh.

They look at me as if I am stupid for not having figured it out. "Your union with Aurelius."

I gasp. "What? What do you mean, like a wedding?"

"No, the conception of a child."

"What?!" Chills runs down my spine. Surely this can't be happening! "I heard the Malakim speak of this, but you can rest assure that this will not happen." I grind my teeth.

"That is not your decision," one of them say in his calm and collected voice, but the face reveals his surprise. None of them expected me to object.

"You can't make me do it."

"Of course, the powers have to be present for the breeding."

I feel sick to my stomach. "What kind of sick people are you?" I snarl.

"But that has always been our way." They look surprised that I even question it. "This is how it is done."

"No it's not, and I won't have it. I won't have it and I won't have him!" I turn on my heel and walk towards the exit, but the guard standing here isn't opening the door to let me through. "What is this?" My voice is sharp and cut through this large room like a flick of a whip.

"This is not your decision."

"It God damn is!"

They gasp at the curse and I realize that I have drawn it too long. "When is the date?" I say in a clipped and emotionless tone.

"In a week from now, we will come and get you."

* * *

Thoughts are swirling in my mind as I walk with heavy steps towards my room. This can't be happening! Wasn't it bad enough that they took Vincent away from me? As I think of it, I can't recall having seen any children here and as soon as the thought has flowed through my mind I know that this event is rare. Purebreed's are rare.

I keep pendulum between despair and anger. This is not something I can accept. To be set up for marriage is unnerving, but to be set up for this is outrageous!

In an attempt to wiggle out of this entire situation I go see my parents. Perhaps they can do at least something little.

I find them in their usual quarter, where somebody is playing the harp while people rest around them; paying little attention.

"Mother, father." I acknowledge them in the respectful way I know I have done forever, but the words have no meaning for me. The people in the room gets up to bow before me. I feel a need to roll my eyes.

With a flick of my mother's hand, everybody scurry out of the room. "What's bothering you my child?"

You know what! I want to say but refrain. "It is this arranged marriage-gone-horrid." I sigh. "This is wrong."

She looks surprised. "This is the way things have always worked here."

"But we have to evolve with the world we claim to guardian."

"We are superior to them in every way and shouldn't want to be compared to them." Her high and mighty tone of voice sends chills down my spine.

My mouth falls open. "How can we even be related?" I gasp.

"It's the filthy earth that has tainted you," she spits out, totally uncharacteristic for her. "They have ruined you and it is about time that we rescued you."

"Rescued?" I almost yell. "Try abducted!"

They look appalled at me.

"Can't you just disinherit me or something?" I finally snap.

Both my parents flinch and stare wide eyed at me. "You don't know what you're saying!"

"I don't want to be here and I am not what you need here," I sigh.

"Why would anyone want to leave heaven?" My father can't believe his own ears. "Have you said this to the Seraphim?" hebgasp.

"What do they know about life and love?" I flung out my arms in exasperation. "They would only have me incarcerated and strapped down...and not in a good way..." I add silently.

My so called parents keep staring at me with their brows knit in a tight line. "And the Seraphim couldn't help you?"

I lose my anger for a moment of surprise. "Help? What can they do more than... what... shocktheraphy?" We are light-years away from each other's point of view. "You don't get it; I want more than this!" With a sweeping motion I gesture around us. "I want dirt and smelly old shoes; I want wind and hailstorms and I want moss and old trees."

They simply raise their brows and the lack of understanding in their eyes is visible.

"I want to live!" I turn on my heel after that strong statement and walk out on them.

.