Window
2010 Words
"Maria?" Freya repeats.
"What?" Maria responds.
"Okay, tell me what's going on?" Freya demands. "Your mind is just here. I bet you didn't listen to a word of what I told you!"
Maria sighs.
"Did something wrong happen last night?" Freya continues. "You know you can trust me, right?"
"I know, I do," Maria replies. "It's just something that we can discuss in my room."
"Fine, but you have to tell me everything," Freya adds. Maria nods affirmatively, and they walk to her room.
She has been thoughtful since she left the man, sleeping, in the hostel at 4 am. She escaped through one of the windows and returned home.
When she woke up in the morning and went to the mirror, the marks on her reflection, the bruises of his passion on her neck, breasts, and the sore between her legs reminded her of what she did in the night, and they didn't let her forget.
He took off his mask at some point, and she recognized him very well. He was the enemy of her father, the husband of her mother's friend. It was only s*x, nothing more, but when she discovered him she knew she had to stop, but instead, her dress fell, unveiled her beauty, and he took, he reclaimed her not caring about his wife, not caring about her identity, or how young she was. He did not care at all. He took her wild and hard, and Maria discovered that she liked it. It was against all that she had been taught. He was a married man, she was not a bad person, and yet they had…
"Maria?" Freya repeats. "Oh, for the gods! What's going on, my child?"
Maria looks at her friend, feeling dirty, guilty, feeling about to cry.
You let it happen, she thinks. You enjoyed it so much, Maria. Don't be a hypocrite.
She sighs. And takes her clothes off.
Freya sees it, her eyes open widely.
Her womb, her n*****s, her legs, her neck, nearly all her body has bruises.
"Wow!" Freya lets out, grinning. "Who made you this?"
Maria blushes and covers herself with a towel.
"I don't know," she lies.
"Maria! You did it with a stranger?!" she says, loudly.
"Shut up!" Maria reprimands, looking at the doors.
"Oh! I'm sorry," Freya says, all smiles. "Who do you think he was, and how was it?"
Maria grins.
"I don't care," she says.
"How was it then?" Freya insists.
"Gods! It sores down there, but it was great," she admits, blushing.
"More reasons to figure out who he is, girl," Freya says. "Because you don't let something great just escape."
Maria chuckles and rolls her eyes.
"He was just a stranger that now could be far away from the city," Maria says.
"Oh, girl!" Freya continues. "I bet you he is looking after you right now."
"What? Why would he?" Maria replies.
"Because…" Freya leads her to the big mirror. Maria understands.
The image in the mirror is a beautiful woman, one of the most beautiful women in the town.
"You are a beautiful woman like no other, Maria. All men will do anything to fulfill your wishes," Freya tells her. "They are yours, but again I tell you, find a good guy that cares about you, someone like Leon who will love you as you deserve."
"He is not-" Maria replies.
"Not your first option, I know, I know," Freya adds. "I know you want to have fun, that's perfectly fine, but just be careful, okay? You are so young."
"I'm considered a woman according to the law, but I understand, I will be careful, Freya," Maria concedes and Freya begins with her job. Maria remains thoughtful during the session. Something has changed inside her.
The day leaves as it came, in an instant. The next day will be a school day. Maria is ready. All her assignments are finished and the only thing that keeps her awakened is the certainty that she needs to get, somehow, more of those birth control pills and emergency contraceptives because she already used the only one that she could get.
They can't see me going there again, she thinks.
It's a small town, people know nearly all of each other. If they see her going to visit the witch doctor lady again, they will start to speak, and if they speak those words could get to the ears of her parents, and they won't approve of her actions. She was raised to be a noble and respectful lady, pure and chaste until marriage. She smirked, then she laughed.
They will get mad, she thinks.
Suddenly, the memories of the man, her lover, come to her, the temperature increases, her heart rate accelerates, breathing turns heavier and difficult. She recalls his passion, his strength, his manhood. Her hand goes down, and down…
"You should be careful," the teacher says. "You are seventeen, already young women and men. And I know what the law says, but you should be responsible, and try to get a career first so when you have children they won't lack anything."
"We are careful, teacher, who wants kids?" Brad replies, chuckling.
"This is a serious conversation, Brad," the teacher answers. "The laws of our country allow you, kid, and any girl of this classroom to form a family if you both want, but that's because the numbers of people in our country are low. Humans are just forty million on the continent, the elves are eighty, orcs thirty. Our kings and queens determined that we need to increase our numbers if we want to survive."
"That's good, isn't it?" Brad continues.
"It is, but not if it happens irresponsibly," Leon intervenes. "There must be a plan so families won't have more than one or two children. This is their economy."
"Indeed, Brad," Maria adds. "If people just have children not thinking about the future, about how they will feed them there will be a huge problem."
"I see… but can't they just work more?" Brad continues.
"They can, but it will be more work, more difficult and stressful, the parents could get any disease because of it, and even die," she continues. "If they die their children don't have anyone, they suffer."
"But who cares, we just want additional meat for the dwarf cannons," Leon adds.
Maria smirks. She knows that very well.
"Aham," the teacher interrupts. "For that, you must be responsible, use the pills, the contraception methods available, and build a good life for your children."
The class ends. Maria speaks with her friends. Some of them tell her of their adventures with their boyfriends, graphically describing them. Maria tells them too, omitting the important details.
Why do we do this? She thinks in the middle of the conversation but discards the idea as the tale of Misa becomes more and more interesting. It's a contest of who does this or that first.
She notices a shadow out of the corner of her eye. Everyone turns silent as he approaches, so immersed in his thoughts that he completely ignores the groups of girls.
What are you thinking? Maria wonders. Leon leaves. His carriage is waiting.
"I- I have to go," says Misa, and runs behind him.
"What?" Maria asks.
"I'm in a hurry, sorry!" Misa says, all smiles.
"That b***h!" Sara lets out. "She wants him!"
"Well, that movement was smooth," Kara adds. "You think he will give her a ride?"
"Of course, he will," Lisa declares. "Misa is hot, he won't miss the opportunity at all."
"Or maybe he will," Maria adds, smirking. "That's his father waiting for Leon next to the carriage. I bet they have plans and- oh, damn. It's Misa, after all…"
The girls giggle.
"Exactly!" they say at once.
Misa gets in the carriage with father and son, and the next day she presumes she was on a date with Leon and his father. She tells Maria and the others that Leonard, Leon's father, had changed his attitude towards his only son. Maria was surprised because she knew that Leonard was disappointed in his weak and pathetic kid. But Leon had changed, he was not pathetic anymore.
"He looks more focused," Maria admits. "As if he knows what he wants."
"Yes, that's exactly what I think," Misa adds. "I managed to get invited to his house and they struggled to try to set the date because Leon is training or busy, all day."
"Yeah… I know about that," Maria lets out. "He spends hours training."
"How would you know?" Misa replicates, a little angry. "Oh! You are his neighbor, after all."
"Yeah, whatever, good luck, do whatever you want with him," Maria says. "I don't care."
"It's true then, you hate him," Sara affirms.
"No, I don't," Maria replies. "But listening to you girls speaking about him all the time is a little annoying, more when you practically despised the poor guy back in the day. Hypocrites."
"Look who's talking, miss I'm a queen your love insult me, peasant," Kara jokes. Maria rolls her eyes.
"Anyway, I have a date with Brad," Maria adds.
"Are you serious?" Lisa asks. "He only wants s*x, and he's not the best in that subject."
The other girls laugh.
"Listen to her, she has experience in that subject," Kara jokes, starting to laugh uncontrollably. Lisa sighs.
"Oh, please, Kara, really?" she says, but the girls join Kara.
"Lisa has all the experience about Brad," Sara adds.
"Yes, she does," Misa says, with her cheeks red.
Maria attends the date.
Brad is gentle and sweet with her. He takes her to the park where he invites her cotton candy and pays the illusionist for two of his acts. Then he takes her to the best restaurant in the town, he has the money to afford it.
The blue moon is high when they return to her home. She has enjoyed the date so much, and now finds him interesting, plus he is handsome.
"I'd like to repeat this," she says.
"Whenever you want," he replies.
They say goodbye and she enters her house. He didn't try to kiss her, or take advantage, he was a gentleman. She liked it.
After she takes a bath and puts on a gown she lets herself fall on her bed, smiling happily. The window of her bedroom is open, and she watches the outside, her eyes attracted by the reflection of the blade that Leon swings at unbelievable speed, it's a dance, a lethal dance of beauty and precision underneath the nocturnal dew, which looks like the blessings of the blue moon itself.
Maria lays her elbows on the window and rests her face on her hands, staying there with the window open, ignoring the cold of the night. She is mesmerized by Leon who keeps moving, Leon who trains without end, Leon the tireless and powerful... man.
What are you doing? She thinks. Is this meant to impress me, Leon? It's not, right? What do you want then, Leon? Why training that hard?
There are no answers, the nocturnal breeze makes go goosebumps while he just keeps training, with his torso naked, immune to the cold, fearless of the things that fly under the night sky. Maria gets angry because she has wasted time looking at him, at him who is nothing but a loser. She closes the window and gets in the bed, then she turns off the lights.
Minutes pass, she can't sleep. She looks at the window again, she knows he is still there, she wants to take a peak again.
Though, he's not a loser anymore. She thinks.
Leon has changed, she can't deny it, and one part of her wishes she didn't reject him back in the day. But who would have anticipated this change? Who would have thought she would be thinking of him, losing her sleep while he didn't care.
"Ah! This is annoying!" she lets out, looking at the window. "Stupid window!"
- Writer
