by R. Twine
In the morning, I was awakened by a quiet knock on the door.
‘Good morning, Miriam.’
Samuel appeared before me wearing a long, white bathrobe. In his hands he was holding a tray with breakfast on it – the rich smell of freshly made coffee and buns filled the bedroom. I sat up, and a smile lit up my face.
‘I’ve brought something to refresh you with: Emily made her signature buns, just for you. Bon appetit!’ Sam put the tray on the night table, kissed me lightly on the cheek, and sat on the bed. ‘I ordered a number of different dishes for our Christmas supper – we are going to have a feast just for the two of us. Afterward, we can go to a corporate party in a club where my friends like to go. And tomorrow my sister and her husband will arrive at lunchtime – I couldn’t say “no” to them, because we always try to spend Christmas together.’
‘It’s just wonderful, Sam,’ I sighed, wolfing down another bun and taking a sip of coffee. ‘Emily is such a skilled cook! These buns she made are so delicious! By the way, what are your plans for the day, Sam?’
‘We can go shopping, if you don’t mind. What do you say?’
‘I say “of course, I don’t mind!” Let me just take a shower and get dressed.’
As I slipped out of bed and quickly made for the bathroom, Samuel’s eyes were glued to my half-naked body.
Hardly an hour had passed before we were entering a chic shop. A young salesgirl hurried to meet us.
‘Good morning, welcome to our shop. What can I do for you?’…
****
Everybody loves Christmas. It’s a magical time of year when your wishes come true. It’s a time of kindness, empathy, joy and gifts; a time when everyone can reflect on his or her childhood, full of hopes and dreams; a time we spend with our relatives and loved ones; a time which makes us feel a little bit happier.
That evening, I wanted to look perfect. My long, dark-blue, décolleté dress fitted me impeccably: it accentuated all the curves of my body and contrasted well with my light complexion. Some light make-up, naturally set curly hair, my emerald ring, a spritz of perfume – and I was ready.
I went downstairs. There was some music playing softly, and the Christmas garlands shimmered in the gentle candlelight. Sam couldn’t take his eyes off me. There was a long, silent pause but the silence wasn’t in any way uncomfortable. The atmosphere was imbued with desire.
‘The thing I like the most about you is your ability to turn into a beautiful fairy without using a magic wand,’ said Sam, finally coming up to me. ‘Sometimes it seems to me you came from another world. Your beauty puts a spell on me..,’ he whispered, breathing in the fragrance of my perfume. ‘Miriam, you attract me like a magnet; what will I do when you leave? I refuse to live without you, I adore you…’
He kissed my neck, and a slight shiver passed through my body. Then Sam took me by the arm and said, ‘I’m thankful to the Heavens for the fact that we met each other; thankful for this ardent love burning in my heart. I’m happy to be near you!’
‘Thank you, Samuel. I want you to know I’m happy to be near you, too. You’re handsome, smart and elegant; you have all of the traits I like in a man.’
Sam took a bottle of champagne from the dinner table, uncorked it, poured its sparkling liquid into the glasses and then handed one of them to me.
‘Here’s to Christmas!’
‘To Christmas!’ I echoed back, and took several gulps of the tasty drink. ‘Every girl dreams of meeting her knight in shining armor and becoming a princess, even if just for one day. But what is the main thing that we know about a fairytale life? We know that every beautiful fairytale ends, sooner or later. And what comes next?’ I mused aloud, in a charming tone of voice.
‘Fairytales can go on for as long as two people love each other. Then it boils down to banal everyday things: family, children, and work. But love is crucial: miracles can keep happening as long as there is love. My sister Nancy married her husband because they really loved each other; their feelings for each other are still going strong despite seven years of living together and having two kids, in fact, they have become even stronger! Their marriage inspires me!’ said Sam, taking a sip from his wineglass.
I felt slightly dizzy after having some champagne; I felt a pleasant warmth spreading over my body, relaxing all of my muscles.
‘I’ve partied with some rowdy crews of friends where champagne flowed like water; all those parties ended up the same way. But now everything is really different, Miriam. When I’m by your side, I don’t want anything else, nothing else attracts me; just thinking of you makes my heart race. I’m afraid of losing you, Miriam!’
Sam got up, came up to the Christmas tree and took a beautifully wrapped box from the pile of gifts. He placed it before me.
‘This is for you, Miriam. Merry Christmas!’ he said solemnly.
I began unwrapping the rustling paper and discovered a black silk Tiffany’s box. After a moment’s hesitation, I opened the lid: inside, there was a beautiful diamond necklace that sparkled mysteriously. Mesmerized, I stared at the expensive piece of jewelry…
I got up, looked Sam in the eye, and said with emotion, ‘Thank you very much, Samuel, this piece is simply beyond compare! I’m at a loss for words…’
My cheeks reddened slightly, I was very excited: this was the first gift I had received from a man in my life, from the man I loved.
‘I’m happy, Miriam. But not even the most expensive necklace compares to your beauty.’
Samuel took the piece of jewelry and carefully put around my neck. Then he embraced me from behind, buried his face in my hair, and stood still without saying a word. Since the moment he had known about my virginity, his behavior had drastically changed: he didn’t show any haste, made no indecent hints, made no attempt to lure me into having sex with him; even his jokes became quite tame. He was a real gentleman.
I turned around and looked at him with undisguised admiration. Sam started talking again.
‘There can be only one true and strong love in our lives; all the rest is just romantic affairs, doomed to be quickly forgotten. After meeting you, I came to realize that something bigger exists between a man and a woman besides just blind passion or sexual compatibility. I had one woman after another, thinking that sex was the key to harmonious relationships and the symbol of love. And it is thanks to you that I came to understand how wrong I was! For the first time in my life, I want to find intimacy through love and not love through intimacy – and this is all because of you, my love! It’s only now that I understand what genuine feelings should be like. I love you, Miriam! All my essence belongs to you, right down to the smallest particle of my body, oh, my long-awaited Queen!’
‘Thank you, Samuel, for your words,’ I said. ‘I’ve waited to hear them and I’m happy because I have strong feelings for you, too. I want you to be my first.’ I kissed him on the lips.
My heart raced, blood pounded in my temples so heavily that I thought my head was about to explode. The floor suddenly felt unstable under my feet but I overcame my excitement, and said in a slightly husky voice, ‘I’ve prepared a gift for you, too. It’s waiting for you under the Christmas tree.’
Sam, as if he were a small boy, rushed nimbly to the tree and found the package which was neatly tied with ribbon. In joyful anticipation, he unwrapped the paper and stared fixedly at the painting.
‘Did you paint this, Miriam?’ he asked, in an astonished tone of voice.
‘Yes. I’ve been painting it in secret especially for you. Do you remember our first love scene where we acted stark naked?’
‘Sure, I do! And I’d do it over again every day if I had the choice!’ said Sam, with a smile.
‘That scene inspired me,’ I explained.
‘I was so aroused that I thought my manhood was going to explode!’ Sam continued playfully. ‘The sensation was so strong that I don’t even know how I managed to keep it under control… I must admit it was quite a feat,’ he said with a chuckl
e, and began to study the picture again. ‘You could have become a painter, Miriam; you are a gifted artist. We look very realistic in this picture. This is a wonderful work of art, bravo!’
In the painting, I had depicted an unusual love scene: everything about sex that I had long been keeping at the back of my mind came out. I didn’t know why I considered a sexual act as something wild and uncontrollable, something closely tied to an animal instinct. I’d been seeking answers to many sex-related questions. I was keen to know why so many people could not live without this pleasure. Why do they usually associate sex with love and hatred? Why did I consider a sexual act to be a kind of a special mystery yet to be discovered? It is with sex that both sin and the creation of all living beings are associated, while the process itself is an eruption of magical energy. I wondered what was behind all of this and why this energy was so powerful.
I remembered the moments when Samuel had caressed me, when, despite being surrounded by quite a few people, I was virtually losing my head. I loved the caresses; I didn’t want them to stop, but immediately after the director’s “Cut!”, I turned again into a calm and reasonable girl. I couldn’t fathom how I could change so much. And only when night came did I let my rich imagination loose.
Having experienced strong love in my previous lives, I knew that this feeling was unforgettable. I had been ardently in love with the men whose bodies, thoughts and deeds belonged to two Angels. After expulsion from Eden, human beings became focused upon carnal pleasures: this was something new to beings who had previously known only platonic affection.
Sex had always been of interest to me, and now I was ready to dive into its depths. When caressed, I would turn into somebody I didn’t know; it seemed to me I was ready to shred my partner to pieces in order to satisfy my wild desires. Naturally, it had been hard for me to contain my lust. And now Samuel was the man I wanted to pour my secret lust upon.
The unfulfilled desire simmering inside had transformed into a creative impulse and found its way out through my painting.
Lying on a giant human palm which served as a backdrop was Samuel. His eyes burned with passion, his hair was wet with sweat. There were small bleeding wounds and scratches visible on his powerful torso. He was lying on his back: his muscular legs set apart, knees slightly bent upwards; his powerful hands with bulging veins clutching my buttocks and helping his manhood to enter me more deeply. I was straddling him, my hands gripping his; my skin was covered in goose bumps, my dark nipples were swollen; my back was arched lasciviously, droplets of sweat trickling down the small of my back between my buttocks. My mouth was slightly open, and I was looking up at something – or someone who was watching us from above.
‘A sexual act never remains a mystery shared only by the two partners,’ I explained to Samuel, his eyes still glued to the picture. ‘A lot of invisible entities are present during bodily pleasures; these entities feed on the energy emanated by people. Somebody always belongs to somebody else, Samuel; we cannot just shield ourselves from the world of hereafter. Oftentimes our lives depend upon those who stand behind us on the invisible plane. I was thinking about you as I painted this picture. I pictured us making love. And I want you to know that sometimes I was so overwhelmed with desire that everything in me boiled like water in a kettle. I was struggling with myself, trying to drive these thoughts away but they would take hold of my mind again,’ I said quietly, feeling dizzy and gradually losing my self-control after the champagne I drank. I couldn’t switch to other topics any more – sex was all I was thinking of.’
‘Miriam, this is the most unusual gift I have ever received,’ said Sam, astonished both by my picture and my words. ‘In this picture, you managed to depict the passion people experience during a strong orgasm. It’s simply amazing how many talents you have,’ he said in a deep voice. ‘You keep surprising me. Thank you for this wonderful piece, I’m going to hang it on the wall in my bedroom. Thanks a lot…,’ he repeated quietly.
Hypnotizing Samuel with my stare, I came up to him, skin to skin, and wrapped my arms around him. We merged into each other with a long and greedy kiss. The scent coming from Sam excited me: my head was spinning, there was a pleasant tickling in my belly, my whole body was burning – I seemed to be on the verge of fainting. Samuel scooped me up and carried me to the sofa. I started to undress him while covering his body with my kisses, purring like a lioness.
Everything was happening so quickly that no foreplay was needed. Samuel tore off my dress, pulled my legs open wide and carefully entered me. I began wriggling, and after a moment, my wild, devilish scream filled the house. My conscience was sinking into an abyss, I was no longer able to tell my dreams from reality; tears were running down my cheeks and I felt completely overcome with emotion…
‘Miriam…,’ the sound seemed to be coming through some kind of a veil. Samuel’s lips again were on mine, and I suddenly felt a pain in my womb that I’d never experienced before. The pain, despite my submission, was becoming increasingly manifested – and after a moment, I felt warm blood leaking out of me.
‘Miriam,’ I heard the voice again, and somebody’s hand appearing from within Samuel’s hand, shook me. ‘Today you’ve become a woman. How I longed to make you mine again!’
Recognizing the voice as Satanail’s, I shuddered.
Samuel’s lips kept on kissing me, but his body was covered with Satanail’s transparent cloak. The Prince of Darkness took hold of Samuel and was delighting in making love to me. Sam gave in and began squeezing my body greedily: his fingers were clawing at my flesh, leaving red marks and bloody scratches. I became sticky with sweat; the pain shot through my body and was becoming unbearable. I screamed, wildly.
‘Samuel, you’re hurting me! That’s enough! Stop it!’
But he didn’t seem to hear me. I tried to get him off of me. I hammered his cold and stiffened back with my fists, dug my fingernails into his skin, but all of my efforts were in vain – he seemed to weigh a full ton, I couldn’t budge this huge boulder of flesh. Samuel’s mind became totally unresponsive; he wouldn’t listen to my pleas. His eyes were slightly open; I looked into them – and horror came over me. His predatory, inhuman and merciless stare penetrated me to the core. I screamed, and a spooky smile distorted his lips.
‘It hurts!’ I shouted. ‘Stop it!’
The pain was tearing my body apart; gripped by hysteria, I kept hitting his stiffened carcass, but he did not respond and kept on making reciprocating movements like a heartless robot. I didn’t even have enough strength to scream, I felt like I was on the verge of passing out.
‘I’m dying…,’ I said in a whisper.
Satanail gave me an attentive look and said, ‘I must have overdone – slightly - making love to you.’ With this, he eased his thrusts, somewhat.
But he wouldn’t leave Samuel’s body; instead, he sat up and began collecting the blood that had leaked out of me and placed it in a special vial. Then he leaned over me again and started caressing my body, saying, ‘I’m as satisfied as I was back then, when you came to me for the first time to give me your beautiful body. I’d like to experience this once more, but I’ve already got what I wanted. I’m going to take away with me what I’m entitled to have – your precious blood!’
It was like a weird half-dream: I saw the light that stabbed my eyes: Michael, the Archangel, appeared in his bright scarlet clothes, and with a blow of his hand, knocked Satanail out of Samuel’s body, which immediately went limp and came rolling down onto the floor with a thud.
‘Samuel…,’ I tried to call out to him but I couldn’t hear my own voice.
In one single moment, Satanail turned from a handsome man into a horrible, hairy beast standing on two huge legs. His huge and furry shovel-like hands were holding the vial which contained my blood. He was slowly wagging his outstretched tail; his long dark tongue was licking the gore off his thick, ugly lips which were stretched out in a contented smile; his predatory yellow eyes were staring at me triumphantl
y.
I rolled to one side and looked down over the edge of the sofa: Samuel was lying still – he was pale, with bloody scratches all over his body, his eyes were rolled back into his head, and his penis was covered with blood: he was a terrible sight to see. I stretched out my arm and put my palm onto his heart: the heartbeat was barely palpable.
Then, a real battle broke out in the living room. The light coming from the Archangel suddenly became much brighter: the jewels on his helmet flashed out, and an angry eye appeared inside a big diamond. Having taken an advantageous position, the furious Archangel took his time and then went for the beast; the beast then began tearing about trying to avoid the Archangel's menacing sword. The hairy monster started to grow, filling every available space with his presence, but the Archangel put him down with a ray of light that shot out of his finger. Satanail broke free from the cage of light and guffawed, his fur bristling: there was a black diamond hanging on his hairy torso – it created an impenetrable aura which made the beast invincible.
The agreement between Michael and Satanail had been broken, and there was no avoiding this clash. The Archangel didn’t have enough time to prevent Satanail from obtaining the virgin blood of The Foremother of Mankind, and now the devil had gained the upper hand. According to the pact which was agreed upon before I was born, the Prince of Darkness was not entitled to touch me; in exchange, he would receive the Archangel’s patronage on Judgment Day. But Satanail had violated the conditions of this pact, so now it was very difficult to predict what was to follow.
The Archangel swung his sword again, and with one accurate strike, he knocked the vial out of the monster’s claws. The vial fell on the floor and came rolling up to me, its dark red color flickering in the light.
Satanail took on his former appearance of the Black Angel and bared his sword. This battle could have raged on forever, because both Angels were immortal. Behind Michael’s back, I saw the shadows of the host of angels; dark forces rallied behind Satanail: all of them were waiting for the signal to join the battle.