EVE
When I woke up, I had to blink my eyes a time or two to focus on the familiar surroundings. My stomach hurt so bad that I was curled over myself, cradling my abdomen beneath trembling arms, my hip and shoulder sore from having slept on a hard platform instead of a bed.
The cabin.
I hadn't been near this place since the week I spent with Elijah after we married, hadn't seen it this clearly since the morning I woke up, tired and in pain, foggy and unbalanced. Elijah had promised me the evil had been cleansed, that after the ceremony, I wouldn't get sick any longer. The memory of that conversation was broken and disjointed, but I remembered the promise nonetheless.
Why had I run? Why had I opened myself up to the evil he'd worked so hard to chase off? It only left me confused again, sick and in pain.
Like now, with this feeling in my gut that something was shredding me from the inside out.
It was late in the day from what I could tell, the crimson pinpricks of dying sunlight piercing the small natural holes in the wooden walls to stain the room in reds and golds. It wasn't much light to illuminate the room, but much wasn't needed with the plethora of candles lit and swaying on some soft breeze. Dust motes danced in the barely there movement of air.
I would have preferred to push myself into a seated position, but the pain in my abdomen was too intense. Instead, I lay there helplessly, my teeth clenched so hard I was sure I'd crack the enamel. Left with only a partial view of the cabin due to the position in which I lay, I wasn't sure I was alone. Groaning, I gave every indication I was awake. Elijah's voice didn't boom or even whisper in response.
Finally losing the patience to see if he would speak first, I called out his name. Nothing.
Leaving me unattended wasn't like Elijah, especially considering I woke up unbound and free to move around. Unfortunately, the pain inside me prevented it. And despite the oddity of the moment, being alone didn't last long. Within minutes the old door opened and the devil himself walked in.
"I brought you more tea," he said, his lips pulling into a practiced grin.
Devil. It hadn't occurred to me until he spoke that it was the word that came to me when I first saw him. The sickness must have been speaking inside my head. The sickness these demons caused each time they attacked me.
"Thank you," I barely managed to whisper, "but I think I need plain water, too."
I wasn't sure if his expression was sympathy or satisfaction. His lips ran a twisted line, his blue eyes glistened in the candlelight, his eyebrows pulled up just enough to cause small ripples in his forehead. His was always so beautiful, even when you couldn't tell what he was thinking.
"Your throat sounds like someone scrubbed it raw with copper wool. I'll give you some water first."
Setting the teacup on a small table littered with religious figurines and candles, he moved behind me. I heard the water pouring into a glass before he rounded my head to hand it to me. "You'll need to sit up so you don't choke."
"I can't. My stomach, Elijah, it hurts so bad."
Elijah reached out to wrap his strong arms around me. Lifting me from where I lay curled, he watched intently as I tried to straighten my body, each movement even more painful than the last.
"That's the sickness, my love, the evil that is infecting you. It wants out. Wants control. But I won't let it take you from me." His voice was whisper soft, a feather of sound against my senses that was only a tease of what it could be when he allowed it to boom across a room. Always hypnotic, he had a voice that captivated his audience, regardless of whether it was stern or soft. I could spend all day listening to him and never grow bored.
"The tea I brought you should help. I had to heat the water over a small fire outside."
My eyes flicked to the unused fireplace by the platform. "Why didn't you just heat it in here?"
"You were sweating in your sleep. I didn't want to make the room warmer."
His palm caressed my face, the soft touch jarring and unexpected. Since moving back to the parish with him, he hadn’t treated me with kindness – only pain, only humiliation.
I couldn’t make sense of all the puzzles within this man who called himself my husband, couldn’t understand the subtle idiosyncrasies, the changes I’d witnessed in him firsthand. Perhaps it was the illness that made it impossible for me to think clearly, or maybe the demons had become more vicious in their game. I wasn’t sure of the cause of my constant confusion, but I had to believe it would end once Elijah had finally conquered the darkness inside me.
Why me? I’ve always wondered if my fate hadn’t been decided the moment Elijah had chosen me for a wife. He was so good – so pure – that perhaps I had become his weakest link, the only method the demons had to hurt him.
“Do you remember the time we spent here in this cabin, Eve? The days and nights that I fought so hard to free your beautiful soul?”
Shaking my head, I winced at the movement, my headache pounding even harder until I swore some hammer was chiseling away at the inside of my skull. “Yes and no,” I answered, finally taking a sip of the water he’d given me, the relief instantaneous as it slipped down and soothed my sore throat. “It’s a blur. I remember you fighting whatever it is inside me. I remember feeling ill all the time. But that week, those nights and days have blended together until only pieces are available to me. How did it return? Why am I infected again?”
He tsked his tongue against the top of his mouth before planting a soft kiss on my cheek. Standing up, he rounded the platform to retrieve the tea he’d brought in. Steam rose and swirled above the white cup, thinning out as a trail behind him as he moved to stand next to me.
Taking the water glass from my hand, he replaced it with the small cup of tea. “Drink up,” he instructed, his eyes studying me as I brought the rim to my lips.
The flavor reminded me of the time I’d spent in this cabin before, sweet, but also rancid. “What’s in this?”
“Some herbs I’ve found in the forest and dried. Did you know my mother taught me all about natural medicine? When I was a boy, we spent a lot of time studying the methods God has provided us for remedy of all that afflicts the body and soul. If you know where to look, you can cure almost any ailment without need of pills or other such medicines.”
I didn’t know that about him, didn’t know much about the man who I’d spent most of my life following. Taking another sip, I ignored the way it burned my tongue. It was good enough for me when it numbed my throat, when it chased away some of the pain in my stomach. “Did she also teach you how to fight against evil?”
His laughter wasn’t humorous, it was far darker than that.
“No. My father would have been the one to teach me that. He had to fight it in me when I was young. I can’t count how many times I was almost as infected as you. It seems evil knows exactly who to look for in this world, those people so good and pure that it wants to stop them from becoming what they will eventually be. My father told me I had a mission in this world and the Devil himself wanted to stop me.”
Caressing my cheek again, he placed his finger beneath the teacup and tilted it to my lips to encourage me to finish it all. “You have a mission, too. By my side, as you well know. It may be my fault you continue to become plagued by the evil forces keeping you ill.”
Once the last drop of tea had slipped down my throat, the pain in my throat and stomach subsided. However, the beat of my heart began to quicken in pace until it was a hard pulse against my ribs. Lightheaded, I reached to give Elijah the cup, almost dropping it in the process. He grinned as he took it from me, his blue eyes searching mine.
“Do you feel better?”
Why did it sound like he was speaking from inside a tunnel?
"Do you feel better?" he repeated.
Blinking my eyes, I felt them come into sharp focus. My heart rate continued to increase, my fingertips and toes feeling like pins and needles. Where the pain had once held court, anxiety now reigned, the rush of blood in my head like softly rolling thunder. "The pain is gone," I answered honestly, unsure why I felt out of breath and spoke with clipped words.
A familiar buzzing beneath my skin came to life, a need to move, to rage, to dance and sin. "What's happening to me?" I whispered, unsure how I'd gone from one extreme to the other. Confusion settled in, made more certain by the fact that the fuzziness inside my head had subsided, replaced with a desperation for something more.
"It's the tea," Elijah explained. "I prepared a blend that would alleviate the pain you suffer, but it comes with a kick."
A smile pulled at my lips. "It's quite the kick. I feel like I could climb a mountain, or run a marathon."
His hand brushed down my arm and I shivered at the sensation. The buzzing inside me was a pulse now, every sense I had coming into such keen focus that I felt like I could accomplish anything, if I tried. Was that pride I felt, or something else? My heart beat with the warning that pride was just another deadly sin.
"I'll chase the demons from you, my love. And you will feel many things as I do so. Some you'll remember, others not. But through it all, you can rest assured that I'm with you."
Gripping his fingers over my bicep, he drew me close to wrap me in the warmth of his embrace. I sucked in as much air as I could, my eyes rolling back as the lids closed. I wanted to move against him. I wanted to eat him alive. I wanted so much, so suddenly, that I couldn't understand what was happening to me. Trust. Such a funny thing. But it was the only option I had when it came to him.
He chuckled when my fingers traced up his sides, when my body inched closer to him hungry for the pleasure I knew he could give me. Catching my hand in his own, he squeezed it. Even that small contact sent a shiver through my bones.
"Not yet, Eve. Not like this. Not until I can speak to the family and deliver my sermon."
A sense of pure need rushed through me, so violent it pulled the breath from my lungs.
Taking me by the shoulders, Elijah stepped back to watch me, his brows pulling together as air hissed over my lips and I trembled beneath the strain of whatever was happening to me. True fear was a blanket over my heart, the candlelight in the room becoming too much to bear.
"Elijah," I cried out, not able to control the jerkiness of my movements, the fisting of my fingers over my palms. I wanted to move. Needed to move. Was so desperate I fought against Elijah's hold just to expel the energy exploding inside me. "What's happening," I asked again, my entire body shaking now.
"Open your eyes, Eve. Tell me what you see."
His voice was a subtle whisper beneath the noise inside my head, the pounding beat of my heart that pulsed beneath my skin. Forcing my eyes open, I cried out to see that his face no longer looked human. What had been a beautiful man now looked alien, red eyes in place of blue, sallow skin in place of the sun kissed color I remembered. His features morphed and shifted, his mouth curling until a demon stared back at me.
Beyond him the candlelight roared like an inferno, smoke billowing to become shapes, evil dancing behind him until more demons stared back at me, all gnashing their sharp teeth in hopes of being the one who would devour me whole.
I screamed, the sound cutting through the air as I fought against the man holding me.
Speaking to me in quick bursts of urgent words, Elijah held me in place, refusing to budge even an inch from the platform where he kept me seated. His hands were like clamps over my arms, his strength too much for me to rage against. I had to get out, had to run from the nightmare my world had become, and just as I pushed forward to attempt to budge him, movement caught my eye, a door opening to allow in the last of the sun's dying light, three people inching forward that were as frightening as the man holding me in place.