Romance: Zach (A College Bad Boy Romance)

by White, Jane S.

  I coughed as I nearly choked. What I saw before me was a shock; I had expected him to be ugly, to be even grotesque, but nothing could have been further from the truth. Number one, he looked human, except all of his features seemed almost exaggerated; his eyes were bigger, his nose broader, his features more defined and elegant than the normal man. His dirty blond locks fell to the side of his face, just gracing his angular features. His eyes were deep and wide as he looked at me, obviously noticing the stunned look on my face. He had one small scar that ran underneath his right eye; a battle wound? I guessed trying not to stare. His face was beautiful and ancient looking, there was something about him that commanded respect.

  “Oh-oh my,” I muttered with my hands over my mouth, trying not to look like a pig.

  He chuckled again to himself and reached behind his seat. He pulled out a long, crushed red velvet cape and draped it over me. The softness warmed my skin and I felt a sigh of relief as he sat back down and motioned again towards the grapes.

  “Amas,” He said again with a grin, obviously pleased with himself.

  I stuffed two of the large fruits in my mouth as the wagon jolted and we started moving. The king stared watching me eat with a long smile on his face. He didn’t touch any of the food himself, just sat in pleasure at the sight of me stuffing my face as the juices from the grapes rolled down my chin and on to my chest. I turned my head away from the king beginning to feel uncomfortable with his glare. I stared out the window and watched as the castle grew smaller in the distance. The purple sunset illuminated the Kingdome, the heavy violet sky growing darker with every passing moment and made the land look like it was infused with amethysts.

  As we slowly drove forward I could hear the guard on the roof of the wagon yelling commands at horses, who huffed to move faster, their massive hooves shaking the ground. I watched as the castle disappeared into the distance. I felt my heart beat grow slow as a slight feeling of doom began to spread over me.

  Where was I going now? What was he going to do?

  All of these questions ran through my worried mind as I swallowed. All my life all I had wanted to do was leave my home town, to just run away and never be found. I would have taken Eva with me but now I didn’t even know I didn’t even know where she was., or if she was even alive. My heart began to race as I thought about my home, my job, my apartment. The homesickness sent waves through my body, I clenched down on the soft velvet cape and pulled it tighter around me, trying to swaddle myself.

  My eyes had begun to water with the thought of Eva as I stuffed another grape into my mouth. I must have looked like a mess; my long brown hair knotted, my filthy body, stuffing delicious food in my face as tears streamed down my cheeks, what a mess.

  The king produced a linen napkin and handed it to me across the table. He sat back and watched as I wiped away my teas.

  “Eva,” I whispered to myself in a cracked voice.

  I felt the king place his massive hand on my cold knee. I looked up at him and saw the sympathy in his gray eyes. He took the napkin from my shaking hand and wiped away a small tear. He took my chin in his paws and stared into my eyes.

  “There, there,” He cooed, his voice was now soft and calming.

  “No need for tears to come from such beautiful eyes, no need for them to stain such a beautiful face,” he said, stroking my hair.

  I couldn’t help but smile underneath his gentle touch and soft gaze.

  “There we go, smile, that’s what I like to see.”

  He moved back over to his couch and sat, crossing his massive legs.

  “Wher-where are we going?” I stuttered almost too scared to ask him, afraid of wheat I might hear.

  “Do not worry yourself with those thoughts now,” he said in a soft but commanding tone, “Right now you are to simply rest. I will explain it all to you soon, but for now lay your head down and rest, sweet girl.”

  Doing as he said I laid down on the soft velvet seat and pulled my robe complete over me, covering my head, only peaking one eye out from under its thick covers.

  The carriage rocked and swayed as we were ushered off through the tall bare trees that reached for the night sky, and into the darkness of the woods. The sun set and all in the carriage became dark. The king leaned forward and lit a small, golden lantern with a short, wooden match. He turned the flame down low and the light barely illuminated the cabin of the carriage. I Laid there with my eyes half open, feeling them grow heavier and heavier. Out of his cape the king pulled out a few rolled up maps and placed them on the table, securing the sides of them with the plates of meat and cheese, leaning in close to them. He squinted his beautiful grey eyes and examined them closely, tracing the drawings of the triangular hills and the curving of the rivers with his fingertips, I looked in his eyes and could tell he was in deep thought.

  The maps had reminded me of the kind I had used to see on school fieldtrips when I was young. The maps had hung up behind thick glass or red velvet ropes, lest anyone get in close enough to touch its brittle paper. I wondered, that with all of their modern enmities, how could this world look so much like the one I had known so well. It seemed as though they had taken our world and turned back the clock, only had left themselves in place. I felt my eyes begin to close and everything went black.

  My mind raced with questions as I fell off to sleep; Who were these things? Where was I? What did this so called “King” want from me?

  My heart began to race with thought and I took a deep breath, knowing that nothing was going to be answered for me now, or anytime in the near future. I felt much like a castaway at sea. All I could do was hope, be at the mercy of the waves of the ocean, and wait.

  Eva? I wondered.

  Eva, are you still out there?

  Eva…..

  Chapter 3

  EVA

  I had felt my faked body being eased onto a cold wooden table, its top rough and unfinished on my bare back. I moaned slightly in discomfort as I tried to open my eyes. A million questions began to run through my mind; How long had my guard carried me for? Where had he taken me? Was I safe?

  I felt that my groin was still aching and throbbing from our wild love making session in the woods. I put my hands between my legs and moaned in discomfort.

  What the hell had I been thinking? To just let one of the things take me like he did? With no care or regard? Had I just been so caught up in the moment I truly didn’t care?

  Jesus, Eva, have you lost your mind? I thought to myself, still too scared to open my eyes.

  I feel a cold touch on my chest and I bolted upright. I reached my hands up and cupped both of my naked breasts, covering them, as if I had suddenly become self-conscious after such a lude display of animal like carnage.

  I opened my eyes and saw my guard standing before me, leaning in as if he were examining my face. I cowered slightly and winced, unsure of his next move. He saw that I was shaking and hurried to the other side of his room and pulled a dirty blanket off of the bed.

  I looked around the room and examined my surroundings; It was small and stone, seemingly ancient looking, a pair of ripped sheets hung off of the open window serving as make shift drapes, a small, unmade wooden bed sat in the corner next to a small fireplace that had nothing but glowing embers inside of it. On the table I sat were many pewter mugs and large maps that curled at the ends from being rolled up, a large dagger in a sheath hung from his wooden night stand next to some old bottles of wine and a pile of ripped leather clothing. There was a small gas lamp on his windowsill, its flame flickering in the wind. The place looked like an other worldly bachelor pad.

  He may not be human, I thought to myself, but he sure is male.

  He rushed back over to me and covered my shoulders with with the dirty blanket from his bed, the material hard and uncomfortable. He smiled under his mask as he started smoothing his hands up and down my arm, almost seeming like he was trying to warm me. It was almost human-like how he had wanted to comfort me, yet something someth
ing about the way he made love or the way he was trying to comfort me seemed almost forced. It was like something he had read it out of a magazine or like something he had witnessed in a porn - he was just trying to copy what he had seen. His movement were very deliberate and well thought out, like he was programmed when it comes to pleasing a woman.

  But in that moment, I really could have cared less. I was just glad that I had found one that had taken pity on me for reasons beyond my understanding. I was glad to have been pulled away from the screaming crowd, glad that he had wanted to ravish me, that I seemed to have pleased him.

  He stroked my hay like hair out of my face, while he was still moved his hands up and down my arms. He looked at me with his big, gray eyes, and almost seemed like he was trying to console with me, to connect with me. I stared back at him, trying to make my big blue eyes as pitiful as I could, blinking slowly, and making them look dewy. I tried to maintain eye contact with him, but there was something about his inhuman glare that made my skull burn. It was almost as though I was having an allergic reaction, I looked away and at the floor, my eyes still burning. He continued to run his fingers through my hair and I leaned my head on his broad leather clad chest, running my fingers up his uniform. I felt his hard muscular body underneath my fingertips, I let out a sigh. He embraced me further, drawing me in closer to him. He put his arm around me, I could hear his breath become shallow and his heartbeat slow underneath his hard leather uniform.

  I decided in that moment that this may have been my opportunity to survive in this new land. This creature, whatever he may be, was obviously fond of me. I would use that to its full potential; even if it was just only to save my own neck.

  Then I began thinking of Izzy and I felt the tears begin to well up into my eyes.

  Izzy you moron, I thought to myself. She always had to do that kind of shit, always thought she had to be my savior. She had always been the one to protect me, and it had almost gotten us into trouble on earth, now who knows what it was going to do to us here. The last I had seen her, she was getting dragged off by her hair by one of these things, they took her beyond the castle walls and….Oh god, what had they done to her? I thought to myself.

  Tears had begun to roll freely down my face and I clenched the guards’ massive waist tighter and drew him closer into me, wanting to be held.

  “She’s dead,” I whispered to myself so soft that only I can hear it.

  “She’s dead and it’s all my fault,” I moaned as my voice broke.

  My shoulders began to heave with the weight of my crying when I felt the guard pull away from me. He cupped my chin in his hand and seemed to smile.

  “It is all going to be ok,” he said, stroking my hair, “I will protect you, you not be frightened,”

  I gasped and jumped up in shock.

  “You speak my language?!” I yelled, making him chuckle.

  He put his arms around me again and drew me in, placing his head on mine. He inhaled with his nose, taking in the scent of my hair and held me tighter.

  “Little bit, not as well as others, but little bit,” He whispered into my hair, his breath warming my scalp.

  “Where am I?” I dared ask, my voice quivering.

  “You are with me in Azure, I take care of you,” he whispered, his voice firm as masculine. “You no cry no more.” His hands made their way to my eyes and pushed away a tear.

  I wanted to keep asking him questions; What the hell is the Azure? How are you going to keep me safe? How did we get here? Who are you.

  I decided to hold my tongue and just be happy for what had in that moment. If I were to ask to anymore questions I might have risked insulting him. He seemed like such a proud, masculine creature, I dared not even consider questioning him further.

  I had begun to shiver in the cold stone room, he pulled away from me and walk towards the door, his boot heels kicking up dust and making me cough. He opened the heavy wooden door and stuck his head out into the hallway.

  “ETINAS MARITA!!,” He bellowed into the hallway his voice echoing.

  He stood back and four human girls came rushing in like frightened field mice, their hair tied up into messy buns, their skin pale with fear, their shivering bodies dressed long, tan, linen dresses. Their eyes darted around the room, obviously terrified. They looked around trying not to look at the guard or me. They trembled and ran their dirty fingers up and down their bodies, as if they were trying to protect themselves, trying to shield themselves from something.

  The guard sauntered over to a large chest which sat underneath the window and took out two towels.

  “You must bathe,” He said handing them to me, smiling. “Then, you work, I come tell you what to do,” He stroked my face with his large hand and looked at me with a twinkle in his eyes.

  Oh my god, I thought, a bath. If there was anything in the world I wanted in that moment it was to get the dirt off of my body. I wanted to be baptized in it, have warm water wash away my sins of the day. I wanted to soak in warm, hot water, the way I used to do after a bad shift at the diner back home. When I would come stumbling through the door of my shitty apartment and immediately rush into the bathroom and start the warm water. I would have my shoes and clothing off before the water even got hot. I would make it scorching, almost painfully hot, so that when the tub was full I almost had to ease my aching joints into the bubbly water.

  “AMAS!” He screams at the girls, who all nearly fell over in fear.

  One of them took me gently by the arm, her hand quivering. I look over at the guard, who reclined himself in a wooden chair and nodded at me approvingly.

  The one girl began to lead me out into the hallway as the other girls followed suit in a single file line behind us. The one girl reaches for the towels and takes them from my arms, never making eye contact with me. I could see through the dark that she had a large scar running down her face from her forehead to her chin, she had tried to hang a bit of her hair in her face to hide her mutilation, but it did no good, even in this darkness I could see it.

  We walked down a long, stone hallway, its grey stone was illuminated by candlelight that danced off the hall walls and flickered on to the floor as our hurried footsteps echoed in the corridor. I looked above us and saw that the ceiling hung high above our head. I could see that it was in fact not made of stone, but was in fact painted, like one of the buildings I had seen in one of Izzy’s art books.

  I squinted my eyes against the darkness trying to make out the shapes and symbols on the roof over our heads, but we had been moving too fast and the darkness skewed my vision almost completely.

  One of the girls produced a large, silver ring of key from a pocket on her linen dress. She struggled in the darkness to find the right one. She found it, and with a shaking hand she slipped it into the metal lock of a large, wooden door. She shuffled inside and the other girl led me in by my arm.

  Chapter 4

  The room had looked like the one I had woken up in; Stone walls and floor, a desk with a mess of papers on it. One of the girl pulled up an old wooden chain and sat me in it. It creaked and wobbled beneath me with a broken leg. The room felt warm as the last embers of sunlight danced through the open window. The sunset was brilliant royal purple that illuminated the rolling mountains around us. The periwinkle clouds hung low among the hilltops and in the distance I could see what was a heard of snowy white horses grazing on the emerald grass of the foot hill. I heard them whinny and neigh in the distance, their voices carrying on for miles. Their long creamy hair streamed behind them when they ran, looking proud and wild. I suddenly realized what this new world had looked like; it looked like heaven.

  Three of the girls ran back out of the room, their backs arched and their faces hidden, looking like rats in the subway. The one girl produced a large brass lamp and set it on the table near the door. She produced a short match and lit the wick, placing the protective glass ever so gently around the flame.

  I heard a crash from beside me and saw that th
e girls have pulled up a large, cooper, bathtub. It looked like one I would have seen in a museum. They began scurrying out of the room, their cloth and sack shoes squeaking on the stone floor. Their eyes darted about looking like wild horses as they almost ran into each other in a panic. It was almost comical to see them all scattering about like the three stooges. The way they ran in a panic reminded me of the way the roaches would run when I turned on the lights in my old apartment. Pathetic creatures.

  The girls began to bring wooden, steaming pails of water. Two by two they emptied them into the bathtub, and the smell of fragrant lavender filled the air. I crossed my legs and watched them, I could feel them wince as my eyes moved over their bodies.

  What had they been so scared of?

  I supposed that they had probably seen me arriving with the guard. Perhaps they thought of me as their superior, they were certainty acting like it. I never would have acted such a coward as they were, I had my pride. I would have died before I would have ever taken commands as they did; jumping around like little church mice, afraid of their own shadows. I always had more respect for myself than that, and even if I was in some new, strange land, that would continue to make no difference. I thought of the Guard, how tender he had been to me; offering me a blanket, carrying me back to the castle, then ordering these mutes to fill my bathtub.

  He must find something very special about me? I thought to myself.

  In a way I had felt bad for the poor servant girls, how frantic and scared they were, not even looking me, another human woman, in the eye. But, I also wondered what they had done to perhaps anger my guard. If it seemed as though he had a problem with them, then I should as well, lest I fall from his good graces. It seemed like an evil thing to do; to not be concerned for my fellow man, or girls in this case. But I needed to watch out for myself, and if that meant having to go along with my guard’s charade, so be it.