Music Recommendation: Revolutionary Road by Thomas Newman.
----
It was in the latter dead of the night. Nothing lived outside. Not even the irritating sound of the night crickets or the ravens and the rain which had stopped some hours ago, began to pour again over the land.
Inside the forbidden forest, the maple trees gallivanting down the swampy thick ground were black and greasy in the rain, their bare branches shiny and muddy, underneath the moon. The flower bed around it was currently a saturated matting of dead stems that withered.
Sitting on the mud five meters away from the trees, under the harsh beating rain was Marinette dragging a maroon threadbare shirt from the floor. As she recognized the patch on the shirt, she screamed. Her peerless blue eyes shut tightly while she tactfully put the shirt closer to her nose to sniff the now-gone fragrance.
As she released her lips to make out painful cries, she failed to. It was impossible.
"No!! Gabriel, please. We have a promise to fulfill together - To see to the happiness of our daughter" She sobbed.
Peter watched the earnest scene in a corner, his heart breaking repeatedly as the woman he was madly in love with, shouted for her husband. If he proclaimed to not be affected, he would admit he lied. He was both jealous and angry. His best friend cheated him and married the woman he wanted. Now that he was gone, he would make her his forever. Sadly, his vengeance was incomplete.
Strangely, there seemed to not be any of these creatures inside the forest when they entered.
Weird.
The forbidden forest known to take human's souls. The absurdity of superstitions and the fears ingrained in one's mind. Peter silently pacified the woman dirtily seated on the mud, gripping the shirt to her heart. He heard her mutter,
"Gabriel, come back to Harriet and me. At least for the love of your daughter. Our lives are intertwined with yours, but when you go - Harriet, she would be depressed. She sees you as her Lord. Her everything. You can't just leave us like this. Please. Have mercy, will you? Her health... " Marinette looked at the heap of mud by her side, where she assumed her beloved husband had been buried. She screamed for him until her throat was bruised. She felt heat, heat that was mixed with cold and pierced deep into her heart.
"Please" She buried her face into the shirt.
Tired of Marinette, being a victim of lies and deceit, Peter bowed his head in respect for the dead man. He went to the woman and helped her up. He comforted her.
"Harriet's health will deteriorate. At least be strong for her, lest you want to see the heap has a companion?" Peter groaned out. He didn't want to hear cries for that man. He was jealous. Thoughts began running through his mind like - would she cry for him when he died? Would she yearn for him too?
Peter cupped the woman's face into his palms as he stared at her with those two passionate hazel eyes. He kissed her tears away and patted her cheeks afraid she'd get stained. Then, he murmured,
"I am here."
"For you"
"And I will never abandon you as he did."
Marinette hearing such endearment couldn't help but break down the more. She shouted and swathed her trembling arms around the man's neck as she cried on his shoulder. The pain was stinging. The father of her child was gone. She would never see him again. Her love was gone. That shouldn't have happened. This was all a dream. He was meant to deliver the loaves of bread and then return to his family. Not as a corpse, but alive.
It should be a dream.
She would never see Gabriel again.
Never.
And it was heart-wrenching, exceptionally for Harriet.
------
A/N
Debut Date: June 6, 2023.
This is a work of fiction. BOD is a slow-burn romantic novel, filled with mystery, comedy, and fun-packed dramas.
For now, I'll keep updating one chapter a day, but when I get contracted or go privileged, I'll start updating two to three chapters. Please don't forget to vote with Powerstones and reviews.
A mass release for 30 goldentickets.