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Index:
Tale 2: Page 4
Tale 3: Page 7
Tales from a Fly on the Wall'
Tale 1:
I live in a remote village in a land far away only sporadically visited by outsiders. It's been that way ever since I have been here. For a simple creature like me, I am an anomaly, I have been around a long time.
This story is not about me though'
It's about a visitor who came to this village not that long ago...
I would be remiss in my narrative duties if I didn't describe her to you. Quite beautiful she is. And the man she met in this village who forms the other vital half of my tale? He is handsome of course' in a rough, no-nonsense, beastly sort of way.
Yes, they are both cliches' their story is a cliche too... the height of cliches, in fact. But they remind me why this is a cliche I never get tired of'
They have that sort of thing between them that would electrocute me if I managed to get in between' it's mostly antagonistic' but every now and then... once in a blue moon really, you get this iota of a glimmer of something else' a raw and feral passion running underneath'it's not obvious at all... In fact, if I didn't watch them so obsessively, I am sure I would miss it...
I am not even sure that man recognizes it for what it is' He has never felt it before and hence, has no comparisons against which to measure his newfound Pandora's Box...
The woman on the other hand, if she were ever to pause and think about it, she would know... but she doesn't want to... it would go against everything she knows and prides about herself... He has tried to take her life as many times as he has saved it... He lives like an animal with no evident appreciation for any of the finer sentiments in life... His only friends are a five-year old boy and a creature of the bovine variety who he spills his guts to whenever intoxicated on backyard brewed alcohol... he is loyal to a fault, with an underscore on the fault... In truth, he had no redeeming qualities...
But those were not the most important reasons why she couldn't allow herself to acknowledge any undercurrents of anything primitive or unexplained between them...
It was the fact that she already loved someone else... a man who was kind and loyal and good and sweet-natured and everything that should make her want to leave this village with him without ever looking back...
A man who stood in front of her now and asked her to walk into his arms like she had many times before...
And yet, her traitorous skin prickled while her cheat of a body resisted his touch, viewing it as an invasion... her heart at least was kinder, urging her to recognize him, this man that she had loved for a long time... her mind stayed out of the mess, preferring to be mired in its own confusion at the risk of abandoning the rest of her...
You may be wondering how I could know her visceral responses so very well? Call me telepathic... I warned you that I am an anomaly...
She avoided his eyes when he asked her if she loved him and gave him an evasive answer, not knowing what else to say... she clamped down her discomfort when he drew her closer... but he was not satisfied, almost as if he could sense her unprecedented reluctance.
Just before his lips could touch hers, her instincts took over involuntarily, pushing him away from her... her heart lurched and for a moment she could feel his surprised pain fully... it crowded her awareness of her own rejection...
She ran out of the room in a panic and I flew out with her...
Fate has a most amusing sense of irony, I thought, as I watched her crash into the Beast that was her husband...
Unbeknownst to her, relief coursed through her as he steadied her from falling.
For a moment, her eyes turned vulnerable as her heart gave her reprieve, taking mercy on her...
Her arms held onto the strength in him... the strength that had both harmed and protected her more times that she could count...
If she had had the leisure, she would have wondered at her own masochism... an educated and worldly woman such as herself drawn into a bond that was the zenith of absurdity...
But, in that instant when their gazes met, all she felt was a sense of being grounded...
If her eyes gave away anything, she wasn't aware... and if his returned the same, he was not privy to it either...
The only one who saw what passed between them was her rejected lover...
And me, of course...
As I flew out of there afterwards, I felt exhausted... and exhilarated...
I think I will take a nap...
Don't worry... I will return to spy on them again...
Theirs is the only drama worth watching in this place after all...
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Scene Credit: https://youtu.be/Wo9gWi9V8vA
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