By sarah iristakeroot@juno.com
Date: 1 November 2000

All Hallows Eve

I could hear the wagon wheels traveling by me.  The night made alive by the sound of shouts, stampeding of feet, and the torches lighting the normally darkened roads.  It was on this night of all nights i had more fear then ever to hide where i currently was.  In this underbrush, covered by the thick foliage.  My body was smeered in dirt, from the crypt i had just come from.  Which i had been imprisoned in for the last twenty years of my life.  Unjustly so, because man could not tolerate what i was.  The bastard i had been born into this world.  I was a denial of two worlds, yet at a cusp of both, who might unite two families unduly wrought apart by passion. So i lay here, waiting for the silence that would allow me to creep from my secret spot, and to regain the journey i had just begun upon.  

My name is Halius, and i was born between two families.  The son of an immortal father, and a human mother.  I bear the beauty of both, my features distinguished by the birthright that all in my fathers family have, the birthmark shaped in a star above my right eyebrow.  I have darkened olive skin, and bright startling blue eyes, which i inherited from my delicate mother, who passed under the pain of having to leave my father, and i her child.  

I was kept under lock and key in the family crypt of my father for the past twenty years, so no one would lay eyes upon me.  My heart was pure, my father's family, was wretched.  Malevolent, and reeked of evil.  I was given food by a slot in the thick wooden door.  I have never had a hand touch me in love, or an eye fall on me in desire.  Yet i was born with knowledge, i found that i could hear voices if i concentrated.  I would spy on some of the greatest learning institutes of the world, and so i learned to read, and that is also how i learned of my family.  And soon after, my mothers death.

I had been planning my escape for a year now, waiting for that precise moment when i could burst free from my confines.  The moment came on this night, all hallows eve.  When few dare to walk without protection. So tonight, when they brought me food, i grabbed hold of the hand as it passed the food under the slot, and twisted it until it undid the lock on my door.  Then releasing myself into the night, and into this thick brush whence I lay.   The wagon wheels eventually passed, and I felt I could leave from my hiding.  I began walking along a road, never having seen one in my life, let alone the stars that were shining brightly above my head.   I’ve longed for such beauty all my life, never imagining it to be what it was.  Awe inspiring.  I felt myself smile for the first time, foreign to the muscles in my face.  I needed to be clean, I needed to find a water source at which to bath my body.

I delved into the forest once more, and found a small pond where I could wash myself for the first time.  I stripped myself of the lean garments I had on, tattered pants that barely covered me, shirt that clung to my back in rags.  I couldn’t imagine what I must smell like to someone right now.  I stepped into the cool water, cherishing the feel of it against my skin.  How it clung!  I never imagined it to be so!  My body trembled in ecstasy as such bliss I had never known, and had been kept from all my life.  

I felt a pair of eyes falls upon me, watching me cautiously.   I lowered myself deeper into the water, not afraid, but wary of what those eyes wanted of me.  I didn’t want anyone to see me, not yet at least.  I called out into the darkened woods, “who is out there”.  I waited for a few moments, my breath held intact inmy chest, and then she emerged from the wood.  The stars previously and the water, held no sway on me as this creature who now stood before me.  She must have been sent from the moonbeams itself, her glow was so complete.  I felt my breath grow still in my chest, I wasn’t aware that I hadn’t exhaled from the moment she stepped into view.  She came to the water’s edge, and spoke “I’ve been waiting for you Halius.”  My pulse and heart trembled, this goddess somehow knew of me.

I was mesmerized, in a state of disbelief at my now uncovered identity.  Who was this woman, I asked her.  “please fair woman, tell me, who are you? How do you know who I am?”  she replied. “I have watched you halius, over the years, grow in your tiny cell, known the strength in your arms and in your loins, I have dreamt of you halius, and come here now, to take you as you are, the man I am meant to love.”  I felt a stiring in my loins, a sudden burst of passion I hadn’t known my body could contain.  I had spied on men and women coupling before in my journeys of the mind, but never had I imagined that my body could do such things.  

The woman removed her white robe, revealing her flesh to me, more luminiscent than I thought before.   Her breasts were what drew me, how they curved, the rise of her nipple, a dusky rose.  Her hips sloped down leading to her long slender legs.  Her red hair hung down past her waist, I could see her cleft, her feminity realized.  I could see myself touching her there, and felt myself wanting to.  She came into the water,  as tiny ripples spread out before her, reaching me before she did.  She came to me, and I could see that her eyes were a bright green, clear, and intelligent.   She reached up with her hand, and gently stroked my face, memorizing my lines and countours.  I felt myself harden over her, wanting her as I have never wanted anything before, even my freedom.  I reached out and touched one of her supple breasts, pinching her nipple inbetween my fingers, hearing her gasp, loving the sound of it.  Her hands grew more urgent, the stroke my chest then following the trail on my navel, came to the spot that wanted her most of all, she touched me there.  One white leg of  hers rested on my hip she took my hand and guided it into her, I felt a warmth and moisture.  Her head was thrown back, as if in pain, but she moaned with pleasure, and cried my name “halius”.   She then led me into her, and I knew a feeling I had never felt before. Love.  Then with a flood of knowing, I remembered this woman.  As I felt myself drive into her with a passion I thought was not my birthright in this world, I thought of her.  She was the woman I had dreamt about.  And didn’t remember until now, the secret woman who would come to me on those restless nights and sooth my worried brow.  Now as my lips met hers, and teased her tongue with mine.  Our need became apparent and our pace quickened.  I felt myself release into her, and her head fell back and cried out my name over and over again.  Finally we fell against each other in exhaustion.  We made our way toward shore, and lay there,  and quietly as dawn came, she said goodbye, and she went into the mist, where she could only emerge on that one day of the year.  All hallows Eve.
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