Leather & Lace

Prologue

"Jedidiah's Angel."

I

With eyes gleaming and lips trembling she watched him work. Her cheeks burned through the hollows of her face while she adored him coyly; admiring the hands of an artist from a deep and shadowed distance. She watched his eyes light up and then darken, his tongue running over his bottom lip in fast impatient strokes. Every so often he'd grumble incoherent words just loud enough to be a bare whisper. She only longed for the day she could understand his language. The dream plagued her of if only he would speak. What words would he choose? How would he use them? Would he speak kindly and soft or brash and vulgar? Communication would surely be easier but nothing was deep as a wordless bond. Speech often diminishes the importance of emotion, tainting the beauty of a moment.

A smile pulled at the corner of her lips, so in awe at the creature of a man who was before her hunched over his working table. It was cluttered in a crimson mess of stains and tools. The same colour etched into the deepest corners of his thick fingers, crusted under his nails with dirt. It didn't bother him nor did it bother her. He was a butcher by trade. A simple country man. A family man. His way of life; this was the way he and his family survived. He provided for them and he was good at it. Unbeknownst to him, the brutality of his actions caused people pain and suffering –The people that he butchered and maimed then killed; and ate. Jedidiah had no intention to hurt anyone, not that he knew he was doing that anyhow. He was an instrument of strength for the Sawyer's with no identity for himself other than that of which his family had given him. He only knew that he had put food on the table for his family and protected them at all costs. She loved him so much more for that.

He was different and that was fine, he was so filled with affection. Not evil at all. He was even simple at the best of times, but that didn't matter to her. The two shared a bond so deep without words, without violence, but with an instinctive fire that was so natural. It burned and branded.

Her eyes followed his beefy yet delicate hands wandering across the clutter of tools strewn across the long wooden table, fingering each tool lightly as if deciding what to pick up. Air caught in her throat and his head shot towards her with a growl forming in his chest as if to warn her to be quiet. Sometimes he didn't like her being down there with him. Sometimes he would cease all action on his work, just sitting motionlessly upon her entrance. The look in his eyes clouded with disagreement when she would creep closer to get a better look at him. She loved to watch him for he just amazed her. He filled her to the core with fear, his strength intimidated her. The only thing in the world she was afraid of having and the only thing she was afraid of losing. His love was like a prized and delicate jewel too precious to hold for the consequence of loving him was too much for her heart to take.

She just had to be closer to him, the pull she fought to resist began to hurt- tugging at her chest, her blood heating up inside. She edged towards him, scuffling her tiny feet against the basement floor just to be that little. Bit. Closer.

A diminuendo of creaks from upstairs passed overhead covering the sounds of her slow approach. Jedidiah saw her anyway, and held up his hands shaking his head. His actions yelling, "Stop! You don't want to see this." The shaking of his head was telling her to back away. His hands balled into fists slamming against the table in attempt to ward her away. Jars of hooks and screws quaked against the tabletop next to a partially decapitated corpse lolled its head to the other side. Its limp arms and legs flaying into the air.

"No, Jedidiah please stop. Wait a moment." She soothed and urged him, she could hear his breath catch in his throat followed by a deep grumble.

Their eyes met in the dead silence. She nodded encouragingly. He initially faltered, as if to ask if she was sure she wanted to watch.

"I want to."

He stood up to his full height, holding the gaze as she neared. She wanted to touch him so badly; she ached. Jedidiah still didn't move although she was inches away from him now, staring up at him with green eyes that shone like emerald diamonds underneath the single light bulb that hung down from a wire and scarcely lit the room surrounding.

He stood frozen, drinking in the serenity. She was beautiful, so light and pure. Gold strands of hair shining in the light he had to touch to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Nobody would stand so close to him, not even his own family. Why did she love him so? The thought haunted him alone in bed at night, but then the shudder of his windows would awaken him from those nightmares and she would clamber through the open window in the dark, "I just couldn't stay away." She'd whisper into the night air, just loud enough for him to hear. He'd smile and hold her tight enough so she couldn't run away.

He stroked her hair soothingly, unsure what else to do. He instinctively closed the gap between them, his desire to be close to her overwhelmed him. He whimpered.

She wrapped her arms around him. She didn't dare touch his face, she wouldn't ever dare to go there. Whatever lie under the mask was his secret. He seemed so afraid of showing her beneath the mask, the fear that made him so real. So human.

"Losing you would be my suicide."

Their eyes met; his soul glowing and smiling as her own melted into his as one.