I'm fascinated by Maryann and this idea kept gnawing at my brain and wouldn't stop until I sat and my computer and let it out. It's my little imagining of Maryann's origins.
Disclaimer: None of its mine.
She had always been predisposed to excess and anarchy, ever since she was a little girl. Her mother had always called her wild, warning and endearment all at once. Her mother had told her that once she was married she would have to change her ways and devote her life to serving her husband, rearing his children. She had done so, resigning herself to the only life there was for a woman…until he came.
There had been murmurings in the village of a man who was beautiful and dangerous and…wild. He had brought with him tales of a new religion. This was a religion that not only accepted the darker aspects of human life but encouraged them. The man could always be found where there was wine flowing and music playing. there had been rumors of orgies, men and women rutting with abandon, like animals. Her husband had balked at these tales and scornfully denounced them, calling the participants heathens and vagrants. He had no right to be so pious, she thought, remembering the many evenings he would forsake their marriage bed for that of the young boy he favored.
The invitation was whispered to her in the market one day. A friend had told her there would be a gathering in a nearby wood in the dead of night. She was told to come alone and be prepared for anything. Something in her ignited at the words and she could only nod her head vigorously, her body thrumming with fear and excitement.
That night she stole out of her home hours after her children had fallen asleep. her husband was with his lover and would not be back until morning. She walked quickly, the knot of tension and anticipation in her stomach clenching tighter with every step. She raced through the dense trees, spotting flickering firelight in the distance. Eventually she found herself in a large clearing.
The meadow was filled with naked bodies, all moving in a violent, hypnotic dance. Drums pounded and the naked flesh moved to their beat, the ugly noises of copulation an instrument itself. They were grunting and groaning, calling out in unintelligible, strangled voices. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
There was a man standing at the center of the clearing, twitching and fluttering with manic energy. His movements were as sinuous as only the most dangerous of predator's can be. She could almost see the energy pulsing out of him, clearly the force behind the revelers crazed lust. She saw that he had bloodstains on his bare chest, and these seemed to make him even more beautiful. She found herself moving toward him, enthralled by this otherworldly being. He had become, in a few short moments, the center of her universe.
His eyes opened and caught hers and he smiled warmly at her. She felt her grip of the world around her slipping and she gave in to oblivion happily.
When she woke the next morning she was naked in the woods. Her body ached her head pounded. She was covered in blood and dirt and there were leaves in her hair. Bruises had formed over every inch of her skin. Her mouth was coppery and there were chunks of foreign flesh in her teeth. The juncture between her legs was as sore as it had been the morning after her marriage.
She laughed madly, the sound shattering the silence of the lonely woods.