Chapter 9: Ensnared

This place was in the beginning stages of being made into a prosperous town. There were so many ideas and plans for every family that had decided to join themselves with the settlement. What Arianna now walked through was the main street where all the people would find the general stores that would give the services they would need. Each family that didn't have a shop on the main street owned small farms that provided the town with food for the time being. After every house, store, or barn that was finished, a feast followed close behind. But it was more than just a job well done feast. The town celebrated their achievements; everyone's dreams were starting to come to fruition.

Being the only daughter, she had more responsibilities than others. Not only did she have to help her mother clean the house and prepare the food, she also went hunting and trapping with her father. She learned how to tan animal skins and stalk an animal's track until she could find it and kill it in a clean shot. But being born in such a small town and seeing the same thing day in and day out got very tiresome. However, when there was down time, Arianna found enough trouble for her and her best friend to get into while they were growing up; enough so that the village never stayed quiet for more than a few hours.

Abigail, Arianna's best friend, was as sharp as anyone in the town. She was quick to solve a problem that Arianna made and she gave advice to the townsfolk when they needed it. If Abigail was the brain, then Arianna was the brawn. She liked to take on challenges, and loved to prove her speed and strength to the boys. Although there were some bitter defeats, Arianna was the victor in most of the tasks that were given to her.

The years passed and Arianna and Abigail were content. Never did Arianna think that they would ever find a disagreement. But like everything else, life loved to show her how wrong she was. Once the two girls reached the age of 18, the boys had started to court and try to win their hearts, which the girls had all but turned down. The boys were fine, and some had even became handsome, but they had no wish to leave their thriving village, but the two girls did, and because of this, the suitors had their hearts broken, but not their determination.

Over the years, the town was starting to get a good deal of reputation. It expanded into a popular town hidden away in the forest. The soil was rich and good, which drew in more farmers to grow their livestock and their harvest. Soon the butchers, bakers and blacksmiths came to make a profitable and comfortable life here. With cured meats, baked bread, and a place to make and repair metal, there was nothing the village lacked.

The ideal job for the women was to run the general store, or to work at the bakers. Abigail became an apprentice in baking, but Arianna didn't want that job. She didn't care for cooking, and mostly because she wasn't good at it. Arianna had burned bread until it turned black like charcoal. No, Arianna had her heart set on the blacksmith apprenticeship. She loved the hiss of a hot piece of metal immersed in cold water, the sparks and the heat that came from the forge, the metal singing as the hammer struck it, forming into whatever the creator had wished of it. With Arianna's talents, this job was tailor-made for her.

She fought with the blacksmith and begged for him to make her an apprentice. After years of pestering him day and night, the blacksmith finally gave into Arianna and allowed her to work in his forge, and Arianna loved every minute of it.

One of their best buyers was a man, about the age of 20. He used the wood to create beautiful furniture for the people who lived in the city, and he came in to order tools and pieces of metal for his furniture. Arianna lost her breath every time he entered the store and flashed a stunning smile to her. The man's name was Derrick; His eyes were soft and gray like a summer storm, his hair a dark chocolate-brown, and with tan skin from working outside and bulging muscles from chopping lumber, he was able to make Arianna stutter and mumble when he spoke to her and flashed her a brilliant smile.

After taking the blacksmithing job, none of the boys in the town were quiet happy with her and had even started to shun her. They put all of their attention on Abigail, who has been busy with being the object of desire for the men in the village. But Abigail never forgot her friend, she always stopped by with bread and cheese for Arianna and they would share lunch together.

But soon, even that had started to become a rare event. Abigail only seemed to show up on days Derrick came, and when she did show up, Abigail would barely notice her best friend.

As she walked through her memories, Arianna came upon the small brook and the remains of the black smith shop, and the memory had started to sting. There was a small cherry tree that grew on the bank and it was Arianna's favorite spot to sit and relax after she finished her work. It was also the place where Derrick told her that he had wanted her as his wife. After years of working together, they had grown close, and Derrick didn't care about the muscles she developed from working at the forge or at how well she could do "men's work". He could still see that she her for who and what she was, and that all she wanted was to love and be loved and accepted for what she did. The entire town rejoiced at Derrick's proposal. All, except her best friend.

Jack and the cherub flew far away from the Cove, across the endless expanse of sea until they reached land, and even then they didn't stop. They passed the clustered buildings that dotted the beach, the suburbs that were further inland, until they reached a mountain that was covered with trees and had no visible sign of life, except for a particular spot. A steeple stood out among the green canopy like a thorn in the side of a mountain. It looked so out of place among the wilderness; the wood had rotted out on most of it and gaping holes dotted it.

The cherub pointed toward the steeple, "She'll be there."

"Aren't you coming?" Jack asked.

"No. I don't belong here. This place…it's special to Arianna, and I have no business intruding on her sanctuary."

"But I'm alright?"

"You're different," the cherub said. He turned back in the direction to the Cove. "Good luck."

The cherub left Jack and returned to the skies, heading back home. Jack questioned whether the little guy would make it back, it was a long flight and getting here seemed to exhaust him. But there was no point in chasing after him, if the cherub thought he could make it back home in one trip, then it was his decision.

Jack descended down until his feet touched the cold earth. An overcast was starting to set in and the air became heavy and the wind became colder. The promise of winter rain was clear. Jack hurried his steps as he searched the area. Jack saw the fallen foundations and rotting wood from forgotten buildings, paths that were becoming overgrown with grass and weeds. Jack had no idea where to start, so he wandered around and searched the old ruins for any sign of Arianna. For a while, his search had proved pointless and he was even considering giving up, but finally his luck had turned around.

Jack stumbled upon the brook and the former blacksmith forge, and he found a dead cherry tree with a sleeping Arianna at its base. Relief and joy flooded his body, she was safe and she was well. Jack sprinted over to her to see that she wasn't entirely uninjured, but a few scratches wouldn't have killed her. He even saw her eyes still puffy and her cheeks dried with tear tracks, but whatever mood she was in, she was certainly at peace now.

She slept soundly and her breathing was at an even and relaxed pace. There was a part of Jack that felt bad for disturbing her sleep, but prolonging their stay would have put both of them at risk.

"Hey, Arianna. Wake up." She groaned in agitation and turned away from Jack's prodding, but Jack gently grabbed her shoulder and shook her a little harder until her eyes finally opened.

"What are you doing here?" Arianna croaked.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking that? Strange place to come and fall asleep at."

Arianna snorted in derision, "Why were you looking for me?"

"Why? Did you forget that Pitch is out there looking for you? Storming off by yourself wasn't exactly a smart plan."

Arianna turned away from Jack, "I'm not concerned about it. He won't find me here."

Jack breathed deeply, trying to vent out his frustration, "Don't underestimate him, Arianna. Acting brave-"

"Who said I was acting?" Arianna asked. Her voice dripped with venom and Jack recoiled.

The silence between the two had grown incredibly uncomfortable. Jack didn't like the hostility that Arianna was giving to him. All Jack wanted was to help her, but Arianna was in no mood to deal with lectures and warnings. That was all that she dealt with from the time she became Cupid.

"Sorry. I didn't mean it that way," Jack said sincerely. "Do you mind if I take a seat next to you?"

The tension in Arianna's shoulders relaxed. "It's not like I can run you off. Any fireball I shoot at you, you'll just snuff out with your snow."

Jack laughed, "I suppose so." Cautiously, he took a seat next to Arianna and looked around the woods. "So what is this place?"

"A former village that has been lost to time and forgotten from memory. I'm surprised to see this much of it still left."

"This…this place was where you used to live? When you were human?" Jack asked.

She nodded. "No matter how much I hate this place, I can't stop myself from coming back here."

Jack felt some envy at that. "Why do you come back here if this place makes you feel this way?"

"I don't know. Maybe I'm sick. Maybe I feel like I deserve all the bad that's happening to me now."

"Why do you say that?"

Arianna gave a sad smile, "I was selfish. I grew up here with my best friend. We were inseparable and we liked almost all the same things. As we got older, the things we had in common started to lose to what we wanted for ourselves. She liked baking, I liked jobs that were for men at the time. And after sticking with me through all the trouble I dragged her into, I took the one thing that she wanted. One man asked for my hand in marriage. But it was the same man that Abigail had fallen in love with."

Arianna gave a dry bark of laughter. "The worst part was. I didn't mean to do it, but at the same time, I didn't want to give him up. She had a whole town of men she could have chosen, but she wanted the one person who could accept me for what I was."

"What happened?"

Arianna's face fell. "Abigail confronted me a few weeks after Derrick proposed to me. She wanted me to break up with him. Apparently I was the last resort after all her other attempts at trying to convince Derrick that she was the better woman. I told her that I wasn't going to give up Derrick. After I told her that, she became very upset and told me about all the things that I drug her into and she got us out of. That after all the years I brought her grief, she was the one who deserved to have Derrick. Abigail was never good at trying to use force. I was the one that was good at that. So I told her no again.

Then she told me that Derrick was only infatuated with me. He wasn't really in love, he was just amazed at how a woman could really act like a man. I was an anomaly, a freak of nature. That struck me hard. It was bad enough to hear that from other people in the village, but to hear it from her, that was something I couldn't handle. I told her to leave and to not come near me or Derrick again."

"I'm guessing she didn't like that."

Arianna turned to Jack and shook her head. "Nope. The next day, she locked me in the blacksmith shop and set it on fire. If she wanted Derrick, she was going to have to kill me."

Jack felt the air leave his lungs. "She tried to kill you?"

"Several times. But the day she finally succeeded in it, was the day I told Derrick to leave."

"You broke up with him? Why? He wanted to be with you, didn't he? Why did you let him go?"

"At first, I didn't want to, but Abigail was getting crazier with her murder schemes, and I couldn't have her arrested, even with Derrick supporting me. No one wanted to believe that one of their own would lower herself to murder. Some just wrote it off as jealousy, and they thought that it would pass. Others just didn't believe me. All of Abigail's murder attempts were clever; she made each one look like an accident. The only thing that I could have done to spare Derrick the torment and to protect him from getting hurt or killed in the wake of Abigail's wrath was to chase him off."

"So why didn't she stop?"

"I was still too much of a threat. She wanted to make sure that Derrick only had her as an option. So she had the building set on fire and had the doors locked so that I couldn't get out." Arianna paused and Jack knew that she was reminiscing her death. Where his was as simple as just falling asleep, hers was a nightmare. Screaming for help, choking on the smoke, the heat and flames growing closer to her like a pack of ravenous wolves. Jack shuddered at the mere thought of it, to actually live through it and to have memories of it; Jack didn't know how Arianna could live with it.

"The next time I woke up, I had these on my back and no one could see me." Arianna jerked a thumb to her wings. "At first, I thought I became an angel or something, until Aethon came and found me. The Man on the Moon pointed him in my direction and Aethon told me all about why I was chosen and what I was meant to do. My life took off as Cupid then after that."

Jack waited for Arianna to gather herself before he spoke. Once the shaking in her shoulders stopped, he asked Arianna a question. "It wasn't just Aethon who kept you away from others, was it? You didn't want to repeat your past, so you felt safer keeping away from others. You did what Aethon said, because it was easier to not rely on yourself."

Arianna looked to Jack. At first there was surprise in her eyes, and then there was realization. "I suppose I was. The Man on the Moon picked a pretty pathetic person to take on the role as Cupid, didn't he?"

Jack stood abruptly on his feet. "You're not pathetic," Jack growled. "You gave up someone you really cared for, because you wanted them safe. You didn't attack or retaliate against your friend when you had every reason and right to. You showed compassion to the person who in the end took your life. Despite all those things, you still show compassion and continue to do what you can for others. You fight through all the bad memories and the pains you have to carry as Cupid, but you still manage to pick yourself up and start again. That isn't someone who I would call pathetic."

Arianna's face flushed at Jack's words and even he started to feel his own face burn from embarrassment; what Jack said though was true and he admired her for that. She turned away, hiding her smile with her hand.

"You sound like a boy in love," Arianna chuckled.

Jack's stomach knotted up and his face burned a darker shade of red. He wanted to protest, but his tongue felt swollen and the words grappled in his throat.

"Thank you, Jack."

"F-for what?"
Arianna turned and smiled brightly at him. "What you said, it cheered me up. I never saw myself like that. It's nice to hear a second opinion."

Jack smiled back, hoping the flush on his cheeks had faded, "Y-you don't have to thank me for anything. All I did was say the truth."

Arianna opened her mouth to say something, but she stopped abruptly. He was about to question, but as he observed his surroundings, he noticed the world had grown still. The sun had set and the clouds had changed from a foggy gray to a dark violet. With the light now gone, the tree lines had become heavy with shadows and multiple yellow eyes peered out of the veil. A quiet rumble shifted through the air; the eyes peeled away from the forest, and took the shape of ravenous wolves.

Words didn't need to be exchanged between Jack or Arianna. She fastened an arrow on her bow as she closed the distant between her and Jack. The wolves cautiously circled around the two, barring their black teeth and growling at them. They backed away from the encroaching force, but as she shifted her feet, a second team had circled from behind and a wolf snapped at Arianna. She shouted in surprise and fired and arrow in the middle of the wolf's skull; it howled in agony as the flames engulfed it, but as soon as the shadow wolf died, another quickly replaced its fallen pack mate. Jack turned to see that their escape was blocked; they were completely encircled.

"Careful where you step Jack. This group is a tad high-strung."

Pitch stepped out of the tree line and stood behind his army of wolves, smiling at Arianna. "It's good to see you again."

"Is this what you'd call a welcoming party?" she questioned.

"What, don't they look familiar too you?"

"Can't say that they do."

Pitch laughed, "I suppose I did shape them into a different form. I must say though, Arianna, your fear has more raw power than children around the world. With such a sad past, and such a sad future; it's a rush of terror I haven't felt in years."

"You're saying these all came from my fear?" Arianna questioned.

Pitch made a gesture to one of his canines. Arianna looked to a wolf and stared into its face. In its eyes, images flashed inside, broken and scattered pieces of Arianna's past. A building encased in flames was the last image that passed by before Arianna fired an arrow into the wolf's eye.

The wolf crumbled in ash and its spot was taken up by another. Arianna breathed to settle the beating in her chest as Pitch's mocking laughter rang in her ears.

"Fire all you like, you won't burn out your past no matter how many arrows you lose."

"No, you're right about that."

Arianna strung another arrow and fired it at Pitch's feet. The wood splintered and revealed red cracks before finally exploding and creating a wall of fire.

"Move, Jack!"

Arianna took off from the pack of wolves, flying into the canopies. Jack hesitated from the sudden act, and saw the barrier was slowly fading to embers. The shadowed wolves were in disarray from the explosion. Jack took the opportunity to fly during the confusion, following after Arianna's trail.

The remaining fire was snuffed out by Pitch's fear; the onyx sand had put out the rest of the flickering light. He couldn't contain his laughter as he watched them fly off. The wolves' footsteps crunched over the charred earth, waiting for their master's command.

"Fly as fast as you can, you're only making the hunt more exciting," Pitch looked to his pack. "Find the girl. If the boy gets in the way, dispose of him."

The wolves sent out a howl that pierced the silent night, and they were off, climbing into the air as if it were the ground itself.

"Let's see how fast your past catches up to you, Arianna."