The first rule of shopping on Market Day is do not stop moving. Celes held this rule up above all others. There was no patience in this woman when it came to shopping. But, there would be very rare times when I'd be buying venison or some such thing and turn to find Celes staring at something beside price tags and products. Every time, she was watching a child with its parents, crying with impatience, eagerly asking for this or that, or just standing by silently next to mother and father holding one of their loving hands so as not to get lost. But if it was a baby being held close in a mother's arms, she would turn away quickly and bow her head down and I'd see her hands press against her stomach. I think that was why I stopped going with her on Market Day.

Life went on.

Those words have many meanings or so I've been told, but I don't know any but one: that everything calms down or becomes boring or life just went by in a haze for a period of time with no details to describe and no new revelations to ponder over. Okay…maybe one.

The seizures didn't stop, but how I reacted to them did. It was like a maturity of sorts. The animal fear was replaced with human dread. The knowing and the not knowing, a mix of the worst kinds of fear. The attacks themselves became less and less painful as I began to get used to them, but the dread was something that only got worse. It was disgustingly ironic that I would feel a quick sense of gratitude as my terrible dread was dissipated in a bright white flash and for a few minutes, I was spared the suffering and given honest physical pain as reward for my diligence. The fact that the attacks were coming on quicker and longer I thought should have made the dread easier to deal with. It didn't.

But that wasn't all, my little brothers Your fine narrator was also being forced the repercussions of his mental illness. My marriage suffered…or prospered. I found it really hard to tell.

As my life kept on keeping on, I began to notice a certain pattern to my relationship. My problem began to create a strain on our marriage. It was destroying me and I could see how I was dragging her down with me but every time it seemed that we were reaching that horrible brink, I would see the flash and she'd be there it and would save us. I don't know how, but it would. Something would happened, the strain would be ignored and we'd remember that we loved each other. But it wouldn't last. It never lasted. I had now long been aware of the pattern, so it was pretty safe to assume she'd been aware of it for much longer. How long would it be before she would tire of it?

I felt like I'd been stricken with a disease and worse yet, I'd spread it to Celes. It felt so much like a disease, a self-destruction that was eating from deep within, so slow at first that it could've meant anything. A spat here or there that should've meant nothing, but the bad feelings lingered just a little bit longer each time. And there were other symptoms too.

Our sex life changed. That usually didn't mean anything, it shouldn't have meant anything. We were always experimenting, having fun and expanding our experiences. It was always a new adventure when we were intimate. Now we began to experiment further and at an incredible rate. No longer were we trying things out slowly, carefully, almost cautiously. No, now we tried all the ideas we could think of in a sexual rush that could only fueled by a desperation to run from the horrible place we'd found our relationship in. We ran blindly into those new worlds and we didn't stop to think about where we were going. Those kinds of games that were once played because they were erotic in their dangerous nature were now an outlet for our frustration. Games of pain and humiliation became more prevalent and it didn't seem to be about being satisfied on a sexual level anymore. Things would be said that would be more than just dirty sex talk or role play in part of the games and slowly it became more an more obvious that the dark feelings we were infected with were being exposed. I wanted to stop playing, I wanted to stop everything. I wanted to start over. I wanted to just make love like blissfully ignorant and innocent couples, when we could hold each other close and feel our love in such a simple embrace. I wanted us to remember we loved each other and forget everything else.

That only happened once.

There I was, standing in front of the bed wearing nothing but the chains attached to my wrists and tied to the bedposts. I was held there, arms outstretched, hands becoming numb from the ice-cold chains and staring at the bathroom door. The light that leaked from below it shifted as I stared. I watched at the movements it suggested, wondering what Celes was doing. My mind was on the moment and only somewhere in the vague recesses of my mind was I worrying about what was at that time, only a vague shadow of something unpleasant. The closest I got back then to being aware of our change was the fact that ol Charlie didn't seemed to be as attentive as he used to, not even for Celes. That was extremely rare, but considering it had never happened before, it was definitely something to worry over. I looked down.

Charlie seemed as ready as I was tonight at any rate.

I heard the door open and looked up.

Let's stop at this moment and step away from the mind a moment in order to do a little exposition okay? Besides, I love freezing that moment and reminiscing about the look I had on my face right then. Now it would be my guess to venture that we, me and Celes, would be the only people who ever live our lives the way we do. But then I forget the world we lived in, and the world she had lived in. Vector, the peak of technology and maybe a few other things. It is my assumption that perhaps she did a little exploring when she was younger, perhaps going to certain areas of the city that catered to unique people, who knew what the back alleys held in that metal monster of a community after all. No doubt she was well aware that she wasn't supposed to be around areas like that, but what's the point of being young if you always do what your told? Perhaps she was too young to understand what she may have witnessed, perhaps not. But the memory may have stayed in the recesses of the mind, waiting till she was willing to let them out when her body and mind were ready. Or perhaps this all just some poor shmoe's idiotic fantasy to explain why his wife was a complete sexual nutcase. But you couldn't deny that there was a style to Celes' ideas that seemed rather…industrial. She loved chains for one…and black.

Which is exactly what Celes was wearing when I looked up towards the bathroom door. There's really no other way for me to describe it. She wore black. No, she was black, from the top of the neck down. She was naked, her shape perfectly silhouetted by the bathroom lights, but her luminescent skin was now a pitch black. But it wasn't skin, it was liquid. It mirrored everything in the room off of it, like a clear still spring, the reflections distorting around Celes' every curve. My reaction was immediate.

It scared the hell outta me! My mind was filled with confusion and apprehension. Never seeing anything like that, I was almost scared. What the hell had happened to her? My mind raced with desperate explanations for this bizarre image I beheld. Magic? Had Celes still the power of magic? But magic was gone, I'd seen it. The mental contradictions too much for me to bear I moved on. A chemical reaction? Had she taken something that was changing her? I'd always been rather curious what potions and tonic she held in her bathroom cabinet, but I never dared open it to find out. But why now? I didn't know so I moved on. Maybe this wasn't Celes. How could it be? It had a different skin. But the face, so lifelike. It was her face, but maybe it hadn't finished changing? The idea that it wasn't Celes scared me something fierce and my mind raced some more. I was almost in a panic. What stood before me I could not comprehend or understand and I was far from aroused.

Then she moved.

Everything was swept outta my head instantly and understanding rushed through my body, if not my head. All she did was take one step forward, but that one motion had the most intense effect on me I could remember having in a long time. The light swirled around her liquid skin in a graceful dance, exploring all the smooth curves. I was aware then of her body, of it's smoothness, it's grace, it's impossible beauty of movement and form. The liquid her skin had become seemed to purify all that I loved about her body. My knees nearly buckled and I inhaled a long, shuddering breath. I was fully aroused and far from caring about comprehending or understanding jack scratch.

She stopped after that one step and was still again, her face beaming with joyous satisfaction. But there was an intense feral nature to it as well that made her all the more exotic.

"You like?" Even her voice was sensual perfection. There was something almost eerily perfect about the whole situation. It was so focused. There was no spiritual meaning, no emotions to influence this powerfully physical desire I was feeling. I didn't want to let Celes know I loved her. I wanted to get laid and there didn't seem to be anything wrong with that.

I couldn't answer her, still fully encased in my shock. She began to walk towards me again, now even slower. I continued to stare at her and with each agonizing step my desire became more intense. I knew it would overwhelm me long before she actually reached the foot of the bed. Then, of all the things to do, she slowly got down on her knees and began to crawl towards me on all fours. Her back swayed back and forth and her eyes looked up at me, shining with a ferocious intensity. I slipped further and faster into desperation, in a free fall of growing sexual aggression.

Celes crawled before me and already I was leaning against my chains. If only I could have closed my eyes. But she held my eyes now with her body. And it wouldn't have gotten rid of the noise she made as she moved anyway. A sound unlike anything I'd heard before. It was her new skin stretching and contracting as she moved. It sounded somewhat like a zipper, but slower…much slower.

I looked down at her and she crawled in front of me, then slowly turned and rubbed her side against my legs like a cat asking to be petted. I'd felt her skin finally and it was something indescribable. It was so smooth and warm. I felt an all to familiar feeling go through my body and I was acutely aware that I was shuddering. What had first become a battle to simply stand there and stay still now became a battle to withhold myself for as long as possible. At this rate, it wasn't going to be very long at all.

She rotated around my leg to my back so that I couldn't see her anymore. But I could sure as hell still feel her and that was now more than enough. I was still breathing evenly, but it was in large, shuddering breaths.

No, I wasn't going to last very long.

Suddenly I felt her leave me and while I was rather grateful for the lack of pressure it was causing, not so far in the back of my head I was also felt a deep loss. My body didn't care what my mind wanted. But I could still hear her, still hear that strange and erotic stretching that was her body movements. And now that she was so close, I could hear her breathing, alive with erotic anticipation. That made me shudder again.

I wasn't going to last much longer.

A quick hot breath hit my lower back and I stiffened up while my head shot up as I gasped. Then I felt a tingling feeling around my waist and looked back down at myself. I could see Celes' liquid black arms come around from behind me at my waist. They didn't touch my skin, but her hands were stretched out with each index finger just barely touching my skin, gliding around like skaters on an ice pond. Suddenly I was aware that Cele's hands were gloved in what appeared to be the exact same material as her skin. The thought was quickly shoved aside as her fingers glided to my stomach and began to rise up towards my chest, with more digits extending and touching me ever so lightly as the hands ascended. All the while I felt her hot breath crawl up my back and I could feel the heat radiating from her body, so close to me. So close.

Not much longer.

I was now audibly panting and intensely gasping as each new finger touched my bare skin. I knew she was slowly standing up, holding her body practically against mine. I could hear her, feel her, hell I could almost see her as her body rose, her intense expression and those deep, passionate, hungry eyes. It was so easy to see as my eyes clenched shut and bit my lower lip, desperately fighting back myself. I could feel my body beginning to reach that inevitable rush. No turning back. I could feel her so close to me, less than an inch. I couldn't take it! She was so close. I was so close.

No turning back. I couldn't hold back any more.

Without warning she wrapped herself around me. It all happened at once. One arm clutched my upper chest and went round my neck while the other ran down the length of me down to my groin. All of her body pressed against my back and every tense muscle was made clear to my senses as her head brushed the back of my hair and her lips reached my ear.

"Oh Locke!"

The rush hit me full strength and my eyes and mouth shot open. I made a gasping cry and I saw stars flash before my eyes. It was her voice that had finally broke me. Another time, another situation I might have realized how obviously fake it was in it's melodrama, almost corny even. But right then, right there, in that moment with all my senses being overwhelmed, it became the focal point. Even in my orgasm, I heard Celes panting in my ear with heated want. It fueled me even further along until finally I was spent and my legs gave way. I didn't fall however, but merely dangled from the chains. I was exhausted and felt like I was about to faint.

In a very distant way, I felt a tingling sensation around my wrists and a heavy echo of a metallic clinking rang through my ears like a wind chime. My left arm fell down to the floor with the right still hanging, but it too was soon released and I was lying there on my hands and knees trying to regain my strength. Just as I was about to get up, I felt a heavy weight across my back that almost made me fall face first onto the floor. I turned my head to behind me and found Celes, one leg resting on my back with the knee directly on my neck, as she leaned forward towards me. Right then I was aware that she had something in her hand. It was a collar and leash and before I could protest, it was strapped around my neck and tightened, rather harshly I might add.

"That's a good boy." She said as she towered over my head, "You did very good, but now we're going to play a little game. If you do a good job again, then I think I'll reward you. Now heel!." She yanked on the leash and my head was violently snapped up. Quickly I crawled up next to her leg. She began to walk towards the bedroom door and I followed closely.

It was an odd game of hide and seek that kept me on my toes…and my hands and knees for that matter. Going down the stairs was a particularly painful trail as I was not allowed to use my feet even then. Apparently she'd hidden a good deal of her own little fancies and devices she kept in that center drawer all round the house and I was now going to have to find them all. It was going to take a bit of time but that was the point. Quite simply, Celes was letting me get my second wind before she'd 'reward' me again. I was given no clues to go on aside from a more disciplined version of warmer/colder. I was cuffed when if I got colder and petted when I got warmer. Personally I think I got cuffed a lot more than I got petted, but when I'd finally discovered all the items, Celes seemed to be pleased.

"My my," she said with mock satisfaction and just slight genuine surprise, "you were much quicker than I expected. I'm very proud of you. Now would you like your reward?"

Was she kidding? I barked happily for her. During the game I decided to get into the act went through the whole gammut of dog-like behavior short of marking my territory. The panting, tongue waggin, and curious sniffing of the floor for whatever I was looking for. It wasn't nearly as demeaning as I'd thought it'd be, in fact it was kinda fun. I figured that it would please her at any rate and I was right. I could only imagine how she'd thank me for that little performance.

She led me to the stairs and it was far more comfortable going up than it was going down. She went first this time, allowing the me the pleasure of watching her ascend the stairs as I followed behind. I was suddenly aware about how horny I was still feeling and after having all that time to recover, I was more than ready once again.

We entered the bedroom and she led me to the bed, still keeping me behind her. She was a smart girl alright. My desire was increasing with each stride and she damn well knew it. I could see it in her sly smile. She led me to the bed and gave a short tug on the chain.

"Up boy!" she commanded curtly.

I jumped onto the bed, turned to face her and sat down on my haunches awaiting her next command obediently. She smiled with satisfaction.

"You're a very quick learner. I'm very proud of you. Now lie down boy."

Slowly I got on my back and brought my limbs to rest outstretched on the bed. Somehow I knew that part of the play was over. She didn't say anything at any rate, but instead climbed onto the bed and climbed over me, standing on her knees, directly over my stomach. She held the leash tight for a moment and her face held an evil smile, but then tossed the leash away and her face softened. She leaned forward and brought her hands to rest on my shoulders, her face hovering above mine. Her hair surrounded me like a silk curtains.

"I love you my pet." She whispered and I knew that was not part of the game. The game was over.

All the things I'd been aware of before flooded back to me. The beauty of her body, her new liquid skin, her smell, her breath…all of it. It made my body shudder and this time she felt it. She beamed back at me and let her body rest on top of mine. It was a slow and the sensation her skin had on me lasted all the longer. I spent an eternity making short, almost silent gasps for air. I couldn't even hear her breath over the ringing in my ears, but as she let her whole weight down on my finally, I looked into her face could see she was as anxious as I was, breathing long and hard almost to the point of panting. I looked at her feeling lightheaded and in a daze.

"Your so beautiful." I whispered. She smiled and then slid herself into me and I heard her let out a soft and low moan. I thrust myself further into her and before she could gasp I kissed her deeply. A sudden bright flash of white light blinded me and I heard a distant and deep rumbling.

No!

But it was too late. I'd never been able to stop it, and I couldn't now. But after that first flash, I could still see Celes. She was still kissing me passionately, though I could no longer feel it, but the vision of her was beginning to blur. My arms suddenly wrapped around her and I kissed her as deeply as I could. Then the second flash came and she was gone to me. Quickly now the flashes came to me and it seemed that only seconds passed now before I was surrounded by the light, but the low rumbling that I was so familiar with did not grow as it usually did. The strobe of the lights began to quicken so that the world I was in seemed to grey and darken. It grew darker until it seemed that I was almost surrounded by black. But there were certain areas that were not as black. The areas became smaller and more defined until they became definite shapes, but they were abstract and didn't mean anything to me. But the began to move, to animate and fly around this dark world. The danced about and flew around me as if taunting me until they began to dance among themselves. Then I noticed a pattern to there motions. They were the shapes of shadows. They were the shadows of an object…no…a face. A face stood before me and then I saw the body attached to it. It was a man, old and thin, and shabbily dressed in a torn white work shirt and weathered overall whose ends were frayed badly. His face was cut deep with an age beyond his years and his expression was grim and cold. He stared down at me through thin slated eyes. I was suddenly aware how tall he was, at least twice my height. A maddening terror swept through me that took away all my thought and senses. I saw him reach down with a large, bony hand and I screamed. I was surprised to hear not my voice, but that of a child. The hand gripped me by the neck and lifted me up to the man's face. My feet dangled below me, having left the ground this world had created and it seemed that I was being lifted up hundreds of feet before my sight was filled with that of the man's face. He stared at me a long time and my child's voice began to weep. The man's face changed to a horrible and terrifyingly angry expression and suddenly he opened his mouth. I thought he was going to eat me.

"What're you crying fer? Huh? You aint crying, you hear me? There aint nothing to cry about! Nothing happened! Do you understand me?" He was yelling at me and as much as I screamed at the top of my lungs, it would not drown out his voice. It was the voice that I'd been hearing all along, now made clear.

His arm lifted me up above his head, holding me thousands of feet into empty space. My eyes shot wide as I looked down at that arm that held me. It was drenched in blood and I could suddenly feel it on my chest and neck where he was holding me. I looked at his other arm and there was blood there that covered all of the arm. In the hand was a long butcher's knife and blood dripped from it's tip. He dropped me down to the ground and began to walk forward, dragging me behind him so that I could not see where he was going.

"You don't listen too well do ya boy?" he continued muttering, "Never did ya sorry lil cuss. Well, now that she aint here to tit ya anymore, bout time ya learned yous gotta pay yer way in this world. Hell, I bet even someone as dumb as you knows that. Prolly was as weary as her as I was weren't ya? Yeah, lookit you? Did you get hard offa dat? Ya fuckin pervert! Yous sick boy and I'm gonna hafta learn ya."

I didn't understand what he was saying. I couldn't comprehend his words. I was like a child again and all I felt or understood was the mindless terror. He stopped and I was suddenly yanked out again and his arm lifted me out in front of him. I was dangling now over a bottomless pit that glowed red at the bottom. I could see the movements of something at the center of the red glow, but I couldn't see what it was. But I knew it wasn't human. I looked up at the man and began to cry.

"No…please. I'm sorry, I'll be good, pleasepleasepleaseplease…" I was screaming now in that child's voice. The face became angry again suddenly I was yanked up into the air again. With a terrifying swiftness, all hope left me and I instantly knew that he was about to throw me into the pit.

"Daddy don't!"

With a loud grunt, he threw me down into the pit as hard as he could, and I was in free fall as the wind screamed around me. The mindless terror resurfaced as I feel and the red glow grew larger. The movements became clearer and I could see what ever was down there waiting for me, reaching for me. The glow now surrounded me and amidst the screams of the wind and my own voice, I could hear the deep rumbling of the demon speech. It became louder as the thing I was rushing towards began to take shape. It drowned out all the screams and became clear to me. A monster created from pure fear, made of teeth and eyes and an immense mouth from which emanated a long and thrashing tentacle-like tongue. It was waiting for me and that demon sound began to have a rhythm. It was laughing at me and the laughing tore at me, growing louder till it seemed to be inside my head. I couldn't stop it and I was about to fall right into it's jaws. Then it roared and lunged up to capture me in it's jaws.

I closed my eyes and heard myself scream, but it was an odd scream. It was very odd. I was suddenly aware that it sounded like Celes. I opened my eyes just in time to see her collapse onto my chest panting heavily. There she stayed for a while, regaining her breath and some of her strength before falling off of me. Then of all things, she began to laugh. I couldn't imagine what was so funny. I couldn't imagine much of anything in fact, my mind had gone into a kind of psychosomatic shock. All my senses were working peachy-keen and it was all registering, but none of it had any meaning. I was staring at the far wall of our room unable to create any comprehensive thought or emotion. I was dead alive.

"Wow Locke." She gushed, oblivious to my condition, "I mean…wow! That was incredible! I don't know what got into you, but I'll play this game every night if that's what it takes. Whew! I think I got more reward of this than you baby. I mean…honey?"

Something finally flickered in my head, a faint feeling of nausia. It wasn't anything more than a slight body response to a rather traumatic experience, but it was a feeling. It was followed by a sudden wave of disgust before I was even aware of what I was feeling disgusted towards. Then the realization hit about what had just occurred. Everything hit in fact. It was like the floodgates to my tortured psyche were released. It hit me hard and fast and drove me to full consciousness.

I shot out of bed and ran to the bathroom and promptly threw up in the toilet. My ears were ringing, but I could still hear faintly Celes calling from the other room. I looked up and saw that she was out of bed and running towards me. I lunged towards the door and my body slammed it shut violently. My arm lunged out to the doorknob and my hand fumbled for the lock in desperation. I found it and it clicked just as I heard Celes knock on the door.

"Locke, what's wrong? Locke? Locke!"

I turned around resting my back against the door and sat there regaining my breath. As I heard her voice, only moments before laughing in her beautiful afterglow now worried confused and hinting of desperation, I was filled with guilt. She was basking in a beautiful afterglow and I'd callously stole that from her. I had to make it up to her somehow. She was scared now and I couldn't have that.

"Honey, I'm not feeling too good right now." I said amiably. I felt insane. "I think I'm going to black out in a moment. I'm very sure of it in fact. When I wake up, I'll tell you everything, I promise. But you got to promise me something too okay?" I anxiously awaited her response and my head began to feel very light and large, like a balloon.

"Okay baby." her reply was calmer, but their was a heightened fear in her tone, "What is it?"

"You gotta promise to tell me what the hell you did to look like that. I was ready to pop like a cork before you were halfway cross the room." I let out a small chuckle for her to hear, hoping to make her feel a little better, but it was dearly bought. Almost immediately, I felt the rush of lightheadedness hit my brain and then everything went black.