Once again, blessings be upon Courtaney and EternallyEvian, for all of their dear help with this chapter:)
Eve lay in her makeshift fur bed, listening to Julian's snoring. She had almost gathered the courage to slip down the side of the bed, but she had wanted to make certain that he truly was asleep. He was facing away from her, but she could make out the rise and fall of his chest in the dim light from the fire.
"Please, please be asleep...I need to get out of here,"she thought, her eyes filling with tears. "I can't stay here like a caged bird."
Biting on her knuckle to keep from sobbing out loud, Eve again listened to Julian, hearing the snoring continue. Stealthily, she sat up, and crawled out of the furs. "So far so good," she thought to herself, as she reached the edge of the bed. Eve swung her legs down, and held on to the folds of the rough wool blanket. She then slid down, until at last she reached the ground.
Smiling her relief, Eve began to tip toe away from the bed, not even bothering to look for her reticule and slippers that she had worn. She could barely make where she was going, but she was determined to leave regardless.
Being alone for so long, the slightest hint of noise, not of his making, stirred him. Julian looked up to see his little treasure tipping toward the door. His eyes widened in shock, then narrowed with smouldering fury.
"EVE!" he bellowed, infuriated she would dare to try to escape from him. Julian's heavy footfalls shook the ground. Without turning around, Eve broke into a run, desperate to find a way out. She was small and quick, she thought-she could easily slip away from him. But he was big, with longer strides, which meant she never really had a chance. Oh. She would be stuck here forever...
Julian strode in front of Eve,blocking her attempt to escape, his face a mixture of rage and pain. "I told you that you will NEVER leave!" He stared down at her, his eyes flashing. "I will NOT allow it--I have been alone for too long, and you will remain here, as my lifelong companion! I will NEVER be alone again! Do you understand me? The silence is so loud, and I get tired of just the sound of my own voice and the animals in the wilderness. Even your constant protests are music to my ears..I'm sorry you're upset, but the loneliness...it's unbearable. You must stay. I can stand no more," he told her, a grim note of finality to his words.
Eve fell to her knees, sobbing her heartbreak."I'm sorry, I'm truly sorry, but this is the way things have to be. Sadly, you'll get used to it. Even if you never truly accept it ." Eve knew then that he would never let her leave..that she was to remain a captive.
Julian was anguished at the sound of her abject misery, but he could not face the loneliness and despair that he had known before he had seen her fall down that hill. Too many years had he longed for another person to talk to, to relate to--but who would speak to someone such as him? Tabitha Lenox had made certain of that. And to drive home the point of his captivity of his monstrous size, she had paid him a visit to gift him with the golden cage that he had placed Eve in. Who would believe that hateful old woman's golden prison would provide him with the sanctuary his sanity needed.
Gently scooping the lovely Eve in the palm of his hand, Julian returned her to confinement. Eve sank against the bars, crying bitterly. She was back in the cage, her attempt at freedom thwarted. "You can't do this," she cried. "You can't keep me here at your pleasure."
"My dear, it is painfully obvious that I can, and I have. No one can see or hear you, deep in my mountain home. " Julian was adamant. Seeing her tear-streaked face, he added, "Perhaps, one day, I may be able to trust you not to try to leave me again."
"How do you expect me to live like this?" Eve asked him. "Caged like an animal, like a--"
"A monster?" he finished. "Do you not see how I was trapped without you here with me?"
"Trapped?" Eve asked, wiping her tears so that she can see him more clearly. Julian held onto the cage, his eyes begging her to understand.
"All of these years," he began, " I have despaired of ever knowing again how it felt to talk with another person, to share joy, sadness...any emotion at all. I did not know how much longer I would be able to withstand the aching loneliness that I felt." He took a deep breath, then continued. "I saw you fall, and when I came upon you, I was struck by your beauty. I could not leave you, Eve...I would not."
"Julian, I have a life back in Harmony...my friends...how can you expect me to stay here?"
"My dearest lady, I understand all that, but...maybe I am being selfish...it's just...well, you are all I have, the only thing that will make me want to wake up in the morning. Before you came, I was dead inside. Now, everything is fresh and new. You mean the world to me, Eve. And in time, I am hoping I come to mean the same to you. You offer me hope that the world is a brighter place. I can't give up that hope."
Eve stared at him. Julian's pain was evident, and she could not help but respond to it. "I ..I don't know what to say, Julian. You have indeed led a tortured life." She then looked down. "Yet you would sentence me to a similar fate."
"But it wouldn't be the same. We'll have each other. That makes all the difference." He then opened the cage, knowing that Eve could not jump without risking grave injury. Julian reached in and brought her close to his lips, where he kissed the top of her head ever so gently. "Forever, my lady." Closing the cage, Julian smiled at his diminutive treasure.
Eve sat on the floor of the cage, drawing her knees up to her chest, facing an uncertain and fearful future with a lonely giant.
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