Summary: After paying off Fanny's debts in exchange for Sophie, Howl brings his new 'guest' back to his castle.
Rating: T for this chapter.
--xx--xx--xx--
2: Freedom
Markl jumped when a thump reverberated through the rattling floorboards, and twisted round to see his Master struggling with some girl he'd just teleported into the kitchen with.
"Howl? What the hell have you done now?" Calcifer asked worriedly. "This don't look good Markl," the fire demon continued, throwing a side glance to the boy.
Howl peered down his slim and perfectly straight nose to the slip of an ugly mouse he'd caught, anticipating the girl to beg and cry as the pitiful animal she was. The twisted smile on his lips dropped away when he saw the defiant fire of her eyes lashing up at him.
"Let GO!" Sophie screeched, suddenly aware she was no longer in the hat shop, confused and horrified that such a vile, and surely, gay Wizard had purchased her life so easily. Was her life so worthless?
"Very well," the Wizard leered, twisting her arm a little tighter behind her back, the wince of pain hissing from her mouth amusing him greatly. Only then, did he release Sophie abruptly, sniggering melodiously as she crashed hard on the filthy, dust covered wooden floor.
"Howl, who is she?" Calcifer questioned, feeling a little sorry for the scrawny thing in a heap at the floor. "Did you kidnap her?"
"She's the new cleaning lady for the pig sty you complained about last night. I've soiled my clothes and wasted enough time on this poor excuse of a woman," Howl spoke with sheer arrogance. He picked a strand of Sophie's hair from his lapel like it was a dirty tissue and flicked it with disdain into Calcifer. "Make me some hot water for my bath." And with that, he shot up the stairs without another glance at the devastation he'd brought into his home.
--x--
All was quiet. The room hung in wavering shadows, the only light cast in golden circles on the floor from the hearth.
Sophie lay on her side, curled in a tiny trembling ball. The tip of her toes to the root of her hairs ached, frozen as in death at the nightmare her mother had cruelly sold her to. I'm not going to cry. I'm NOT going to cry, Sophie told herself in spite of the hot streaks staining her cheeks, the salty trickles in her mouth: at least she had not broken down in front of the 'blond-arexic'! With all her might, she wished, prayed, that if she kept her eyes closed long enough, she would wake from the hell surrounding her: that she would open her eyes and return to her heavenly mundane existence.
The Neanderthal Wizard was gone for the moment, and this was probably her only hope for escape. Slowly, blinking wildly, Sophie flitted her heavy lids open. Her vision blurred with tears, the darkness undulating like waves before her. Nothing was visible until her sight adjusted to the bleak surroundings. There was a mouldy stench to the place, possibly dirty laundry or a room that had not been aired for months, years even.
A sudden throbbing gripped her arm, and Sophie snapped her eyes down to see a deep scarlet bruise appearing on the wrist, in the shape of a hand. "My arm," Sophie whimpered, finding the strength to stand and ignore the violent physical proof of her captivity: her heart weeping at the realization of her plight. Her body unconsciously moved towards the only source of heat in the room to find a little warmth and comfort.
"Lady, that looks kinda bad," Calcifer peered up from the hearth, his fiery brows pinched with sympathy. His flames orange laced with purple compassion for the clearly unattractive and unblessed girl. Even the softness of the night shadows was unkind to her.
Sophie halted mid stride, her hurt and anguish forgotten the instant that the fire before her spoke.
"You, you can talk!" Sophie gasped in shock, her eyes bright as headlights. GOD! This place is as crazy as that senseless bully and excuse for a man, Sophie hissed privately. "I-I have to get out of here. I can't stay here with that pompous ass!" Sophie begged to the lick of flames surging towards her. "Where is the door? Please tell me!"
"You're nowhere near as pretty as Master Howl's other girlfriends at all," a high-pitched voice drifted from behind Sophie. She spun around to see a young cherub faced boy no older than ten years old. He was standing at the bottom of a staircase shroud in darkness, scratching his head, dressed in a white nightgown: angelic and naive.
"I am NOT his girlfriend!" Sophie screamed shaking furiously in humiliation and disgust at the thought. "I have to leave! Where's the door, please?"
Markl pointed down the stairs to the entry, staring at the strange woman.
Sophie scrambled down the stairs, jerking on the door knob. "OPEN DAMN YOU!" She shrieked, banging her hands wildly on the door.
Seeing the girl in such a state, Calcifer offered kindly, "Er, Lady, I don't think you want to go out into the Wastes at this time of night. Besides, if Howl says you're to stay…"
But the girl had wrenched the door open and was gone. The open door slammed onto the iron stair railing, streaks of brown green scenery still visible outside in the coming twilight, as the castle plodded on.
-x-
Sophie fell with a brutal thump from the moving claptrap. Her face ate into the dirt from the impact of her fall, but she didn't care. She was desperate to run and did so, not looking back at what she'd fallen from or where she was fleeing to.
"Please, please someone help me!" This landscape was foreign to her. Desolate hillside far removed from anything living, no houses or lights in sight. She ran, her feet eating into the ground, heading towards the setting blood red sun sinking over the horizon; her heart pounding agonizingly against her ribs, her lungs flaring hot with exertion. The air was stale and windless as she ran. I'm safe! Sophie cried silently, too prematurely.
"You should know better than to run, servant girl," an ice-cold voice lashed from behind her, as something coiled around her waist lifting her clear off the ground. "I'll decide where you go or when you'll leave the castle: that's if you leave at all," a ghostly, sensual voice whispered into her ear. A pungent aroma of flowers and heady musk smothered Sophie. She kicked her legs but they were set like stone, trapped by a spell. A wet, heated sensation swept over the shell of her ear and Sophie swung her head away to evade it. It was the Wizard!
She craned up to see his hair fluttering as a gold halo framing his face under the pink twilight. His eyes an intense smouldering sea green blaze of intimacy that stopped her breath in her throat. "How dare you kiss me?" Sophie spat rancorously at him. How she wanted to scratch out those eyes that disturbed her so, but her arms were pinned to her side.
The Wizard smiled nefariously with exaggerated slowness. "Well, the little critter has a spark of fire after all. I see your life has been far more sheltered than I imagined, if you thought that was a kiss." His voice was hypnotic, hung with purpose and bravado.
"This is a kiss," he murmured into her ear as lovers whispered sweet nothings to each other. His sensual lips hovered over Sophie's, hesitating if but to tease her.
Sophie opened her mouth to shout abuse, instantly, quieted by the moist heat of his lips on hers. Her cry was lost in his embrace. Yet her eyes remained wide open, glaring at the beguiling, vacuous eyes that met hers, that closed to her, to fully savour and claim her mouth with his.
Sophie's head spun, seeing stars and sparkles of pink and white. His hot, sweet tasting lips surged skilfully over hers as his tongue explored the soft caverns in her mind. The arrogant, disgusting bastard! Sophie hollered to herself and struggled furtively against him, refusing to respond to his kiss. Such a loathsome thing taking her first kiss, to have such a callous beast steal it from her was unbearable!
"Don't pretend to fight what every woman in three kingdoms only dreams about, my little rat," the Wizard murmured against her lips. "You're only a woman after all, and no one can resist the kiss of Howl Jenkins Pendragon, a kiss sweeter than heaven's wine or a flower's nectar," he finished, brushing his lips over Sophie's before taking her again.
Bite!
The Wizard jerked his face from his perceived latest conquest. "You sewer rat!" He snapped acidly under his breath, breathing hard and licking the droplets of blood on his lower lip, where Sophie had sunk her teeth into.
Sophie's eyes shrunk to pinpricks in her ashen face. Crimson trickles glimmered on her quivering mouth in the newly risen moon. As she glared venom at the Wizard, the blaze in his eyes and taunt set of his mouth sent a chill of fear down her spin. Still, the bravery within her heart shone through and Sophie forced out in a shaking voice, "Y-You don't have a right to touch me! It serves you right for casting your cowardly spells to stop my fight!"
The hidden tenderness died in the Wizard's eyes, filling with hurt and chagrin. "You like biting, do you? Behaving like an animal? Then I shall treat you like one." He shot his head at preternaturally speed into the hollow of Sophie's neck and bit, hard. Gnashing her soft pink flesh between his perfect whitened teeth, relishing the victory over the classless wallflower, who DARED flee from him, AND deny his amorous embrace. He wanted to dominate her and the instant gratification of the physical wound he inflicted on her enthralled him. He wanted to punish her, hurt her, to hear Sophie shriek at him: to show some inkling of emotion towards him, and to have Sophie beg him to stop. And he, Howl Jenkins Pendragon in his mercy, would do so…if she pleaded. He didn't understand the intensity of his actions, but he didn't care. He bit, harder, closed his eyes to the gentle baby powder scent of her skin. The first drop of scarlet tang trickled into his mouth. He was lost to the quiet and bliss of her warmth: but the scream he craved, anticipated, never came. Sophie's stoic, stubborn silence overwhelmed him, and his sadistic abuse of her.
The Wizard pulled away, his teeth marks clearly embedded deep red in Sophie's pale skin. Her head was turned from him, her eyes shut tight to block out the monstrosity of him, from the barbaric Wizard she'd turned him to. A shaft of pain thrust into his non-existent heart at the sight of her. He grimaced at the heartbreaking mask over Sophie's face, and a rush of self-repugnance washed over him, at the dirty handed use of his magic to overpower her. His hand shook and without logic, the Wizard raised his slim hand, longing to caress and wipe the desolateness from Sophie's crestfallen face. The ball of his index finger nearly touched her pursed lips when Sophie's eyes opened. Instinctively, he dropped his hand.
"You're the animal, Howl." Sophie's voice was low, distant, as if she wished herself to the ends of the world, just to distance herself from him: the light in her eyes dead and flat as her expression. She refused to meet his gaze, instead, staring forlornly to the fiery stars in the dark canopy of the night.
Howl. The Wizard repeated in awe to himself. It was the first time he'd heard her say his name. Though, his delightful and sublime name from her lips sounded like a foul curse, an evil. But why did it bother him so whether she said his name or not? She was an ugly drain rat! He shook his head, waking himself from the momentary weakness and lapse into conscience. "The spell is to ensure you don't run from me my sewer pet. You are bound to me, whether you accept it or not. You belong to me, by a contract that is more binding than blood," he said in a controlled, silky voice. "I'll treat you the way you deserve to be treated."
Still, Sophie's eyes pointed to the stars, resigned to anything Howl had to say, or do to her.
"I'll forgive you this time…Sophie," Howl forced her name out, each syllable making his pulse leap. "Maybe, the shock of your mother giving you up is a bit much for an inane thing like you. Your home is in my castle now, don't try to leave me again."
With a simple click of his slender fingers, Howl, with Sophie in his arms, vanished into the night, taking his little mouse back to his castle and world.
AN: Thank you heaps to everyone kind enough to review for the prologue, and gave me the motivation to continue with this. And thanks to everyone who put this on their alerts and favs. :D Anyhoo, second chapter is up and I'd really appreciate any comments, concrits and what you think of Howl baby. :D The lovely Misty Voughn is helping with ideas for this fic so I gotta say thanks to her.