Summary: After a week free of the Wizard, Sophie begins to relax and sees a ray of hope shine over her captivity in the castle. The castle is on the verge of being fit for the living, the washing done…and the Wizard has returned home.
Rating: T for the time being.
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9: Lovely
His back was to her. To Sophie, he was luminescent in the corner of the living area to the right of the entry, where his apprentice sat at the dining table. He wore the same scarlet suit, impeccably tailored to every inch of his hewed lithe form, from the broad width of his shoulders tapering to his lean hips. He leant over Markl, one hand flat on the kitchen table, the other placed affectionately on the boy's head. Scrolls that were not on the table when Sophie left lay uncurled before Markl, who positively radiated gaiety at his Master's homecoming.
"Thank you, Master Howl," Markl squeaked, his voice sparkling high on ecstasy and giddy with worship at what Sophie presumed were gifts from the Wizard to his apprentice.
Sophie stood paralyzed. Her rigid silhouette clung to the doorframe, shafts of amber rays speared through the door. Her bare feet crushed to the ground. The Wizard smiled down to his apprentice, a genuine tenderness softening his features. Where was the abhorrent three-headed Wizard she prepared herself for hiding?
"There you are, Sophie!" Markl waved wildly, peeking through and under his Masters arm. "I'll take the new spells to my room. I want to read them right away, Master Howl! I missed you very much while you were gone! Hasn't Sophie made the castle look very nice?" Markl fired a litany of happy ruminations between Sophie and his Master, before ascending the stairs to his room. He was tickled-pink with the new gifts, and had no mind to dally. He was far too excited to dabble with the incantations to chitchat.
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Howl didn't acknowledge Sophie. He was poised with roguish swank where Markl had left him bent over the table. The shafts of sunbeams breaking through the windows rained a sparkling tawny mist over him.
Sophie in turn, braced herself, seething brimstone beneath her wintry façade: lying in wait for the chronic cutting remark, an acerbic whip of his keen-edged forked tongue that could precision slice granite. He was lovely and terrible, a towering jewel of bane and beauty.
"I see you've done well, Sophie. I am most pleased…," his soothing inflection coiled around Sophie, the tenor capable of bursting hearts with delirium, except for Sophie, whose skin crawled with a thousand furry spiders at his discourse.
He pivoted to her in one graceful motion, a mastered rhythmic waltz. Her eyes grew round, hungry for more. He cocked his head to the side, demure, a smile quirked at the corners of his mouth.
"Come to me," he invited sweetly, stretching out his arms to her, every extension of him longing.
Their eyes touched. Sophie's stomach quavered. Her eyes slammed to her toes that curled under in discomfiture, helpless to withstand his ambrosial onslaught.
He tugged on his white shirt sleeves, reclining leisurely on the edge of the table, reeking a roguish confidence that he had undisputed claim to.
A tremor reverberated under Sophie's feet, or was it the room? She clung to the doorframe, battling to retain her fracturing resolve. The barrage of aspersions she'd armed herself with, tumbled from her head to mess at her feet. The seconds of intensity overpowered her, straining to an aching eternity.
"Come to me," Howl said with such solicitous veracity- it was sinister. He extended his index finger and curled it back towards himself, luring her to him. "I would very much appreciate, and insist, on a kiss upon my return home, Sophie."
Sophie eyes flared with revulsion. She glowered at him in auspice. Those thick lashes framed the length of his eyes with fine line, the alluring crook of his lips frightened and fascinated Sophie. Say no, Sophie. Refuse him. Sophie Hatter the plain vanilla of three sisters had not a prayer. "W-will you stay away from my sisters?" Her faculties remained sufficiently smart, to realize the precariousness of her situation.
"If you remain true to your words, your vows to me, then my words are bound by yours," Howl hedged a firm assurance. He held out his upturned hands. "Come to me." He craned his head forward slightly, dipping his head to peep under and into her owlish, frenzied eyes. Relishing to toy with his spry pet for self-glorification, the Wizard committed an unspeakably, despicable crime against Sophie. The darkling wells of his eyes filled with compassion, the tidings of his eyes disarming and kindly. He smiled, sincerely, lovingly, stripping Sophie naked of dissension.
Sophie surrendered, her arms falling to her sides, all forsaken, Calcifer, Markl, and herself. She padded up the stairs, and hesitated where his fingertips waited, incapable of taking the final step into his web.
"Sophie…come to me," she heard him say and swayed at his lascivious edict.
The room spun, his bittersweet scent swamped over her, and Sophie stepped into his open arms. The Wizard tenderly gathered her to him, sliding the flat of his hands up her spine, settling between her shoulder blades. His apparent benevolence tore deep into her with its viciousness. She craned her face up to his, fists hard to his chest, the mouse ensnared once more. "Having to repeat myself is indeed, tiresome," he drew his face down to hers, simpering in his slick libertine fashion. "Such misspent wasted throes - leaves little time for more precious…matters." With a serpent grace, his mouth hovered to the left, teasing to the right of hers. "Hence forth, I do hope you commit to this home coming custom, Sophie." He took her parted lips.
A succession of thunderclaps struck with a loud CRACK at Sophie's synapses. Sophie averted his lips, sucking in a harried breath. She gasped at the hot, moistness of his lips wetting the corner of her mouth. Determined to appease his mandate, Sophie planted a placating, chaste kiss to his creamy chin. The sensation popped her ears. Her mind begged to flee; her body yearned, pleaded to stay. She fixed her quavering vision to the hem of his hair that cupped over his white collar.
"Mountain dew becomes you. You are the whisper of a fragrant, inviting breeze…" His breath scorched behind the lobe of her ear, while one hand trailed into the softness of her waist length hair.
The potent kiss seeped vigor from Sophie's limbs. She dug her fingers into his upper arms, tipping her face into his shoulder, fervently skirmishing to free herself – from herself.
Somehow, Howl's other hand had walked up to the opening of the high collar of Sophie's dress. His devilishly skilled fingers unhooked the fastener, lusting for her flesh. "The sunbeams have dusted your cheeks. The scent of water lilies swathe your nubile skin." His fingers parted her collar. "Your hair clings to the sweetness of the Star Lake…." He murmured, brushing the tips of his mouth to her jaw line, skimming provocatively over her pulse point, "…terribly…lovely," before he nimbly nudged the tip of his nose into the opening of Sophie's collar. The ardor of his lips seared her skin. "You take my breath away, as I steal yours."
His voice resonated deeply, lightning striking her body repeatedly with his every syllable.
His mouth traced a fiery path around to the hairline behind Sophie's neck. She moaned involuntarily. Howl's fingers wasted no time pushing her collar aside to expose her bare shoulder. Sophie balked, shoving him back. She slapped a hand to her throat where he had been, her stomach thrashed with a nauseam of chagrin and contrition. One day the Wizard reduced her to her knees. Today, he was manipulating, beguiling her sensibilities. He would stop at no end to manacle her sanity to his wicked forays!
Sophie retreated further from the Wizard, urgently fastening her collar with trembling hands. In spite of her splintered nerves, she methodically counted her steps One, two, three to fall back to terra firma, and to distance herself from a vermin blessed with Angel wings. This wasn't the Wizard…what had happened to him in the past week? What noxious tapestry was he needling into her now?
"I-I…," Sophie took a strangle hold of her faculties, heaving raggedly. The disgrace of it all! She wailed to herself. His breath and caress singed deeper into her skin like acid. She brushed down her skirts, unsure of what had just occurred. She clasped her hands in a matronly manner to her stomach, reclaiming a morsel of composure and dignity.
The Wizard cast his eyes to the floor his fringe veiled his vulpine, feline crafted eyes. The only visible feature was the mocking sneer painted over his mouth. Coolly, he flipped his golden locks back over his head, the strands tumbling into pristine place to frame his face. He raised his hand to his mouth and ran the ball of his thumb over his bottom lip, savoring the residual bouquet, the feminine tang of her. A jade shine emanated from under his half-cast lids. He's eyes slid up to meet hers, the nefarious smirk flattering his face. "Yes, Sophie? Please, do continue."
Sophie watched captivated, unable to tear her eyes from his virile presence.
"Or dare I say it for you. My homecoming has rendered you speechless?"
"I- I…." Sophie straightened her back, jutting her chin as high as possible for a bitten prey. " I-I wondered if you would care for a spot of lunch!" Sophie broke off with an uncertain and accomplished nod to herself.
His peal of waspish laughter rocked up Sophie's spine. He crossed one booted ankle over the other, folding his arms over his chest, smiling a churlish, masterpiece of a grin.
The derision drenched in his mirth tightened Sophie's skin. How she longed to take a hatchet to that swaggering, ego-infested pointy-head of his! The Wizard seeing her in an indecent and a bedraggled state: hair a lush tousle, her feet bare and her collar unfastened in public! Disgraceful! It was unbecoming etiquette. It opposed all that she and her sisters had learnt, at the fancy finishing school her father had sent them to. However, neither was her captivity! She hurried to the hearth, not bothering for his retort that was certain to be a sardonic lance! Calcifer! Her Knight of Flaming Fire had abandoned her. Why and when was the flippant demon meek and mild? Sophie spun to the pyre in the hearth. It was a motionless flattened mass of shimmering, transparent claret. The fire demon's eyes were transfixed on Sophie, enormous orbs suspended in an emotional daze.
Sophie bent over the hearth, hands pressed on her knees. "Calcifer?" Sophie asked, curious and a touch anxious.
Calcifer's flames wavered, his jagged tips wilted downwards to the grate piled with ash. His expression etched in gleaming blue green lines of fright. Sophie snapped her fingers over the depleted bonfire: the customary explosion of colors superseded by a subdued profusion flickering from tangerine, citrine to tempered coral. A florescent cerise sac trembled in the midst of her friend. Calcifer furled his burning petals over and around the non-descript object fire that sat in the centre as a stigma of the scorching bloom.
A log splintered, breaking open, tossing a plume of toasted maple aroma over Sophie.
Unaffected by the heat, she inclined further towards Calcifer. "Calcifer, what's wrong?" Sophie persisted in a lilt, low and heavy with trouble.
"Don't, Sophie."
It was that ghostly, ethereal voice again. A disorientated melody that was not wholly Calcifer's ricocheted off the stonewalls of the fireplace. That exact one Sophie had heard her first night in the castle. "You're simply someone I am yet to know," it had said.
She craned further into the hearth, anxiety furrowing her brows. "Let me help you, Calcifer. Please. I don't understand. Talk to me."
"You're too late, Sophie. I found you, too late," the abject, sad voice dissipated into the crackle of fire, the blue stigma within Calcifer dimmed. Wordlessly, the fire demon folded in on himself; one pyre petal of flame over the other, shutting Sophie out.
Sophie took the cast iron poker hanging from the side of the hearth, and gently prodded the white-hot logs away from under Calcifer.
"Cal, let me help you. What's wrong?" Her intuition niggled something was amiss. "What do you mean by too late, Calcifer? I'm right here," Sophie assured nervously.
"Sophie, come to me," the voice beckoned, the softness hardening.
Sophie Hatter owned meagre material possessions, which she overcompensated for with a King's ransom of generosity, piled sky high with a treasure trove of inquisitiveness. Observing the raucous fire demon exhausted with vulnerability, tugged at her heartstrings.
"Sophie," the voice came again, harsh and sunken. Was it coming from the hearth or behind her? Sophie strained her eyes, darting between the logs in search of the elusive blue core inside of Calcifer: a core that seemed to double as his burden.
"Sophie." The shards of kindness fell from the voice.
Sophie squinted harder, concentrating on the pulsating blue mass. She tapped on the ash encrusted embers, sending them crumbling to expose the naked flames on the blackened grate.
"Calcifer, what's wrong?" As Sophie leaned closer and over the feeble fire, she discerned the closed slit of the fire demons eyes, transparent through his closed petals. He was a burning paradox. A destructive blaze yet a fire deprived of rage and heat.
A hand snapped around Sophie's wrist. The poker dropped from her hands clanking off Calcifer, and rolled off the hearth to the floor. A shower of soot tumbled and festooned off wooden floor, whooshing up into a mushroom cloud.
The Wizard hauled Sophie with a firm jerk from the fireplace. She stumbled sideways for balance. The breath knocked out of her from the violent motion.
"Leave Calcifer be, Sophie," the Wizard commanded.
"Can't you see something is wrong? Please, I just want to help him," she pleaded, her eyes darting back over her shoulders to the molten puddle of fire. "What's wrong with Calcifer?"
The Wizard surveyed Sophie with disdain, his cool regard shrouded by the overbearing shadows of the castle. "It is none of your concern. Let him slumber," he clipped, detached words offering not a hint of what ailed his friend.
Sophie seethed, gritting her teeth in contempt at the Wizards callous demeanor.
What was wrong with Calcifer? Why wouldn't the Wizard allow her to help his friend?
"Let go of me!" She struggled to free herself, clawing at his locked hand.
"Oh, I do beg your pardon, Ms. Nosey Parker! Why mere moments ago you melted to my touch. Now you have the insolence to play at a frigid rock?" the Wizard mocked, bearing his brilliant teeth in a dangerous, challenging smile.
"Release me! Let go! Let me help Calcifer! Can't you see past that crooked nose of yours for a human second, you degenerate Wizard!" Sophie cried, hammering his hand. The harder she fought, the tighter his lock over her wrist."The world revolves around the Sun! Not the likes of you!" She shouted digging her heels into the floor, pulling back on her entire body.
The Wizards blithe smile widened on his baneful face, he arched one fine brow high in derision and effortlessly raised Sophie's wrist up to his eyes.
"Let go! Stop!" Sophie bit in agony.
He roared with amusement, a cruel manic snort of satisfaction. "Condescension does not become you, yet you insolently persevere with your attempts to belittle me with your disrespectful banter." He pulled Sophie's wrist, forcing Sophie to balance on the tips of her toes. "Thankfully for you, condescension becomes me, Sophie. And I will educate you on the deeper meaning of 'respect', my pet."
"H-Howl ple-," Sophie strained to speak, feeling the agony surge from her wrist to her elbow. "You're hurting me…." Her fingers fanned out to exorcise the torture.
The Wizards fingers ate deeper into her swollen crimson flesh, cutting off the circulation to her hand. His eyes keen with sadistic exhilaration, drinking the pain contorting Sophie's face as if it was a fine aged wine.
"H-Howl…" Sophie rasped through fitful breathes. She splayed her fingers in a final bid for freedom before she crumpled before him, her arm stricken, numb with shock.
"You disappoint me, my rat. I should have known better. Obedience does not come naturally to an ill bred feral creature," he whispered to the side of her drooping head, taunting her with his sickening intimacy. "As your rightful Master, I have no recourse but to tutor you by the most appropriate methods, on the deeper meaning of 'obedience', Sophie Hatter."
Sophie wearily turned her face up to his, her eyes glazed over with horror and excruciating hurt. What did he want from her?
His face was a perverse leer of triumph.
"Howl, please, you're hurting me…." Don't give in to him! Sophie's echoed to herself. She bunched her fingers up in a fistful of retaliation and thrust the imprisoned ball into his face.
Howl's sinful smirk snapped to a steel line. The Wizard airily tilted his face dodging her tiny fist. Sophie stumbled forward past the Wizard. She cried out as a curdling scream of pain ignited in her shoulder. The Wizard adroitly sidestepped, twisting Sophie back in front of him, unaffected by her insolence, her wrist effortlessly shackled in his whitened hand.
His free hand roughly cupped her left cheek forcing her face to him, his face shot down to her blanched one. "I have yet to entertain the notion of hurting you, my rat," he demurred, declaring his statement as an undying oath. "I will wring you dry and bleed you blue of every droplet of impudence. Your tenacity is your quick sand, Sophie." With inhuman speed, he took her shaking lips with his. A tender, aching embrace that made Sophie's bone buzz, briefly diffusing the hell in her arm. His lips lingered on hers, his index finger rimmed over her mouth before he withdrew.
He was true to his ruthless words, his subversive kiss bleeding Sophie of her residual drop of effrontery. She stared up at him, hapless and torn. The sea of red lustre from the fire cast a half mask of bloody fire on the right of the Wizards face. The opposite side pure ivory imprisoned, behind a bar of shadows. His sublime face was a living painting, the light and dark at constant battle.
The Wizard relinquished his hold of Sophie's wrist, releasing it finger by finger.
Sophie left her arm raised above her, limp and trembling by the invisible shackles in her mind. Would the Wizard allow her to relinquish her torture without his permission?
"One hand bids the pain that complements punishment, the other bestows pleasure, Sophie," he whispered into her fringe. "The power of my hands," he paused. "Which hand holds your world, is in your hands."
Sophie hung her head, shutting out his words that rung crystal clear, as was his corrupt pearls of cunning and black-hearted wisdom.
The echoes of Star Lake hushed its peaceful lullaby in the midst of Sophie's turmoil.
The Wizard was silent, his hands sliding to rest over her thin upper arms.
"W-What do you want from me?" Sophie asked drained of hope, a tone in suffering and bewilderment. Sophie lifted her eyes to his, capitulating, realizing the victory could only be his. "What do you want from me, Howl?"
His expression was a glacial save his tormented eyes that bore at her. His eyes were the exact eyes that shone from Calcifer. A twitch ticked at the side of his temples. His eyes narrowed, brimming with an unsettled and tragic well of what he saw before him. The Wizard cursed under his breath, appalled at the holes Sophie had dug into her torn skirts. The chords of his neck throbbed at the stains of violence on her wrists. He had revered in her punishment yet why did he also feel…shame?
The face that looked down on Sophie was not that of the Wizard who'd leisurely procured her life. It was the face of a lost youth, a vulnerable child. His hurtful expression sent pangs of empathy through her. It rooted a seed of compassion that would continue to sprout in Sophie.
"Sophie…" That voice had returned!
Sophie whipped her eyes to the hearth drawn by the warm comforting tenor.
"Sophie."
She swung back to the Wizard. Her mind must have been delusional! The disembodied voice from the hearth and the Wizard's were the one? The same?
"Howl?" Her heart resumed a cautionary beat, her blood raced into her veins and thrashed loudly into her head once more.
The Wizard did not reply. He slid his fingers down her arms and clasped her wrists in his hands.
Instinctively, Sophie flinched backwards.
"Sophie," the Wizard's barbed tone stopped her.
She let her wrists slacken in his palms. There is nothing left for him to do now, save to brand his anagram on me, Sophie cussed bitterly. She dropped her gaze to the floor, closing her eyes. Is there a limit to how much hurt one feels?
The healing heat of his touch eased the spasms of misery assailing her arm. The Wizard enfolded his hands over her wrists. Sophie felt his fingers gently feather over the underside to the pulse points. Her pulse relaxed and sighed with contentment. The throes of torture rising through her sinew flesh, evaporating from every pore of her skin. She felt her hands fall free.
Sophie opened her eyes, blinking through the mélange of gloom and midday sun of the living room.
She caught sight of the Wizard's heels disappearing at the top of the stairs. What did he do? She rushed her wrists up to her eyes, wiggling her fingers checking whether they were indeed, still intact. Sophie turned and twisted her hands and wrists in search for expected scars. Nothing.
Her appendages were anaemic and quaking at the Wizard's wake. She flipped her palms to her face, scrutinizing them for any traces of trickery he might have left. But here were no scares.
She was flawless: un-bruised by his depravity. The crushing reminder of her captivity on her limbs stained by his band of brutality, were gone.
AN: Ok! Here is the latest chapter updated fast'ish as promised- I finished my final edits at 4am Sunday. *yawns* It's now 1:30am Wednesday. I'm tired and my head hurts from work. Also, the MAIN reason this chapter is up so fast is thanks to my awesome beta Saotoshi who got this back to me in two days! BOO YEAH! Thanks Sao u ROCK! Thank you to everyone who reviewed for my last chapter. It helps keep me going if people seem interested in reading more or tell me where I'm going wrong, right or round about. :) Love any comments etc Fingers crossed I'm uploading the betaed version and not one of the gazillion versions I was working on. I apologise for being a tired human being. G'nite all.