23. MARBLE

No one understood Corin's pain. No one cared for Abby the way he had. He was alone in his torment. She was gone and he would never get her back. His heart was broken, his insides ached. His hands longed to touch her soft skin once again. His mouth was hungry for her kiss. He longed to smell her, hear her voice, see her face. But she was gone.

So Corin sought out the only person who might suffer the way he was suffering. He was standing in the shadows of the docks of Cecina. He could see Adam pacing back and forth across the deck of his ship, looking out into the distance, searching for any signs of Abby. A few times Corin saw him get off the ship and start to walk down the dock but then change his mind and get back on. He kicked a large wooden barrel out of frustration. The torment on his face was visible even from where Corin stood.

Corin thought about telling him, but he wanted him to suffer. He wanted him to suffer the pains of never knowing why she didn't come to him. Perhaps that would be worse than knowing the truth. Corin just wanted someone to hurt worse than him.

Finally, the ship began its journey out to sea and Corin watched Adam break down into tears on the deck. He still kept searching the shore for Abby. He kept waiting. He would always be waiting.

As much as Corin hated him, he was glad to have someone else share his pain, his loss, his torment. He was glad that someone could shed tears for Abby since he couldn't. It was his only relief yet it still did not do much to dull the pain.

1 Week Later

Corin was in the courtyard working on another angel statue. He was trying so hard to get this one just right. He wanted it to be perfect, the way Abby was. He sculpted out her lips from memory, he wanted them to feel the way they had on the day that she died. He wished he could make the statues hair soft, the way Abby's was when she was alive. He wanted his Abby back, but that was impossible. He was reminded of the Greek Myth on Pygmalion. He was a man who created such a beautiful statue that he fell in love with it yet no other women measured up to the statue. It was the opposite in Corin's case. The statue could never measure up to Abby.

He wanted the parts of Abby that he had never been able to have. He wanted her body. He sculpted the rest of her the way he imagined it in his mind. The statue was fully revealing and it made Corin yearn for her even more. He traced his fingers down the body of the statue. How he wanted her to be real.

Then the statue started to move. Her hand came down from her forehead and softly caressed the skin of Corin's face. Her wings stretched and her body shifted. She wrapped her arms around Corin, pulling herself closer to him.

He closed his eyes and hung his head. This was torture to him. "Stop it, Heidi."

Heidi came out of the shadows of the courtyard and looked sadly at Corin. She was wearing a tight, black, revealing dress that laced up the front. Her mahogany hair was pinned up with tendrils falling down around her face. "I'm only trying to help you, Corin. I just want to give you what you desire."

Corin sighed. "I know you mean well, but this will never be enough."

The angel shifted back into her original position, the way Corin had made her.

After a moment of silence, Heidi asked "Is this any better?"

Corin looked at her. She was creating the illusion that she was Abby. She had her dark honey blonde locks falling down around her face, framing it perfectly. She had gotten the softness of her features just right. The only flaw was that her eyes were still crimson. No matter how good Heidi's illusions were, she could never change her eye color.

Corin stared at her with his mouth hanging open. This is what he had wanted for so long, a vampire version of Abby, one that he could touch and not break. Heidi walked closer to him, trying to appeal to his senses.

He looked down at her with a mix of anger and confusion. She smelled nothing like his Abby. He wanted to be angry at her for torturing him this way but he also wanted to give into the illusion of this fantasy. He grabbed her by the arms roughly and pulled her closer to him.

"I hate you for this." He said to her.

"I know." Heidi answered.

Then he pressed his lips to hers and kissed her hard. He was nearly insane from the torture of losing Abby; he thought that this could somehow ease the pain. He picked up her body and smashed her against the inner walls of the castle courtyard, pressing himself against her. He would never have been this rough with Abby, but this was Heidi, and he couldn't completely fool himself.

He kissed her neck and she quietly moaned in ecstasy. Eventually, he completely gave in to Heidi and her illusion. When it was over, he felt sick with himself, like he had done something terribly wrong. He felt guilty.

As Heidi redressed herself and allowed the illusion to fade, she said "I'm always here if you need me." Then she walked away, back into the castle.

A Quarter of a Century Later

Corin was visiting Massachusetts again. He had come back several times since Abby had died. He would walk Main Street and visit the general store where he had first met her. He saw Jeffery marry a plain girl and take over his father's shop. It was a simple life; it could have been Abby's life if he had left her here alone. At least she might still be alive, he thought to himself. Yet he knew that that wasn't true. After they fled, Reverend Parris continued his crusade against women accused of witchcraft. They were called the Salem Witch Trials. Many more innocent women died like Sarah. Abby probably would have been next if she had stayed.

On this particular trip Corin found himself in the middle of a thunderstorm in Boston. He was standing at the docks, watching the lightning strike over the water. Out of the corner of his eye, Corin saw a young boy, about twelve or so, struggling with a kite. It had become tangled in the branches of a tree. It seemed like the harder the boy tugged the more tangled it became.

"Do you need a hand there, boy?" Corin asked him.

"Yes sir." The young boy replied.

Corin pulled himself up into the branches of the tree and untangled the kite. He jumped down with it the boy stared at him in wonder.

"Thank you, sir," was his reply.

Corin smiled and helped the boy reel in the string. "Would you like to see a trick?"

The boy nodded and smiled. "Yes please."

Corin pulled out a key from his pocket and then tied it to the kite's string. "Just let it fly, my boy. You'll see." Corin smiled at him and patted him on the head.

The boy gave the kite the proper amount of slack so that it was flying in the wind above him.

Corin started to leave but then turned back and asked, "Tell me boy, what is your name?"

The young lad smiled and answered "Ben, sir. Ben Franklin."

Just then, lightning struck.