Wax

II

That moment I started to change. I started collecting guns, training with them. I started working out more and more. Eleanor wasn’t fond of the guns, but she did like my body getting stronger, which gave me some reassurance that she is a normal person. She would always come by me and just touch my muscles, giving me a grin full of desire, which would always end up with us making love. She was extremely good in bed. Didn’t really make sense, since she wasn’t really in that sort of thing. At first, it kinda startled me, but then I grew fond of her ways. At some point she started biting me harder, drawing blood and even licking it, which, after countless of nights engulfed in pleasure, didn’t really alarm me. The opposite even, I found it hot and stimulating.

But one thing always was burrowed somewhere deep in my mind. Her father didn’t recognize her. Maybe she didn’t die? Maybe they simulated her death so they can feel closure, because they couldn’t live without her. They gave up on her. Maybe being lost for so long in the wild changed Eleanor, drove out the animal inside her. Maybe she was delirious or traumatized and forgot how to communicate with humans. Maybe she was afraid. That’s the story line I went with for a while. But that would quickly change in the following months.

Eleanor started going out in the woods at night. Initially, it was once a week. But the frequency quickly grew up to every night. I brought it up one morning.

- Hey, honey. Where are you going every night?

- Me? Where am I going?

- Yes, you. I don’t know, you tell me.

- I am probably just sleepwalking. Don’t mind it.

- Well, I can’t ignore it. It’s dangerous at night.

She smiled at me, her soothing smile turned into a giggle.

- I am the danger. - she said, still giggling like a little girl.

I felt misplaced when I heard that. What did she mean by that? I bought that she was sleepwalking and decided to just ignore it. If she managed to survive so much time alone in the woods, she can manage herself now too.

One night, right after we made love, she stood up, as if she was under influence or someone’s control, and went out of the cabin. I quickly ran after her, grabbing her by her arm.

- Eleanor, where are you going every night?

She slowly turned around, her facial expression locked in a wide smile.

- I am going to my special place.

I froze the moment she turned. Her soulless gaze going right through me, I did not dare ask where that special place is or why she was going every night there. I just let her arm and slowly walked back to the front door of my cabin. She just stood there, smiling at me. Now I know what her father meant. That soulless gaze. Maybe she lost her innocence in those woods. Who knows what she had to endure and do. But she was really freaking me out.

I opened the door.

- Angel, why don’t you come in? - I asked, trying my damn best to stop my voice from shaking.

She just kept looking at me.

- Come on, don’t make me come there. - still trying to hide my voice.

Her body started convulsing. I had to grow a pair and run to her. The moment I got to her she collapsed.

- Eleanor, my love, what’s going on?

Her chest cavity burst open, mandibles and tentacles grabbed me, stabbing and choking me while dragging me into her open chest. The most painful thing weren’t the bone blades made out of ribs ravaging my body, nor the tentacles tightening indefinitely around my neck, but the absolutely horrid screeching that was coming out of her now enlarged mouth. And just like it all started, it all ended. Everything turned black. I woke up gasping for air, still feeling every single wound on my body, but after checking myself, I didn’t even have scars. The warm sunlight creeping between the trees felt so good. The air was even fresher than before. The grass underneath me was softer than any mattress. A creek could be heard nearby. But where the f**k am I?

- You are awake? - her voice tickled my ears.

She was standing propped near a tree, smiling at me.

- Where are we?

- My special place. - the hairs on my neck stood up.

- What happened? - I asked her with a stone tone.

She didn’t seem surprised.

- You had trouble sleeping, so I took you to my special place.

- So, you didn’t turn into a horrific monstrosity and gut me alive last night? - I said as serious as possible.

She let out that cute little giggle again.

- No, silly. After we made love, you had trouble sleeping, so I took you to my place.

- So you didn’t go out right after?

- Go out where?

- Sleepwalking? We discussed it?

- Did we? When was that?

- The other day, Eleanor. What do you mean when?

- Oh, well either way, here we are. This is where I go when I feel stressed out.

The meadow outside looked undisturbed. No signs of whatever the f**k happened last night. I must be going crazy. I must be also starving. The moment I turned to ask her to go home, she was gone.

- Eleanor? Eleanor! Where are you?

No response.

- f**k… - I mumbled to myself.

Well, we couldn’t be that far away from the cabin.

- Hey! - Eleanor yelled at me from way down into the forest. - Are you coming or not?

- Wait! - I replied, already running into the direction of the voice.

- You said you were hungry, right? I found some food.

When did I tell her that?

- Hold on. - I finally reached her.

- Here. - she passed me a handful of guts.

- What the f**k, Eleanor?

- Eat.

Everything around us changed. The forest went silent. The sun quickly disappeared. A gloomy mist started creeping around us.

- Eat.

The sky turned black.

- Eat.

A thick darkness was slowly approaching us from all directions, eyes of different shapes glowing in it and approaching with it.

- EAT.

The darkness was too close now. Skinny arms with long fingers started reaching out from it. I wasn’t going to eat the guts.

- EAT! - Eleanor was now shoving the guts right in my face, her face literally melting, as if she was made of...wax.

- EAT. EAT. EAT. EAT.

I let out the most primitive, full of fear scream I have ever felt.

Everything went back to normal. The birds were chirping. The wind was rustling the leaves around me. Eleanor was giving me the strangest, most worried look. She was giving me a handful of berries.

- You zoned out? - she asked quietly.

- Can we go home?

- Okay.

Am I going crazy? How did we go to her “special place” without me remembering. The hike back is already taking more than four hours, so it’s not possible that I don’t remember even a fraction of it. All I remember, all I know, is that something killed me. And that something was Eleanor. Did she drug me? Maybe to enhance the experience from last night? Yeah, she probably drugged me and is not telling me and now I am tweaking.

- Did you, put something in my food or water last night?

She looked at me as if I asked her in chinese.

- Something? Like narcotics? Hallucinogens? Aphrodisiacs?

- Mhm.

- Are you seeing stuff too?

I stopped walking. She stopped too and looked at me, waiting for an answer.

- Yes.

- I thought I was going crazy. Maybe it’s the mushrooms I gathered the other day.

- Mushrooms?

- Yeah. They must have been hallucinogenic. Oops.

- You survived for months out here, but can’t make a difference between edible and inedible mushrooms?

- I am not perfect. - she hid how hurt she was and continued walking.

I felt like a d**k. She is trying to fit back in and I am just pushing her away.

- Ellie. I am sorry.

She stopped.

- I am acting like an i***t. You are perfect. I don’t deserve you.

- Hey. Yes, you are an i***t, but I am the one that doesn’t deserve you. You waited for me. For almost a year. My parents shunned me away, but you still believe me. I love you, John.

This little moment of intimacy made me forget everything and just live in the moment, with the love of my life, Eleanor.