Love You Forever Pt. 04

We sat and looked out the window. She knitted and I smoked. She played pennywhistle and I played spoons. She sang and I listened. She kissed me and I kissed her. Another winter passed outside our warm kitchen.

**************

I felt a great shock in my body; I heard a great buzzing and then nothing. Pain shot down my arm; I felt the weight of being buried alive. Everything glowed and blurred in an alarming fashion. Aideen came down and discovered me, still watching the phenomenon of death around me, listening to the banshee of death. To her it looked like I was in great pain, with my face contorted, my already glassy eyes becoming glassier. I saw the panic on my love's face. She ran to the door. I hoped she was not going next door to her family. But her glowing figure hesitated in the light. She returned to keep me company in my last moments. I gasped and rasped but she would never hear me say the magic words. "I love you forever."

She just knelt and cried and held my hand until it was all over. I was dreaming and seeing the things of my childhood. The things in my life I hadn't thought about since they happened. They are all there. Everything is always there even if you never ever see it again. I saw all of humanity and the great celebrations and gatherings and communions of the soul. I saw all the doors I ever walked through. I saw the banshee beckoning.

Aideen wanted to help, I know she did. She wanted to send for a doctor or a coroner, but there was no point right now. I was fading into the spiraling next. I was no longer distinguishing one thought from the next, no longer making out one piece from another, no longer deconstructing anything I saw or thought, the wailing was growing louder, even my love Aideen's figure was fading, blurring, getting buried in the noise and light. Even my memories of her were blending into everything else in the past. The past was blending into now and the future, but before anything else, I awoke.

I awoke like when the sunlight hits your eye in the morning, at the same time as the kettle boiled, at the same time as the cock crowed, at the same time as there was a knock at the door, at the same time the clock chimed five, at the same time some neighbor or other hollered at their cattle, and the cattle themselves mooed and bellowed, and them eating the grass sounded like somebody tearing apart the newspaper right in your ear. The countryside can be a loud place, and indeed, being born is loud too.

I awoke with Aideen's hand on my chest, warm blood trickling down my side onto my unbuttoned shirt, which lay around me. She straddled me, leaned in and kissed my face all over, never removing her hand. She removed her hand. Slowly, she removed a long hawthorn. Perhaps an inch of blood covered poison wood emerged from her palm as she did so.

Her grimace subsided and she looked down at my chest. I followed her eye to see the black thorn that protruded from my chest. Slowly too did she remove this thorn. She smeared my chest with a bloody palm.

She stood up and left me to recover from the ordeal. I just lie on my back on the kitchen floor by the front porch. Aideen had stopped shaking and panicking and crying. Carefully she took an empty matchbox from the cubbyhole above the seat next to the fire. She placed the blood covered blackthorn and hawthorn side by side in the matchbox and replaced it next to my clay pipe.

Exhausted, she sat down right there and looked over at me, calmly smoothing out her long green skirt.

I just stared at the rafters and floorboards above me. I imagined the woodworms slowly turning the fine timber into crumbs and brittle biscuits. Wood and varnish alike the worms found their way through. Someday, these floors would fall and I hoped that I would not be underneath. I grabbed my cane by the butt and with the help of the banister, lifted myself up on my own. I leaned on the banister, covered in dry blood and faced my Aideen.

"Now so, it worked after all," said I.

"Indeed it did ye chancer," codded Aideen, but with her laughter her tears returned. "I don't know what I would've done if it didn't, Denny."

"Aye."

"How was it?"

"The banshee still calls Aideen, but I don't think she'll be getting any kind of answer... 'Twasn't too bad now I'll say."

"Were ye ready to go?"

"Aye. But not without you, my loving child. 'Least not without having you a dozen times more."

Aideen laughed aloud and came over to me by the stairs. She pinned me to the slats. By now Aideen stood a little taller than me. A daughter of Eoin and Cait Connolly, she was stronger than me too. We tested my new body and spirit before we made it up the stairs to the bed.

**************

On that first night, Aideen and I celebrated. Reenan had delivered us everything that we wanted.

We each drank full glasses of whiskey, sang songs and played music, burned fires in the fireplace like it was still the dead of winter. We fucked fiendishly.

To say that new life had been breathed into our relationship could literally and honestly be the greatest underestimation in history. The elation for Aideen to know that her life's accomplishment and dedication was not only within reach but in the midst of full realization. Aideen was on fire.

My love truly reached the next step of her fantastic destiny. Soon my love, the child of the earth, the pupil of Fifka and Reenan, the daughter of Eoin and Cait, the love of my life, would be the most powerful enchantress that ever lived. She did so by deriving all of her magic from, and delivering onto our humble love.

We stayed out in the field at night, lying on a blanket in the grass, watching the black blanket of night over head, watching the bright stars twinkle as fog rolled past, watching the half-moon creep across the sky, smelling the cool fresh sea breathing all over our bodies. We counted the stars that shot and bounced and trailed across the sky. We drank until they spun in circles above us and like we were young lovers again, we talked.

We had something to talk about. We were newlyweds. We had told and retold our vows many times and yet tonight we could tell them again. We had something to celebrate. We had a future. We had adventures to plan. People to meet, a wealth of knowledge to share, a wealth of secrets to guard. It seemed that Aideen, as Reenan had feared would one day become restless, but now we had an eternity to satisfy that urge, we had many lifetimes to explore the world, experiment, and attune the many magics of the world to Aideen's own brilliant magic.

"The banshee may be calling you Denny, but something else is calling me. Some force of magic, a person, or a place. We'll find it together."

We held eachother close, side by side. We kissed and bit and sucked eachother's mouths. Aideen had that look in her glowing green eyes. She put her four fingers in her mouth and, staring me straight in the eyes, reached to the back of her throat to gag herself. With her other hand she skillfully opened my fly. She reached as far as she could and I watched her face stiffen around her fingers as she coughed.

When drool poured down the side of her face she reached down to grab my stiff cock. She rubbed the very tip of me with her slippery thumb. Her hand formed a little tight tunnel and she forced it down on my girth. The slick soft ridges of her hand squeezed and slid over my sensitive head. As she did so, she choked and coughed on her free hand, and massaged squeezed my plump testes with it. I felt them compress painfully and then release pleasurably as they popped between her gripping fingers.

I reached under her dress and felt her warm wet panties. I tickled her clit through the thin cotton and pinched it when it hardened, jiggling it with fierce vibration.

"Unh," she cried as she bit her lip. We still stared into eachother's eyes.

I moved my thick index finger to the center of the growing wet spot and pushed. The slick thick cotton pushed into her hole slowly. Aideen's hands returned to her throat now and then. Every time she gagged or coughed, she winced and I felt her tight pussy contract around my panty-clothed finger. Every time she gagged more saliva dripped down the side of her face, more sweet come drenched her panties so that more cloth could slide in.

She worked my cock with a slippery tight hand. Each pump of her arm and shoulder sent pleasure through her as if it was her pussy working around me. Every thrust and stroke of my finger in her panties brought me closer to climax as if it was my cock. Our eyes were fixed on each other, and we were going to bring each other the apex with them fixed so. All I needed were her glinting green eyes. All she needed were my soft blues.

I took my penknife from my pocket and flicked it open. Aideen shivered as she felt the cool steel slide up her thigh. The flat of the blade slid between her flesh and cloth, and tore the thin cotton waistband from hilt to point. I slid the blade past the other side of her swollen mound. The curved clip-point scrunched the panties and sliced through them.

"Ah," Aideen sighed with relief as I skillfully cut away her panties. Her eyes bulged and relaxed and she dripped a few more drops of her juice. The panties absorbed them and I pushed in still further. Aideen wriggled on my finger. She spit on her hand and lathered it onto my cockhead. I took a large bunch of panties in my fingers and stuffed it into her pussy.

"Oohhnn," Aideen moaned as she felt damp fullness.

"Oooo," she gripped my cock with all her force as she felt me push the last of her panties inside of her. Deeper, and deeper I pressed until they were compressed against the back wall. Deeper into her pussy my fingers dove. Deeper into her eyes my stare penetrated.

We were getting closer to a kinky finish so I kicked off my pants and ripped off my shirt. I sat over Aideen and cut her dress up the middle so that it lay like a sheet under her. She tugged my cock and out it in her pussy. I pounded away at the cloth inside her, wringing out the juice it absorbed. I fucked her sopping panties deep into her, and we gazed into eachother's eyes knowing the climax on its way. I pounded Aideen harder and faster.

"Oh God, come for me Denny." Aideen shook with her first orgasm and gripped my wrists. She stared desperately into my eyes as I grew thicker and harder.

My testes got high and tight, slapping on Aideen's arse.

"Come on Denny, come in me deep." Aideen rattled with pleasure. She was coming a flood that leaked from her well stuffed pussy each time I pulled away.

I drove into her, watching her face contort.

"Please, Denny," She whispered. "Please."

I pushed all the way in with a clashing of bodies. Aideen's clit took the blow from my body that sent jolts of electricity through her. I came hard, pushed against her panties, pushed against her cervix. My spasms shot white lust into her wet panties, and when they subsided, I withdrew. Aideen still lay twitching, coming and contracting around that filthy ball of cotton that once covered her sacred sex. Clear fluid trickled out and down her crack. Finally, we both lay still, gasping and panting, and we broke our enduring stare to look up once more at the stars.

Aideen stirred again.

"Uhn... hnnn," she struggled and tightened her belly up.

"Hnnnn," she pushed.

"Fffhnnnf," and she reached inside of herself to pull out the destroyed panties.

In her hand she balled it up and leaned over me. Squeezing it she let some droplets of our come drip into my mouth. Then she lay back down and holding the stringy rag above her, licked away the thick white trails of my come. She sucked on a corner of it until it dried out, then picked another little spot that smelled tasty. When she was done suckling every parcel she stuffed it into her mouth, back into her throat, then pulled it out, gagging slightly as she did, sucking the saliva back into her mouth as she did. She pushed it back into her throat with child-like amusement, gulped a few times, and swallowed the whole thing.

I looked at her with bewilderment.

"I didn't want to waste anything," Aideen explained. "Not one drop will go to waste now. It belongs inside me. Oh, love is the best nourishment, Denny." And as she felt that knot sink to her stomach a devilish smile crept across her hot face, and she leaned in to kiss me.

**************

The joy faded quickly in the morning. Aideen lay next to my booze-stinking body and put her head on my chest. But she didn't feel the warm radiance of my skin, or the forceful heartbeat in my chest. Instead my skin was cool and thin, my heartbeat weak and slow. She shook me. She shook me over and over but I would not wake. Aideen was losing me again. She shook me and hit me and slapped my face.

"Wake up, Denny. Please, please wake up!" she slapped me across the face. "Tell me you're still in there, tell me I haven't lost ye again."

Aideen slapped me and shook me and pounded her fist on my chest, trying to jumpstart my heart. And, eventually, I groaned awake.

"Oh..." she collapsed, sobbing on my body. "I thought ye were gone Denny."

"I'm here girl, I'm here." I said, confused, with no breath to spare."

"Well what's wrong with ye?" she prodded.

"I don't know. What do you mean?"

"What's wrong with ye getting cold and slow and stupid?"

"Aideen! What are you talking about?"

"Ah fuck Denny. Fuckit. The fecking spell, it's all wrong."

"I'm still here, I'm still keeping your bed warm. What do you mean it's all wrong?"

"Lookit yerself in the mirror Denny Doyle."

I sat up slowly as my muscles seemed to be failing me and I looked over at the mirror on the wardrobe. I was horrified, I was melting. My face sagged so that you could see the red of my eyes and my lower teeth. The skin of my arm hung like moss on a branch. I looked at Aideen.

"Whatf wron wif me?"

"Denny shut up! You're scaring me. I'll take care of this." Aideen went down to the kitchen.

I sat in the bed, trying not to look at the mirror. I didn't want to see the hideous white drooping mass I had become, but sometimes I felt it turning and bumbling at me like I had been to Aideen. How could I? How could I be such a disgusting creature? I was uglier than any creature from any ghost or faerie tale I had ever heard.

I heard Aideen clanging around in the kitchen and pantry. I closed my eyelids, which seemed to double over as they drooped down, but I could only see myself. I opened them up and mustered the strength to look at myself in the mirror. The hideous thing I saw was mocking me, copying my every move, or was it predicting it? I sat on the side of the bed and stood. My nakedness disgusted me anymore. I wished myself dead again, but knew it was not to be. As we approached eachother I reached to the sides of the mirror, where the ugly beast could not reach. I grabbed the frame and shook as hard as I could. The entire wardrobe shook and wobbled. It teetered and nearly fell onto me, but each time it leaned forward I pushed it back. I twisted the mirror so that the ugly thing warped. Soon, it would be no more I thought.

Finally, my rage inspired me to tear the thing from the wardrobe. I stared at the hate in its eyes as I lifted it above my head and shattered it on the ground, at the feet of Aideen. With a grunt and deep pants I looked at my love, who stood stunned on the twelfth step.

I looked at her and I saw the look in her eye and knew that those shards on the ground were just that. I knew that that silver spectre in the mirror was gone, leaving me the ugliest thing on Earth. But the look in my love's eye also told me that she would not fear. She was as brave and patient as ever. She sat my ugly body down on the bed, and placed her tray of remedies on the banister. She retrieved a hand mirror from a now naked shelf on the wardrobe where the large mirror used to be tacked in, and hung it on a latch by the handle. Once again, my reflection joined me across the glass.

Aideen applied a salve she had prepared to the skin of my face, rubbing it into every crack and crevice. Every two wrinkles left ridges in betweens, other crosshatches like railroad ties held it all together. But Aideen filled the gaps and cracks. She rubbed the grey salve all over my cold sagging body. Now I was covered in ugly clay that buried the monster underneath.

Then Aideen took some metal fencing staples, tied to twine, and hooked and tied them around my jowls, inside my cheeks and around my head. She fixed them to my many layers of sagging skin on my body, arms and legs and tied them around my back. When she showed me the mirror again, I looked a hospital disaster.

"The cream will help, don't you worry Denny." Aideen assured.

I just sat in wonder. What had we done? This wasn't what we wanted when we made me immortal. We were holding death at bay, but not far away. We were keeping it at arms' reach with our bare hands, and whoever was wilier would win. I had never heard of a story of a jealous banshee but by God, I knew her now. How long could we last with her screaming in our ears?

"You must drink this too Denny," Aideen said.

She held a dark purple sludge to my lips and tipped the mug so that I could not stop her. It was bitter and sweet. It coated my tongue and throat with slimy goo, then dried them out like flour and hay. There was an aftertaste of bogwater.

"It tastes like sloes and bogwater," I said in a dry voice. "What is that?"

"Sloes and bogwater mostly. Sundews too, and other things. One more thing."

Aideen produced some small parcel wrapped in wet fish skin. She turned me around, coated it in the salve, and spread my cheeks.

I felt it enter my hole with slippery ease.

"Mff."

"Sorry Denny, but we have to do our best, and that means we must do everything. And don't even think about asking what it is, it will be good for you."

"Science or magic?"

"A little of both, like everything." she said, and then she lay down next to me on the bed, and I felt the coldness inside me grow, and I felt the salve on my skin absorb, and I felt the twine around me tighten.

When we awoke from a troubled slumber, Aideen held the hand mirror to my face as she undid the twine. She got a towel and removed the salve. I looked better, a little less pale, much less gaunt and saggy. If nothing else could be said, I looked human. But I was weak. I was weak in body and spirit. I was a defeated man, if a man at all. Aideen dressed me, clipped my suspenders on and fitted my cap.

"Let's go for a walk," I told Aideen.

**************

We walked the overgrown farm. Only the front garden and the field of the house remained well grazed and green pasture. The rest of the farm had gone wild. We walked down the lane. I showed Aideen every place that the train crossed over or under the lane. I showed her where I stowed old thorny wire and staples, sledgehammers and crowbars, various other supplies for maintenance that wouldn't have to be lugged back to the shed after every job.

We walked through the tall grass, the spiders and the frogs. The once well-manicured ground was quickly turning into marsh and reeds. Every tree had a birdsnest, every hole had an animal inside. There were lonesome cows that had escaped my neighbors' farms. They could have been living on my property for years. They had the look in their eye of a wild animal. They had been gone from home so long.

"This field has gone all wet and flooded. There along the thick line of reeds is a drain built out of slate and flagstones and gravel."

We got down to the wood by the river and I showed her the community net. I showed her the best pools to fish in. I told her how to train a dog to tow a line across, where toss the stepping stones, how to peg the water with rocks to scare the poor fisheens into the net.