Prisoner of the Pages

Sarah came up for air, reading in Kori's eyes that she was taking all this in, following the narrative. Kori nodded her assent, and kissed her again to continue.

Despite her death, Sarah lingered in the house, unable to move on. The pull of her passion was too strong. For better or worse, she was bound to the house and Lady Catherine. Even as a ghost, their affair continued and indeed intensified. Sarah learned all new ways to please Lady Catherine as a phantom, (and Kori's body shuddered as a rash of those images flew into her mind) but unknown to the two ladies, Lord William had discovered them again. He called for a scribe, who wrote down and wove the events of their love into a story, somehow managing to capture Sarah and bind her to the Catherine in the book rather than one of flesh and blood. She didn't understand how the dark magic worked, and wouldn't have believed in it anyway, but her belief did nothing to change the fact that it did work, and she was a prisoner of those pages.

The kiss ended and Kori fell back into the present. She shivered violently, but weather from the cold bath water or the fact that she suddenly knew everything that had happened, she couldn't tell. Hell, she wasn't sure how she knew it. "You've been slaved to the book all this time?" She looked into Sarah's eyes and saw all the regret and pain and longing there, and held her tight. The two women cried softly together, wrapped in an embrace more mental than physical. When the sobs had ended, Kori took Sarah's face her hers and asked, "What do you need me to do?"

Sarah smiled, and kissed her again, showing her with another flood of images.

Late that night, Kori drove to a field outside of town. She could see the lights of Omaha in the distance. She placed her metal spaghetti pot on the ground and tossed in a few scrapes of paper. On top of these, she placed the book. Looking around, she shed her clothes. Why these rituals always required nudity was beyond her, but she'd come to think of Sarah as a friend in the last few hours and wanted to help.

Besides, it was the right thing to do.

So she stood over the pot naked except for her sneakers and with that gusty wind whipping her nipples into a frenzy, lit a match and dropped it into the pot. She was worried with the breeze that it wouldn't catch, but it did, soft orange flames eating the scraps, starting to lick the old cover of the book, and finally feasting upon it's pages. Sarah's glowing purple phantom form appeared next to her and briefly held her hand.

The two women watched as the book burned.

Kori turned to her phantom lover. "I wish you could stay, but I wouldn't wish this bondage on anyone. Go find Lady Catherine."

Sarah smiled a thank you, and softly kissed her goodbye. The purple aura faded away and Kori was alone.

Alone and naked in a field outside of Omaha. She quickly gathered up her things and drove off into the night, shaking her head.

Mrs. Grossman would never believe her.