Quand je lui a racontre (When I met her) by Jöseph Lee Foster-Shumpert-Lear, 2001
Published 5 June 2004 :: Fantasy
Read more by Jöseph Lee Foster-Shumpert-Lear
The music plays as the candles are lit. I can hear the nervous beating of her heart as she dresses in her chambers above. I know every inch of her body though she has never had occasion to even see my shadowy form.
Tonight will be different. I must show her how I feel…show her all that I long to be for her show her that I love her, belong to her and need her always for my arms to hold.
The darkness surrounds her as she walks down the stairs. She can hear the violins as they play their “Unchained Melody” The piano slowly chimes in, bringing its own romantic accompaniment before being followed by the flutes, clarinets and other various strings.
Her dress, smooth velvet green, seems to glow as she enters the room. The green of her gown brings out her pale skin ever so perfectly in this dim candlelight. I chose it well for her, I think silently to myself.
Oh how I long to sit before her and gaze into her light brown eyes and feel the silkiness in those rosy cheeks as I caress her face.
“Are you cold, madam,” I call out from my darkened corner in this elaborate room, lit only by candle arbors to give it even more a breath takingly romantic and yet seductive appeal.
“Who…who is it that is there”
“To a beauty such as yourself, my dear, I am simply put…no one.”
“No one sir? But of course you must be someone fore no one would have naught the voice that yee obviously possess monsieur. Please, I beg you, be yee not silent as you have fallen nor a mystoire.”
“A mystoire, mademoiselle, I am not. I am merely a shadow grown silent and small in your light…will you not dance mademoiselle, I hath made it my work to make sure all is set for thee.
“And with whom am I to dance monsieur, fore there is obviously no one here…and I grow weary of this game you play.”
“Ah but milady, you are wrong fore I play no game with you, and I am always with you in heart and spirit…with you beside you.”
“You speak of madness sir, fore I am betrothed.”
“Then perhaps I am he, fore sadly enough, I love you as much as he, maybe more.”
“Who are you sir…sir…please grow not silent, my heart beseeches thee.”
The wind blows and the light of the candles dim and grow strong again only to once more dim as he walks into the room wrapping his arms around her waist, kissing the side of her neck. Her face grown from earlier events soon vanishes as she turns to meet his lips.
“To whom you were speaking my love?”
“A ghost amour, just a voice from the darkness.”
How I envy you monsieur, fore you have what I have longed to hold for such a long time…her heart, I whisper from the shadows.
From the shadows I watch them as the dined and danced and dined some more. Her smile, I wish was for me, and yet, I was happy the same to see it. I saw the happiness in their eyes, I saw their joy, and then upon my hands I gazed to see only the tears, I then, had naught to share.
I love you mademoiselle though you may never know.
I turn and flee the room followed swiftly by my cape and the oncoming light of the new day.
In the darkness of the chateau, I have lived for years abandoned long ago as a child by those who claimed that it would be for my own good. A mother and father, I cannot even remember and their society, which does not or could not understand. They are the ones, which marred my appearance and in essence created me.
On the marrow, where upon I awoke to find the sun still shone a bright and heated afternoon, I groaned as I realized that it was yet too early for me to rise. I lay back upon my bed reflecting upon the previous night’s events.
When I had met her, she was but a child walking along the hallowed halls of that quaint little church. I had fallen in love with her then, but now will never know. Perhaps…it is for the best. Only time will tell.
In thought before I closed my eyes again I say,” I will always be by your side amore…. always.”
Evening beckoned me, hastening my rising with the falling of the sun, but this was of no concern to me. My heart was gone, lost to me in a dreamland I could never rescue her from. Her prince charming had her. The joys and undulations of the evening could be heard throughout the castle. Even held captive by the sunlight within my secret chamber, I could hear her screams and moans. To this there must be an end, some way for her to see me and know me for the man I am…not the monster, which also aches for her.
Footsteps within the hall quicken, and the sweet aroma of blood floats unto my keen sense of smell. He was her first, he was/is the love of her life and to her, I am but an unknown shadow cast upon the moor. I have nowhere to go, no one to love or call my own…in essence; I am no one.
In olden days I would be enraged that the woman I love hath given o’er to another, but in my age, I have realized that such rages do no more then damage my stone walls and cause some poor mortal their last drops of blood. I weary of this existence, day in and day out, coming and going with no desire but the lives of those around me. It is time I join the mortals, become one of them once more. That is of course, if I have ever been mortal to begin with. Upon this, I am far too uncertain. It is true what they say, that with old age, the mind and memory are the first to go. I have lost much, and so it would figure that I am high in age.
The sweet aromas of her blood mingled with the sweet fragrance of a vanilla field entice me; flood my mind with thoughts of her. Oh how I would want nothing more then to have her in my arms upon the morrow. Feel her breast upon my chest as I rest with her in my arms. Awaken her on the morrow to the smells of her favorite breakfast foods laid out upon a golden platter with a single red rose for each and every second that I was away from her.
The golden rays of the sun could no more reflect her beauty then a mosquito could cause the pain of a bee.
“Haunted I would tell you, I almost swear that there was a man speaking with me”
“But milady there was naught another in the room with you.”
“I tell you that I spoke with a gentleman in the ballroom last night.”
“Milady I assure you that there is no one
