What would you do if you had to marry your cousin?

“ANNIE MARIE,” Cousin Bob yelled through the tavern. His booming voice made everyone look up. Annie closed her eyes tight and she clenched her teeth as she desperately tried to sneak away again. Her friends covered her up, but Cousin Bob knew who her friends were and he pushed them all aside to get to her.

He grabbed Annie by her neck as he pushed Leonora, Catherine, Jack, Thomas, and John out of the way. Everyone in the tavern watched as Cousin Bob held Annie up like a trophy, with Annie gasping for air.

“Leave me to go see your friends, now did you?” Cousin Bob said holding Annie up to his eyes so she could drown in his eyes.

“Can’t…….breath,” Annie said as her face turned blue and she started to close her eyes.

“Put her down!” John yelled as he jumped on Cousin Bob’s back knocking him over while everyone else helped Annie.

“Little bastard!” Cousin Bob yelled as he pushed John against the wall trying to knock him out, until Thomas and Jack came to John’s aid. Everyone hid somewhere, because now tables and chairs were flying every which way while children screamed and women shrieked. Thomas and Jack got Cousin Bob away from John just before he was knocked out, and they went around until Cousin Bob punched each of them in the eye giving them all black and blue eyes, while he only had bumps or bruises. He ran over to Annie who was now back to her normal color.

“Now, lets go see your parents. Say good-bye to your friends,” Cousin Bob said laughing as he grabbed her by her arm and pulled her out the door leaving her only to whimper, “John...” out of her mouth.

The walk to Annie’s house was very quiet. Annie just wanted to lie on the ground and cry and cry, but Cousin Bob dragged her along and he tried to fix himself and her up as they got to the front door.

“Good Evening Bob,” Annie’s mother said cheerfully as she answered the door.

“Good Evening Aunt Mary, and my do you look lovely this evening,” Annie managed to roll her eyes as he grabbed her hand and tightened his hand, then leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

“Let go of me!” Annie said shaking her hand loose from Cousin Bob’s. He immediately let go and her mother and Cousin Bob stared at her.

“Why Hello Bob how…” Annie’s father said then stopped as he walked into the room seeing Annie with the look of disgust on her face once again.

“What did she do now?” her father said looking at his wife.

“She won’t let Cousin Bob hold her hand, or kiss her now.”

“Annie Marie, that is enough. We have gone over this, you are marrying him on Sunday
and that’s final!”

“Father, but look at my neck!” Annie said as she pointed to her neck, while Cousin Bob turned white. There was a mark from where Cousin Bob held Annie up and it looked like a strangling mark.
“What happened?”

“Well, first c…”

“Her one friend, I believe his name is John, was trying to strangle her, because he found out she was marrying me,” Cousin Bob said. He covered Annie’s mouth and finished it with lies. Annie bit Cousin Bob’s hand and he let go immediately.

“That is not what happened! Cousin Bob held me up by my neck in the tavern, ask anyone you like, they will tell you.” Her parent’s eyes hadn’t left her, they were staring at her. To Annie it seemed they were trying to burn a hole in her soul, with their sharp painful stares.

“Annie, you are not to see John again,” her father finally said. Annie’s eyes watered ad she looked as if she was going to cry a river.

“No, no, please it wasn’t John it was him, its always him,” Annie got down on her knees and sobbed and cried.

“Knock it off Annie! Go to your room and stay there until Bob comes to you tomorrow morning,” her father said standing her up. As Annie walked up the stairs she was still crying, but before she got to the top of the stairs she turned down at her mother, father, and cousin and said, “I hate you Cousin Bob.”

Then she ran down the hall to her room and cried and cried on her small creaking bed. In a couple hours she heard a tapping sound. She got up off her bed and listened closely, and discovered it was a rock at the window. She opened the window to see John below.

“Annie come down here,” he managed to say ever so quietly so that she was the only one to hear him.

“I will be down in a minute,” Annie said happily as she straightened up her clothes and fixed her hair. She was so happy to see Annie she completely forgot she wasn’t suppose to. Just in that instant the door burst open and Cousin Bob walked in.

“What are you doing?” Cousin Bob said walking in and shutting the door behind him.

“I can’t straighten up now?” Annie said in her defensive tone.

“For me, but not for that little tavern boy friend of yours,” Cousin Bob said. He walked toward her again and just as before Annie backed away. Then all the sudden a hand went over Annie’s mouth, and she was laying face up on the bed with Cousin Bob on top of her.

“Now that tavern boy is out of here, we can get closer,” Cousin Bob whispered in her ear. His hot breath sent a shiver down her spine, and tickled her ear, but weakened her heart. He kissed her neck as his hand went up her dress. Annie squirmed and shrieked, but no one could hear her for Cousin Bob had his hand tightly over her mouth and he legs were now on top of her legs to stop her squirming. Annie felt powerless again as she did in the barn so she just stop fighting. Then in that instant she thought of John below and her love for him, her friends, and the life she wish she had and she bit Cousin Bob.

“Holy Hell girl,” Cousin Bob yelled as he jumped up leaving Annie free. Annie ran over to the window and John was still there pacing back and forth anxiously. She then ran back near the bed so Cousin Bob wouldn’t discover him outside. Then all the sudden John ruined it.

“Annie, are you coming or what?” he yelled from below.

Annie’s eyes got wide as Cousin Bob ran over to the window and his face turned redder than the red pepper.

“So tavern boy isn’t gone, well I will fix that now,” saying that Cousin Bob stomped out of Annie’s room, down the stairs, and to the backyard where John was still pacing back and forth. Annie ran after him like a wolf on a lamb, and came out to see Cousin Bob punching John. Annie ran between them and tried to get Cousin Bob away from him.

“Stay out of this Annie!” Cousin Bob said as he pushed her away. She didn’t listen of course, she ran back over and helped John, but this time Cousin Bob slapped her and she fell to the ground again. Then after a few minutes, Annie’s dad ran out in the backyard and pried them apart.

Cousin Bob had multiple black and blue marks with a black and blue eye, and John had black and blue marks on each eye which made him look dead.

“What the hell is going on out here?”

“Tavern boy is trying to take Annie away, and she was going to go with him,” Cousin Bob said.

“That is all true, but I wasn’t going to go with him,” Annie said trying desperately to not get her father mad.

John’s face turned red in embarrassment.

“Get off my property, and go back to your tavern,” Annie’s father said right in John’s face. John heard him, but he was more concerned with what Annie said.

“John go home,” Annie managed to squeak out. So John took one last look at Annie, her father, and Cousin Bob and his long grin across in his face. John slowly walked out of the yard and past the barn out to the road and to the tavern, and Annie watched him the whole way down.

“I am going to bed now,” Annie quietly squeaked out of her mouth. She was so desperately trying to hold the tears back because that was the hardest things she had ever done in her life. So she ran up to her room and cried herself to sleep.