Entwined Love

Leaves tumbled down from trees, their respective branches shedding for the autumnal season. People walked aimlessly to and fro, a certain cheer hanging in the air. The tumbling leaves somersaulted through the air and skittered across the college campus landing at the feet of a certain art major.

Her amber brown hair whipped out behind her with the wind and exposed the honey and caramel colors that had naturally mixed in her hair. She held a messenger bag around her that contained her art supplies: pastel colors, her sketch pad, and her charcoal pencils to correctly shade her work. Her ash mauve eyes roamed about the campus, but stopped on nothing, as she found no one of interest around her. She studied the faces that floated about her and imagined sketching out Vanessa Benson’s face, whom had the most symmetrical face she had ever seen on a real person.

She wasn't typically a shy person, but she knew when to hold her tongue around other people. She didn't want anyone else knowing about her strange inhibitions, or how she had accumulated such strange botanical prowess. No, it was better to be thought of as shy than to have others pry into her personal matters and think her a freak.

Breathing in the autumn breeze, she stepped over the leaves, not wanting to hurt them much more than they already were, and continued walking down the sidewalk, her apartment being not too far from the University. Her thoughts were on her Art History lesson from that day. Her usual Professor had been called out before they could begin the lesson, so they had been stuck with a professor who had virtually no knowledge on the subject. Her peers had thought of that as the perfect chance to mess around, but she saw no use in doing so. Instead, she had sketched a portrait of the cute guy that she had absolutely no chance with.

Her flats clicked silently against the concrete sidewalk and she smiled to herself at the beautiful day. She would go home to her plants and her sketches and wait for another day to come that was just as good as this one had been.

Half way to her apartment, she realized that someone, unbeknownst to her, was following her. She caught a hint of some foreign cologne on the wind and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. She had feared that they would finally get to her. And after all her attempts to dissuade them, they had finally gotten her scent. A frown made its way onto her face, but she chided herself and made herself walk just as calmly as if she hadn't recognized that someone was following her.

She tucked her messenger bag closer to her side, being careful to mind her precious pencils and pastels. If they were to drop the lead would shatter on the inside and they would cease to work without breaking. Her apartment building came into view and she heaved a sigh of relief. Now all she had to do was make sure no one attempted to assault her on her way to her apartment and she would be fine for the evening. Luckily, there were a couple of hedges surrounding her building. All she would have to do would be willing the plants up and allowing them to attain their full capability. The rest would be left to whoever the moron was that was tailing her.

Approaching the building door, she pulled her key from around her neck. She always kept her key tucked under her cardigan; you could never be too cautious with one’s own key. In addition, if her super found out she had lost her key or someone had stolen it, he would become next to intolerable. The wind blew gently, but still tousled her hair about. She pushed it out of her line of vision and pulled open the door of the building. Her apartment was on the third floor. The building was just across the way from a magnificent atrium. It was the county’s only botanical garden. It consisted of some of the most exotic plants she had ever seen. She longed to touch them, to make them grow and give them life. But she was only limited to viewing them from afar.

She entered the building and snapped the door shut behind her with her foot. Hopefully, whoever had been following her would leave her be. Sighing, the girl pulled her mailbox key and checked her mail. Her mail box was overflowing with mail today. Picking them up, she leafed through them, her name showing clearly on all of it. Ansley Elaine Silverfox. Huffing at the amount of junk mail that had been shoved inside her box, she located the trashcan and tossed the items that she had no need for.

Ansley pulled her messenger bag close to her as she walked to the elevator and pushed the up button. She lived in apartment 1308 and was thusly exposed to classical music above her and a crying child below her. She was completely fine with the classical melodies that flowed smoothly down through the ceiling; it helped her when she was studying for tests that would destroy her grade if she were to fail them.

The elevator stopped at the ground floor and its doors opened up, but what was inside, Ansley had not anticipated. A large, incredibly hairy man smiled viciously down at her and sprayed some concoction of unknown origins into her eyes. She gasped out and then her vision became nothing but a blur. She slumped to the floor, her bag landing beside her.

When she came to, she had to assess her surroundings. It appeared that she was in a cabin somewhere unknown. Shaking her head, Ansley tried to pull her arms in front of her, but realized that she could not because she had been handcuffed to a table in the middle of the cabin. Calming her breathing, she tried to think of a way to get out of the situation. Panic had set in, when she suddenly remembered that she had put bobby pins in her hair just that morning to tame some of the strands down. Slowly reaching up with her hands, she bent her head low and allowed her fingers to grope around her hair to find the bobby pins. Picking one out of her hair, she just as slowly lowered her hands and began the meticulous work of jostling free the handcuffs that bound her hands to the table.

The handcuffs came off and made a slight clunk when they hit the floor of the cabin. Staring around, slightly disoriented, Ansley realized that she had absolutely no idea where she was or how she had gotten there. She vaguely remembered the man from the apartment complex’s elevator spraying something in her face, but beyond that she could remember nothing. Not how he looked or what he was wearing. Maybe he was the one that had followed her from campus the day before. She didn't know.

Standing up, Ansley slowly rubbed the chaffed flesh of her wrists and, slowly, cautiously made her way through the cabin. This cabin had been built specifically to hold someone. She noticed the barred windows and the barely hidden secret compartment in the floor. But as curious as it made her, she wasn't stupid. Ansley pulled her amber hair out of her face and braided it to the side. She walked slowly to the front door of the cabin, not noticing any other route to escape by. The door was wooden, as was the rest of the cabin, but had multiple locks on the door. Furrowing her brow, Ansley touched the metal with small hands. She cringed at the feel of the metal. Metal had always done so much damage. She preferred her precious plants instead.

Ansley unlocked the door and had just opened it a crack when she heard an animal-like growl coming from just behind the door. She stood petrified behind the door, not pushing the door back in fear of being seen by whatever was outside. Whatever happened to be outside snarled as Ansley peered out the crack, her mouth drying out at the prospect of being caught by some wild animal. She had become so terrified in fact that she had temporarily forgotten about her botanical powers and the effect that they could have if someone were to assail her.

Deciding to face whatever happened to be out there head on, Ansley opened up the door and stepped outside. Bracing for an attack of some kind, Ansley was surprised to see, not an animal, but a man. His appearance was rugged and hairy, very hairy. His eyes were azure in color and filled with malice. He had cheek bones so sharp if you slapped him you’d probably cut yourself, that led down to a square jaw covered by growing stubble. He snarled once more at Ansley, but she had noticed the beautiful greenery behind him, and took her chance.

Standing up straight, she held her palms up and out and willed the trees to send down their vines. Her eyes misted over and the vines slithered across the ground. When they reached their intended target, they traveled up the man’s legs and wrapped themselves around his torso and pulled him flush against the tree that stood behind them.

Smiling at her triumph, Ansley pulled her hands back and began to run. Where to, she had absolutely no idea.

The cabin was stranded in the middle of a jungle. Said jungle had so many more varieties of trees and plants that Ansley had never seen before, but that her powers felt comfortable with. Trees with magnificent foliage grew all around her. Flowers bloomed on everything as she passed by it. She smiled once again and eased her pace. But not for long as she could hear the snarling of the wolf-like man and she instantly knew that he had freed himself from her bonds.

The ground fell out from beneath her as she fell on her backside and sat dazed for a moment before looking up at what had caused her to fall. Standing just in front of her was a boy about her age, although his eyes told a different story altogether. Ansley held her breath as took in the boy's appearance. He wore modern clothes with such a grace that Ansley thought he had come straight out of a Jane Austen novel. He wore his raven colored hair short, but it appeared as if he had purposely messed it up. His eyes were the deepest of emerald and Ansley was reminded of a plant when she gazed into his millennial aged orbs.

"Who are you?" Ansley asked, curiosity etched deeply into her tone.

He held his hand out to her to take and she gladly accepted it. "I am Sebastian Corvus. And you are, milady?" He graciously kissed the back of her hand and Ansley could feel herself blush a shade she never knew she could go.

"Ansley Elaine Silverfox."

Sebastian definitely had an air of age about him, Ansley mused to herself. He smiled politely down at her and offered her his arm.

"That is quite a beautiful name, milady. I would love to converse more, but it would seem as if you have attracted quite a dangerous pack." He smiled down at her once more before forcing her into a run through the dense forest.

Her skepticism never ceased as they ran through the jungle. His hand felt warm in her own and it only allowed more power to surge throughout her body. It empowered her to run faster.

They soon came to a clearing that was filled with weeping willows and dogwoods alike. Ansley went up to one of the weeping willows and soothed it.

"Where did you come from?" She asked Sebastian, her ash mauve eyes meeting his emerald ones.

A ghost of a smile found its way onto his lips as he recounted exactly how he had come to find her in the middle of the jungle. "We have met before, in a time that you have yet to remember. As to how I came to find you, I had never given up hope that you were alive; I just could not trace you. You see, we are connected, you and I. You are the sole reason I still live.

"I was granted immortality centuries ago, but it is a torturous thing. Because I am submitted to watch you die over and over again. Since the time I was first blessed with this curse, I was made to fall in love with you, only to have you ripped from my grasp time and time again. "

Ansley stood in shock and absorbed everything that he had told her. The tendrils of the willow tree tickled her face, but she did nothing to brush them aside. Tears sprang up in her eyes and the dogwoods wilted. Ansley noticed this and went to them and soothed away the pain that she herself had brought on them.

"So, we've met before several times?" She asked, her voice soft, merely a whisper.

"Yes. The first time we met, you loathed me. But that was because I was a woodcutter and I had not known about your affiliation with plant life. Had I, and I promise that would not have been my trade." Sebastian seemed sincere, his eyebrows pinched up and a look of conflict arose.

"So, what now?" Ansley asked, she still clutched to the tree, not truly knowing whether or not he was lying to her.

"I would like to take you to a world that you have never seen the likes of before. It is my world, a world I have created over the years. It is a secret world. A world where no one will chase you or track you or hurt you. We can be together, always." He once again offered her his hand.

Hesitating, Ansley slowly slipped her hand into his and smiled at him. She would fully accept his offer. And with that, they turned around and disappeared into oblivion, the werewolf man all but forgotten.