A Prophecy of a Beautiful Devil Part 1

A PROPHECY OF A BEAUTIFUL DEVIL

 

“You wanta I tella your fortune?” The wizened old lady approached the young couple who sat at the pavement café.

“No thanks, we’re fine.”

“Yes, I tella your fortune. Isa good you know your future”.

“No thanks. We don’t believe in that kind of thing”, said the man.

But the young woman laughed. “Oh come on. Why not? Let’s do it?”

The man grinned at his wife indulgently then beckoned the old woman to sit with them.

    “How does this work? Do you read our palms?”

   “I no need feela your palm. I tella your future justa from your ..your.. essence”.

   “Hhhmm. That’s clever. How much is it?”

    “You pay however much you want.”

The man passed her some money. “So what can you tell us?”

    “Firsta, I needa your names. “

   “Shouldn’t you tell us? Oh, okay. I’m Steven and this is my wife Tiffany”.

   “You must tella me how old you are.”

    “I’m twenty nine,” said Steven.

    “And I’m twenty six”.

     “And you are here ina this place ona your honeymoon”.

     “Hey, that’s good. Well done”, said Tiffany.

   “Not that good,” Steven laughed taking his wife’s hand. “I’d say, its pretty obvious looking at us that we’re honeymooners”.

The old lady began rubbing at her crinkled forehead. “Okay now I looka into youra future”.  She raised her other hand in front of Stevens face and began moving it in a circular motion. She closed her eyes and made a low droning sound. Steven looked at his wife and raised his eyebrow. Tiffany giggled.

    “I see…I see.. uuuggghhh”. She lifted her eyelids but her eyes had rolled back into her head exposing only the whites.

   “Oh my god, Steven. Is she alright?”

   “She’s fine. Its just part of her act.”

   “Uuuugghh.. I see.. ooohhh”. She suddenly slumped forward.

   “Easy, there. Are you okay?” Steven put a hand on the old lady’s shoulder and she suddenly jerked upright.

    “Your future isa..isa not good. I shoulda not say it”.

    “Oh, come on. I’m a big boy I can take it”.

   “Ias bad. Isa best donta know”.

   “If its bad, its better I do know, surely. Then I can avoid it”.

She shook her head mournfully. “You cannot avoid him”.

   “Him?”

   “Him. You have a devil in your future.”

   “Oooooooo”, went Tiffany delightedly.

Steven laughed. “The devil?”

   “A devil. A devil who walksa on the earth.”

   “Does he have horns?”

She shook her head “In youra future is a beautiful devil”.

    “Oh,it gets better” said Tiffany.

Steven winked at her. “Sounds frightening.”

  The old lady suddenly grabbed his arm and dug her fingers in “Yes he isa frightening.  He isa magnificent. This devil, he conquers and he destroys at will, for just his amusement. He leaves a trail of destruction through the world but always himself he isa untouched. And you? You he willa destroy, just on a whim. He isa all powerful. He will make himself the master of all you have. He takes whatever he wants and froma you he willa take everything. Yes, frightening! You willa cower before him in awe”.

  She talked so animatedly the young couple stared enraptured. Then Steven said “Er..okay. Thanks for that. Well, it was nice talking to you. Don’t let us keep you.”

    The old lady took a pink paper napkin from the table. She took a little dab from one of the condiments on the table and began marking the napkin.

    “When is this going to happen?” asked Tiffany. “Tomorrow?”

    “Nota tomorrow.” She continued marking the napkin.

    ‘Next week?”

     “Nota so soon.” She solemnly handed Steven the pink napkin. “Isa the devils name.”

Steven took it and put it in his pocket, without looking at it. “Sure. Like I said, don’t let us keep you”.

  Tiffany was laughing. “Hey, come on. We’ve paid. I want to know when this is going to happen. You owe us that.”

   The old lady was shaking her head as she stood up.  “Isa best I now go.”

   Tiffany spluttered in mock outrage. “I’m going to complain to the consumer affairs people. This future wasn’t good enough. Is there a psychics regulatory body?”

      Steven laughed with her. “Yeah. I demand to see this future for myself.” He pretended to pound his fist on the table.  

    The old lady was irritated by their mockery. She stared and scowled. “You wanta see your future?”

  The couple stopped laughing.

“You sure you wanta see?” She grabbed Steven arm again. “Alrighta. Have your way. I make you see.”

    Tiffany saw Steven was looking alarmed and said. “Wait a minute. Cut it out”.

    She released his arm. “Now you willa see. Always remember, twas your own wish”.

     She stared to walk away but then stopped. She turned to deliver some final words. “Oh, and you wanta to know when will happen? It will nota happen soon but soon you willa know when it willa happen”.

   Then she was gone.

    “Wow”.

    “Well, that was weird”.

    Tiffany saw Steven was rubbing his arm. “Aw, did she hurt you baby?”

     “No it’s not that. It’s that when she was grabbing my arm there I felt this really cold feeling come through from her hand to me. It was the weirdest sensation. Look, all the hairs on the back of my arm are standing up.”

   “Ooooo. Its ..erm.. what is it? It’s the spirits. It’s her evil powers”.

  “Yeah, right. You don’t believe in that stuff, do you?”

   “You know I don’t. And neither do you. Shit there’s enough real stuff to be scared of out there without worrying about that bullshit.”

       “You and me will never have anything to be scared of Tiffany. We’ll always have each other.”

      “Aaaaaawww, baby.”

       They kissed.

      When the honeymooners left the café they walked, hand in hand, along the seafront. Everything was perfect; the sunshine, the golden sands of the beach, the gleaming blue ocean.

     “Oh, that napkin!” Tiffany suddenly remembered. “What name did she write on it? Isa the devilsa name-a!!”

      “I don’t know. I didn’t look at it.”

      “Let’s see it.”

      “Don’t have it.”

      “I saw you put it in your pocket”.

      “Yeah, I did. But then I put it in the bin, in the street, back there.”

      “Awwww. You’re no fun.”

      Later, when they were down on the sands, they paddled in the sea. A local woman was selling jewelry on the beach. While Tiffany was distracted looking through her beaded necklaces, Steven took the napkin from his pocket and looked at it. On the pink paper, it had been crudely scrawled ‘Jarren’. Steven frowned, crumpled it and threw it into the sea. 

    They went back to their hotel and decided to spend some time by the pool.

     “I’m sooo hot Stevie. I can’t wait to get in. Are you swimming.”

      “Actually Tiff. I’m kind of tired. You jump in. I might just read for a while on the lounger then doze off. I think I’m still a bit jet lagged”.

      “Jet lag. Yeah, right. It’s not the Margharitas then?”

       Steven playfully threw a towel at her. She threw it back. She took off her sarong, stripping down to a brief, red bikini. Steven lazed back on a sun lounger and admired his wife’s taut, tanned body. She took off her shades. She took off her straw sun hat and shook her sleek hazel bob. “You sure you won’t come in babe?”

     “Not right now. I really am sleepy”.

     He watched her skip to the pool. Her smooth skin gleamed in the sun. For a while, when she was in the water, he watched her over the top of his book and thought about tonight. He loved these days with her but nothing could compare with the nights. Sometimes, during these sunkissed honeymoon days, he had found himself wishing time would move faster, so they could get quicker to the nights. He had scolded himself for thinking this. He had told himself he should savour every moment of this special time of their life. But he just couldn’t help himself. As he lay the on the lounger watching his beautiful wife, gliding through the bright water, he let his eyes slowly close. He let himself fall into a soft, Margarita slumber because that way the nighttime would come quicker. He slept and he dreamed…

 

    “Jarren?”

    Tiffany had gone into the kitchen to get more ice for the barbeque when she heard footsteps behind her. He had followed her there.

    “Have you come to help me carry some stuff out?” Tiffany was nervous. She was always nervous and flustered around him. She knew he hadn’t followed her to help her carry ice bags.

    “I haven’t seen you in a while, Tiffany.”

    Her laugh had a tremour in it. “Well, I suppose we’ve just been missing each other. It’s nice to see you now though.”

      “Have you been avoiding me Tiffany?”

     “Jarron, please don’t.”

     “Don’t what?” He moved closer to her.

     “Don’t talk to me that way.”

     “Why not?”

     “I mean…everyone’s just outside. My husbands there, too.” The kitchens blinds were down but she could hear the sounds of the barbeque, just outside. They sounded so far away. This always happened when Jarren was near. Other voices became faded and garbled. Other faces turned to a blur. His gravitational pull was absolute. He dominated every room. Turned every head. Caught every eye. And he was so close to her now.

    “Last time we talked I told you were beautiful Tiffany. And you said you didn’t like me saying that.”

    “I didn’t.”

    “Why not?”

     “Because I didn’t. Jarron, I’ve got to go back outside now.”

    “Is it because you don’t think it’s true?”He began to stroke her neck. “Don’t you believe that you’re beautiful, Tiffany?”

   As soon as she touched her she believed it. Instantly, she felt flawlessly beautiful. More beautiful than she had every felt in her life; the most beautiful woman in the world. She also felt that, if he withdrew his touch and took his baby blue eyes from her, that she would never feel beautiful again.

    She said his name. Her held her and kissed her. She lost herself in his strong arms. The kiss went on and on. She forgot everything else. There was nothing else.

    Loud laughter from outside shattered the spell. She broke from him.”Jarren, no.”

   He smiled and left the room.

 

“What..you fucking ..NO! For god’s sake!” Steven shouted, very loudly. Everyone around the pool stopped and stared. Tiffany had her hand on his shoulder. She drew it away in fright when he started shouting.

   “Baby, seriously? What the fuck?” Tiffany didn’t swear often.

   “Aw, shit. Sorry.” He tried to make himself sound apologetic, but as he looked at her he still felt angry.

  “I only woke you because you’re getting a bit burnt. And it’s all down one side of your face there. That’s going to look weird.” 

     Steven realized everyone at the poolside was staring and he was embarrassed. He waggled his head to try and fix out his miswired thinking. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. It was just a dream. A really intense dream.”

     “Erm..so I see.” She nodded her head at the tent pitched in his trunks, then laughed. “Hey, you better have been dreaming about me, mister.”

 

 

In the honeymoon suite, Steven and Tiffany made love and then lay in the dark, holding each other.

    “I love you, babe.” She whispered into his ear and then kissed it

     “I love you.”

     “How much are you loving being married?”

    “How much are you loving being alive?”

    “Aw. Only that much? Seriously?”

     “More.”

There was a quiet pause while they nuzzled against each other and she stroked his chest. She tentatively asked “Baby?”

   “Yeah?”

    “It was different that time. You were different, I mean.”

   Steven tried to sound surprised but he knew full well that he had been different that time. “Really? Was I?”

  “Yeah”. She kissed his shoulder.

   “Better, do you mean?”

   She laughed “Baby, you couldn’t get any better. It was…it was like you were trying to prove something”.

   “Hhhmm. You think so. You didn’t like it.”

    “Of course, I liked it. But you know you don’t have to prove anything to me, don’t you?”

      “I just want to make you happy.”

      “You do make me happy.” She kissed his shoulder. She kissed his neck. She kissed his cheek.

     “I just wouldn’t want you to, you know, get bored with the same old thing.”

     “Babe, I could never, ever, ever get bored with being with you.” Kiss. Kiss. Kiss.

     “You promise?”

      “Promise.”

       They held each other. Tiffany was tired so she soon drifted off. Steven was tired too but he resisted closing his eyes. For more than an hour, he held his wife in his arms, as tightly as he could without waking her. He couldn’t resist forever. Sleep pulled him down…