Enemies - by Greene M Wills

https://Voice.club - The mask is scratchy against my skin, but I’d never take it off in this place. We are not supposed to be here, and I shouldn’t have listened to my mate. God knows what the consequences would be if they find out who I am.

However, I can’t deny that this party is exciting! The shimmering lights shine on the glass, colours reflect off the attendees’ costumes, with gems and jewels on show. My black domino and plain mask feels out of place as if I’m underdressed, unworthy.

I’ve never tasted such delicacies at home or drank so many different wines. The music is hypnotic, and everybody dances to its rhythm, heads bowed, hands intermingled, bodies brush against one another. An orgy of perfumes, odours, essences almost make me drunker than the wine I imbibed.

I have joined the dances a while ago and never paid attention to my partners, but the sudden feeling of a small, soft hand captivates me. I hear her silvery laugh coming from her rosebuds lips and I’m entranced as I spin her round, my hands on her tiny waist. We don’t let go of each other all night, as we dance, talk, laugh, banter.

We don’t need an introduction; we don’t learn our names. What’s in a name after all?

I walk with her in the rose gardens, we whisper of our hopes and dreams. She walks in the maze with a sure foot, as if she has done so many times before. She lets me kiss her under a hazy moonlight, her eyes shining golden through the mask’s eyeholes.

Time goes so fast when one feels happy. The light is changing, and dawn is rapidly approaching as the sky brightens. I want to see her face more than anything else. She trembles but doesn’t stop me as I undo her mask lacings.

Her face is beyond description, I’ve never seen such beauty, luminous with love like the sun rising from the East.

It doesn’t matter that it is the face of the daughter of my family’s sworn enemy!

1 Like

Greene this is a beautifully detailed and intimate description of a Romeo and Juliet-like meeting at a masked ball. The image and clear reading depict the story really well. You also make a reference to Shakespeare’s, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” Love, how you dramatically end on the word “enemy!”

Thank you Margarida! It was exactly that: I tried to reimagine the first meeting between Romeo & Juliet, seen from Romeo’s point of view. The excitement replacing the boredom, the intrigue replacing the fear of discovery, the attraction replacing the potential rejection…

The detailed description plus the voiceover is a perfect combination to feel the intimate interactions. You make me smile. I was really thrilled. Awesome.

I enjoyed this story very much, Greene. I love all your indirect references to the words of the Bard, especially “luminous with love like the sun rising from the East”. This story is so well written and well read!

Very enjoyable story, Green. Regrettably, we know it’s not going to be a good ending, whether it’s Romeo and Juliet or West Side Story. Other people’s prejudices always try to thwart the path of true love.

Hi, many thanks for your insight, Julian!
Well…if we get stuck looking at tragic stories in fiction, then we lose sight of the true loves we have in our lives, don’t you think?
While there is story to tell, there’s hope…

Thank you Julie! I’m going through a serious “bard’s phase” right now!

Thank you Lotchie, kind as always! My reader deserves extra valentine’s chocolates, I guess!

1 Like

Hello again @GreeneWills
I hope your “bard’s phase” results in more wonderful stories! I can never get enough of Shakespeare. You just reminded me of a story I wrote several years ago. I’ll have to record it and send it in to the current View.