Valentine Vengeance

"God." Bianca gasped. "I'm glad you love Llamita too. I'm not sure I could keep up. If you've got any more, give it to her."

"Fuck you." Amber said. "I'm worn the fuck out. As much as I love you two, if either of you comes near my pussy right now, when I get the energy, I will get one of those vibrators and cram it up your ass. That was really hot, though."

"I thought you were sleeping, Llamita."

"I am. But, I just had to watch. Now shut the fuck up and cuddle. I'm going to."

Amber snuggled up against my side not occupied by Bianca and I smiled as my heavy lids shut out the flickering lights and shadows dancing on the ceiling. If they said anything else, I didn't hear it.

I woke to a knife sharp chill all through my body. I opened my eyes on blackness. The fired had burnt out and Amber and Bianca were shivering violently against my sides. I imagined I could see a lighter grey plume of my breath against the stygian darkness.

I rose and felt my way in the darkness until my thick clumsy fingers smacked into rough bark. My hand closed on the log and I carried it back to the fireplace, bumping against Bianca as I went. She didn't wake or so much as stir.

This was bad. This was really bad.

I set the chunk of wood in the pit and felt no warmth from what I had hoped were still embers buried under the ashes.

Really, really bad.

I fumbled for the matches and had to struggle to pull one of the long sticks out. I set it against what I thought was the rough striking surface on the top and drug it across it. Nothing. I tried twice more and felt the tip snap off across the back of my fingers.

I tried to pull out another one and dropped the long rectangular box from numb fingers. The clatter of the wooden sticks seemed loud in the darkness. I managed to find the box and picked up one of the too small splinters of wood by touch.

I saw a spark as I drug it and then a brilliant flame seemed to burn my eyes. I blinked and saw a white shadow against my eyelids as I sat and held the burning match. I glanced at the two girls by the light and they looked so still and their lips looked blue.

I could fix this. I would fix this. I had to fix this. I flicked some bark loose from the log and held the match to it. The flame burned along the stick towards my fingers, but the bark didn't turn red, didn't show a hint of catching the flame.

I needed another match. I let go of the one just before the flame reached my fingers and turned to the pile just as the light flickered and died.

I was tired. So very tired. And hungry. I held the thin stick in my fingers and decided to rest for just a minute before I tried to strike this one.

"No!" I yelled and forced my eyes open. If I fell asleep, none of us would ever wake. I knew it in my bones.

I struck the match and thrust it at the bark. I didn't wait to see if it caught, but reached for another match and then another. The flame of the three combined did what I needed and the bark turned cherry red before they went out.

I blew on the glowing bark and flicked some more loose from the log with my thumbnail. I groaned as the red glow faded and reached for another match.

My body was so heavy that I lost my balance and fell over. I felt the bones of an ankle beneath my face, but couldn't tell if it belonged to Amber or Bianca. The struggle to sit back up was hard, too hard. The darkness seemed to reach out and swallow me.

I'm sorry, I thought, as it claimed me.

I opened my eyes to a bright white room leaning against a column sheathed in marble. I felt something odd and glanced down to see two golden arrows embedded next to each other in my chest.

"What the fuck?!"

"You lost, sugar?" A familiar voice asked.

I looked towards the voice and there was Marge sitting on a marble throne. I couldn't see the tattoos though, and her voluptous figure was draped in a white cloth.

A peacock roosted on the back of her throne and as I watched, it's tail lifted and fanned at me and I couldn't shake the feeling that thirteen eyes in addition to it's normal pair looked back at me.

Amber and Bianca stood before her and to either side of the throne, both also draped in white and each of them had two golden arrows in their chest as well.

Someone shoved past me and I watched a slender young man with long blonde curls walk past and up the stairs, carrying a golden bow.

"Well, mother?" A soft baritone asked.

"Very nicely done, Erin." Marge laughed. "Very nicely done. Your father could not have done better."

"I could have split the first arrow with the second." The young man shrugged. "But, I thought you might like this better. I just shaved off the fletching as I ran the second down the length of the first."

"Yes, Erin." Marge said. "As I said, very nicely done. Why don't you go see your wife. You know how she gets when you aren't near her since she is not allowed to look at you."

"Yes, mother." The young man glanced at me and I sucked in a breath. Where his eyes should have been were black pits with pinpricks of white light.

Then, he turned and disappeared.

"Come join us." Marge said. "Take your place between flame and shadow. Stand between your two loves and let me look at you for a moment as a complete set."

I did as she bade and glanced at the two as I stepped between them. I felt a flash of disappointment that neither turned their gaze on me, but kept their eyes on Marge.

"Yup, I was right," Marge said after a moment. "You are all kinds of a stud, aren't you? I'm almost tempted to try you out for myself."

I glanced at the two women beside me and their eyes glittered with rage.

"No." I said.

"No?" Marge thundered. "No?! You dare tell me no here in my own domain?"

"Not without their permission." I said sturdily. "Both of them."

Green eyes and brown flickered towards me and some of the heat left their gaze if none of the steel.

Marge threw her head back and laughed.

"I could take him, you know." Marge said. "I could strip away every thought of you two bitches and leave him with nothing but the desire to please me until I tired of him."

"You could." I said. "But, why would you want to? I'm no stud. Hell, I'm the ugliest one of my friends, so I'm sure there are lots of better looking guys out there. Better lovers too. With all of them to choose from, why would you settle for me?"

Marge looked at me for a span of time that seemed unending and meaningless. Finally, she leaned back with a smile.

"Don't sell yourself short, sugar britches." She said. "From everything I saw, and I watched it all, you did just fine."

I felt my face heat at the compliment.

"Thanks, but it was them who brought it out of me." I said. "Without them, I'm just another guy. Nothing special."

"True." Marge nodded. "Very true. Smart of you to realize it. All right then, you turkeys have a choice. You can go with him, or you can go back."

I glanced and saw a tall, handsome man holding a scythe.

"You mean we can choose to die or go back and live, don't you." I said flatly.

"Pish." Marge said. "You mortals. It's just a transition. You all will make it. It's just a matter of when."

"So, why would we choose now instead of later?" I asked.

"Well, you see, it's a funny thing about my son's arrows." Marge said. "They fade. If you look down, you'll see they aren't as solid as they were, even just from when you got here."

I glanced down to see that she was telling the truth. I could see the white marble floor faintly through them.

"Their points will never be so sharp." Marge said. "You will never feel them so fully as you do now. Don't you ever wonder why tales of love always end with the lovers riding off into the sunset? It's because with every sunrise following, their love will wane more and more. And who wants to hear that?

"No." Marge said, shaking her head. "Better to just stop where you are and enjoy the memory for eternity and let your tale join others that have been told across time than fade away into obscurity."

I glanced to my left and right and could almost see what she meant. Almost before my eyes, I could see the passing of time weathering and aging the beauties beside me. Bianca grew softer and rounder and her breasts sagged and became baby chewed. Amber's fiery tresses became lined and her flat belly softened and swelled. We would fight. How could we not seeing how we started? The passion would fade and our love making would never be as it had been that long miraculous day with long days and even weeks between sessions.

Yet, I knew that there would be more happiness mixed in with the sorrows. And I knew that my eyes would never wander, for I knew that any other that I found would face the same trial of time.

Hell, I was a farmer from a long line of farmers. If I knew anything, it was to build anything, you had to put in the long hours, and days, and weeks, and even months into making it grow. And then harvest it at the right time.

We weren't ripe. We would be little more than seed corn if we allowed ourselves to be harvested now.

"Thank you, but no." I said firmly. "I want to live for awhile with these two yet. I want to make babies with them that will grow up learning how to love from watching us. And who knows? Maybe we will be that tale that doesn't end with the sunset but carries on into the next sunrise and the next and the next. A shining example for all the lovers who follow us to measure themselves against."

Chocolate and emerald eyes finally turned their full regard on me and on each other.

"I do want to go back with you." I said. "But, I don't want to without you. It's your call. Your choice."

Slowly, she nodded her dark head and then her red head followed suit.

"You have our answer." I said. "Send us back."

"On your own heads be it, then." Marge sighed. "I can't help you little fuckers again. The queen bitch is watching. You're on your own if you fuck it up this time."

Then the bitch leaned back and kicked me in the chest! Right between those two fucking arrows!

I blinked and there was a dim red glow in the darkness. I glanced beside me and saw that the several pieces of bark I had scraped off were umber.

I blew on them and scooped up four more matches and set them against the chips. The sulfuric heads burst into flame and I watched the tiny hope spread.

"Come on, you fucking bitch." I muttered. "Burn, motherfucker, burn."

Gradually, bit by bit, the small flame spread and danced it's way to the bark still on the log. The tension in me didn't ease until I saw it spread from the hard bark to the softer wood. I retrieved two more logs and set them atop it then sat and stared at the tousled black and red heads just visible at the top of the blanket, leaning against each other.

When had they moved? I had gotten up from between them and there had been plenty of room. Now, there didn't look as if there were room for me to stick so much as my arm between them.

But, I felt my heart soar. They had moved. They had moved! They were still with me.

I sat by the fire and split my attention between tending it and watching them until it was roaring cheerily once more.

Exhausted and aching with the cold, I crawled between them and gently pushed until I had room to lie down once more. They were both chilled and shivering. But, they were still with me, damn it. And I was going to keep it that way.

"I love you." I said as I captured one in each arm. "And I'm not ever giving up. We will make this work damn it. We will."

I don't know how, but we made it through the coldest night that area had ever seen, the three of us nestled together like a bundle of puppies. The last stick of wood I had managed to save was burning away merrily and I was eyeing the table and chairs when we heard something outside.

"God damn it, boy." My father bellowed as the door crashed against the wall and he bent his head throught the doorframe. "What the hell damn fool stunt did you pull?"

"Hi, Dad." I said. "I guess I kind of fucked up my leg again. By the way, this is Amber and Bianca, the women that are going to give you grandchildren."

That cooled his jets for a minute and I hugged them close to me as he gaped at the three of us while the two girls giggled together against my chest.

"You can't marry two women, son!" Dad said. "That's just not done."

I opened my mouth to argue with him. Amber, though, interrupted me.

"Who said anything about marriage?" Amber asked. "I'm not going to stand in a church and let some fool preacher pronounce me anything. I'm going to be with Brandon and Bianca because I damn well want to be. Not because anybody tells me I have to be."

I thought about arguing with Amber, but decided to shut the fuck up. I just wanted them in my life and didn't give a shit how.

"By, the way, Dad." I said. "We want to live here together. In this house."

"Here?" Dad said. "In your great-great-great grandfather's house? You want to live in sin here?"

"Well, I would at least like to go to town and warm up and get some food." Bianca said. "And maybe some clothes, if that isn't too much trouble. We are all naked under this blanket."

Dad opened his mouth a few times and then stormed back out the door. I about half wondered if he was going to leave us all there to freeze to death, but he came back with my coveralls and a blanket and stood just inside the door and pulled his own off.

"You three get yourselves covered." He growled. "I'll be out in the damn truck to take these young women home."

He hadn't said anything about where he would take me and I wondered if I would survive my adventure after all we had made it through.

The girls wore the coveralls and I slipped my all but forgotten underwear on and pulled the blanket around my shoulders. They had to help me hop out to the big Dually pick up where Dad waited.

"Boy, what damn fool thing did you do?" Dad said in a very different tone of voice once we were all in.

"He may have broke it again trying to take care of us." Amber said. "We wouldn't have survived if he hadn't.

My father hemmed and hawed and let the matter drop. For the moment. I knew he was going to give me an earful once we were alone.

It wasn't until we pulled up in front of Bianca's house that I started thinking about facing the girl's families. But, Bianca took the matter out of my hands when she slipped out and closed the door without letting either Amber or I even try to accompany her. I'm not sure if either of us would have, since her mother came out on the porch and stood scowling at us all with her arms folded until Bianca reached her.

Amber did the same thing to me at her house. But, her father had stepped off the porch and was marching towards the truck when Amber reached him and got in his way, shoving him back.

My father did the coolest thing he had ever done for me and drove away, even though I'm sure he considered shoving me out the door to let Mr. Brighton have me.

I would have to deal with him eventually and Bianca's family as well. I meant what I had told their sleeping forms, that I wasn't going to give up and I was never going to let them go. But, another day, any other day, would be better to meet their families.

I expected Dad to start tearing long bloody stips off me immediately, but he just drove in silence over to old Doc Gregory's. Doc told him the best thing to do was to take me home and make me stay off it until the weather cleared and then take me in to the hospital thirty miles away since he might have to cut on me depending how bad it was.

Jack and Cory were at the house and full of "I told you" until Dad ran them off, threatening to pull off his belt and beat all three of us right there in the front yard for the neighbors entertainment.

Mom alternated scolding with hugs until I wasn't sure I wouldn't have rather Dad got his belt out on the front lawn instead. Then she fed me and afterwards drew a hot bath for me and left me to soak in luxurious steamy warmth with the bathroom heater going full blast.

The temperature outside had been rising steadily since the sun had come up and you would almost swear you could see steam coming up off snow that you were just sure you could see shrinking before your eyes.

By Tuesday, the snow was all but gone. But, instead of going to school, I was taken in to the hospital where they cut the fiberglass off me and took x-rays and figured out that I had fucked up my leg. They knocked me out and cut me open and bolted the fucker together.

By the time I walked back out the hospital on Thursday, there were only small patches of white tucked back between buildings where the sun couldn't reach to show it had ever happened.

I was still tired and druggy and shrugged off going to school on Friday in favor of sleeping the day away.

By Friday evening, though, I was missing the girls something fierce. I tried calling and got hung up on at each house. I kept trying across Saturday and Sunday several times with the same result.

Word got around, as it often did in that small town. At school, the wall separating us was still there and, if anything, even thicker. Beth told Jack that the librarians were combing through everything she brought to the girls from their teachers.

Jack and Cory told me that they had gone to the dance, intending to eventually get a group to go sit at the edge of town and drink while waiting for Amber and Bianca to walk in just as we had planned. They were inside when the storm blew in and that was why they didn't realize it had for an hour. No one in the gym had realized it was happening until it was too late. By the time they had gotten word to my dad, the town had been truly socked in by winds they said had pegged seventy with gusts up to eighty.

And, they were both still full of "I told you!"

In retrospect, even I could admit that it hadn't been the brightest idea I had ever come up with. It didn't even feel like it was me who had insisted. But, that's just crazy. Everyone knows that there aren't any gods or fates or anything throwing the dice with our lives. Shit happens and we decided what we will do with it when it does. Everything else is just bullshit exccuses that people come up with because they don't want to take responsibility... no matter what fucked up dream I had when I was riding the ragged edge freezing to death.

As far as getting me in touch with Amber and Bianca, Cory and Jack insisted that they were out. Period.

"Not on your life." Jack said. "My folks have made it perfectly clear that it will be worth mine if I go anywhere near either of those two again. And I think they mean it."

"Fuck off" was all Cory would say whenever the topic came up. I didn't understand just why he was so pissed about it all at the time, but I eventually began to suspect he had had some hope of Amber for himself.

I didn't tell him that Bianca was part of the package. Maybe I should have, but somehow it just didn't seem right to go talking about them to someone that wasn't there to see it. It wasn't so much that it was their secret to tell, although I guess it was. It was more... well, how do you describe a sunset behind a rainbow to a blind man?

I was forced back on my own resources to try and contact the women who had come to mean more than life itself to me.

On the upside, having my leg cut open and the bones bolted might have seemed like the wrong direction, but it actually sped up the time until I was able to get out of the fucking casts. Which got me behind the wheel of my truck by April. The first of April to be exact.

I drove to Bianca's home first and was greeted by her father holding a baseball bat. Mr. Perez was a small, wiry man with green tattos decorating his outsized arms as his hands twisted on chunk of wood in his hands. But, I didn't care if he treated me like a pinata.