22:00 ~ The Man In The...

    Two hours had passed since Alex had seen what he had seen. He had found his way back to the campsite, but a burning like the wood of the fire had been there in him since the star-crossed lovers had staged their pornographic production to The Man In The Moon. He had lain in his sleeping bag, naked and sweating, as he dreamed of the smouldering coals in his gut and loins.
    The woman. The pale belle. The cat. The man. The lion. It should have been him. The Man In The Moon. The Man In The Bushes.

    He was back. He was at the core. The internal glowing from the shell of the building was in his face as he looked through each window. To see her again would rest him. He had run in the cold of the night - dark and wanting. As if running into her black pupils or her mouth, which beckoned him to her. Through the damp he slid, with only his denim shorts clinging to his thighs.
    
    The wandering crowds had retreated to the inside of the house. The gardens were empty now. Alex could only guess that the rain had driven them back. Though the wetness of the guests caused the windows of the inside to become steamy. His vision was impaired.
    Could it have been that the countess he had seen nude and moonlit was just fading as the steam of the panes of glass?
    He was cold like a rat. And frantic. He circled once. And again, but nothing.  She had evaporated.

    Alex walked close to the wall, feeling defeated. He was around the corner to the front door. His bare feet were beginning to bleed on the gravel. The door around the corner flew open. Alex bent himself backwards into the shadows. He couldn’t see, but could tell a man was standing on the steps. He was smoking and stressed. A woman was standing close by and the two were mumbling.
    ‘I don’t want to stay here! I need to get home. This was a stupid idea in the first place,’ murmured the female. The man was not replying. From what Alex could tell, he was leaning on something and trying to block the woman from his mind.
    ‘Did you hear? I feel awful! Do you know what it’s like?’ she kept repeating. Looping the same phrases with variations.
    ‘Take a walk with me,’ the male ventured.
    ‘What? Why?’
    ‘We need to talk. And I can’t stand it in there either.’
    They were coming. Alex panicked. Breaths quickened as he tugged onto the trellis next to him. He hoisted his body off the ground and managed to reach a ledge above the first floor window. The ivy tickled as he let it consume him - concealing him from the view of the strolling couple.
    They drifted past, talking very heatedly.
    Alex appeared back on the ledge in the silver moonlight. It felt good to be off the ground and clear of the gravel.
    The ledge ran out along the entire wall of the building.  Like and engine on a track. He crawled along it, in desperate search for her.
    The upstairs world differed greatly to the gravel covered downstairs. From the ledge, Alex was exposed to the bedrooms. The red lit bedrooms. The veils were pulled down, but left translucent viewing screens - and the lights projected violent shadows to the outside.
    Front to back. Front to front. Head to waist.
    And the sounds. ‘The Hounds Of Love’. ‘The Banshees’. In the backgrounds were ethereal sounds - not dissimilar to the dreamscapes of ‘Cocteau Twins’ or ‘This Mortal Coil’.
    Alex wanted none of what he saw. He moaned for her at each sight that was not. Until, around the other side of the roof, there she was.
    Along the ledge, there was a tiny balcony outside of her room. The boy crouched on it and tuned in.

    His eyes watered as they glanced over her shape on the curtains. Her shape.
    She was with him again. How would he be able to win her? He was, after all, the pervert from the field. Could he become ‘The Man In The Moon’?
    This room was relatively silent in comparison to the others. Or was, until…

    ‘Fin! Oh Fin! Wait, Fin!’
        Fin soldiered on.
    ‘Oh Fin, please!’
        Fin marched on.
    ‘Wait! Fin?’
        Fin went forth.
    ‘God! Fin stop! Stop please!’
    Alex began to cry.
    The woman began to howl.
    Fin hammered through.
    Fin was victorious. He slaughtered the enemy. He pounded their faces in. His fists reigned down in furious passion.
    He growled and came out. Jumping across the room, he lifted chairs, single handed, and embedded them in the wardrobes. He smashed a mirror, before grabbing all his clothes and fleeing.
    ‘F*****g b***h!’ He grunted as the door slammed.

    Left crumpled on the bed, was the woman. She sang soft sobs as a less than heroic Alex broke through the door. She didn’t move. Kneeling on one leg by the bed, he offered his hand.
    ‘Are you Okay?’ He whispered tenderly and stupidly.
    The sobbing ceased suddenly, and  the woman looked up. Alex repeated the question. She just stared.
    ‘You’re the boy from the field,’ She said.
    ‘What? I think you’re mistaken.’ Alex was bewildered.
    ‘No I’m not. I saw you. I didn’t say anything to him, but I saw you. You and your friend. I didn’t say…’
    ‘That’s alright. You’re safe now. I’m going to protect you.’
    ‘What happened to your friend? I left him. I came back here for you.’
    ‘You’re sweet,’ she replied, ‘I didn’t mind out there. I thought you two were together, so I didn’t mind. We were going to the barn. I had it ready, but he just wanted to - to do it - there and then. I couldn’t refuse. He’s been like that since!’
    She began to cry. Alex drew comfortingly closer. She kissed his hand that she was holding. He couldn’t speak. When her head came back up to face him, her eyes were dry and fiery again, as they had been on the field.
    ‘Are you going to take me with you?’ She asked pleadingly.
    ‘Well I’m not leaving you here with that mad-man. We can keep you safe at the campsite.’
    The lady smiled gratefully at Alex as she spoke, ‘I’m Wilhelmina.’
    ‘It’s an honour to meet you Wilhelmina. I’m Alex,’ the boy replied.
    The newly introduced couple left the way Alex had come, and laughed as they did so. Along the ledges, down the ivy, across the gravel and away like mist on the fields.