Can Not Be

"Where is it? Damn! I'll have to find that memory spell, but right now I need the other! He'll be here in an hour, Damn ... memory spell? But first this one. Surely I didn't just stick it in my pocket ...! Damn, I did that very thing last time. I've got to find that memory spell ..."

"Forty-five minutes now so where's my wand? Oh, there you are. Now a little of this and some of those ... and stir until it bubbles. It'll cool for a few minutes then it'll work better, it's fresh. He'll never know what hits him ... ten minutes now."

"There he is. He is beautiful and I can feel the changes as I drink it." Finding that book with the spell written in margins in the Stark Tongue, the old witches language. For four days three times a year I can be the stunning beauty I was three-hundred years ago and enjoy the flesh with Stephan. In another year I'll arrange for a wife and happiness for him like I have for every other lover. Each stays ten years.

"Hello, Stephan, my love. I'm so glad you could make it."

"I would as soon lose my life as miss our four-monthly meetings. Come, marry me and live with me."

"Thank you, Stephan, but I've told you I can't. These four days I can give you, my love, nothing more."

"I don't see how you can be even more beautiful each time I visit. Or how you do it out here in the middle of nowhere. God, Lila ..."

"SSHHH! There'll be no mention of 'him' in my house. I'll explain another time. For now, take my hand, Stephan, come with me. We have four days, let us not waste them on discussing can not be's"