Entry10/31 1000/10000 words

Edmond was, without argument an excessively romantic poet.  His poetry, currently so popular with the young ladies in the township of Brightside Bierlow, since he had courted so many of them with his romantic verses that they now openly vied for his affections.  His dark hair and piercing blue eyes, set in a handsome, yet brooding face, and his lithe, yet strongly built body only added to his allure.  It was because of this very popularity that he decided to take an extended holiday on the shores of Salcombe, escaping the, would be snares of the eligible ladies of Brightside Bierlow for at least the time being.



  It was there near the Estuary that he first saw her, from a distance.  Her long red gold tresses tossed by the oceans breeze framed her fair oval face like a halo, he thought.  She was slender, yet shapely, her dress though a bit old fashioned, he thought, suited her perfectly, and as he gazed at her in those first moments he realized that she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.  As he walked towards her she began walking away from him steadily, with a sure, but sultry gait finally walking around a corner of a sandy cove and out of sight.  When he at last rounded the corner he could not see her anywhere, it was as though she had vanished into thin air.  He waited for almost an hour for her to return towards the town, finally giving up but resolving to return the next day in hopes of finding, and talking with this elusive beauty that had caught his eye, and his fancy.



Edmond inquired after the young woman in the local marketplace that day when he returned to town, directing his questions to several merchants he felt she may have visited, as they sold ladies finery but all claimed they had no knowledge of the young woman.  Perhaps she was a traveler on holiday like himself, he rationalized, then of course she would be unknown to the merchants of the town, but he did not understand how they could have failed to notice such a beauty visiting them.  Edmond returned to his hotel that night disappointed, but determined to find, and speak with the divine creature he had seen upon the shore that day.  He sat up almost all that night writing poems and sonnets in praise of her beauty, some of his finest work he thought to himself.  He vowed he would read each and every one of them to her when he finally found her again.



The next day, and for many days after an increasingly weary, but determined Edmond returned to the shore, each day he saw her, followed her, but to no avail, for she always disappeared when she walked around the corner of the one cove,  and no matter how long he waited, it was to no benefit, she never returned the way she came.  He stayed up nights writing poem after poem to her, no longer able to sleep, or eat he became pale and drawn looking.  Finally, the Inn keeper, concerned, inquired of him how he was doing, and if he would not like to see the town doctor, but Edmond insisted he was fine, and needed no physician.  The Inn Keeper looked at him with a furrowed brow, not believing his protestations of his being well, he sent the next day for the town physician who was an old friend of his family, and had been the town doctor for as long as most townsfolk could remember.



The  doctor arrived at the Inn the following day, with the excuse of coming to tea with his old friend took a good look at Edmond as he left the Inn for his daily venture to the estuary in search of the lady whose beauty had captured his heart.  Seeing the state Edmond was in, and the fevered, haunted look in his eyes the doctor decided to discreetly follow him to the estuary.  He watched as Edmond walked briskly down the empty beach picking up his pace, the doctor found it difficult to follow him, but follow him he did, finally Edmond stopped in the cove once again awaiting the return of the beautiful woman he had been following.  After several hours the doctor finally went back to the Inn keeper, telling his friend that he had followed Edmond down along the empty shoreline to the cove, where he had stopped, and stood seemingly waiting for someone.  Something gnawed at the back of the old doctors mind, a familiarity with what Edmond was doing, he could not quite place it.  He would consider it more tomorrow, and he retired to his home for the evening.



That night Edmond heard the most lovely voice singing outside his window overlooking the sea.  He looked out to see the woman he was so desperately in love with standing right there on the shore by the Inn singing in a clear and dulcet voice, a song he had never heard before, she looked up at him, smiling sweetly.  Swiftly he left his room, and the Inn going down to the shore to finally meet the lady who was the object of his deepest affections.  She smiled  at him as he approached he took her small, cold hand in his own as she guided him gently down the beach toward the estuary where he had been following her for so many weeks.  He felt his heart would fairly burst as she spoke to him for the first time telling him her name, Lorelei, which seemed somehow so fitting to him.  She guided him to the water’s edge, so entranced was he that he did not think it strange that she encouraged him to join her in the icy waters, as he did she kissed him passionately and as she held him lovingly in her sweet, deadly embrace he slowly sank beneath the waves with her forever.