Free The Last Darling by Cloud Buchholz

black hair and tattoos covering her arms. He took what was left of his sandwich and followed her out the door and down the street. She walked for nearly two blocks then entered a tattoo parlor.
    Leo Darling gazed at the drawings displayed in the front window. He took time to examine every one. He had never thought of a human body as a canvas, nor had he thought of a needle as a brush, but he was at once fascinated by the medium of a living body. He could see the woman through the window and his hand, reacting of its own accord, took a marker from his bag and began drawing her form on the window-glass of the door. He was so quick and skilled; he had finished half the drawing before anyone inside had noticed. He drew her naked and in a natural pose just as the blind artist had taught him. He added a few quick lines for shading before two stout and muscular employees grabbed him and threw him from the door. His elbow and cheek caught the cement and bled, but he didn’t feel any pain for his heart was preoccupied with the woman that he knew would be his wife. He looked past the two grim and grumpy faces that blocked his path, hoping to get just a glimpse of the woman’s reaction, but he could not see her. He sat down in the alley beside the shop, fearing that if he left, he might never find it or her again. He stayed there the whole night, warmed only by the fire in his heart and the thought of her in his mind. He could not know that his spontaneous act of affection had caused her to hide in fear, nor could he know the causes of her retreat.
    As a young girl, Rose Fox had developed a wild and rebellious personality. Her family moved, often and abruptly, from one military base to another. Her father’s career and stern presence dictated all facets of his family’s life. His love was matched only by his demand for discipline. Rose, frustrated by the constant hazard of losing friends and the unyielding pressure to be polite, had attempted, in every way possible, to abolish the rules and edicts her father had instilled in her.
    She drank and smoked before the law allowed, took whatever drugs she could find, pierced her ears, eyebrows, and nipples, stole and vandalized military property, had sex with strangers, kept a generally unpleasant disposition around her family and anything else that contradicted her father’s mandates. The values he held dearest, she broke most often. By the age of thirteen, she had acquired the skills necessary to sneak into bars and clubs. Once there, she would trick soldiers into buying her drinks. She earned the nickname Foxy due to her exceptionally good looks and her cunning wit. She was discovered only once when a General who worked closely with her father recognized her name and asked if she was related. She said yes and then flashed her breasts at him. He was so taken back and amused he didn’t know how to tell her father. Rumors burned through every ear on the base and her father eventually found out. He said nothing to his daughter and she returned home one afternoon to discover her windows nailed shut and her door removed from its hinges – neither of which stopped her debauchery.
    By the age of seventeen, when she learned her father had gotten another promotion, she refused to relocate. Before the day was out, she found the boyfriend her father hated most and married him. The marriage was, at first, unpleasant, but eventually it became unbearable. He proved to be more demanding than her father and far less loving. These truths she attempted to displace by contemplating the amount of pain her parents felt by her absence. Her suffering, she believed, would be mirrored in her father and so, enduring every degrading and disgusting act placed before her, she satisfied the desires of her terrible husband.
    One evening, under the influence of opiates and alcohol, he tied her arms to the rafters of the garage, ripping at her clothes until she swung naked and helpless. His behavior was a result of