Cait lay in bed, reading as she usually did this time of day. She had finished reading "Persuasion' and was moving onto "Mansfield Park" but she remembered that she had received a new book as a gift from an unknown person at the Inn yesterday. It was a book of poetry, it started out with sweet, funny, and romantic poems and slowly went to something darker, something Cait didn't recognize, but something she couldn't tear her eyes away from, something that intrigued her innocent mind; something that tempted her body, something that made her soul shiver. Nibbling her lip as she read another of the poems, she sat up as a particularly interesting sentence grabbed her attention even more. She gasped aloud in surprise, eyes widening at the shock of what she was reading. Why was she reading this" Her mind felt clouded and it was like an out of body experience. She could see herself sitting there, reading this". Smut' No. It couldn't be described as that, it was too classy. But it should have been something that made Cait blush; something that made her shut the book and throw it from her window. She sighed softly and reached behind her, untying the black ribbon that had been holding her hair back. She ran it through her fingers, smiling at the pretty piece of silk like material and then her eyes glanced to the slightly wilting roses and she set the book aside and stood walking to her dresser where the flowers were laying. Picking them up she smelled them again and then took the ribbon and tied it around the two rose stems and then used that to hang them upside down so they could dry properly.

Walking back to her bed, she sat and picked up the book of poetry again, but she found that even as enthralling as the book was, she could not keep her eyes off of the ribbon. She kept looking back over to the flowers, her eyes tracing the lines of the ribbon and where they tied around the flower stems. Her mind wandered about all of the possibilities of the ribbon, it could be a hair tie, a bracelet, an anklet, a bow for a dress; it was so entrancing.

No no. It was a ribbon! How could a simple ribbon be so interesting" Cait couldn't keep her eyes off of it She thought about how the soft silk of it would feel across her flesh and how soft it would feel around her wrist,, how dainty it would be tied into her hair, or how pretty it would be as a choker around her neck. Nearly leaping from the bed, she ran to where the flowers hung and grabbed them, sliding the ribbon off, the flowers were beautiful, but the ribbon' Well it was exquisite, something to be cherished! She held the ribbon a moment, staring at it and then held it to her cheek, rubbing the softness of it across her face and then she brought it to her neck and tied it there, making a pretty bow which was placed just off to the side on her neck. She stared at herself in the mirror and smiled. She stood a little straighter, she felt a little prettier, and she felt something completely different and new all together. All because of a ribbon'

Cait's mind was so clouded she could not even be embarrassed about her attachment to the piece of material, but surely if anyone saw her, they would think she was some sort of freak for the way she was behaving about it. She ran her hands through her hair and fluffed her hair a bit and then grabbed a small makeup bag and began to put on makeup. Cait rarely, if ever put on makeup; let alone red lipstick, now that was just brazen! But nonetheless she was putting on makeup and poofing her hair and then she ran around and got a dress from her closet and not just a dress, but a little black dress. Cait had never cared about things like her appearance, she did like to look nice, but she never really indulged in girly things like make up and hair, but there was something different about Cait today. Something different about the way she would walk, the way she would talk, the way she would act. Something? was terribly' terribly wrong.

Caitlin had, had several more chances to collect her ribbons, but every time she got a gift, like the bath set of oils and the lovely dress, Ethan would take it away from her. Everything in her head told her that Ethan was right and she knew that she shouldn't want them, but she just couldn't help it. Those ribbons were the most beautiful things she had ever laid her eyes upon. Ethan had not been around, as much lately, which was not helping Cait in her battle against evil. Since she didn't have Ethan around to remind her that they were bad, she started to have a craving for them. Often times while lying in bed her mind would drift off and all she would think about was piles of silky black ribbons, ribbons that she would caress over her skin, tie in her hair, decorate her room with. And that book, the book that had took her simple and innocent mind and exposed it to ideas that she didn't even know existed, but ideas that swelled deep within her and caused a stirring for the unknown. How could simple poetry feed the lustful monster, the one that had been repressed her whole life, the one she refused to give into, how could it make her betray every rational thought and idea and give into these day dream fantasies" Cait's cheeks blushed a deep red as she thought about the wrongful actions that took place within the four walls of her room and the ideas that caressed her mind. She was a sinful thing these days. Oh if her mother even had the slightest idea of the un- lady like things she had done, she would disown her.

Cait was supposed to be a lady. She was raised to be a quiet diminutive girl, a girl who obeyed and listened, and a girl who sat up straight and drank tea with her pinky out. Cait wasn't a girl who thought about lying in bed with a man or whatever else would happen behind closed doors. Well she wasn't supposed to be. However, Cait had always not been just as her mother wanted. She could be outspoken and somewhat feisty, however she was usually able to repress her thoughts and bite her tongue. Cait was a passionate girl and would often times go off on tangents but people seemed to delight in her innocents and the purity of her ideas. Occasionally people thought her to be slightly intense, but it was few and far between that Cait unleashed that side of herself. Typically, she said only a few words and was beyond polite when speaking. Cait had not done much more than ever kiss a man, but the thoughts she was having lately suggested that she was craving to do much more. It scared her really, Cait had wanted to save herself for that special one, whatever that meant, she didn't even know if it existed, but she was a hopeless romantic at heart and wanted to be with "the one" for her first time. But the more and more she thought on the ribbons and the books, the more her priorities and views changed.

It seemed the lonelier Cait got in this town, the more she craved those ribbons. The ribbons brought her a sense of peace and comfort, they made her feel alive, they made her feel everything deep down she wanted to be but would never admit. People paid attention to her when she had those ribbons; she was powerful when she had them. How could something that gave her so much, be so bad" Cait knew where those ribbons came from, she knew in her heart she should wanted nothing to do with them or "him- " or "them- but those men were so nice to her and they seemed really interested in her as a person. They said they knew her and just wanted to help her be the person she wanted to be. What could be so wrong with that' Was it really wrong to indulge in secret desires" She tried to think back on when these wrongful thoughts had started, but she couldn't remember, her memory was a like a fog and she just guessed that they had always been there, lurking in the back of her mind, waiting to come out.

Biting her lip Cait looked down to the ribbon that was draped over her hand, weaved between her fingers. She had woken up on the floor this morning with the black ribbon around her neck, she couldn't remember receiving it, but all she knew was that she wasn't giving it up, not yet. This was her security blanket in this strange and lonely town, it was the only thing that felt familiar and it scared her to death.