His eyes on her were hard and cold, shining dark orbs that brought her at once back to the present, and into that deep past that he, with a smile like a crazy man's, had crawled out of, so long ago. Those eyes captured her more surely than any net, drawing her in.
His voice, soft and deep, like the lower scaled keys on a piano. Muttering to her, voice in her ear, always, always that voice. She had told him so many times, he was going to drive her mad, but he didn't listen. He just laughed, and said something else.
Ever since that one time, that day… the day that she had been tempted, but had not, in the end, partaken of what was offered… He had been after her ever since that time, whispering in her ear, the words always on the wind:
"Give yourself over to absolute pleasure…"
Like it was a gift, something she could just go to, on a whim. As though it were something she could ever turn back from. That course was a set one. She disliked the idea of it, but he wouldn't stop muttering in her ear. He warned her, threatened her. His voice was like a fly, buzzing in her ear constantly, but it's bite was deadly, as his was, and she could never, never ignore that risk.
The risk of his merely tiring of waiting, and taking what he sought. The risk of his abandoning her completely, leaving her alone; that was his favorite threat. He knew she would never be able to stand being alone. But each day pushed her closer to that edge. Closer to pushing him away, telling him to stop.
"Give yourself over to absolute pleasure. Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh – erotic nightmares beyond any measure, and sensual daydreams to treasure forever. Can't you just see it?"
That voice in her head, all hours. It haunted her very dreams, his red eyes watching her, following her. Whatever she did, wherever she went…
She couldn't escape him.
"Don't dream it, be it…"
She would never escape. Would he ever leave her be? She didn't know. She wanted him to, and yet, on another level altogether, was terrified of the prospect of being without him. Of feeling that absence, where now she felt only his presence.
"I ask for nothing!"
She had finally said it, her voice ringing in the seeming aloneness and silence of the long hall, hitting the walls and finding her again. But she heard his answering reply, as if on the wind:
"And you shall receive it, in abundance!"
He was gone.
She felt herself cry out, but she could not hear the sound.