NIGHT GUEST
Every night I flick the switch, the darkness trumps the light. I move over to my bed and slide under the covers. The now cool blanket feels smooth on my skin. I move my legs around to find the ideal position to leave this world in. I fold my hands and say a silent prayer, hoping my weak message be received. I pull the cover over my shoulder and my view fades to dark as I close my eyes.
Memories of my past and future flood my mind, keeping me warm. I soon drift off to a world other than our own. Wide fields stretch from beneath my feet, to up yonder, past where the eye can see. Branches start to emerge from the ground, slowly moving upwards and spreading to all directions. Leaves emerge from the limbs of this tree, small and green at first, then show their true faces, turning to flame, then oak. As their lives end before my eyes, they slowly float down to my feet. As they end, their legacy begin, once again small and green.
Next to me, there she stands. Hair just as golden as the last time I saw her. She smiles, flooding me with nothing but hope and happiness. She starts to tell me something, her mouth and lips working together as the hundreds of muscles form the word. She speaks slowly, as the leaves around us grow and die quickly. "I," she says slowly almost echoing. "Love," the word slowly leaves her mouth and leaps to freedom, now floating suspended in mid-air.
Her lips, mouth and hundreds of muscles form the beginning of the next word, but something bothers me. It isn't her. It can't be. It's not something from this world. It's from our own. I try to ignore it, as I want to enjoy the final word, finishing this short string of words. But whatever is bothering me, doesn't leave me. It haunts me. Like a fly constantly around me, never leaving. Before she finishes the word, the falling leaves stop, suspended. I see the leaves set aflame right in front of me.
Its then that I lose my grip on this world and start returning to our own. I fall down, clutching at the grass and ground beneath me, trying to stay in this world, never wanting to leave. I suddenly shoot up, my entire body soaking and cold. I'm back in our own world. The darkness burns deep into my skin, like a thousand red-hot irons. I sit there, lifting my arms to feel every inch of me is soaking wet and shivering. My fingers tremble in agony of non-existing eyes staring deep down into my soul.
My Night Guest. He stands there, looking into my heart, prodding every inch of it, sending every emotion I have shooting through my body in less than an instant. Even though he only stands there, doing nothing, he is inflicting the worst kind of pain imaginable on me. I only sit there, shivering and terrified. He reaches his long, slender arm to me, stopping it in front of my face, then performs a ripping motion, quickly pulling back to himself and faster than the speed of light, all my emotions disappear.
I stop trembling. I stop shivering. I sit there, doing nothing. He turns around and turns his head to look at me. I look into his featureless face, pale and milk-white, even in the dead of night. Even without eyes, he glances right at me, as if giving me a message. He then ducks and walks out of my room and I only lie back down, pull the soaking wet cover over my shoulder, close my eyes and I'm back under the tree. With her. Without a worry in the world. I never want this moment to end.
This moment never ends.