The sunlight gleamed through a large glass window, flecks of gold dancing over Julie's skin and tousled hair as a light breeze blew in. The fabric in her hands flapped gently against her arms as she willed her mind to focus on the task at hand.
It was hopeless, of course. Energy hummed in the air, strange but familiar scents filled the room. She felt the sunlight dim slightly.
…you cannot escape me…
Julie sighed. "Yes. I'm quite aware of that."
The air shimmered. She heard distant noises that might have been screams or sighs, and then he was coalescing in front of her, towering and magnificent, red and crowned with horns, yellow eyes gleaming in fading light of the room.
…my bride…
Julie rolled her eyes. "Your bride is quite busy, I'm afraid."
…what could possibly be more important than my presence here, in in this moment?…
She hung an article of clothing on a hook. "Laundry."
The air was silent. He stared down at her, still imposing, but clearly at a loss.
…laundry…
"It's not just laundry, you know." She pulled more clothes from the basket. "There are also dishes, and bills, and all the other concerns of the waking world…"
…these things are of no consequence…
"For a few days out of the year, you're quite right." She turned to smile impishly at him. "For most of the year you're distant. But then something happens, I'm still not sure what, and then you're here, and you won't leave. You won't leave my mind, you won't leave my dreams, you won't leave the space where I'm typing. And it's bliss, but it's also sad, because I know it won't last."
He came forward then and she allowed herself to drink him in. One hand, larger than her entire face, caressed her cheek.
…lose yourself in me…
"Yes, that would be quite lovely. And it is quite lovely, when it happens. But this laundry isn't going to hang itself."
The energy in the room hummed again. Julie blinked at the clothes in front of her, which had, in fact, hung themselves. She smiled. "That's sweet of you."
The demon growled and gripped her shoulders. …I am not sweet…
"No, of course you're not sweet. That's the appeal." Julie sighed. "Do you remember when you first came to me?"
He took her hand and kissed it. The kiss burned, realer than anything else in the room, and she shivered.
…you were a child and I was a monster…
"Yes. That's how I saw you, at first. But then I got older…" The memories washed over her in warm waves. She did not need to look around to see that the room was fading.
The demon took her hand and led her through what had once been a wall. …you grew wiser…you saw that I was more than what I appeared…
Julie smiled. "You were…different."
…I was your most secret desire…the dreams of a young girl, so sweet…
Julie stopped, her hand dropping from his. "I'm not a girl anymore. Not a virgin, not the sort you seem to feed on."
He turned back to face her. There was never tenderness in his expression, never had been. The harshness was the allure.
And yet…she thought she saw something that passed for kindness flicker in his eyes, just for a moment.
…you are a girl and an innocent when you are in my presence…
She looked down and saw that her body was smaller, firmer than it had been. She was dressed in something light and flowery that revealed only a little. And as always happened in these moments, she felt the faint sense of what it had been like to be perched on the edge of a cliff, unknowing in so many things.
She smiled up at him, her face settling into an expression of wide-eyed wonder that was as real as it had been years before. "What is this sweet wind that blows you to me…damn, I'm even talking like you…"
He cupped her chin in his hands and caressed her hair, long and full and gleaming now. She shivered and felt the last vestiges of this world slip away. When she opened her eyes she was standing with him in a dark, cavernous space with pillars that reached taller than trees.
He smiled down at her. …dreams are my speciality, and your dreams have never died…
"Indeed. I do need you, every now and again. You with your force and your unyieldingness and everything else that I would not stand for in the waking world."
He grabbed her roughly then, lifting her up easily to meet his eyes. …I take what is mine…
He kissed her then, fiercely and with a searing heat, and she drowned within it, letting the fires consume her until the outside world was forgotten, savoring the sweetness that she knew was fleeting, but all the sweeter for its impermanence.
Take me. Please, take me.