Night.
The obsidian velvet of the darkness pressed around my body. I could feel it collecting on my flesh and slowly suffocating me. My throat closed up and breathing became difficult...almost impossible...sweat poured off of my body as a hand slowly closed around my pulsing throat. A meaty hand with blood beneath the cracked, yellow fingernails...
"Kyle! Kyle, wake up!"
Someone was shaking me...the dream was slowly dancing away...once again to rest upon the edges of my sub-conscience. I opened my eyes to see Stan bending over me; his face a mask of concern.
I sat up quickly and gasped. I held a trembling hand to my neck and felt a coldness in my body.
"Are you all right, dude?" Stan looked at me; his eyes asking so many questions.
"He was there again...there in my dreams. He...was so tangible..." I glanced at him, hoping he'd understand what I meant.
He looked puzzled. "It'll be okay. Do you want to go for a walk?"
I shook my head. Didn't he understand? The dark was where all of my demons awaited. Crouching...ready for the kill.
An image appeared in my mind. Disemboweled women...their throats slashed...no longer recognizable except for the horror in their faces.
Crackling fire bloomed on the horizon. The sun would be up soon. Fear would recede to where it belonged...but for how long?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Strands of coffee colored silk framed her face.
She looked at me with pleading eyes. The terror was evident within their depths. Reaching out a hand to her, I drew back. I don't know why. Red eyes burned beside her. They stood out in the darkness and took on a life of their own...
They told a story of evil. A hand reached out and caressed the girl's countenance. She wept silent tears and stars glittered inside of them. For some unknown reason I longed to taste them...
I was remembering this dream during study hall a few days after I slept over at Stan's. I had never taken an interest in the macabre side of existence...but now I was strangely drawn to it. Like a moth to a flame. I couldn't get that girls face out of my mind. Her lips were so red...her eyes like pools of night sky. I could almost feel the texture of her hair...the smell of it.
She shouldn't have gotten to me so much. She was an image in my dreams...she could never be real.
That's what I thought, at least...
Until that evening.
I had walked to the library to finish a short story for English. Sitting in the back of the building, behind rows upon rows of leather-bound novels, I typed madly on the computer. My writing had taken a turn for the bizarre in the past couple weeks and it excited me, really. It was so unlike me...so new. I thought I was all alone until I sensed a presence behind me. The smell of sun-dried lilacs filled my nostrils and my head became heavy and my limbs weak.
Hot breath tingled on my neck and I looked around. Her cold, heavy hair fell around her shoulders and her eyes gazed at the computer screen.
She looked at me; her face warm and passive. "I like your writing."
I was so hypnotized by her very being that I didn't even stop to think...she was the girl from my dreams. It sounds so cliche but it was true. She was there...a living, breathing entity in a filmy white dress. Her beauty was so perfect it frightened me...
"I've seen you here before," she continued. "Books are my passion, my glory. I come here often." She looked away as if she heard something in the distance. "Of course, I only come when he's not around."
I didn't ask any questions. I figured if she wanted to give me details, she would. It was eerie the way she spoke to me as if we knew each other forever. I liked it, though. A lot.
I spoke for the first time. "Who are you?"
She smiled. "I am Gina. I moved here just recently. I don't really know anyone that well. It'd be nice to have a friend. That's why I finally got the courage to talk to you..." She looked down at the floor, primly. "Might I ask who you are?"
Her politeness was refreshing. It made me feel as if we were in another time...
"I'm Kyle. Do you go to the high school? I haven't seen you there."
She looked sad for a second. "I'm not allowed to go. I have to sneak out to come here...school would be out of the question. I'm taught at home." She flexed her thin wrist and I could see shadows in the indention where her collar bones came together. She seemed so fragile and innocent.
"Will you walk me home, Kyle? Once you're done, I mean. It's getting dark and the night frightens me."
Her eyes probed mine. There was an odd hunger deep within them.
"Sure, I will. I'm pretty much finished, anyhow." I saved my paper to a disk and gathered my things. As we walked out of the library, she took my arm. It's soft slenderness felt light on my arm. I wanted to protect her from anything she was afraid of...anything.
