Poem by Edgar Allen Poe (first stanza of "A Dream Within A Dream")
Sorry about the wait this time :( But tell me what you think!
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream…
Chapter 9
I opened my eyes. It was like I was home again, but something was different here. I was in a vast meadow, the sky boasted a beautiful azure color with mild clouds drifting by. A breeze tickled at my sides and pulled at the wildflowers in the ground. I stood nearest a poplar tree. I recognized its smooth and slender trunk, but its bark was not the paper white I remembered. It was a charred black all around. I looked up. In a flash, everything was reversed. The breeze blew in the opposite direction, all the colors were inverted. The blue sky turned a fiery orange with ominous black clouds, the grass blew deep crimson in the wind and flowers that had been purple turned a lilting yellow, red flowers turned vivid green. In this negative world, everything seemed much darker. I held my hands out in front of me. My white skin had turned midnight black. My skin and hair had been reversed, my hair was now a pale shade of sea-green like the sirens my mother had told me about. A pond began to leak up out of the ground in front of the poplars. The water was a shivering silver that bubbled calmly as it filled a perfect circle just large enough for me to peer in and see my reflection. I gasped, my eyes were still a perfect shade of gray, standing in contrast to my newly black skin, like two silver stars in the heavens. They remained the same either way, being in the exact middle, balancing precariously between light and dark. I panicked. I looked into my own eyes, and had no control over them, they darted wildly around the scene, the meadow shifted to a cave, dank and brown with stalactites and stalagmites leering like teeth. I pressed my hands up to my face, crying out in fear. I tried to cover my eyes, but invisible hands held them fast. The scene moved again, to a beach, then a mountain top. New visions swirled around me as I remained stationary, on my knees bent toward the ground and trying not to see, but my eyes pressed open so wide that my face might tear at any second. The whirlwind of images bore down on me, creating an unbearable weight.
All the scenes I had once thought so beautiful, now seemed to threaten me, they spun around me in a circle that grew tighter and tighter, and faster and faster. I wanted to stand, to scream, to run; anything that would have made this stop. My body at that moment, was made of marble, rigid and unmoving, with my mind trapped inside. I grew more panicked as I realized my paralysis. The images raced around so fast they were now just a blur of color, they circled closer now, and closer until they were right on top of me. My skull began to crack under the pressure, my immobile limbs pulled away from the rest of my body, dislocating themselves, my ribs caved inwards. I was being pulled in every direction, pressed from all sides. The pain clouded my vision, so that now I was entirely blind. I would have cried, but now I was beyond that, beyond all feeling except this torturous crush and pull. It pressed and pressed, I spun and spun. Hands shot inward and interrupted the whirlwind as they grasped the sides of my face.
The hands were cold on my fevered skin. I slowly opened my eyes, their vision was restored and I felt not even the slightest hint of the pain that consumed me only seconds ago. The hands were still on my face as I reoriented myself. I looked at the hands, then the wrists and arms they were attached to, then the shoulders, and the face. It was Hades, looking to me like a dangerously beautiful angel. He smiled down at me and asked me where I had been. I frowned and looked around. We were in a grove of trees now. They were planted very evenly in rows, like a mechanical grid plotted with flowering trees instead of little black dots. There was soft grass beneath me, and I became preoccupied with it. His hands forcefully brought my face back to his. My head was muddled now, like I was watching the scene through thick glass and listening with cotton in my ears. I struggled to remove the barrier, but couldn't. I tried to answer his question, that I didn't know where I had been, and didn't know where I was, but nothing came out, the lethargy had effectively tied my tongue. My head tipped back, I no longer had the presence or energy to hold it up. I began to fall sideways, slowly, as if I was gliding toward the ground, each body part gradually loosing its independent will. I dimly saw that Hades' smiled had transformed into an unreasonably worried look. I began to wonder why. I heard him say that he had to get out of here. I would have protested, the sleep state that was over taking me began to feel lovely.
Suddenly we were back at his palace and he was gently tapping the side of my face, trying to wake me up. My reality snapped jarringly into place, making my head ache for a second. I looked up at him, my breath shallow. I thanked him with my eyes for saving me two times over. He nodded, but looked grim. I stared at his flawless features. My savior. I felt of rush of gratitude toward him, and with it came the thrill of longing. He looked dangerous now as he read my eyes: like a dark angel, his eyes flashed like blades, and his mouth curled into a snarl. He placed both his hands on the wall on either side of my head the way he had before, surrounding me like an iron cage. He bent over me, his posture fiercely possessive, and brushed his lips against the hollow of my neck. I shivered and that response seemed to send him closer to breaking. He whispered, his mouth next to my ear, "I was waiting for you…" His voice was torn between desire and sadness, and I couldn't understand it.
He traced a line with his mouth up my throat, his tongue flicking out along the way, working me up to a fever pitch almost instantly. I couldn't hold it back any longer, pent up need exploded in the base of my skull, I reached down and grasped the sides of his hips and heaved him toward me. Our bodies met with a crash, my breath was pushed out of my lungs. I greedily breathed him back in, his scent was delicious, earthy, like sandalwood. It drove me to remove every inch of open space between us. His body felt sinfully exciting against mine. I felt him growl into my neck, and the vibration made my knees weak. And in a second, his hands were off the wall and grasping my wrists; he separated them and then brought them roughly back together behind my back, his arms now wrapped around me still holding my wrists. It tugged my shoulders backward, and exposed my chest and neck to him. He kept himself pressed against me, his height forced my head backwards to look up at his face. His eyes were boring into mine with hunger, and mine were delirious with the sensation I was experiencing below the pit of my stomach. I closed my eyes and tipped my head all the way back, offering myself to him. He yanked harder on my wrists pushing me harder against his chest. He rushed down to kiss me…
Then I woke up.
I sat bolt upright in my bed, panting. My night clothes were drenched in sweat, and my legs were hopelessly tangled in the covers. My heart rate fluttered rapidly as my head tried to make sense of what it had just created. I flopped violently back onto my pillow, and then rolled over and began shrieking profanities into another pillow in utter frustration. I kept on swearing and punching until I heard a knock on my door.
I gasped. It couldn't be him. It had better not be, how could I see him like this…after that. I quickly threw on a dressing robe and tried to smooth my hair down in to something that didn't look like a wild animal perched on my head. What'll I do if it's him? Oh…I. That dream was so…intense, I wouldn't even be able to look at him. I gathered my confidence as I reached for the handle. I opened the door, fearing the worst, but it was not at all who I expected.
I actually didn't know who it was. In my doorway stood a young girl, she was small, with a lithe form and beautiful, delicate face. She had the darkest hair I had ever seen, and it made her skin look even paler than it actually was. Her eyes were the color of obsidian, but sparkled with tiny white lights. The surprise must have been evident on my face, because she smiled at me and said, "Forgive me if I was interrupting anything, my name is Nyx and I am here to assist you today."
I blushed a little, she must have heard my tirade into the pillow. Then all the sudden I remembered why she was here to assist me: I'm having dinner with Hades, tonight. I groaned out loud, which confused Nyx. "Is something the matter, Persephone?" I was startled when she used my first name, but I responded, "No, no thank you, I only just remembered something. Oh, I am being terribly rude, won't you come in?" She replied in thanks. I asked, mostly in curiosity, "How is it that you have come to know my name?". "Lord Hades told it to me of course, but I knew it before then. Everyone knows you here, except maybe the dead, but they don't know too much of anything do they?" She laughed a tinkling little laugh at some sort of private joke. I tried to smile back, but it didn't reach my eyes. Everyone knows me here. Well I suppose that can't be too odd, how often does this type of thing happen?
She appraised my appearance from the other side of the room and grinned, "Where shall we start?" I smiled, actually meaning it this time, and admitted that I had only just woken up. She walked over to me with graceful steps, and I understood why she had been sent to help me. Her hair was done up in a complicated, elegant style, and her dark blue robes were arranged in a very flattering manner. Her air and walk was made of nothing but sinuous grace, and dark beauty. I sighed, knowing that we had a lot of work to do, to make me look like that after my restless night.
So the day began with a bath first, painful scrubbing of my skin and hair, and on and on with tying and dressing and styling until I thought that there couldn't possibly be anything else to do. Nyx and I spoke freely to one another, and I liked her very much. I did think her name was unusual though, Night. I remarked on this and she gave me a cryptic look, "That's what I am.", was the only thing she said in reply as she started to curl my hair. I sat awed for a moment, but I should have known. I remembered from studying with Hades in the library, that his kingdom seemed to be larger than the one Zeus ruled above, and filled with beings more powerful at that. So it shouldn't have been a surprise that Night, or Nyx, a being present since the beginning, was under the rule of Hades. A shiver shook my spine up to my shoulders, and could almost feel her laugh at my comprehension. But when we weren't talking, my mind wandered back to my dream. It was a nightmare, at least until he came. But the first part was still unsettling, all the places I was so familiar with became alien and menacing, and I was clearly not welcome. I didn't know what it meant, but when he came into my dream, it no longer mattered. I could almost feel his touch as I relived the dream. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.
After hours of preparation, we were finally finished. Nyx appraised me once more, and gave a wide smile of approval. "See if he will be able to restrain himself now." I turned to look in the mirror, and gasped in shock. I almost didn't recognize myself, well, I looked like myself but I had never looked like this. The dress Nyx had chosen for me was pitch black and reached all the way to the floor. The neckline plunged daringly to the bottom of my ribs, exposing a flawless slice of the skin on my chest. The neckline extended upward to form the straps on my shoulders, the fabric was cinched together at the top, each by a sparkling silver band; the line of the straps continued around to my back and dipped all the way down to my lower back. It clung to my body in a way that none of my dresses ever had, it smoothed delicately over my hips, and flowed slightly outward as it approached the floor and trailed behind me. The effect was stunning, and unmistakably sensual. My dark auburn hair was tied up in a messy knot that still looked elegant, with loose tendrils grazing my shoulders here and there, it shone in the light of my room and made the pale skin of my face seem to glow. Nyx had rimmed my gray eyes in kohl, and it made them sparkle like the silver on my dress, and the band on my upper arm; my lips had been stained a deep, blood red. The look was ethereal and a little dangerous. I realized with a start, that I looked perfectly like a goddess of the night, and it was the most beautiful I had ever been. Nyx sighed in satisfaction, and I in nervousness. It was the evening now, and any second there would be…
A knock on the door echoed around the room. Our heads snapped toward the door; a messenger was here to convey us to the hall. It was time for the real evening to begin.
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