"And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With odd old ends stolen out of holy writing,
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil."
― Shakespeare, 'Richard III'
I began to dream...
I was wandering aimlessly through the chilly lamplit city streets with no real destination in mind. I wasn't lost though; at least, I didn't FEEL lost. I was just sailing dreamily through the city, not fretting with unimportant things like how I'd gotten here or where I was going. I was happy. I took a deep breath of clean, clear air, finally allowing myself to bask in the worriless tranquility that my life had been so sorely lacking for the longest time.
Someone was walking beside me, our fingers intermingling. A man. I smiled happily and leaned my head against his shoulder as we maintained our easy pace together. It was a little cold, but I would have kept walking forever if it meant I could keep feeling like this. Suddenly, the man disappeared behind me. I heard him laughing playfully as my head is suddenly covered with warm, soft cloth; he'd thrown his jacket over my head.
"There you go. Better?" he asked as I laughed with him, pulling it off my head to slip it on my shoulders. I turned and beamed up at him.
"Yeah, I-" I stopped short, my smile fading.
No.
I blanched, feeling all the blood rush from my head so fast that I nearly saw stars. The man's kind smile twisted into a wicked smirk as he saw the recognition on my face. I took a shaky step back, shaking my head slowly.
No.
He took a single step forward, and I bolted. I was flying down the sidewalk, so fast that my feet hardly touched the ground. I didn't look back to see if he was following me, and I didn't care where I was running to.
No.
I glanced back as I rounded a corner. He was gone. I didn't stop though. Whipping my head back around, I slammed one foot down in front of the other, keeping my legs moving and my arms pumping. I needed to get out of there, I had to get away from-
Something dark shot out of the wall in front of me, catching me short and sending me hurtling back to the ground. I looked up in time to see a shadowy tendril disappear into the wall as if it had never been there. And that's when I heard them; Footsteps.
I froze briefly when I realized where I was, time slowing to a crawl. That first awful night in the dirty snow, when I had stared death in the face through the biting winds... This is the place where I had collapsed.
No!
I shot up and kept moving, running faster than before. He was trying to frighten me, but I wouldn't let him, I couldn't. This wasn't like that night, it wasn't! I could move, I could escape, I could- I screamed as a tangled mass of silver-black shadows burst from the ground in front of me, making me stumble to a halt.
"Do you remember how I said I could tell if you were lying?" A deep voice murmured in my head. He let out a soft, breathy laugh that I could barely hear. I looked on in abject horror as the darkness began stripping itself away, bit by bit, to reveal something exponentially more frightening.
"You're lyyyyiiiiing..." He sang.
I wrenched my eyes away and took off again, running back the way I came as he chuckled darkly, his laugh ringing in my ears and mind. I could feel the dark tendrils nipping at my heels and ankles as I ran. I had made it a block and was just rounding the corner when once again, a shadow shot out of the wall, clothes-lining me and wrapping around my waste. My breathe was knocked out of me as it swung me right back around the corner and slammed me against the wall back first with my feet dangling just off the ground and my shoulder nearly hanging off the end of the wall. I hung there helplessly for a moment as my lungs worked over time. When I was finally able to breathe again, I began fighting against the shadow's hold on my waist, hitting it, trying to use my arms and legs as leverage against the wall to push away, but nothing worked.
I heard him approach again, slow, deliberate footsteps drawing nearer from around the corner, just out of my sight. His laugh once again floated through the air.
No.
I fought harder, gasping and sweating, becoming more and more frantic the closer the footsteps came.
Please no.
"Chains become you, darling. I do love a good struggle."
Go away, go away, go away...!
"Whatever for? We were having such fun. Didn't you like our little evening stroll?"
His voice sounded like it was coming from just around the corner. I stopped resisting when I realized the futility. My head dropped as I hung there limply, letting my tear-filled eyes slide shut in hopeless resignation.
"Good girl..." He cooed, an audible smile in his voice. I gritted my teeth as angry, helpless tears cascaded down my cheeks. I was dead and I knew it. I squeezed my eyes shut tight.
...Wait. The footsteps stopped. Everything was quiet again. I slowly opened my eyes. I couldn't see him.
I shrieked as the shadow trapping me against the wall suddenly pulsed and tightened. It split off into five more shadowy appendages, two spiraling down each of my arms to my wrists and two sliding down my legs to grip my ankles. They yanked my arms and legs back tightly against the wall, rendering my entire body immobile. The last dark tendril wrapped itself around my neck.
They all crushed me against the wall with brutal force, cutting off my breath and suffocating me slowly, bit by bit. Blackness encroached upon the edges of my vision, both my life and my will to live fading away.
It was over.
Good evening, Author and narrator extraordinaire here. I'd like to recommend a fan fiction to all nine of you who have seen mine. How the numbers have grown! The fic is called, "Mark of Darkness," by the username Wraythskitzofrenik. It is well written and extraordinarily imaginative, and has an even better story line in the romance department than my week-old work does. Go check it out!