Falling -
As the pain sweeps through,
Makes no sense for you
Every thrill is gone
Wasn't too much fun at all,
But I'll be there for you
As the world falls down
-As the World Falls Down, David Bowie
She was falling.
It was a familiar sensation.
She had had this dream before.
She fell, as the world shattered around her; crystalline shards, a flurry of white fabric, pieces of the world guiding her back to earth.
She was not afraid.
It was familiar.
Her mind was blank, comforted by the familiarity.
It was a slow fall into darkness.
She was calm.
The darkness was warm.
Her fall was slow and controlled.
She was floating.
She was lulled by it.
The darkness was unrelenting.
She couldn't remember how she got here.
The darkness was reaching for her.
Small tendrils began to touch her, tangibly.
They were pulling at her hair, nipping her skin, and pulling her clothes.
There was something borderline violent about it.
As they picked and pulled something was becoming clear. As if being a memory was being dragged from the depths of her clouded mind. She was fearful now. As her heart rate increased so did the gravity.
The wind was rushing past her.
Her heart racing, the thoughts tumbling around in her head completely indecipherable, tendrils of darkness whipping her, as she fell, her trajectory becoming more and more like her thoughts. She was tumbling now. Her body was spiraling, out of control. They were grasping at her as she plummeted. Shards of darkness were slicing at her. Tendrils were reaching out to seize her. The dark was violently asserting its grip upon her. The small strands of darkness were picking her apart bit by bit trying to reach something deep inside her. It was as if it was hoping to pry something from the depths of her soul.
The ground was still nowhere in sight.
But something was rushing up to meet her, something blacker than the emptiness of her surroundings. Totally void of light and darker even than the tendrils, it reached for her. She began to slow. As it rose up to meet her, it caressed her cheek.
Like a friend,
There to catch her when the ground was not.
Like a lover,
Reaching to caress her.
She slammed into it, her momentum sharply arrested.
However, it was there to catch her, when the ground was not; cradling her like a babe. Its touch soothed the aches of her body, that had felt as if it were falling apart at the seams. The darkness swirled around her, cloaking her from the whipping tendrils. She felt supported as if it were bringing her over a threshold.
As the violence of the journey and subsequent stop subsided, she felt a cold deep inside her. It was colder than anything she had ever felt, not painful simply the absence of warmth.
The deep darkness began to coalesce into a humanoid form, so could feel its arms holding her now, pulling her into its chest. She could feel it. Its presence was masculine, lithe and strong, smelling of ash and decaying earth. It, no, he was cradling her but where there should have been warmth of contact, there was nothing but a deep chill, she began to shake uncontrollably. In some semblance of compassion, the dark figure wrapped her in his cloak. It felt like feathers, soft and light. It did nothing to warm her, but her shivering subsided. The calm was back. She could feel herself beginning to relax completely into the figure's arms. There was something familiar about his grasp, inevitable. She closed her eyes and began to sink into slumber's embrace, the waking world drifting away like the smoke from an extinguished candle.
As and a single white feather floated down towards her as she began to fall again. The feather gently touched her forehead. The world completely vanished in a flash of bright white light. she was beginning to slip away, she felt the figure lean in. He laid a cold kiss on one eyelid; she could feel his hair brush her forehead. She attempted to open her eyes in surprise, but they were heavy and cold. The one that had been kissed felt so much so, it was as if a heavy coin had been laid upon it.
This was when she began to feel fear. Nevertheless, she was too tired, too cold, too far gone to fight.
The figure moved to place a kiss on her other eye, she could feel the muscles moving through her abject terror.
It was then that she heard the screech of an owl and the strenuous flapping of wings.
It snapped Sarah out of her sleep. Her eyes shot open in time to see the dark figure turn back to shadow.
A/N: I'm baaaack! please be patient with me I'll try to update every other month. If you are enjoying what you read drop me a review. It really is the best motivation.