"Did you find her"

"Yes", she replied.

"Is it her"?

"I think so", she answered, her tone faltering a little.

"Then you cannot know."

"Tell me", she pleaded desperately.

"Then you cannot know."

"When? Why?!"

"Then you cannot know."

The faint echo of the fading voice rang with pulsing finality in the darkness.

"No!" she screamed.

Not again!

"You must tell me!" she cried plaintively, her voice growing rough with weary despair.

A soft chuckle floated from the shadows.

Not yet! Not again!

"Come back"! "she sobbed.

The plea swelled like a cresting wave in the spreading darkness and then crashed back toward her, slamming her with deafening silence …..and then, hung suspended between herself and her tormentor like a dangling sword.

The air around her changed.

She could feel it now. It was thick and viscous, and it seemed to spin with dizzying speed, twisting itself around her like a venomous snake. Her head felt heavy and she gasped for breath as swirling coils rose like unseen hands and wrapped themselves around her throat. She opened her mouth to scream but to her dismay, no sound ensued into the chilling void of emptiness that surrounded her.

Her mouth frozen in a silent scream, she clutched at her throat, tearing and shredding at the blackness that fenced her in.

And then, she heard it.

Laughter, so soft and warm and filled with …something, a feeling she couldn't name, and she struggled to remember. She didn't know why, but she felt it in her bones that it was important to remember. She had to!

That laugher!

She reached towards it, drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

One moment, she had been sinking. Drowning in an airless world and in the next, she felt herself lifted, felt her body become light as air. The oppressive cloud that lay upon her chest, cutting off her breath, shattered into a million fragments of dazzling light that danced around her as soft laughter caressed her ear. The sound flowed gently along her weightless body, leaving a glowing warmth in its trail and then coursed through her veins like a feverish heat, melting the freezing fear that had paralyzed her.

A familiar feeling tugged and pulled at her, urging her to instinctively seek its warmth, to give herself wholly to its embrace. She turned toward it, her pulse quickening and taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, reveling in the moment. A languid haze slowly filled her mind, relaxing and loosening every muscle in her body. She was sinking again, this time into a cocoon of warmth that swathed and swaddled and soothed her, filling every inch of her with an elation so great that she thought her heart would burst. The rich laughter washed over her, dragging her with it, in a swirl of ecstasy. She placed her hand at the base of her throat and her fingers followed the path it traced on her tingling skin, followed it ,as it stole upwards towards the sloping curve of her throat and up towards her bottom lip… and stopped when one finger felt the gentle kiss planted there. Her breath quickened and without warning, the brilliant light around her pulsed and thrummed with a live energy that throbbed against her body. Strong arms held her, and she swayed towards the light. Her hands brushed against a shoulder, broad and muscular and sighing deeply, she laid her head on it, hearing the familiar pounding of a heart that seemed to welcome her home.

"Did you find her"?

She snapped her eyes open. Her pulse raced as she realized what was happening.

"Did you find her"?

"Did you find her"?

"Did you find her"?

"Not again", her heart screamed silently.

The darkness was all around her. Her eyes wide with terror, she searched the gathering gloom, her fingers seeking the light and the warmth.

But it was as if nothing had changed and she had been forever locked in this dark abyss. A deep sense of dread settled like lead in her heart. The air was cold, and the chill seemed to seep into her bones, stripping her of everything that was of feeling and of life.

"Then you cannot know".

Peals of laughter rang from the depth of the shadows as dark forms took shape, ghastly and deformed. A terrible foreboding of something evil, yet to come, filled her mind and once more she opened her mouth to scream. She knew with utter conviction that she was going to die. She was going to die in this blackness, and no one would find her.

She had never known such terror. She had only one thing left to do.

She had to scream and scream until he heard her. Until the light came for her…