Violet’s pulse raced and she felt her throat constrict the moment her fingers ran through the fabric of the dress.
“You are mine”
She heard the voice as if it whispered directlty into her ear. She jumped and spun around, but of course no one was there. Subconciously her fingers reaced up to the spot on her neck. She could feel the pin pricks of pian. She almost expected her fingers to come away with blood on the. But there was nothing.
Her mind took her back to that night.
It was cold and there was a light mist in the air. The moon was full. She was on her way home from the party. A party she never wanted to go to. Her friend, Megan (or so she had thought at the time) urged Violet go with her. Megan told her she didn’t want to go alone, she insisted that Violet needed to go out have some fun, be more carefree and open to expeirence. Finally Violet agreed. She wore a black crushed velvet dress.
A dress like the one she ran her fingers through. the dress which appered on her bed, though she did not put it there.
Of course once they got to the party Megan abandonded her. Violet could not find Megan anywhere. Finally Violet gave up and deided to leave. Because the night was cold and damp, but bright from the light of the moon Violet decided to take a short cut through the park.
As Violet walked she suddenly became aware of how eeriely silent the park became. She could not even here the sound of the wind whispering through the trees or the distant city sounds. She stopped a moment and looked around her, The mist suddenly seemed thicker but the moon was still bright and clear above.
Then suddenly her eyes fell upon the pale figure. She was certain she was alone before. Where did her come from? She felt strangely tansfixed. Oddly she did not feel fear, but she also did not feel as if she could move.
After that she does not remeber what happened. She woke up in the hospital, though there were no signs of injury, they told her she was found passed out in the park.
Once she got home she through away the dress, the dress that was now on her bed. Her eyes glanced up to the window and she realized it was another full moon night.
The darkest depths scarely known woven mystery a whole wrold of its own.
Life strange and savage, beautiful and bizzarre thriving within pressurized conditions.
Devoid of natural light bioluminescence blooms ailen alterations a surrealism of dreams and nightmares.
Scareley reachable but yearning, yawning, waiting, wanting, offering answeres to questions yet asked.
Beyond human perception holding secrets close ever present like a pulse.
“What do you think it is?”
James asked as James and Henry stood on the pathway watching the currious creature that presently blocked their path.
Henry just shrugged in response to James’ question. It bore some resemblence to an armidillo. It was an armored creature, but roughly the size of medium dog, its snout was flatter than an armidillos. In coloration it resembled a turtle in shades of green and tan.
It did not appear to be aggressive. It was just standing there munching on leaves along the side of the path. So there was a good chance it wasn’t a carnivore.
“Well I guess we should try and shoo it off.”
Henry and James slowly approched the creature. At first it seemed oblivious to them as it continued to chomp, munch, chomp, munch without looking up.
“Hey!”
Henry said as Henry and James started to prod the creature with their walking sticks.
“C’mon move along buddy.”
Suddenly the creatue stopped chomp, munching and let out a grung turning to face them.
Henry and James waited to see what would happen.
Then qucker then they would have belived possible the creature rolled itself into a ball and spikes emerged out of the armored shell and it began to barrell towrd them.
“Crap! Run!!!!”
Henry and James dropped their sticks and took off at a run, as the ball of spikes continued straight at them. As it started getting closer Henry and James diverted off the trail and crashed through the underbrush.
As branches whipped at them and cut thier arms and legs they kept running until they felt they couldn’t run anymore and came to rest against a tree.
James slowly peeked around the tree trunk and scanned to forest. He saw no sign of anything. He heaved a sigh.
“I think we lost it”
He said to Henry.
“Great now we have to try find our way back.”
Amelia felt utter and complete schock at the scene which befell her eyes. Her heart stopped beating, she couldn’t breathe. She blinked her eyes several times thinking, hoping beyound hope that this was some terrrible hallucination, a dream. But then the pungent, putrid odor hit her and reality slammed back down upon her like a stone.
She scanned over the scene before her, the piles of boddies, everywhere, everyone, they were all dead, and the blood. The blood was everywhere, after she opened the door blood started seeping around her brand new 500$ shoes she bought just for this event. Slowly she scotted back a few steps.
Her mind raced with thoughts. How did this happen? What happened? Who did this? Wait! If someone did this where they still here? The urge to run pulsed through her yet she felt frozen in placce.
The police, she should call the police. Her hands fumbled for her phone in her purse. In her panicked desperation she dropped the phone it slid across the blood slick floor and came to rest against one of the bodies.
No way was she going in after it. She would drive to the police station ane report what happened. Just as she was turning to go she heard a sound. A sort of a srape and shuffle, a low moan, something not quite human. She searched the room for the source, her heart now thundering as she did her best to hold her breath do to the stench.
She saw, she did not quite know what she saw. Something that looked like it came from a horror movie. It looked like it was human once. It was covered in blood, and gaunt like old photots o victims of starvation. Then she thought she caught a twtich out of the corner of her body. Did one of the bodies just move?
NO! NO! NO!
She chanted to her, this could not be real, and yet it was. She slammed the door closed, and slid out of her expensive designer shoes, leaving them behind she began to run. Her stockingined feet slipped on the hallway floor, and she almost fell once, but she caught herself and kept going.
She finally reached the exit doors and spilled out into the daylight. The sun was shocking after what she just witnissed, and everything looked so normal. She took a deep breath of fresh air.
At first all she could was stand there. Then she heard a sound like a wet slap, and she turned around and saw the streak of a bloody hand against the door of the builiding behind her.
She gapsed and bagan to run again. She took the steps before her two at a time and rounded the corner heading for the parking lot where her car was.
A subtlte whiff or morning mist the frosty scent which freezes the nose, a suggustion of rain in the air, notes of a humid summer night right before a thunder storm.
The clean crisp freshness of a winter days with an essence of evergreens, the armoa that carries just off the top of water.
Distinct yet undefinable, a smell that is almost not a smell and thus noticed for its odorlessness, a cleaness stripped of all artifical fragrences.
Pure natural unpolluted,
Silence rolls like a thunder through my head pushing agsinst the walls of my mind.
Vines climbing up my throat as I try to scream out.
Paste in my mouth I choke down words by clockwork turns my lungs chime the hour.
Inhale for breath I prepare to unearth the dead I cary inside.
My voice muffled by gravel bleeding from the corners.
I feel burried alive trapped inside ponding at the walls waiting for someone to answer the call.
His heart raced and for a moment he wondred if they had gone too far. Was it time to call it quits at last? But deep down he knew he had grown addictited to the rush, the excitement, the danger. He couldn’t return to normal hum drum life after this. Adrenilin raced through him in equal meassure with fear. It was a feeling he new would never truly be sated.
Ok it was go time he thought to himself. He began to move through the parking lot. He tried to walk with determination without appearing too much in a rush. He didn’t want to draw attention or suspicion and put people on the alert.
He approched a car where a woman hand her hands full. She was concentrating on jugguling shopping bags, her purse and trying to get her car keys and wasn’t paying attention to the ebvironent around her. She did not see or hear him approach until it was too late.
As he approched he pulled the gun that was tucked in the waistband of his pants and pressed it against the woman’s back.
“Listen I don’t want to hurt you. Please don’t do anything stupid, I just want your car. Give me your keys and step aside.”
His words were comanding with a tone of urgency, for what he said was true. They had never actually harmed anyone before. When all this first started between him and his girlfriend Liz, it had been harmless fun. A way to spice up their life and relationship. As things progressed the dares became increasingly more risky but still they never physically harmed anyone. He had no desire or intention of actually harming this woman.
She thought of screaming, someone might hear, but than, what if he shot her before anyone else could help, or what if someone else got shot trying to help? Was it worth it? She fumbled for the keys dropping her shopping bags.
“Here!” She said in a gasped sob as she thrust the keys at him.
He felt a mix of both relief and excitment. A part of his brian thought no way would this work. If it did not work he had no idea what he would actually do. But now he had the keys. He did not want to give the woman the oppertunity to have secound thoughts or get any ideas, so he qucikly pushed past her, got the door open and jumped into the car.
The entire time he was driving the car he expected to hear sirens behind him, surely the woman had called the cops as soon as he drove off, or someone else must have saw something? Yet by some miarcle there were no sirens.
He pulled into the abandoned gravel lot that was the assigned meeting place. Liz was already there waiting in her car. He hopped out of the stolen car, wiped down any surface he touched and slid out.
“No way! You really did it?” Liz said both astonished and estatic. He knew she was also really turned on. That was another reason he loved doing this. They never had better sex sine they began this game.
But somewhere in the back of his mind the unsettling thought lingered. Where would all this ultimately go? And what would happen to them when they stopped?
I do not know how I never noticed it before, this subtle shift in color, this strangeness, something almost inhuman. But now suddenly it struck me. I felt my heart begin to race, panic rising to the surface. I fought to keep it back. To maintain my expression. I did not want him to suspect.
I did my best to smile but even I knew it was a paltry at best effort. I watched him watching me, so calmly. He knew I knew I thought to myself. Then another thought dawned one me. He wanted me to know. This is why I have never noticed before.
“Who….What..Are You?”
I stammered not able to bare the silence anymore.
For a moment it did not seem as if he would say anything. He just kept that penetrating eerie stare upon me. It took all my will power not to squrim in my seat. I didn’t want him to see me as frightend.
Finally a look came over him that seemed almost dissapointed? As he began to speak slowly as if it were hard to say the words.
“You know who I am. Nothing about who I am has changed. I wanted to tell you sooner but I did not know how. At first I didn’t think you would believe me and then well I was worried you would act just like this. I was hopping if you did get to know me better then maybe you would be more accepting.”
A tumulet of mixed feelings ran through me. A part of me was angery. Angery that he mislead me, angrey that he was blaming his deception on me. A part of me was hurt that he did not trust me enough to tell me bu then again a part of me saw the truth. Would I have ever responded any different?
“As you have already guessed I am not quite human. We, my people have been living among humans for a long time. We are refuguees from another planet. There was a great war, a colony of us managed to escape and earth is where we landed.
Of course meeting you, falling in love with you, that was never planned. I mean I guess these things never are planned but one of our rules was to never reveal ourselves to humans. But I needed, wanted you to know the truth. I couldn’t keep this relationship going with such a big secret.”
To say the least this is a lot for me to process. There is a lot for me to unpack and I have no idea how to feel about it. Any of it.
“What would happen if they found out you told me?”
Out of the thousands of questions swirling in my mind this is what popped out of my mouth.
“I would be executed. As far as I know it has never happened before but I don’t know how they would handle you. Not to interefer with or harm a human is another one of our rules. They might figure if you went around telling people no one would believe you. I don’t know. “
I was silent for a moment. He risked his life to tell me the truth but also concelead his whole idenity from me and left me to an unknown fate. Am I glad to know the truth? Or do I wish he said nothing?
“I need some time.” I said at last. “There is a lot I have to consider. So many questions I don’t know where to begin. I need some space to make sense of it all.”
He nods in understanding. “It is to be expected. Take the time you need.”
Sleek, subtle inkiness slips ever so briefly into the negative space between worlds.
Where realities briefly overlap, with moth-like evanescence it moves between darkness and light.
Hovering on the cusp of waking and sleeping awaiting for its perfect moment to sweep down and drink the nectar of dreams.
She was always so careless with things the way some doors would slam behind her in a thunder announcing her commings and leavings.
At other times they swung haphazardly ajar, completely forgotten.
Her life was a dangerzone of distruction and inattention, she never turned the locks because she never bothered with keys.
The screendoor battering in the wind was the drumb beat she dance to.
She never blinked an eye when the rain and leaves came sweeping inside.
But at a moments notice without explination she could batten down all the hatches and latch all the latches.
Rusty hinges spoke her name with unsettiling familarity.
She felt no obligatory compuntion to be summoned by knocking, oppertunity or otherwise all had to await her will and whim.
