Somewhere in a Nightmare

When I awoke it was daylight, my surroundings had changed. My eyes flickered painfully towards the light streaming in from the broken window above me. It took a moment to catch my breath, as I sat up slowly to examine myself. Intact, no cuts, scrapes or burns, my right hand was still there, it must have been a dream, again. I looked around at the dilapidated area in which I had awoke. This wasn’t familiar, it sure wasn’t a place I felt safe. I quickly gathered my wits and pulled myself up on the chair that sat directly in front of me. The room was large, at least thirty to forty feet in height. The walls held tightly to what remained of the wallpaper. I could tell it was once a thing of beauty that was now ran down with time and weather it was peeling off in strips with a delicate breeze. A Fireplace at the far end of the room caught my eye it looked out of place here. It appeared to be white marble with a beautiful gold framed mirror hanging at an angle above it. I took a step towards the fireplace only to catch my foot on something and stumble to the ground. I could feel it, the hand around my ankle… squeezing tighter and tighter and I knew this was just another dream. I closed my eyes and tried to thank of the happiest moment to escape this terrible place but nothing came, the grip only got worse and began to pull me backwards. Yanking my leg as I turned my head to see what it was that had ahold of me I realized that part of him had come along with me. He was gone, the Devil, but his hand which looked as if it were severed by an animal’s teeth still clings to my leg as if he was still here and that was not a dream. Shaking my leg violently, the hand came undone and I sat in utter fear staring at it. I knew it was his, the ring was still on his middle finger but I also knew he couldn’t still be alive if his entire hand was here, with me, right? Grasping at the finger on which the gold ring was fitted so tightly, while trying not to look at the dark red blood dripping from the finger tips that touched my hands and slid carefully down my arm, I took the ring directly to my pocket and threw  the cold bloody stump as far away from myself as I could. I jumped up and ran towards the fireplace as fast as I could, stopping to look deeply in the mirror at the mess behind me only to find that the reflection of this place was not what I saw at all. I turned around, to where I had ran from and the room was still old, ran down and aged… seemingly abandoned with even a tea cup and saucer still resting on the table in the center of the room. I turned back towards the mirror and took another look, surly my eyes were playing tricks on me but alas, the mirror I was looking into appeared to be a window to the past. In it the wall paper was a thing of pure beauty, it was a soft light blue with golden designs swirling around making different patterns from the floor to the ceiling. There in the  center of the room I noticed a beautifully lit chandelier, crystals seemingly dripping from a golden floral arrangement mounted into the bright white ceiling. It was lit with candles and as each began to melt the trail of wax edged it’s way towards the tips of each crystal one by one. The room was empty, except for the large glass table in the center, and the small red sofa to it’s right. Directly across from the sofa sat a small velvet chair, matching stool and burning cigarette placed delicately in the large crystal ashtray. I stood there, staring into the mirror in awe. Taking in every wonderful detail of the room, the large floor to ceiling windows that lined the south side of the wall, but not interrupting the gorgeous flow of gold flake on the perfect wallpaper, it only joined it making the frame of the window a part of the art itself. Each Window outlined with what appeared to be the most amazing gold I had ever seen. Just then the door at the opposite end of the room from the fireplace flew open and he stood there smiling at me with his light brown eyes. A shiver ran down my spine as I turned to face him, I didn’t want my back to the man I knew what he was capable of. To my surprise though, he wasn’t there, just the chair, the table with the tea cup and saucer and years of dust and broken glass lie strewn across the wooden floors. “You can’t run”, he said in a soft almost angelic tone, “I can be anywhere you go, even if you can’t see me”. I turned my back to the room of the past and examined his face in the mirror, he was closer now, just behind me. Leaning his head down slowly all the while never breaking eye contact he placed his lips upon my shoulder and left a warm soft kiss that as his lips left my skin burned like hell. I gasp for air and grab for the burn as if my touch will make it feel better and as my hand reaches the place his lips just left appeared a huge blister that once my hand reached it, shot pain through my arm so badly, I dropped to my knees in tears. Before me the once cold, dark fireplace roared to life as if it had been burning the entire time. The flames licking the white marble as they reached towards the sky up into the darkened flute. Still on my knees reeling from the pain in my left shoulder, left by the devils kiss I tried to steady myself but to no avail. Immediately, he pulled me to my feet, spun me around to face the mirror again and said “It won’t hurt forever Dear, once you give me what I came here for, you can go back to your pointless life, in that pointless town with the rest of those pointless creatures you call friends and family”. I clinched my jaw tight, knowing he could take my life, my breath at any moment but he will never find her or the necklace. With a smile that showed his freshly bleached teeth wrapped softly with his welcoming lips he placed his check against mine. The heat coming from his face began to make me sweat and just then he grabbed the back of my hair and slammed my face into the cold white marble.