'Snap,' you glance into the woods at the side of the path. You try not to turn your head but your reflexes make your eyes jump toward the sound. That one was close, your pace unconsciously quickens. The pounding of your heart is defining to your ears. Frightened, you try to quiet the thumping of your pulse, as if the silence will hide you from danger. 'Snick' that was definitely behind you. A quick look, just one, but your neck is paralyzed with fear and you can not turn to see. But you know something is there by the prickling of the hair on the back of your neck. Almost at a run now, you look down the path and can just make out the road ahead. Patches of shadow blend the side walk into the night. The moon gives little comforting glow for the next two hundred yards. You hesitate before plunging on through the inky blackness before you. What possessed you to take this way back home. At night here in these woods, what were you thinking.

The papers have been printing the stories for weeks, "Strange Sightings Near Campus." And how about those coeds in the quad dorm who quit all of their classes and simply vanished without a trace. Strange things have been happening around town but foolishly, you choose to come home by this route. Your train of thought is immediately broken as you see the darkness shift in front of you. You stop dead in your tracks. There before you, melding with the night, the darkness moves. Frozen, you don't even breathe. As your vision closes in on the form, two eyes catch and reflect the moonlight and shine. They glow with a fiery light like the bowels of hell. The reaction should be fight or flight but the most you can do is stand paralyzed, a small whimper crossing your lips. Time stops, your world is only this moment, you are stuck in the present.

Pound, Pound, the blood courses through you, hot with adrenaline, making swishing sounds in your ears. But nothing happens, the life that you had given up as a forfeiture continues inside of you. The beast just watches. Standing ten feet away, its eyes slowly surveying your form. Then, as quickly as it came, it turns, steps in to the trees vanishing without a sound. For a moment you pause, standing like prey waiting for the attack. Then the panic that was held for so long takes hold. Like coiled springs your legs explode in to a furious run. Shoes slapping the path, echoing through the woods, you run. Every nerve in your body is tingling as the tunnel of trees slowly gives way to street lights and the pavement of the side walk. Without pausing you burst forth from the trail, tears welling up in your eyes, and run toward home.

Slam, Click, Home. Moving from window to window you check the latches and close the blinds. Still shaking, you raise your hands to your eyes watching them quiver. Standing in the foyer your breath has returned and the nightmare begins to seem distant. Your body still can not shake the chill that has set into your very marrow. Deciding on the only way to take the cold from your bones, you head straight for the bath and draw a steaming tub of water.

Slipping gently into the steaming water, you lay back and relax. The bubbles are fizzing as you close your eyes and try to forget the incident in the woods. That beast by the road was not like any wolf that you had heard of. The color of its coat seemed to steal the light from even the darkness around it. And the eyes they were not like any normal animal's eyes. You shudder thinking how lucky you were to make it home. You slide lower in the warm water blowing the bubbles away from in front of your lips. Closing your eyes you gently drift away.

A dream slowly takes your mind on a strange journey. You find yourself in the woods, a long dark path leads up and over a rise. Dark gray clouds race across the autumn sky. The night wind whispers its eerie music in to your ear. As you crest the knoll you can see a large mansion, magnificent in its form. Gothic style windows shine yellow from the flickering candles within. Fear. You sense a foreboding. Deep with in you a little voice cries for you to turn, run, do not look back, just flee. You hesitate. The light from the windows draws you like a moth to a flame. Yes, you must go, there is the mansion, you must go. You begin to walk toward the house even before you have made up your mind.

"No!" your own voice awakens you from the dream. Sitting up violently as the echo bounces around the bath room, water splashes over the tub and across the tiled floor. Numb, you sit shaking in the slowly cooling water. As you wait in the tub you have a strange feeling as if a cobweb is slowly being pulled from around your body. "Brrr," you stand and towel off your body, not waiting to put on your night gown, you move straight to the bed, huddled under the blankets you fall quickly to sleep.

Unseen by your sleeping form a, a misty shadow slowly crosses along the bathroom wall mixing with the night. It moves out to the bedroom, flows through your closet and along the baseboards. It mixes with the shadow of a cloud on the wall and is gone through the glass in the window.

A little way off, eyes open in the darkness. A hand reaches out and lifts a glass of wine to lips. "This one will take some time." The melodic voice stands out in to the somber night air, but there is no one but him at the old gothic mansion to hear it. The night continues without pause.

You awaken late in the day, the sun shines on your bed and the covers have become much too warm. Kicking them to the end of the bed you stretch and decide that this, in fact, is going to be a great day. The birds sing for you in the trees outside of your window. The autumn air has a wonderful crispness and there is just a hint of burning leaves in the air. This is a wonderful autumn Saturday to be alive.

After a quick breakfast, you lace up your hiking boots and decide to take a closer look at that area along the path. Wandering along the trail, you can find no sign that there had ever been a disturbance here. You are not even sure exactly were the incident occurred. Finding a small trail, you begin a lazy wander through the woods. The sun shining through the thin flannel on you body feels wonderful. Before you have traveled far, you have completely lost track of why you had come out on this beautiful day. Dragging your hands over the tall grass you comb the country side looking for you know not what. Cresting over a small rise you look down on a glade that looks frighteningly familiar. There at the bottom of the hill is a rustic looking structure.

The castle-like mansion is beautiful. High walls are divided by huge glass windows, yellowed with time. The dark brown masonry work is stunning even if it has not been well maintained for some time. You can see that restoration is underway along the west building face. Sconces and gargoyles stand silent watch from their perches. Some have been removed and sit under sheets on the ground around the scaffolding. Your heart skips a beat as you look out across the field and see two huge wolf-like dogs sitting on the porch of the mansion. They have not seen you and you are far upwind, but you relive the chill from the previous night. One of them must be the creature that met you last evening. But your vision does not quite fit with that in your mind's eye. Looking into the late afternoon sky you turn tail and head for home.

Feeling foolish, laughing at your folly, you continue home as the sun begins to set. Dogs, of course they were dogs what else would they have been? You skip along the sidewalk and turn up the drive for home. The last of the daylight disappears from the sky as you toss your boots in to the front closet. Landing on the sofa you flick on the television and pick up the phone. The night has chilled with the October air, you grab the blanket and wrap it about you while calling your boyfriend. No answer. Not even the answering machine picks up. Oh well you think, you will just stay in tonight, his loss. Nestling down into the pillows you surf the channels looking for some distraction. The boring TV shows all drain you further. Turning down the sound you let sleep take you. Somewhere in the twilight a wolf howls.

Fitful, your sleep is filled with visions of unknown meaning, colors, shapes, memories long forgotten. You toss and turn on the sofa, the night grows quiet. The moon hides in and out of the clouds, and their shadows move along the ground. One shadow in particular moves with intent, with purpose, it moves through the forest, along the trail and between the glow of the street lamps. Lying on the cushions, deep in sleep, you feel it coming. Fear. Terror. But you are helpless in your slumber. It has made its first move.

A dream takes you, forcefully and fully. Such colors and visions you have never seen in your mind. Burning your thoughts with intensity the shapes begin to coalesce. Then they slowly fade and are gone. You are floating. Floating in an endless sea, not of water, but of space. There is no up, no down. You are lost here in this abyss. There is no sensation. You can feel nothing, see nothing, hear nothing. You yearn for something, anything, any sensation to fix on, but there is nothing. Finally through the void your mind begins to hear noises just out of range. Was that a voice? Then nothing. You listen carefully. You want to hear, you must hear it. A melodic tone? You float in the soft musical sounds, barely audible. Are those words, you strain to hear. You open yourself up to receive anything that is offered. And slowly it comes. Pouring foreign thoughts into your unconscious you are helpless to resist.

Deep into your open mind thoughts trickle. "Yes. Yes. I understand." Your own voice sounds hollow and far away. Gently you are lifted out of your sleep, you awaken. Not a thought remains from your dream, you simply stand and begin getting ready for your new date. Showering quickly you then scramble to find an outfit that you feel will be appropriate. The black dress with the high pumps will do fine. Teasing your hair into the shape that you desire you adjust the fit of your dress over your breasts and grabbing your coat run out the door.

The cool night air buffets you as you move along the streets to the restaurant. At the door the Maître' de escorts you to your table without a single word. You take a seat in the high-backed leather chair and begin to think about this wonderful man who has invited you to dinner. As the waiter pours your aperitif you concentrate but can not remember that much about your date. He is intelligent but you can not remember his conversation. He is handsome, but you struggle to envision what he looks like. His voice, his voice is beautiful, you could listen to his words all night you could...

"Good evening, Michelle." The voice drifts to you from behind your chair.

You attempt to rise but he motions with his hand that you should remain seated, you pause and sit back down. The first thing that you notice is the beautiful black cape slung over his shoulders, the midnight moon seems to be held within its fibers. His suit jacket is a dark charcoal accented only by his scarlet patterned neck tie. Your eyes roam over his body. His face is handsome, dark eyes gleam from above his high cheek bones. His lips, full and moist shine from the candle light during his speech. You realize that he is asking you a question.

"Oh, I am so sorry," you say, "what did you just ask?"

"I was worried that I had kept you waiting long," he replies.

"No, I have not been here long, the Maître' de had just left when you arrived, um...?" You struggle with a thought but can't seem to grasp it.

A voice drifts to you from deep inside your confused mind, "You can call me Valdorn, Kurt Valdorn."

Valdorn swirls his cloak from his shoulders in what would have to have been a practiced movement, and the Maître' de is immediately by his side to take the mantle from him. Seating himself he glances around the table, surveying the placements. The waiter appears promptly with a dark bottle from the deepest of the restaurant's reserves, momentarily showing the label to your host, then opening the cork with a well-practiced motion, 'pop'. The dark fluid flows from the bottle, deep and pure.

The glass is raised, swirled and the blood red mixture flows around the glass to the lip then slowly bleeds down the sides to pool at the stem. Valdorn closes his eyes and inhales the vapors deeply. Taking a single sip and holding it for a moment before finishing the taste. He nods to the waiter and the wine begins to flow, filling your glass.

Dinner is served without any input, the dishes begin to align upon the table. All through dinner he asks you about your day, your hobbies and your interests. His wit shows through with his dry humor, joking about some of the subjects discussed. You feel completely at ease, laughing at his humorous anecdotes, stories from his past, that seem to parallel your own. You are not sure if it the wine or the candle light playing tricks on your vision but you have the sensation of gentle light headedness. You feel wonderful, you never want this evening to end.

The candle flickers in his eyes...momentarily you fall in to them, a deep well flickering with light.

"Good girl, dance with me."

You slowly stand, raising your hand to him. He blinks his eyes breaking the spell, and escorts you on to the floor. Holding you firmly against him, he leads you through steps that you have never known. Your feet falling just where they need to be, soon you forget that you are moving them at all. Around and around you move. The other patrons watch with obvious delight as the two of you gracefully move across the floor.

For the second time in a day the world seems to stand still. Unlike last evening this is a dream of immense pleasure. Your bodies move as one, you can feel his muscles moving against you under his clothes. A gentle pressure here, a slight rubbing there as your dancing continues. You glance up at his face, he gives you a knowing smile as you place your head against him. Your blood races.

Finishing the dance he bows ever so slightly and thanks you for your wonderful performance on the dance floor. Taking your hand he leads you back to the table. Your heart feels heavy as you see him motion for your coats, you now know that the night will soon end. Arm in arm you wander through the tables toward the entrance. As you are leaving the he nods to the Maître' de who quickly jots down a note to remind himself to bill your hosts account.

Stepping out in to the night even the jacket around you can't stop the biting chill in the air. Seeing your body shiver he wraps his cloak about you as he walks you down the empty streets toward home.

The conversation wanes as you approach the walkway to your door, he seems suddenly distracted. He scans the area and then turns back to you. Tilting his head to one side he leans closer to you, stretching up to meet his lips you rise up on your toes. His arms close around you wrapping you tighter into his cloak. Closing your eyes, you hold your breath, waiting for your lips to meet. The squeal of tires turning in to the next driveway breaks the scene as the high beams sweep across the lawn and blind the two of you. He pulls his head back sharply, turning from you for a moment. You watch his reaction, puzzled, as your neighbor waves saying "Hi, Michelle" before running in to his house. The darkness returns but you feel that the moment has been lost.

Taking your hands in his he begins to say good night. Not wanting this evening to end on that sour note you quickly lean in and kiss his lips before he can pull away.

"I had a wonderful time," you say.

He smiles down at you, "you will dream of me," Valdorn says. "No, I am serious," his eyes hold your own penetrating you. You Will, dream of me."

"...Yes..." standing there for a moment, your eye lids flutter rapidly then you smile and turn, walking up to the door. Turning back to thank him again, "I really enjoyed...," but he is gone.

Slipping into the shadows Valdorn moves with silent speed. As the forest draws in around him he slows to a fast paced walk. The night did not go well, not well at all. He had let his interest in you supersede his judgment. He will never let that happen again. The next move will be far more calculated. He had been a fool to rush this. You would be his, but he needn't hurry, he had all the time in the world.

Suddenly stopping, he raises his nose to the breeze sniffing the air. Yes, the unmistakable fragrance of perfume hangs just beyond the human sense but well within his perception. Undressing so as to not soil his new suit, quickly he removes his cloak laying his clothes silently upon the black material....

 

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