Demon Stories

Diana: In Nightmares, We Speak, 1859, Germany

Diana

In Nightmares, We Speak

1859, Germany

On a not so special night, I was alone in the library of our home. This library was a treasure to me, countless books on the dark wood shelves, all titles which I had never heard of before. Beau knew I would enjoy them. This library was a gift to me. 

The book I was reading was taking me away to another world. About a garden in heaven, or somewhere special where nothing bad ever happens, the words flowing like colors. When a dent in my comprehension occurred. 

Thump, clatter

I stared upwards at the ceiling, my eyes wide and eyebrows furrowed. Those curious, loud sounds. They had been right above my head. Then the other senses appeared back slowly as I came out of my reading trance gradually. A swirling, red, heavy smell shocking up my nose. A wet, metallic smell, so pungent I could taste it.

I gasped, covering my mouth and nose, and got up quickly. Blood? The little one was out hunting, and Beau was upstairs sleeping. Beau...was upstairs? 

Beau?! I thought quickly. He was definitely not hunting at this time. He would have told me. Then what..? That impossibly loud thump... And the clatter. It had sounded metallic, too. A bad taste formed in my mouth immediately along with bad thoughts forming in my quickly darting brain. My whole body went on alert. He has many enemies. He has not told me of many things, also. And then. The most terrible thoughts occurred. It has not been long since he told me of Josephine. He has been distraught about Josephine. And then there was the lover he had before her. And all of those sad mysterious things.

At these recollections, I darted down the hallway towards the stairs. He wouldn't. He knows we can't. 

I gathered up my dark green satin skirts and ran up the stairs two steps at a time. The narrow staircase was slowing me down due to the wideness of my dress, and I cursed it all. Just that morning, he had skillfully laced my corset for me and I had seen his lovely boyish smile in the mirror behind my face, laughing about the French pastries making me fat and the gorgeously cute puff of a face he made to show me that fat in jest to try to get me to laugh. But it was his laugh which made me laugh. His contagious joyous laugh. 

As I rounded into the upstairs hallway, I began to hear it:

"...Take...it...I don't...want...it...Sa...yaaa...Sa...ya..."

'Saya?', I wondered quickly, 'who is Saya?' But from his small weak words, I knew like a weight falling down inside me that there was something desperately wrong. Kicking off my shoes to run faster, I tried to mentally prepare myself for what I might find in that room at the end of the hall. That room with the large corner window which gets in all the moonlight. The one he specially requested for the sunlight. Dear Beau. My dear Beau. What have you done?

I stopped at the heavy door, and took a deep breath. I released it and threw open the door.