HORNS (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 120

Dedicated to SueannNarineMoore

For being a behind-the-scenes sweetheart.

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Chapter One Hundred and Twenty

I was on the beach again.

I knew even before it came into focus that I was there because of the buzzing in my head.

I expected to be frozen solid just like the other times, but for whatever reason, this time was completely different. I was able to move freely, so I turned my head, scanning the endless dark horizon covered in sand. It was a starless desert that lay at the edge of a dead, listless ocean.

Nothing moved. Nothing breathed. Nothing even seemed to be alive here aside from me.

There were no throngs of blinding figures, no hisses or clicks or whispers to chill the back of my neck and make me tremble in fear, there was only a sensation that I wasn't alone. As if in a trance, I slowly turned all the way around, facing the desert and finding nobody waiting.

I was alone.

That thought made me so sad that my vision flickered, going grey around the edges, but a small green glimmer caught my eye just at the edge of my peripherals. I turned, heart fluttering at the sight of a single glowing figure with no visible features standing a distance away.

If I'd had the presence of mind to do so, I'd have blinked at it in an awed stupor.

The light-being was tall and not nearly as bright as any of the other things I'd seen in this place--in fact, it was so dim that I was even able to make out its form. I was gazing at the shape of a decidedly a male satyr. A person made of nothing but emerald light, no depth, no shadow.

No face.

I didn't know who or what it was... but almost as if the creature knew me, it approached. I stood still, lost in a dreamy fog as the glowing satyr-morph stopped directly in front of me, pulsing and flickering like a warm coal. A hand reached out and gripped my wrist, tugging me forward.

I blinked, confused, and the vision flickered when the glowing form lifted a leg, and then another, before bouncing playfully in place, from his right hoof to the left and back again. It paused after a few seconds, shining ears perking up, almost as if waiting for something.

I just stared stupidly.

Glowing ears bobbed, swiveling to and fro.

The creature's other hand reached out, took my other wrist, and then it lifted its legs again, one after another, even going as far as swinging its upper torso for several seconds. It paused again, head tilting in an almost curious-looking way. Waiting for something.

Waiting for me?

Curious, I lifted my hoof; the satyr-morph's glowing ears perked and it clapped before taking my hands and tugging me in a circle, jerking me along for the ride. I realized, then, that it wanted me to dance with it. A strange fluttery sensation hit me dead in the stomach, pleasant and soothing, and my legs began to move on instinct, following the lead of the glowing male.

For the first time in my life, my heart began to pound during a dance. I'd never been any good at it because I'd never been able to follow a rhythm properly. Plus, so many people in my family and even in Aerin's could do it far better than I, which always made me feel awkward.