Grey I - Intentions

Chapter 2 - Cars & Curbs

I tossed and turned all night. My dreams often made sleeping a strenuous task and my damp and twisted sheets each morning attested to the fact, but this was different. My dreams were darker than usual, with strange creatures, not quite human, but not any animal I recognized either, shining black eyes and sharp teeth.

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I was running, hiding from something. It felt like I had been my whole life. I was in a city at night, my city, but I didn't know the streets I ran through. Lamplights and strange shadows swirled by me as I ran. Finally, I turned into an alley, too tired to run anymore, and cowered against the cold brick of the building, feeling its moisture soak into my shirt and stick it to my shoulder blades, sending a chill down my spine as I gasped in ragged breaths.

And then there he was, Lion, but he looked different - magnificent. His skin glowed bronze, perfectly tanned as if he lived nearer the sun than the rest of us, his eyes were a deep, dark, bottomless navy, and his face was absolute perfection, all sharp lines, and strong features. His eyes shone brighter than the streetlights I had run under, with regal high cheekbones and a straight mouth - perfection in its purest form. Everything that had seemed dull earlier that day was now heavenly, devastatingly, beautiful. Heightened to be on par with how I imagined a god to look. He was simply more, in every way.

He was smiling, not the smirk from the store, but a genuine smile that showed his straight, white teeth and complimented the cut of his jaw, the dim light glancing off it in an almost reverent way, like even the alley we stood in needed to highlight his beauty. His smile reached his eyes and their hard edge was gone, nothing hidden in their depths, just the breathtaking fire and sharp mind I had glimpsed earlier in my store. A bright energy that burned with a passion I had never seen the match to.

He had a look of near awe on his face, of joy and relief, as if he was seeing something he had been searching for. I felt happy too, a rare feeling bubbling up in me and making me feel light. I was high on it and it quivered through my chest. I had never felt it before, not like this, but it was intoxicating.

Joy.

He said something, but our world was muted, the space between us swallowing up his words. I stepped closer to hear him, to go to him, join him, and suddenly his eyes darkened, the warning of danger resurfacing in them, a deep, violent anger that was confident it would be sated.

The whites of his eyes seemed to retreat and soon they shrank and disappeared completely, leaving black soulless orbs gazing back at me. His face turned to something depraved and ferocious, he was still overwhelmingly beautiful, but with a brutal edge that was frightening. He looked like Lucifer himself. I had always heard he was beautiful. His smile was still there but it had morphed into a predator's carnal grin, showing elongated, pointed teeth. Too many, too sharp, too close.

He lunged at me, his arms outstretched, and I could feel them encircle me instantly. He was too quick and strong for me to run or fight and my light feeling was swept away as dark rage took its place, for being trapped, for being tricked, for being weak. But even with my anger rising, burning through me, I couldn't get away. I felt suffocated, crushed as he squeezed, my bones groaning as panic welled up and I realized it was too late...

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I woke with a start on the floor of my studio apartment. I stared up at the plain off-white ceiling for a moment to gather myself, to push down the anger that had clenched my jaw and ground my teeth, the panic hidden beneath still swimming in my veins. I had a headache already. A great start to my day.

Eventually, I checked the clock as I pawed my way back under the ball of sheets in the center of my mattress and saw it was almost six. Instead of trying to fall back into fitful sleep just to be woken up by my screeching alarm. I turned on the news.