Living Death

Chapter 10

His hand brushed my hair over my bare shoulders. I didn't feel shy. He thought I was beautiful. He'd said so and I'd felt warmth spread through my bones as he leaned in to put his lips on mine. Closing my eyes, I lost myself in the feel and taste of his mouth, our breaths mixing into one. Opening my eyes to look at this beautiful deadly creature in front of me, I smirked as I saw his eyes were open too.

Grinning back, I watched as his eyes rippled to coal and shimmered in hunger. I knew there was part of him that wanted my soul and not just my heart but I trusted him. There was even a part of me that enjoyed this. This creature of the dead wanted me alive. He'd wanted me so much that he'd refused to kill me. He'd wanted me for himself and I loved that. I'd wanted to be his.

Sighing in the depth of the cushions he'd pushed me into, I let this beast trail kisses down my torso. I let him worship me, closing my eyes to the sensation of his hands running down my stomach to my waist. Then his lips were on mine again and I opened my eyes – but found only shadows.

Shadows and blackness blinded me, swirling around my whole body. Inky trails marked my body, wound around my lumbs, raising every hair on my body. Sucking in my breath from cold, I sat up and watched as the black inky trails moved along my arms to my shoulders, painting my skin in ink and ice. Climbing higher over my chest and curling around my throat, it made me want to shiver – but I couldn't. It was so cold on my cheeks. Then as I gasped for breath – metallic black ink surged down my throat.

            I awoke with a jolt, cold with sweat, gasping for breath. Flinging myself over the covers, I reached for the light switch, but then I couldn't move another inch. In the mirror beside my window, even in the darkness of the room, I could see the black swirling mists from my dream around my body. No.

            Swallowing with dread, I sat up in bed, slowly, expecting the mists to be a figment of my imagination, but they stayed put. I switched on the light. All I could do was stare with my heart pounding so hard I could hear it like a drum in my head.

            "No, no, no, this can't be happening," I whispered in the quiet of my room, breathless. I scrambled off of my bed and stumbled over to the mirror and stood in front of it, grasping it's edges in desperation. These black mists or whatever they were weren't moving anywhere. They swirled around my feet, twisting and turning up my body like enormous snakes under my spell. I tried brushing them away, but they simply moved aside as if they were alive. They weren't going away – and so I watched. Helpless.

            Slowly and with purpose, they entwined themselves around my limbs, climbing, winding themselves around my thighs and across my hips like roaming hands. I held out my arms powerless as they wound around my wrists like rope. Breathing shallowly with rising panic, I side stepped to the window and flung it open, desperate for fresh air. Maybe this was all just a horrifying, terribly real dream. I gulped in fresh air and grasped the windowsill, my nails digging into the wood. I knew what was coming. I braced myself as I sunk to the floor and squeezed my eyes shut.

The mists were at my throat, clawing my windpipe. I willed it to happen. The cold was rising up my neck and into my hair, chills spreading through my scalp. Then the mist was on my face. 

I opened my mouth and screamed as the black mists flew down my throat, forcing themselves into my bloodstream and changing me into something I'd never wanted to become.

*          *          *

"Are you feeling ok?" said Lou, dubiously, reaching across the table. Her fingers grazed my arm. I ripped it away.

"Don't touch me," I snapped. "Please," I amended. I'd awoken as if nothing had happened, but I knew it had happened. I was different. I felt different. I felt as if someone had pummelled my entire body with rocks and even the slightest touch made me want to cry my eyes out.