…I am being watched.
I can feel their presence, just out of view. The corner of my eye catches movement.
I had not dreamed in many years. Not since I was a young child. Not until that night.
The night when everything changed. The night when Ethan stole me away from my life. The night when I realized that I was so much more than an unknown, barely surviving server in some gawd-awful bar.
This is a dream. I have had so many times since then. I almost have it memorized.
I am being watched….
From somewhere in the darkness, they are there.
This is a dream, I reassure myself. But I know, at the core of all that I am. This is not a dream. This is as real as any other moment in my waking life.
I am wandering through an ocean of dark oblivion on all sides. Yet, I am not alone.
They watch. They study. The observe and take note. Some dare to come too close. And that is when I sense them.
I am not supposed to know that they are there. But I do. My bones stiffen. My muscles tense. My mind’s awareness goes razor sharp. I am aware of all things, everything, even them, all at once.
Somehow, I can see them also. Flickers of shadows only. But they are definitely within my visual perception. And they are the unseeable ones, this I know on instinct. They are never meant to be observed by mortals; their presence is only to be a mere passing thought. A shudder, a chill. A superstition to be shushed and shamed. Never spoken of aloud, only by children, who have not yet learned the closed-mindedness of the adult world.
But I am no mortal. I never had been. Neither am I like them. This worries them the most, I can tell. I am something new. Something they had not expected. At least, not so soon.
It was Ethan who activated this dormant gene within me. It was his sudden appearance in and disruption of my world that forced to me to become what I had always doubted and denied. To become my truest self. The self within the self. The highest self. Needed for a specific purpose, to win a very specific battle in an eons-long war.
His nearness. Even before we had laid eyes upon one another, we were instinctively aware and bound to each other. This is the call of fate. The pull of destiny.
In a blanket of black, I wander. Confused. But not frightened. I feel my breathing pick up pace, my eyes widen as I search deeper into the dark. Something is coming. Fast and furious. The prickle in the air is electric. And I know, as my heart sinks, I am not prepared for what approaches. It is too soon. I am not ready to face the fight coming my way.
And then, suddenly, my awareness lifts. A new presence has arrived ahead of the enemy on the dark horizon. A grey dawn quickly descends. And I am in the land of the dark no longer.
Before I am yanked from the world of dreams and nightmares, where the true veil is lifted, four thoughts are planted in my mind.
Remember these things.
My eyes flicker open. There is still some daylight left, and then the animals will be out soon, prowling the open night. Hunting season.
Then I remember them… Where are the children?
.
.
.
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from By Moonlight, An Apocalyptic Fairytale by Lenise Lee
Copyright 2020 Lenise Lee Publications, All Rights Reserved
Lenise Lee 