Dark Romance

Chapter 6

Chapter 6


The restaurant’s hustle and bustle atmosphere impeded upon her suddenly overloaded mind as her she was caught unaware of the vision’s retreat. She could not immediately process her surroundings. It all looked like a dream to her eyes. For a minute or so she could not recognize the place and had no idea why she was there.

Her first instinct was to panic. Her eyes darted all over, taking it all in, looking for any possible signs of danger. Her mind created possibilities where none existed and panic set in. Her mind was so cloudy, it became lazy and the cogs turned in slow motion, occasionally pausing. When they paused she slid backwards, almost back into the world where he was in her bed and she happy. That feeling of peace grew once again, overwhelming her senses and all she wanted to do was given in to it and be at peace. But at the last second it escaped her grasp, retreating to the place it begun.

The confusion returned with a vengeance and lingered, causing her to doubt her sanity.  Reality, vision, fantasy and hope all overlapped each other, creating a different world for her. A world where her senses ruled everything and he was part of her, an equal part… The most important part, he was her passion, her desire… her love!
Confusion lingered even after things returned to their normal linear pattern, making he feel like she were fractured. She muddled through life as half of a person but now she had the missing piece. And that was him!
She felt him as if they were connected somehow. The connection was so profound that she knew when he thought of her.
She felt it like something physical grew inside of her. She could not explain it but somehow she felt drawn to him. He had become part of her and she loved him immensely and without fail yet she did not know him yet. She’d have to wait for this to be reality but patience was not her strong point.

Ana came back to the here and now. Confused and speechless, everything flooding in all at once, she didn’t know what to do first and no idea where to start first. So she just sat motionless, lost in the after affects of this thing, whatever it was.

Her mind overloaded with shock, the peace and calmness settling down inside her, to her core. Making it hard for eyes to see what was happening around her. It made it difficult for her to believe that what her eyes showed her was truth.

Everything seemed like a lie. Her eyes saw but it was not quite as cut and dry as before. There were many layers of truth and falsehoods to what she saw. Pretense was everywhere, in everything. She heard it in every word her ears could detect. She had become, suddenly, aware of the masks of lies people so readily don just to fit in with “society’s norm”.  It made her sick to think she had been a brainless follower of such cookie-cutter notions of perceived norms.

As reality impeded upon the visions and showed her their truth, her heart raced, not wanting to leave the comfort found here. But as her eyes continued to focus, the images slipped away. Her heart pounded out an ever-increasing rhythm until she gasped for air and became lightheaded; her limbs were like lead but she felt light, disconnected from her body and yet she remained conscious, aware of every noise and movement but not paying them heed. When she tried to move her muscles spasmed all at once, paralyzing her. Dizziness swept over her, knocking her off balance, stealing her breath as her strength vanished and energy waned quickly. She felt strange then, like she had separated into many parts. Each part had been drawn to some other place, all experiencing the same thing. They drew themselves together but did not make a whole. Something was missing, some part of her had been stolen.

Then the soft, velvet voice spoke in her head, leaving her ear aching to hear it again. They became deaf in an instant, refusing to perform their primary function. Then suddenly she felt her skin tingle from head to toe as if being tickled. Her body breathed in and then out in a huge sigh, wanting more as she felt his cold velvet hands touching her, exploring her as his cold silken lips hungrily seized hers.

The room swirled and darkened, like the lights had been turned off. She realized she was holding her breath in response to her heart’s ascension into the clouds and rapid descension to earth and quick return to her body. The suddenness of it left her reeling in confusion and heart pounding with echoes of the experience.

They remained seated at the table for hours it seemed. He waited politely for Ana to come back to herself. He kept watching every move, reading her body language. “What was that?” Nick asked, curiously.

“It is hard to explain.”

“A vision?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t know you were a prognosticator. You don’t feel like one.” He admitted to her. "When did it start?”

Ana looked at him, eyes wide and mouth agape. Slowly she regained her composure, “When I was born but it comes and goes………” she said. “Mostly intermittent, every day details.”

“Wow! That must have been hard to deal with. Are they specific to the person, to you or the detail?”

“Actually all three…….. and the past.”

“Huh?”

“It is a long story……………” Her voice trailed off as she remembered the vision that started the whole thing. It began with a sense of disconnection from herself, like she was some insubstantial, intangible thing just floating around… from place to place, a witness to mundane events. Then suddenly blackness closed her eyes and she could see again……

Ana was surrounded by the warm glow of candlelight, in a dark windowless room. She lay on a bed dressed in black. Black sheets, black spread with sheer drapes hang all around the bed like a mosquito net. She sat up on the bed, startled by the darkness of her surroundings. Her eyes lit upon a dark figure moving just beyond the sheer bed curtains. The person paced the floor… worried. So it seemed.

It dawned on her, she had been kidnapped. She should have been scared but she was not afraid in the least. Actually she felt a sense of comfort radiating through her, making her movements sluggish as if she were tired. She looked down at herself and saw she wore a gauze shift-type gown.

The thin material flared out under her bust-line. Its white length covered her legs, down to her ankles and was perfectly draped around her like a frame for a picture.

Judging by the shadowed form, the person looked to be male. A sudden movement of the curtain and a hand was all she saw. With a gasp of unfounded fright, she cringed away from the curtain, crawling to the middle of the bed.

He pulled the bed curtains open wide and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Shhhh!” He breathed in a soothing gesture.

Without pause her heart settled into an easy rhythm. She laid back on the bed as he sat on the bed beside her, facing her and staring into her eyes. His eyes were blue, nearly colorless and burnt with some kind of fire that electrified the air between them. The space he had been careful to keep between them suddenly disappeared with a single motion. He reached a steady hand toward her, slowly, as his eyes held hers. With a velvety voice, “Be still my love”, he said almost silently, a command her wildly beating heart obeyed at once and gently he caressed her cheek.

She felt cold and warm at the same time. The coldness of his hand made her shiver slightly, yet fever burned through her, robbing her of strength. The fever confused her as she shook with her resolve fading in the heat of this unknown ailment. Touch me again, she thought as he withdrew his hand. But he did not reach for her again, instead he hung his head, looking down, and his shoulders dropped in disappointment at her reaction.

She sat up on the bed, reached out a hand toward him. With his hand in hers she asked, “Why?” 

Suddenly, in a blinding movement that she could not see, he looked at her. His eyes pale blue and dull, no longer sparkling as they had previously. She raised a hand to his face as she put his hand over her heart. Staring into his eyes as she did, she saw his eyes come alive with a sudden flood of emotion. They burned bright with a fire’s flame, burning dark rich sapphire blue in color. She leaned forward, toward him, slowly pressing her lips to his.

His body went ridged in surprise and, in the next minute, the tension went out of his body. He closed his eyes reveling in her scent the feel of her lips on his and the feel of her skin as she lay back on the bed, pulling him with her. He lay on top of her his body pressed against hers, kissing her when suddenly he tore himself away from her.

“NO!” he said. “LEAVE NOW!” he commanded in anger.

“Why?” she asked, hearing the shame in his voice mixed with horror.

He stood and she moved to the edge of the bed, let her legs fall over the side, ready to run to him. But he stopped in the middle of the room, fell to the floor on hands and knees,. His body shook, crimson lines began to cut his face into sections… He cried! Tears of blood flowing quickly down his cheeks as she looked into his face and his eyes were empty of emotion.

A sudden fear came over her then as she gasped in shock. Her heart sank into a deep black abyss and began to ache……………

Ana’s memory went blank then as if abruptly broken and the image of him kneeling on the floor, face in his hands and blod dripping between his fingers, burned her eyes. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks.

“Ana?” Nick squeaked in worry.

“Huh?”

“Why are you crying?”

“Am I?”

“Yes.”

Ana wiped her cheek with a hand, looked in disbelief as it glistened in the fluorescent lights of the restaurant.

“Tell me?” Nick commanded.

“I can’t.” She replied sniffing. “I don’t know where to start or how to explain what I see.”

“Very well.” He breathed, disappointed. Nick stood, held out a hand to Ana. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah, lets go.” And they walked out hand-in-hand.

He stared at the pair of strangers now friends and jealousy raged inside him, hotter than anything he could imagine. Not so nice thoughts ran through his mind. He wanted to kill this man she was with.

He imagined himself standing up from the table, hopping on it and running to her, throwing him across the room and in a blur of speed, running to where he landed, picking him up and with one choking off his airway until he expired. Or biting him, right there, and draining him dry. Every scenario he came up with ended in exposure of what he was and not likely to go over good with others of his kind. So he remained where he was, staring at them as they walked hand-in-hand out the door. He watched every move as if was her bodyguard.

Ana and Nick made it out the door unmolested by her admirer, who looked about ready to spring to his feet and rush over to her, separating the two.