4 Shadows

Alex finds himself in yet another dark place, surrounded by tendrils of mist. The air is warm and dry, but almost alien to him. As his eyes begin to adjust, he notices dense foliage and exotic plant life. The ground is very soft and murky where he begins to move deeper into the jungle toward a mountain seen over the canopy. With no idea where he is or what has happened, Alex thought it best to get up on some high ground and possibly gain his bearings.
As he moved on, he couldn't help but notice the warding silence of this place. For a jungle, there was surprisingly little signs of any kind of life. Suddenly, he noticed something not far ahead of him moving. He approached faster but with much more caution, as the shape of the little girl from his nightmare came into focus. Then he began to move more swiftly, but she was far less hindered by the dense terrain. Alex tore desperately through vines and all manner of ferns and branches. They tore at him as if trying to purposely keep him from catching the girl. His flesh broke and his blood flowed as vines lashed out at him with oppressive force, catching at his feet and causing him to stumble. Despite all of his difficulty, Alex pressed on harder.
He began to realize he must be dreaming again, but he had to know what it all meant, if anything. So he continued on through a broken wire fence with broken signs written in some foreign language. He recognized the symbols as being Oriental in origen, but he couldn't be sure of exactly what language it was. It only half-disturbed him that they were all in red type. He couldn't let any inhibitions stop him from following through with this. It was only a dream after all... or a nightmare.
Alex realized that the area was very close to the mountain's base, and there were several small shacks scattered about the grounds. The girl entered one of them and Alex was quick to follow through the rusty sheet metal door. In the shack, he found a hatch lying open on the ground, no doubt leading to underground networks. He jumped down the hatch to find himself in a strange hospital facility. As he looked to where he had come from, he saw a drop-ceiling where the tile had been moved revealing plumbing pipes and electrical wiring.
The hospital was much like any other, and signs on its doors and walls were clearly written in english. Again, the lights flickered in that strange and foreboding manner, as screams could be heard from further down the hall. He approached the room from where it was coming from, then noticed that he was in maternity. The screams must be from a labor in progress, Alex thought, and he was right. He had never witnessed a child birth yet. In his hospital, Alex only ever dealt with death and disease.
He reached the door to the room and saw doctors and nurses rushing about in a frenzy. As the lights flickered, so Alex saw his own demons stnding around the table, watching with great intent. Their dark auras seethed and coiled under the flickering lights, as they seemed to grow taller out of themselves hissing and snarling, but not in contempt. They seemed all too eager for some reason as they loomed over the woman and the child that the doctor had presented her. The woman looked strangely familiar to Alex, but he couldn't place the face.
He heard a giggle to his right and turned to see the girl, waving at him before running further down the corridor. When he looked into the room again, everyone was gone and it was very dark. All the lights in the hospital were out. The only light came from spaces in between boarded windows, illuminating filthy halls that had seemed deserted for years. Alex continued after the girl and into a door that should have lead to the stairwell, but it didn't.
He found himself in some industrial complex, surrounded by loud machinery. An interom cracked with frequent announcements in Japanese, echoing through the complex. He saw the girl duck around a corner and ran after her again. She ducked around a lot of heavy machinery that appeared to be some kind of energy conversion equipment, humming like a great engine as pressure releases hissed and several large parts clanked into place. She lead him into a more refined part of the complex with clean polished walls about winding corridors. The lights here flickered, of course, and a mist blanketed the floor. But Alex payed very little attention to this as he came to a door surrounded by large red signs and flashing sirens. The girl had gone in there, so he must follow.
Alex hit a switch to activate the door and ran into an enormous laboratory. The place was filled with very large machines with several moving parts fixed over tables. The appendages attached to the machines appeared to be fixed with several tools, perhaps to study some organism or repair a machine. Alex couldn't even imagine that they might possibly be used for both, as he was more concerned about how none of these machines had operating stations attached. Instead his eyes followed power lines from all of them that lead to one control room on a raised level, but there were no stairs or ladders to the room. It must only be accessable through another part of the complex.
He studied the booth further, taking note on how secure the place seemed. It would more than likely take a small army to infiltrate such a bastion from this vantage. But what kind of work were they doing here to require such measures? As Alex continued to take in his surroundings, he noticed several very sophisticated automatons. They seemed to be fit for transporting equipment... for maintenance? Seeing as they were fixed with grappling arms and what looked like... tasers and restraints?
Things just weren't making sense, and even less when he saw several other automatons sitting in a corner, terribly damaged. The damage was in fact, far too extensive to be sure what had happened to them. They looked like aluminum cans that had been shredded with buck-shot. Yet, they couldn't have been constructed of such cheap material. Some of their appendages had clearly been torn off, and a couple looked like they'd been through a trash compacter.
Alex looked around for the little girl again, remembering his intentions again, but she wasn't to be found. As he made his way through all the machinery, so the horrifying truth of it all seemed to become apparent. Fixed parralel to the booth, but in a ground based containment unit in the center of the floor, was a deformed man. Alex didn't even notice his demons slither out from behind the enormous tank containing the man. But then, he was hardly a man, and certainly a shocking sight for any eyes.
The containment unit was an enormous cylindrical unit filled with a thick blue liquid. The lower portion of the glass was surrounded by the unit's machinery, and had some sort of cash-pool located at the front and center. It had a hatch behind it, so it must be where his body is released and cleaned, seeing the nozzles and pipes fixed about the spot. The unit itself was a grotesque monstrosity, but the man within was nothing less. He looked normal enough, save for the fact that machinery had been fixed to half of his body. Pipes and cords ran across the left side of his head to equipment on his back, and others ran into his heart. Both of his hands had been replaced with huge claws, and one of his eyes had been replaced with some gruesome red glass eyepiece.
But Alex almost felt sick at his final observation as he approached the tank. The good eye opened and he cracked a smile, but both were far too familiar, as they belonged to Alex himself. The man in the tank could have very well been Alex, but it couldn't be. It just couldn't be!
Aye, not to worry 'bout that, lad. T'ain't you trapped in the bubble, but your kin. Indeed, the sire of ye, ungrateful whelp. Aye, yet you'd be learnin your place soon enow. Till then...
WAKE UP!!!

Earlier That Afternoon...

Mary was sitting in the living room of her lonely home, waiting anxiously in anticipation. She had slipped into a white lace corset and some thigh-highs, complimenting her delicate pink silk nightgown that lay open half-off her shoulders. She imagined Lucas towering over her with his throbbing shaft simply begging her for a massage to release all of its tension to her in a great explosion. She closed her arms on herself, pulling down the cups of her outfit to release her nipples for a momentary caress. She gripped firmly about her breasts, pushing them tightly together and thinking how good it would feel to have him throbbing in between them to the beat of her heart. Then she touched a soft hand to her cheek, wishing it was a little firmer as her other hand slided down her stomach.
Her hand slid into her silk panties finding a warm slit to wedge her finger between. Again, she wisher her hands were a lot bigger and a little firmer as she began waxing between her wet lips. She started in a circular motion around her sweet pink pleasure switch, crying out impatiently. Just as her fingers slid further down finding the tight warmth of her burning core, she heard the doorbell ring.
She started violently at first, as if struck by a bolt of lightning, almost falling off the sofa. She was shocked out of her state of personal ecstacy until she heard the chime again. Then she stood up and checked herself in a mirror, flipping her hair once before heading for the front door. The bell rang again as she reached the door and looked out through the peephole, trying to wash back her excitement. She opened the door and propped herself seductively in the doorway, staring wildly at the cool looking Lucas.
She stared deep into his bright blue eyes, as they took her in almost carelessly. Even his expression was almost emotionless as the rain washed over his face where it matted his short brown bangs to his forehead. Then she saw what she was waiting for, as his eyes found hers and melted breaking his hard brow at the corners. That soft affectionate gaze made her feel as if he knew how much she wanted him, and was overtaken by it. That only fueled her desire for him as she backed into the door letting him push through.
She closed the door and locked it behind her, as she turned to face him where he threw his jacket on the floor and kicked off his boots. She made her way toward him as he pulled off his white undershirt and droped it to the floor. Mary placed one hand on his sculpted chest and ran her fingers through damp hair, and Lucas pulled her toward him pressing his lips firmly to hers. Their tongues danced while her heart raced and she fell into him. She pushed him back, lips still locked tight, until he hit the sofa and fell back.
Mary smiled triumphantly as she looked at his seemingly innocent and bewildered face. She liked having a measure of control over sexual situations, and she liked how he simply allowed her to do what she wanted. They never even exchanged a word while making love, adding to the mystique of their affairs. Mary took another step back to take him in where he sat, as the look of bewilderment became one of desire and confusion. She got down on her hands and knees, lifting her head high and creeping toward him like a cat.
Lucas never knew just what she would do at any given moment, but he knew that he would like it. Now his member throbbed in anticipation as this tender little kitten purred over his lap. She uunbucked his belt and unzipped his jeans, reaching in to pet his snake where it began to uncoil. She pulled it out and began jerking it as she raised up and beckoned Lucas to move in and kiss her. He took the bait and began to lift toward her, but she placed a finger to his lips and bit at one of his nipples.
Lucas fell back as Mary proceded to suck his cares away. For a single moment, he drifted away into nowhere, then returned to exhale and look at Mary where she continued to draw him. She stared back at him as he pulled her hair back and gave him a playful wink where she teased the tip of his prick. Lucas couldn't get over her spontaneous manner. She could be so sweet and innocent, then she could be dirty or playful or even all at the same time. She was an enigma, and he couldn't possibly imagine anyone not wanting to spend every moment with her.
Mary could see that she had him completely mazed as she took off the corset to envelope his shaft with her breasts. She had him going just the way she wanted to. She knew that all of her teasing would only serve to keep him under control so he wouldn't cum too fast. He wouldn't get off on the foreplay, but at least she could work him enough to numb his feeling slightly. Mary was proud about her sexual knowledge, and she knew how to please a man. All she ever wanted to do was please her man, but Alex made it seem like she couldn't please him at all. If she could, he would have been around more often.
Mary thoughts of Alex started on her and she almost felt guilty. She looked at Lucas again and saw how much pleasure he was in, and forgot about her husband. Now was the right time, as she pulled his jeans off and slid out of her panties. She climbed up on the couch and put her trim bush in his face, allowing him to taste her steaming juices. Then she turned around and propped her legs on the sofa around his head, reaching down to jerk him while he continued to massage her button with his tongue. All he had to do was keep her going a little, but she would soon do the rest.
Lucas loved Mary's taste and smell. She is a very clean woman and well groomed, making this little treat something he enjoyed almost as much as she did. But she had obviously wanted to keep things moving along as she rolled her legs over him and flopped down onto the sofa. She climbed on top of him and slowly wrapped around him and his member, moaning lightly as she slowly worked him up and down. She started slow, gradually picking up pace and and rocking her body back and forth. Then she turned around and let the muscles of her insides tug at him.
Mary and Lucas continued for hours, making love in most of the house's rooms. They shifted locations and positions, basking in the sweat of their sex. But as the early evening approached, so Alex might come home. Lucas had other things on his agenda anyway. As they finished their last round, Mary made them drinks in the kitchen.
"Well, was it good for you?" She teased in her way. "Because I know that I could do this all night, but Alex could be home any time now." As Mary poured herself a Vodka and Cranberry, gazing intently at Lucas where he sat at the dining room table. The sweat on his face made it glow in the light as though he were an angel. To Mary at this moment, he was her angel, her salvation.
"I don't even have words to describe it, and don't play like you don't know it. But I do have to see some friends of mine about something. I have to find out what I can about when we're getting called back." Lucas was still very cool and stoic as if nothing had just happened, but Mary knew that this is simply how he is. though she wouldn't pass up the opportunity to tease him again.
"So, are you trying to get away from me already. Do you have some Arab woman waiting for you overseas?"
Lucas looked at her with an odd snicker and a raised brow. "Hell no, woman! Most of their women don't even shave!" He continued to leave himself open, and Mary laughed as she thought to herself.
Perhaps I should show him a little mercy... But then, what fun would that be? And she started on him again: "And just how would you know that then?" Mary still smiling as she had obviously started to irritate Lucas, but she knew he was just playing tough.
"Oh, knock it off. You just can't let me rest for a second, can you?"
"Nope!" She exclaimed with a wide grin.
Lucas finished his drink and kissed her on her forehead. "Well, I do have to be going. Give me a call tomorrow if you can." Then Lucas made for the door as Mary shouted back...
"Oh, you can count on that." And as she finished that, he was out the door.

Late Night At The Office

Alex sat behind his desk in a dark and quiet office, contemplating the events of the past few days. He always seemed to prefer the dark to the light, and the sun was simply oppressive to him at times. He didn't mind working late, save for the fact that Mare was left alone, but she didn't seem to have too much of a problem with it. She was always wont to voice her opinions and put a foot down, but then again... when had she ever done so with Alex? That to, bothered him to think about, because he couldn't recall a single argument between the two.
As he sat there, so he heard his thoughts whispering in unison, as if some great choir of devils spilled their poisons into his mind. Of course the bitch submits. We have her enthralled, but not enough that she hasn't found measure to fuck on the side. Oh, and that will soon come to face, as the cuckold would be cominf for us. We want him to come, so let it be as it will. The echoing hiss was like a static blister bursting with a slimy gurgle, then burning like acid on his thoughts. He was quite used to the voices, but on many an occasion they seemed to be more of a curse than anything else. Yet, a part of him willed to accept them as his own personal guide through life. How many times had he listened to them for his benefit, but always at the expense of someone else.
Ungrateful whelp! And what in life doesn't come without consequence, and all at the expense of another? All cause has effect, my son, and always in opposing poles for those such as us. Just give a little, and have all taken from you. Give nothing, and all will be given. For every justice you would have us do, an injustice shall surely befall us. It is our way, and you will know it soon enow, whether you will it or no.
Again, he shuddered as his nerves all stood on end. He began to forget the voice and remember how strange the day had been. He poured himself another glass of Irish Whiskey, and felt the smooth, light smokey liquid warm his throat as he kicked back a large mouthful. The voices became a hissing slither fading into the recesses of his mind, but still observing their vessel with a curious intent. They observed his recollection of the young girl that was brought in during the early evening hours.
She had been found by her friends, not far from the college campus in some thickets, naked, battered, and dead. She had been sexually abused in some fashion and beaten to death with something very hard. It was extremely difficult to tell, just yet, what had happened to her. She was once a beautiful blonde girl, no older than 20, and very petite and delicate. Now she ressembled nothing less than shattered pocelain stained in dark crimson blotches. The first impression that came to mind when examining the body was that she must have been raped with the blunt end of a bat, then beaten with the same piece of equipment. Her privates were bruised, torn, and gaping filled with the assailant's fluids mixed in clots of her own blood. Most of the bones in her body were simply shattered and their were many tears in her muscle tissue, no doubt from a struggle. The image was horrifying to behold and sickening, even to Alex who had seen many severely damaged corpses. The image had burned itself on his mind, and the scars would be there for some time.
It had already been explained that not even the family was to know the extent of the damage. Her identity would be confirmed by dental records matched to the teeth they found in her throat. Alex would be spending most of the night trying to figure out what exactly had happened to her. This seemed to be very simmilar to another girl that had been brought in last night, but she wasn't as small and not anywhere near as badly beaten.
The same detectives had been there today when this girl was brought in, so they must be thinking the same thing. Alex couldn't help but think that it was possibly some serial killer on the loose who had a thing for college girls. He would have to call his sister if anything else came in, she holds quite an obsession with serial killers. Then Alex was glad that she was in school in New York, and turned his thoughts to Mary. She was definitely attractive enough to be a victim, but then he thought, she's probably not young enough to be a target. He relaxed a little, then let his head fall back as he reclined into sleep in his office chair.

Phone Frustrations

"Hello?" Lucas queried as he put the reciever to his ear.
There was a coarse moan on the other end, followed by a light giggle, "I need you NOW! I want your thick cock pulsing inside me until we both burst! But this time, you're coming down here. I'm so horny right now, I'd run off the road on the way up to your place. It's not always easy to masturbate and drive at the same time, espescially with the truckers peeking in on you." Mary teased in her quaint manner from her husband's home.
"Jesus! You're insatiable woman!" He blurted without a second thought.
Mary had been taken back by his response, but only slightly, for she had her mind set on what she wanted. "Well, what bug crawled up your ass? I didn't hear any complaints yesterday!"
Lucas quickly rethought his position, "I'm sorry, babe. I didn't sleep well at all last night. Memories of the war got to me." he lied. "I didn't mean to come off on you.
"Now, when should I come down, and when is he expected back?"
She huffed on the other end, followed by, "I told you... NOW! And I couldn't give two fucks if he ever comes back! Why, aren't you man enough to put him in his place if we get caught?"
Lucas sneered, as he detested this subject. "That depends on where you think his place is. You seem to be pretty comfortable next to him every night. Least, I don't hear you complaining."
Mary had sensed that she was losing him. "Ok, I'm sorry! Just come down here. I really need the company. If you want to go back to your place then drop me off back here later, that'll work."
Lucas thought about everything for a moment. He wasn't very keen on the idea of a run in with her husband. He knew nothing about the guy, save for what Mary had told him. He wasn't the least bit afraid, but he wasn't exactly in the right state of mind for a confrontation today. Yet, deep in the back of his mind, a low voice rumbled, Aye... You'd make a wise choice of it then, skittery shit that ya are.
This caused all sorts of memories and dreams to whirl about his mind in an instant. Time became lost to him as he dazed on these horrors, so that Mary had begun to think she'd completely lost him. "Are you still there Luke? Is everything ok?"
Abruptly, he started, "I'm fine Mary. I'll be down in a couple of hours."
"Please hurry. This place seems so dead."
While in the back of Lucas' mind... Aye... the bitch is right, a dead place, indeed. Be careful young whore monger, for we'd be keepin' a fine fettled eye on the both of ye. And Lucas cringed as he hung up the reciever, hearing the echoes of the dark thing inside his head. He asked himself, where this thing came from and why it tormented him now? But the answers to those questions were far beyond his understanding. Even in death, he would never be able to comprehend what disaster he managed to avoid.

Current Affairs

Mary Delaney drank deeply of her dramatized life as the hot jets from the shower head washed her every care away. Right here in this moment, she was her own woman, unmolested and without concern or regret. She barely even registered the sweet smell of breakfast sausages and corn-fritters seeping into the steamy bathroom, and she hardly cared. All her life, she had fancied great adventures and fabulous romances, filled with mystery and excitement. In the years she had been married to Alex, all life had seemed to drain out of her.
When she was a girl in Bangor, every man had wanted to be with her. She was a beautiful, fiery red head, outspoken and carefree living her life the way she wanted to. She didn't take grief from anyone and didn't strain herself for anything. Mary was a live-wire and untouchable by any man unless she allowed otherwise. She never found anyone who could be what she wanted, and would accept no less than perfect. Then, she met an interesting guy named Alex Delaney.
She remembered Alex being set apart from his friends. She was intrigued at how he stood off to the side, seeming to be unimpressed by her and her friends. His friends were nothing short of drooling over them in their feeble attempts at being clever and charming, but not Alex. He didn't even seem to be the kind of guy to have friends like this, because they were so simple and he was so... intricate? She had to know more about him, and was determined to have his attention. After a little flirtation, she soon found that he was totally innocent, and completely oblivious to how attractive he was. Yet, she still found that attractive because he didn't seem to care about it, he just lived his life the way he wanted to. He was also very romantic and chivalrous, going to extreme lengths to impress her and be there for her whenever she needed him, and she loved him for that.
She clenched the bar of soap in between her firm breasts and closed her arms around herself, recalling how she once felt for Alex. She had waited six years for his return from New York, as she worked odd jobs and stayed with friends. She was never sure he would even return, but she had always hoped he would. They talked on occasion, but Alex seemed to be changing every time. He always had a dark and charismatic manner about him, but he had grown much darker over the years. He seemed so cold and distant sometimes, but hadn't he always been except for the times that he was with her? It made it easier for her to imagine that he was like this as a result of the distance between them. That's what it had to be, on top of the stress of medical school.
She was there when he finally returned to her, and that's when he had asked her to marry him. It had seemed that all of her dreams had come true. He had bought them a house just outside Allentown and gotten a job at St. Lukes as one of their top surgeons. She had some trouble dealing with Alex working so much, but she thought it would pass. Now Mary sighed to herself as the tears began to run down her cheeks, not even apparent in the shower. She couldn't get used to him being gone all the time and always felt alone.
In her home town, she had always had her friends, no matter how screwed up they could be sometimes. It was a small town and still very open compared to Allentown. She felt boxed in and consumed by her own loneliness, so much so that she found herself seeking out more. Then she met a man just in from the service one night at a bar in the middle of town. He was very charming and handsome, complimenting her at every turn, and she hadn't had that kind of treatment in years. It wasn't long before they got together at his place in the country. Lucas lived in the Northern valley in a secluded trailer in the woods, and Mary loved it there because it was so open and so pure.
These were her last thoughts as she put on a smile and dried herself off, finally succumbing to the aroma of the breakfast Alex was preparing for them. She thought of how she would sit and enjoy a few moments with her husband before he left for work, and then she would call her secret lover. She would call him and beg to see him, pleading for him to take her in unrestrained carnal lust. She would tease about how she couldn't bare to be without him throbbing inside of her, picturing in her mind how hard he would get at just the thought. She blushed at her own secret thoughts as she made her way down the stairs.
Alex was putting out the plates when he looked up at her. "Perfect timing." He smiled.
"Mmm... I could smell it from up stairs and couldn't resist." She said as she stretched and took a seat opposite her husband.
"Well, you look positively radiant this morning. I take it I didn't interupt your sleep much then?"
She smiled wanly, "Not at all, hun. In fact, I had a fantastic dream when got back to sleep. It was full of kinky erotic sex and naughty pleasures." She teased him.
"Oh really? Well, do tell." He leaned forward with intent.
She looked away lackadasicly, "Well, I'll just have to show you the next time I get my claws on you for more than an hour."
Alex gave a wry chuckle as he cleaned off his plate. "Hopefully I'll be all yours this weekend. But there have been a string of murders lately, and it's begining to look like a serial case." He told her half-apollogeticly. "But I have to get to work now, love. I'll see you later tonight. Call ya if I'm gonna be late." And he kissed her as he made his way out.
Mary watched as he pulled away in his Mustang convertible, and hurried to pick up the phone. The look in her eyes was like that of a child on Christmas morning, so desperatly anxious to play with their new toy.

Dwelling

The electric tone of the coffee maker chimed in, causing Lucas to start from his deep thoughts. He went over and poured himself a cup, not bothering with the usual sugar and creme, for today he would have it as strong as possible. Black was the only thing that struck his mind for several hours after the fact. In his nightmares, someone had told him to remember how he lived, and so he did, wishing he were dead. Something told him that the plagues of his past would be minute in comparison to what was in store for his future.
He remembered how things had been for him as a young boy. He remembered seeing drugs everywhere, and strange faces in and out of the house. Some of the strangers had even went into his mother's room with her while his father stayed with others. He could still remember screams coming from that room all night long as if some horrid thing were there. He recalled the smells that would always strike fear into his heart, as he would ever be terrified of entering that room. At his age, he didn't know what was happening but remembered everything. He even remembered being trapped behind the cage that was his crib, watching in anguish as his mother screamed while the menacing beast that was his father took her over and over, beating and drilling her beyond recognition. He couldn't even recognize his own mother the next day.
He had nightmared over these terrible things for several years, never knowing what a single one meant, just that they were horrible. Then, one day, he understood everything and found documentation that confirmed all of his worst nightmares. How shocking to such a young teenager, dealing with all the new hormones and pressures of life, to discover that all of his most dreaded nightmares were nightmares no more, but memories. The boogeyman was real, and in complete and total control of his wellfare. Nightmares no longer existed for him, because if that were real, then so was everything else.
Even all the faith and beliefs that he supported so enthusiasticly diminished into nothing. What God would allow this hell to exist on his earth? Things would only become worse as he realized his mother cared only for herself. She sold her body to the highest bidder and drug him along, only to learn the facts of life from some unknown 'John' that didn't care about him or his mother, only her snatch.
So Lucas had it rough, but knew others who had it bad as well. He was prideful, and wouldn't let this hold him down. Unknown to him, the ideas ate at his very soul, making him no less than a ticking time-bomb. He would learn what his experiences gave him when he joined the armed services. He had always been a well built boy, but ever the gentle giant. The Marines changed all of that, bringing out the very worst in him. He became an unfeeling killing machine within weeks. They sent him into the thickest of the fighting because they knew that he would lay everything in his path to waste. At the moment, he didn't even consider his fallen comrades. They merely became more fuel to his fire.
It wasn't until everything was over that it hit him, however briefly, because he refused to let misfortunes hold him down. But now, things were very different... The fortress he had built around all the pain in his life had been annihilated, leaving nothing but ruin and a flood of pain washing over him. Even the shock from all of the sudden sorrow and contempt left him weak and feeling sick. He had put himself on a pedastle above everything, because he had a good life building up. Things changed so quickly, he didn't know what to do.
As he finished his coffee, he got up from the dining room table and looked out the window. He stared long and hard at the boulder in his yard, remembering her and his dream. It was too real to even look at the scene again, because he saw the shadow of the man every time. That wicked gaze of hatred burning deep into his memories... he could feel it even now.
Lucas couldn't escape the nightmare, no matter how hard he tried. It kept replaying in his mind, and the thought was always there... He never knew a single one of the faces that man had displayed. They weren't even similar to any face he'd ever seen before in his life, so why had they been pictured so clearly. He hadn't noticed anything definite about them, save their eyes, but still. He had to have gotten the idea of their faces from somewhere. Faces don't just appear in such detail in a man's mind.
Lucas continued to pace about his dining room fro long moments, until the phone suddenly rang...

Guilty

Tonight was another restless night for Lucas Werner, filled with dreams of lust and anxiety. He dreamed the abbreviated dreams of a man comsumned by reality, yet the real things in his life had little to do with his dreams. Most of the other men he new dreamed of the harsh reality of war. They dreamed of dying friends and foes alike. They were haunted by the smells of sulfur, death, and smoldering iron that never quite cleared their sinuses. These things only fueled their nightmares of what seemed to be a pointless war. Without warning or reason, all troops were recalled from foreign countries and all fighting stopped around the world. But does peace so rapidly establish itself?
None of these trivial matters or or recent horrors plagued Lucas tonight. He dreamed of a small town girl living in a large town, overwhelmed by the size and chaos of the place. She had told him on several occasions how the place had made her feel as an insignificant speck, hollow and unwanted. The absolute lonliness of being there put her in a constant state of terror, so giving her plenty of reasons to get away. Her husband was always far too busy to be a part in her life, so it was easy for her to take a quick trip into the country to see Lucas.
She spent her nights with her husband, but the majority of her time with Lucas. Even now, he dreamed of her and their earlier experience. He reinvisioned making love under the hot sun, the sweat gleaming off of her nipples as she enveloped his throbbing shaft between her supple breasts. They were both so free and unmolested here, with only nature keeping a watchful eye. The birds sang them a saranade as they panted and pulsed to the song and their own racing hearts. It was such an enchanting opera of passion and lust, playing out for hours. They were both young, but they could have been teenage lovers exploring all the beauties of nature in some summer camp.
Their love making today was better than it had ever been, and nothing could ever spoil that memory. The moment was perfect in every way, and he knew that she felt it too. But this was only a dream recollecting that moment, and dreams have a way about them. Anxiety was quickly building as he remembered a conversation they had after making love. She had told him that she wanted him to meet her husband, for he had never even seen so much as a picture of this man of hers. He reluctantly agreed, steering the conversation toward his big question, as to when she planned on leaving him. As usual, she played an evasive game at it, and put the conversation off until another time.
Now, even as she was sucking every last bit of lust from his fountain, the air grew cold. The whole aura of the dream seemed tainted as clouds began to mask the sky. His lover simply gazed up at him with her radiant smile, unknowing of any change as she jerked him savagely begging him to cum, just as he remembered it. But the tension was building, and she was fading out of the picture as he noticed that the trees and birds were not the only things watching them.
Someone watched them from the shadows in a blood stained overcoat. His face wasn't familiar and didn't seem to have many distinguishing features, but his eyes were a different matter. His eyes were deep and penetrating, baring something of grace and scornful ferocity at the same time. His hair seemed to be something of a fascination as well. What could be so interesting about a man's hair, save for the strange twin silver streaks running along the thick rusted-copper waves. It was groomed at a medium length for a professional appearance, but could easily be comparable to a lion's mane were it allowed to break free of the locking products.
He was a very menacing character as he slowly began to approach the two, with the gleam of something small and metalic in his hand. As he got closer, his features began to change. First, his eyes began to flare with a crimson glow, as his face became more defined, yet savage. The hair broke from its hold and grew down to his shoulders... in crimson beads. He smiled then, with a smile that was like acid on the eyes. But his face continued to contort, as the eyes became black pools of hatred. The structure began to narrow as his features became sharp and predatory in appearance. His brows raised high at the ends, and curled inward as two more black pools opened on his forehead. His hair became a jet black, hanging loosely on his shoulders as the smile became a malicious sneer.
He was very close now, and Lucas found himself terrified at what he noticed as he looked to his lover. She was no longer there and he was still naked, but not the man he was. His member was shriveled and shy but far too close to the ground, for he was a child again. The man was obviously enormous now as he continued his metamorphosis. The upper pits on his forehead closed as the lower set began to glow green. His hair began to break of into short spikes sticking up like porcupine quills. His brow shrunk and became more sinister as he leered with a low chuckle. "Aye, we know you child. We know you and your little diddle, as well as what you'd do with it. Suffice, we'll be coming for you, but only after you come for us. What? So you wouldn't know that every man brings on his own demise. And so you would die by your own actions, but I'd wager a far worse time at death than in life, least for you." He growled with another rumbling chuckle.

Suddenly, a twenty eight year old Lucas sprung from his bed at quarter after four in the morning to find his sheets soiled with more than sweat. He groped at his empty bed, whimpering like a lost pup as the last few moments of the nightmare were burning themselves into his mind. Like a hot iron, they made their seering mark on his mind. His entire childhood and everything he had boxed out from the war rushed on him in one single instant, as the scalpel punched deep into his left temple and he heard those last eerie words...
"Now, remember how you lived!"

Nightmares

The night is strange and chilling during these late hours in the hospital. It's always like this, but more so tonight for some reason. The halls seem to be filled with some sort of mist, issuing a foul stench. Perhaps one of the units in the morgue is malfunctioning. Whatever it is, the source must be found and contained before any kind of contamination begins to take effect. Alex didn't notice anything strange upstairs, so hopefully the problem wouldn't be any trouble. The fact is, this level needed maintainence badly. Even the lights were flickering inceasantly.
Alex is aproaching the corridor for the morgue, where the mist seems to be getting thicker. That has to be the problem here. He can even here the mist spurting... or no. As he draws closer to the bend, he clearly hears it. It's a child, crying, just around the bend. He comes to the corner and turns to look down the mist filled hall, appearing as some alien world with flickering light refracting through the moisture. There, in a shroud of curling mists, is a small girl in a red and white Sunday dress. She has blonde hair cast over puppy-dog eyes, grasping something tightly in her hands. She instently notices him looking at her and turns to run toward the morgue.
He ran through the mist after her, and burst through the doors in time to see her crawling into the unit issuing the mist. He yelled a warning, "Don't go in there! You could get sick!" She didn't abide it, and closed the door to the unit. Alex got closer to the unit, trying to comfort her. "It's ok, I'm a doctor. I just want to help you. I'm not here to hurt you." He said as he grasped the handle to the unit and began to turn it. A sudden chill ran down his spine as the door swung open and the cold gases poured out into the room.
Alex pulled the tray out, to see a girl, but not the girl he had seen. This girl was one that he had come in earlier that night. It was a beautiful young girl, about seventeen years old that had been brutally raped and shot three times in the chest. He tried to do everything he could to save her, but two of the bullets had badly damaged her heart, and the other had punched through a lung. They wouldn't have even had a chance if she hadn't been found right away. An officer had just happened to pass the alley as the shots went off. The two men were apprehended and the girl was brought to the hospital imediately, but the damage was already done. Perhaps death was more merciful for her now. Such a terrible shame that someone so innocent and beautiful had to die so horribly. Alex thought as he looked about the room wondering where the little girl was.
"Hardly innocent, baby." a young girl's voice broke through the silence.
Alex's heart jumped into his throat as he swung around to see the corpse sitting up and staring at him. His jaw dropped as the slender little red-head sat there smiling at him. And she continued, "I wasn't innocent at all, hun. Those men were drug dealers that I stole money and dope from. They are like all the others I had stayed with ever since I was eleven, except when I ran this time, they caught me. I lived a whore's life and died a whore's death."
Alex began to back away, terrified by what he was seeing. then she grabbed his arm and pulled herself toward him. "I know you would have saved me. You wanted to fuck me so bad, just like every man did. Do you still want to fuck me? You could give me your cock right here, right now. Come on, baby, slide into my cold, dead flesh and make me warm again. It's so cold here."
Alex fought desperately now, trying to pull away as her face began to close to his. He felt her cold lips press against his and, at once, become jelly. He broke her grip and backed off to watch her flesh begin to melt from her bones and drip to the floor in strange blue glutonous pools. "Ooo, you're too hot for me, baby, can't you see how I melt for you? Hahahaha." This nightmare must end now. Why can't Alex wake up?
He falls to his knees, hiding his eyes from the horror before them. In a few moments everything is silent again, and he lifts his head to see everything back to normal. The mist is gone and the units are all closed and seemingly in order. But as he came to his feet, he saw them in the corner of the room. The three dark figures cloaked in the shadows of their hooded robes looked at him with an unmistakeable aura of intent. He would run, but was transfixed by their presence.
The medium sized 'thing' approached him and removed his hood saying, "Time to wake up Alex. Awake!" the last word hissed, and Alex sprung up in another dark room. He looked about quickly, then his eyes began to adjust as a familiar voice spoke up...
"Alex?!! What is it? Another nightmare?" It was Marry, startled awake by his sudden outburst. She had been getting used to these things the past five years she had been with Alex. He was an interesting and talented man, but there was more than a few skeletons in his closet. In fact, she would swear he had a whole graveyard in that head of his, along with untold knowledge from his weird intuition.
"I'm ok Mare. Just another strange one. But then, when haven't they been strange? I can't remember the last time I had a sweet dream."
"It's ok, hun. I'm here with you, so none of the bad things can get you." She teased. That's one of the things that Alex loved about her. She made even his chaotic life seem so simple with her gentle manner. "Now come on, you have a long day tomorrow. Let me snuggle in and get you back to sleep. I'll give you a pleasant awakening in the morning." And that was another thing he loved about her. She could definitely match his appetites, but with his job, could he meet hers?