Shadowy Entrance (a short story)

Feb 27, 2008 - 22:02 PM PST

It was a dark night. I stood watching the shadows through the blinds of my bedroom window as people ran down the street. The darkness was closing in again, faster now than it had in the past. Standing there I closed my eyes and allowed my imagination and memories to play out their theatrics for the evening. Upon the screen of my eyes I watched as a woman walked down the street, slowly swaying her hips back and forth as if she owned the world. She wore a red dress with a slit up her left thigh. It was low cut in the back resting at her lower back and she wore it as if it were a second skin. Her black hair flowed in a breeze that seemed to only blow for her. She swung her head to the side throwing her hair to one side and revealing the most stunning hazel eyes I had ever seen. Tucking this vision into my memory I opened my eyes and retired for the night.

My dreams were twisted and sinister. I walked down the street outside my house. Ths sun was just setting in the west, and the shadows began to grow longer as I continued to walk. The sidewalk began to push me backwards as if it had suddenly turned into a treadmill that would have me walk for eternity. As the shadows grew longer they began to take on the shapes of gortesque and twisted figures that somehow resembled human form. I began to run, though running got me nowhere even faster than walking had. My heart began to race with the exertion of trying to run. I turned back and watched as the shadows detached from my suroundings. They stumbled along after me unhindered by the reverse pull of the treadmill sidewalk.

Suddenly as I ran faster, my heart pounding with the rhythm of stampeding horses, I closed my eyes. The shadows had disappeared from my vision. In their place I saw her. I saw the woman from my imaginings earlier that night. She turned away from me and was swallowed in darkness. I sank to my knees and opened my eyes. The shadows had gone, and the landscape of my dreams had changed. I sat there on my knees gasping for breath. I looked out my bedroom window and watched her as she turned the corner and vanished from my mind. With her she took the shadows of my mind, freeing me from the torment of my dream.

One day I will find her, and I will repay the favor she has done for me.