Page 60 of Midnight Secrets

So. No more sex. Not right now, anyway. He couldn’t bear the thought of disturbing her sleep. She’d often said that she had trouble sleeping.

Carefully, carefully, Joe withdrew from her body, edged her gently over so she was nestled against him, head on his shoulder, and pulled the covers up over her shoulders.

He lay back and studied the dark ceiling, wondering how far gone he was when lying in bed next to a woman he wanted more than his next breath, with a hard-on that could hammer nails, developing blue balls—and just holding her was better than sex with any other woman.

* * *

An airof evil in the room, so strong it was almost a stench. People all around, happy, popping with joy, dancing to the celebratory music. Smiling, smiling. Couldn’t they feel it? Couldn’t they feel the darkness like smoke swirling around the room?

She looked around, trying to warn everyone. Most of them were familiar faces though she couldn’t put any names to them. They didn’t stick around long enough for her to identify them. They’d dance close to her then twirl away. She’d reach out but they swirled out of her grasp the instant she opened her hand.

Everybody moving, moving. Only she stood stock-still in the room as the shadows in the corners filled it. Wisps of darkness coalescing, wrapping itself around the clueless partygoers.

She screamed and no one listened. They were having too good a time.

The music was so loud she couldn’t hear herself think, couldn’t make herself heard by anyone, not even those close by.

Someone danced close to her, grabbed her by the waist, twirled her. It made her dizzy and unsteady. She had to watch her feet so she wouldn’t fall over. When she lifted her eyes she saw HIM.

Always him, always watching her, always just out of reach.

She caught a glimpse of his face but then he disappeared again. He was somewhere in the room, elusive and mocking. A viper in human form and oh so dangerous. Why couldn’t anyone else see it, feel it? She could feel him so vividly, though she couldn’t see him.

She saw him every night in her dreams. In her nightmares. No matter how the dream started, it ended as a nightmare. Always lots of happy people, celebrating, with a hidden monster lurking at the edges. And yet nobody noticed, nobody cared.

Every night she struggled to make her voice heard above the noise, to warn the happy people what was coming.

Every night she failed.

She tried to scream but no sound came, a huffing of breath, no more. She clutched at jackets and dresses and they removed her hand and moved on.

Right now she could see the bare outlines of his face, staring at her from a podium. The light came from behind and his eyes were in utter darkness, only cheekbones, mouth and chin visible.

That skull-like head with no eyes, watching her.

And, just as she had known, monsters came out from the walls, an army of them. Bearing guns, swords, in a killing rage. They wore black masks and seemed inhuman as they shot and cut their way through the happy throng, happy no more. Trying to flee the monsters.

Men and women, shot and stabbed, dying.

And still no one heard her scream. The breath in her lungs wasn’t enough. The black-suited minions continued killing and killing. And yet she was spared.

She looked again to the podium and he hadn’t moved. Dark voids where his eyes should be but somehow she knew he was staring at her, watching her as all around her people died.

Then, he smiled. A horrible rictus of a grin, the empty holes where the eyes should be, the mouth lifting in an unnaturally wide smile, mouth another dark hole.

That horrendous face filled her horizon, coming closer, ready for the kill, closer, closer. Though he hadn’t moved, she was suddenly shackled, immobilized. Utter prey as he came closer.

She tried to scream, scrabbled with her feet, fought for her life…

“Jesus,honey, calm down. It’s a dream.” A deep voice. Calm. She knew that voice. Her nightmares didn’t have voices, nobody spoke. They were like silent movies from hell. No deep, calm voices. Something was stroking her face. “Open your eyes, honey. You were having a bad dream. See for yourself where you are.”

Something that had shackled her released, just as she opened her eyes and saw she was in her bedroom. With Joe. Who was looking calm, but with deep brackets around his mouth. “It’s okay,” he said.

She hadn’t been shackled. Joe had put his arms around her. They were still around her, only not so tightly.

“I’m going to let go of you.” His dark eyes bored into hers. “Do you understand that you were having a nightmare?”

She nodded, throat too tight to talk.

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