Chasing monsters in the dark
Eyes blink sleepily open
staring at the hazy figures
as they slowly come into focus,
fuzzy, gray blurs becoming
defined multi-hued crisp lines
sharpened by the sun’s dawning light.
The drift between twilight and dawn
was filled with memory-dreams,
bright, fevered desires
that grew like the monstrous shadows,
beckoning me deeper into the dark.
Adrift in the sea of night,
I could not resist their siren’s call
and danced after them with mincing steps,
tempting them to play with me.
I knew not what I awoke in the dark until hungry eyes turned their attention toward me from the depths. Most surprising was, perhaps, my lack of surprise, but that did not diminish my horror and revulsion – even without seeing the demon who belonged to those menacing orbs. That was enough for me. Grateful for light, unencumbered feet, I rapidly retraced my earlier path, the memory of those cruel eyes etched in my mind, chasing me back to safer roads.
What do I see in the blackness, the seeming void that contains every thing? The answer to an unnamed hunger, a forbidden desire. Dare I seek it anew? Where is Ariadne’s thread to guide me safely back? What may I find at the end of the search? Be it monster, man, or me or all three? Must it be fed or flayed? There is no hero here, only a damsel unsure if there is cause for distress. May her battle-hardened hands remember their strength, should it be called for. But what, indeed, will the darkness call forth?