Delicate as the wings of a butterfly, her fingers float over the bare expanse of skin under her own. His chest expands slowly with the even breaths of sleep as she loses herself in the intricate landscape of his flesh. Her fingertips tingle at the tugging grasp of hairs where they lay scattered over his heart, the muscle in her chest beats a frantic tempo in a bid to keep up with the emotions crowding her throat. Touch softer than a feather’s tip, she runs her fingers over the rise of his pec then down the divot of his belly-button. Each inch a new parcel of land to explore, every brush a pleasant surprise though she has followed their paths more than a few times. 

Darkness holds them in the softened arms of midnight, shadows dance at the edges of her vision, yet her attention doesn’t waver. The world dulls around them, nothing more than background to the simple sounds of their love, even in his sleep. Despite the worries and anxiety pooling in the corners of her mind, her eyes drift closed gently. A sigh shifts its way free of her lips, they curl in a gentle smile as his heartbeat reverberates steady and solid in the curve of her ear.

Tha-thump. Tha-thump. The hiss of air being drawn in. Tha-thump. Tha-thump. Whoosh.

With her eyes closed to the world beyond, her fingers tracing the hills and valleys of his ribcage, the music of him settles deep into her bones. Her skin rises in a shiver, goosebumps press toward the surface, though she chooses to believe they are her emotions attempting to escape. Surely she cannot contain such a vast depth of love within the confines of her simple body…

His warmth seeps into her. Through the press of her cheek. Through wandering fingers. Where her legs twine themselves with his. She moulds her body as tightly to his as possible, as though if she could just get close enough, maybe that distance would no longer exist. Maybe the panic in her mind would dull and she could believe that tonight would be easy. Sleep tugs at the edges of her mind, it presses her to find that happy place in her mind. 

Impossible. 

Her happy place is right here.

The curl of his arm around her back, his fingers where they had rested on her waist have slowly drifted down the planes of her spine. Sleep painting them lack, the muscles relaxed to the point that they cannot recall just what they were holding onto. Even that remnant, the weight of his hand where it has settled against the bed still brushing against her back, is enough. She tries with all her might to hold onto the beauty of the simplicity around her.

She knows what presence awaits the moment her eyes close for the night. Terrors from nights past flicker in the recesses of her mind, promises of worse to come. There’s always something worse waiting around the corner. Sharp blue, wreathed with shadows, her eyes strain themselves to the brink of burning as she focuses on his face once more.

Her eyes jump from the sharp line of his jaw to the gentle curve of his cheek, the clear relief of his nose points straight up into the air. Regal by any other name. Black as ink, his eyelashes rest softly in the gentle curve between his eyes and the rise of his cheekbones. For a moment she convinces herself that she is close enough to count them one by one. Surely that would be enough to keep her awake...she gives up at twenty. They’re much too intertwined to be able to count without pulling apart, without awakening him in her stubborn refusal to sleep. Instead, she lifts a single finger up to trace the line of his nose and the touch elicits a grumble from him. Her own eyelids drift, heavy, so heavy. 

Inescapable. Sleep gives her a violent yank and she tumbles into it before she can register just what has happened. The darkness all around invades her mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Music, ethereal, haunting, golden. It dances on the wind, a braced memory which unfurls the images around her mind. Even as she is roughly dropped into her predetermined place within the dream she tries with all of her might to break free. She knows the truth. Her eyes capture the flickering edges of the vision with ease after so many times. They always hover there, frayed, just out of her reach awaiting a gentle tug to unravel it all. Teasing her.

Ivory marble columns rise around the small form of her body, slick marble shimmers underfoot. Whispering voices echo from the depths of rooms unseen, already her mind recoils from it. There is nothing beyond the columns, she knows it, she has searched time and time again. They stretch onward forever, the source of the voices never to be found, the dark marble underfoot never ending. Not even a carpet to warm the bare planes of her feet.

Goosebumps arch over her skin, though this time they are not filled with anything other than the weight of cold around her shoulders. It rests like a twenty pound blanket on the sharp planes of her shoulder blades and digs itself into her. Ice runs tepid through her veins. Her only clothing is a gauzy sundress, pink, and cut barely above her knees. Nothing she would have ever chosen to wear in her day to day life. The voices mingling with the music weave a discordant melody which settles itself into her very marrow. Tears prick at the corners of her eyes as she begs silently within her mind.

Please no, not another night. I can’t take another night.

“Then return to me.” A disembodied voice echoes from everywhere and nowhere at once, it’s timbre strikes a chord within her. Her body trembles like a tuning fork as that voice sends shock waves of anger and fear coursing through her. Nearly two months...two months since he had found her again… There was no doubt she would awaken again tomorrow with black bags under the vibrant blue of her eyes. That first night he had returned she had been foolish enough to believe it was nothing more than memories haunting her. She had learned the truth swiftly enough.

Molten steel poured down the length of her spinal cord and she pulled her shoulders back sharply. Small but solid, her fingers closed themselves into fists so tightly that her nails bit deep into her palm. A feeling akin to tears rolling over her cheeks filled both palms and she knew she had drawn blood. Those half-moons would be there when she woke. The lines of her face melted from the softness of dread into the heft of rage tinted just barely with the tension which wound through her muscles. Yet before she ever allowed the word to pass her lips, there was already the sensation of tiny insect legs crawling invisible over her skin. 

“Never.”

She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of speaking to him through her mind. Before had been a momentary lapse, she would not allow him any further into the depths of her skull again. She might not know all the rules, but she would not fold to his game. Her gaze scanned, it hunted through the empty corridor which stretched before and behind her. In spite of the face she put on to stare him down, her dread still coiled, a snake ready to strike, within the cavity of her abdomen. Not that there was even anyone to stare down.

Silence echoed between them for a moment before he allowed the whispers and music to pick back up again. Her stomach flipped as the discordant sounds stretched and collapsed around her. They rose and dipped in pitch with seemingly no direction, but he certainly had a method for it. Each time the sounds shifted slightly it jarred her senses, they stayed in the same sequence for long stretches of time, she was on edge the entire span, knowing it was coming.

Midnight blue shifted from column to column. She spun in a steady circle, always keeping her eyes up and forward. Tension bled into every cell of her body. Quivers from the feeling of those invisible legs trailed from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. Over and over and over.

Her teeth ground so firmly together that she felt her jaw, or was it her tendon? give a snap at the building pressure. Within her mind she tugged up all the images of her love which she could and filled every inch of free space. His royal nose, tilted upward with laughter, brilliant ice-colored eyes flashing with danger as he stalked her. Soft lips drifting downward towards her own. Her heart skittered at that one and a flaming blush made its way up to the apples of her cheeks.

ROAR!!

Black fur surged at her, at twisted amalgamation of cat and dog, wolf maybe? The sound which left its lips sounded like a mountain lion’s war cry. Every instinct in her body screamed at her to get away. Her legs vaulted her to the side as monstrous canines as long as her hand smashed into the column behind where she had been standing. Adrenaline pumped her muscles at full speed down the never-ending hallway. The futility of it sang in her blood alongside that adrenaline, but she just could not shut down the instinct. It didn’t matter when the creature captured her; she knew it was going to be torment. All she could do was give herself a little more time before that agony took over all of her senses.

Behind her the creature roared again, anger at losing its prey evident in the aching quality to its voice. Huge paws thundered against the floor behind her, she could already feel its fetid breath on the back of her calves. Her short legs threw her forward with leaps and bounds but it would never be enough. He would never allow it to be enough. Tears streamed freely down her face No matter how many times she told herself it was a dream she couldn’t forget the force of the pain to come, it was as true as anything she had ever felt.

Through the halls his laughter crawled over the ceiling, weighted with pain, despite how she hated it she knew the truth of how he felt. 'He only hurt her because he loved her.' Gods, how many times had he whispered that to her? How many nights had she spent fearing his grasping fingers and tormented mind?

Memories of those days tainted her mind. Walls so similar to those currently trapping her, albeit with actual rooms beyond them, and a life filled with everything she had ever wanted could never be enough to make her return to that horrible existence. Her mind crawled with the remembered pressure of his abilities against the neurons and connections which made her, her. He’d threatened to rip those connections apart so many times with nothing more than a thought. If this torment every night was the price she had to pay to be free of his grasp she would pay it.

Suddenly she felt the phantom press of his palm against her shoulder and everything within her recoiled. Her body shot itself backward. She landed hard on her back, prone before the spot he should have been. Aches rose in the bony planes of her bottom as her eyes searched aggressively in front of her for his face, there was nothing more than that phantom hand. It still curled possessively over the rise of her shoulder, his slender fingers bit into the upper most part of her back. His breath shivered over the curve of her ear. A ghost with the worst of intentions.

His laughter crawled through her again, it came from less than an inch from her ear and her mind recoiled. Teeth, many more and much sharper than that of a shark, bit deep into her shoulder where his hand had rested mere seconds before. They ground against bone, tore her muscles to shreds. Her scream crested to the heavens. Octaves above where it should have been. That music overlaying everything finally stopped as the creature bit as deeply as possible into the rough terrain of her shoulder. The voices turned from gently disturbing whispers into the cackles and jeering of people enjoying a show laid bare before them.

Copper hit the air heavy as her blood rushed from the wounds. Her voice might have broken the sound barrier with her scream as the creature burrowed into her flesh and whipped its head from side to side. Little more than a buck thirty, her body moved with it. There was nothing on the floor for her to grasp and brace herself, her blood only served to make it easier. A loud snap rang out through the corridor as her shoulder dislocated under the attack. 

Within the cavity of her skull, her mind ran at a million miles per hour, trying with all of its might in order to keep her distracted. Think of something, anything else. Her heart beat erratically in her chest, pumping her full of energy and drenching her with hormones she could possibly do anything with while in the jaws of that beast. She begged for it to be over, to just wake up, as agony seared through her veins. It felt as though she was being cauterized from the inside out due to the venom of the demonic animal.

Until it stopped.

Everything froze. The voices died away. Music cut off. Even the animal devouring her became a block of stone with its teeth in her shoulder. A variation from the normal. White-blonde hair shimmered into view first, then a face with features much softer than those of her love, in spite of the heavy golden beard which obscured it. His wide shoulders, clothing in a deep charcoal suit, and his thick hands where they always inevitably fell. Twisting together just below the gentle protrusion of his stomach. He looked the same as he had every day of the five years she had spent locked up in his home.

“Frederick.” She ground his name out from between her teeth, pain still lanced through her arm while the creature remained frozen. Hatred coated every syllable of his horrible name as her eyes spat acid up toward him. To anyone else he might have appeared a gentle-mannered businessman. A sweet, charismatic man ready to sweep her away to all the corners of the globe. But she knew better, now.

“F-Firefly,” he whispered his pet name for her and she snapped her teeth closed. His heavy blue gaze pierced hers pleadingly.

“Come on my love, just come home with me. You know how much I abhor this.”

His laughter before insinuated otherwise. History insinuated otherwise. She bared her teeth at him in a snarl before spitting on the floor at his feet. As if he was hurt by this. He wasn’t the one spending every night being torn to shred by figments of his imagination. The sickly sweet presence of his mind pressed against hers, searching for an entrance, pushing to find her weak spot. She slammed the wall she had been working on into place around the center of her being.

“You’re nothing more than trash, a devil willing to tear people to shred for his own torment. As if I would ever willingly return to that pit of Hell you call a home.”

The weight of all of her emotions lent themselves to those words, she could see the way that they punched into his gut. He reeled a couple steps backward from her and she bathed in the satisfaction of having thrown him off. Such a hard task to accomplish most days.

Hellfire lifted in the icy hue of his gaze and his soft caterpillar lips lifted into a sneer.  Gone was any hint of the longing which had flickered behind his eyes. No longer did he give off the vibe of a businessman. Power and anger poured off of him to tint the air red in their vigor. There was her tormentor.

“Well then darling, I guess I’ll just have to keep on breaking you down. Bit by bit. Day by day. You know my patience lasts longer than your own, my little firefly.”

Life flashed back into action. The creature ripped its head to the side again and sent her flying. Her body slammed into a pillar and crumpled at the bottom, the lungs in her chest wheezed in an attempt to grasp air. Even if it was nothing more than a shred. Darkness flickered in the whites of her eyes.