Categories > TV > Sentinel
nightmare
It started first as a vague sensation of pressure, of a weight with no determinable source on his chest that increased as he came to awareness of it, until it grew oppressive and even his breathing became a laborious, wholly conscious activity. He opened his eyes, but could see nothing in the deep, velvet darkness all about him, then his eyes began to adjust, and it seemed that the darkness itself gathered and resolved into the shadowy form that settled itself over him and the sensation of weight took its shape even as he watched in unemotive fascination.
Hesitantly, he reached up and put his hands on it, trying to push, pull it away, but the sleek black pelt offered him no grip, and his hands slid through the short fur ineffectually. As if acknowledgment gave it existence in reality, or his dream, he felt and heard the heart beating, over his own and under his hands, heard the whooshing of air through its lungs and nostrils, smelled the blood-tainted breath overlaying the beast's own musky scent.
Calm eyes lambent in the gloom opened, and the powerful head turned this way and that, looking about his room in idle curiosity, glancing over him with no more than token interest, and that slight, to be regarded and dismissed as merely a convenient perch, from a creature which had entered his life unwanted and imposed itself so totally on him, was more than he could stand, and he spoke to it at last.
"Why are you here?" he asked, and it flicked its ears unconcernedly. "I killed you," he accused, and it fixed its eyes on him at last, whiskers testing the currents of his breath as it flexed its claws, kneading his chest in gentle warning, not breaking the skin but letting him know of the potential for pain. "Why did you come back?"
It yawned, revealing an impressive set of long, sharp teeth, and the odor of blood and raw flesh intensified, making him gag and struggle for breath momentarily. Uncaring, it lay motionless atop him, blinking lazily, content where it was, and he too remained in place, acutely aware of its presence and weight. Its heartbeat and breathing thrummed in sync with his own, the warmth of the sinewy body an almost visible aura melded to his body heat, and he could draw no breath untainted by blood and musk, until it seemed his own scent, and he could no longer tell one from the other save for the unmoving weight pressing on him.
So they lay in disquiet harmony with each other, until it faded in the first cold rays of dawn.
He continued to feel the weight, even after it was gone.
It started first as a vague sensation of pressure, of a weight with no determinable source on his chest that increased as he came to awareness of it, until it grew oppressive and even his breathing became a laborious, wholly conscious activity. He opened his eyes, but could see nothing in the deep, velvet darkness all about him, then his eyes began to adjust, and it seemed that the darkness itself gathered and resolved into the shadowy form that settled itself over him and the sensation of weight took its shape even as he watched in unemotive fascination.
Hesitantly, he reached up and put his hands on it, trying to push, pull it away, but the sleek black pelt offered him no grip, and his hands slid through the short fur ineffectually. As if acknowledgment gave it existence in reality, or his dream, he felt and heard the heart beating, over his own and under his hands, heard the whooshing of air through its lungs and nostrils, smelled the blood-tainted breath overlaying the beast's own musky scent.
Calm eyes lambent in the gloom opened, and the powerful head turned this way and that, looking about his room in idle curiosity, glancing over him with no more than token interest, and that slight, to be regarded and dismissed as merely a convenient perch, from a creature which had entered his life unwanted and imposed itself so totally on him, was more than he could stand, and he spoke to it at last.
"Why are you here?" he asked, and it flicked its ears unconcernedly. "I killed you," he accused, and it fixed its eyes on him at last, whiskers testing the currents of his breath as it flexed its claws, kneading his chest in gentle warning, not breaking the skin but letting him know of the potential for pain. "Why did you come back?"
It yawned, revealing an impressive set of long, sharp teeth, and the odor of blood and raw flesh intensified, making him gag and struggle for breath momentarily. Uncaring, it lay motionless atop him, blinking lazily, content where it was, and he too remained in place, acutely aware of its presence and weight. Its heartbeat and breathing thrummed in sync with his own, the warmth of the sinewy body an almost visible aura melded to his body heat, and he could draw no breath untainted by blood and musk, until it seemed his own scent, and he could no longer tell one from the other save for the unmoving weight pressing on him.
So they lay in disquiet harmony with each other, until it faded in the first cold rays of dawn.
He continued to feel the weight, even after it was gone.
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