The nightmare flooded his consciousness and would not leave him. He recalled the two women lying in the bed, pleasantly waiting, exuding temptation with bodies shrouded in the cool whiteness of linen. "Kiss us, kiss us," they spoke through their veiled mouths. And in the dream he could not resist them. There was nothing unpleasant in their attitudes and in the enticing manner their eyes followed him. Decisively, with both hands, he slid the shroud of the first siren just enough to kiss the mouth beneath. As his lips molded onto its fullness, her lips turned to cold, hard stone. The eyes remained fixed in a glassy stare, and he saw as he looked closer that they were glass, and the head papier-mâché and porcelain. When he tore the entire shroud from her body he saw there was nothing beneath but decaying humus intermingled with twisting worms. The other girl began laughing out loud at his folly, and then he'd awaken.
But he was awake now as he approached the two girls, and that's when he remembered the nightmare. Fighting back misgivings he mounted the foot of the bed, and inched up the furrow between the two breathing bodies. The gentle rising and falling of sheets bore witness to natural physiology. He stared at them a long while, poised between them, unsure of what to do. Would they be real to the touch? His lids grew heavy under the ponderances. It became harder to hold them open. His thoughts drifted. The lids fluttered closed. "Go to sleep," the girls whispered to him. "We'll wait for you."
Story #318
7 comments:
Did he untie them or did they untie him?
Very spooky and well-told. Regarding the picture, though, are you sure those are women?
Dlak: Maybe it's a question of who's stalking who. I'm not sure.
Doug: Thanks. I think they're women. Why note life the covers and have a look?
Oh oh my God.. :)) again a very effective story! Where/How do you fit all those emotions in such a short story? You are able to drag the reader from one intense emotion to another equally intense but maybe exactly opposite and create this effective shock! Another thing, which is worth of envy, is the reality of it, the story has all the strange surealistic logics of a real nightmare. Very unpredictable the end of it. You never cease to amaze me.
"GO TO SLEEP, YOU TWO!" Mother shouted at them from the doorway of Kaitlyn's room. "I'm not going to let you have any more sleepovers if you can't be quiet!"
"Yes, Mom," Kaitlyn said, and Katherine added, "We're sorry, we'll try to be quiet." Mother turned away and closed the door, and the girls giggled (hushing themselves) as the darkness crecendoed to near-full other than what came through the partially open window.
A muffled male voice whispered from between their midsections, "Is she gone yet?" Kaitlyn lifted the sheet and said "yes!" and Katherine sunk her head back a little, adding "Man, that was close... I was sure your mom would see his heels between the stuffed animals at the foot of your bed."
Kaitlyn then staged-whispered under the cover, "Now get back to work."
Viruswitch: Your comments always make my day. I didn't know I was doing all that. Had I tried to, it probably wouldn't have worked. My muse deserves credit for the end. She told me my original end wasn't working, and then I blurted out the new one, which she approved of.
Mushroom: Sounds like a fun sleepover. Autobiographical? ;-)
:) I think your muse is a real one, like the ones of the ancient greece. The mythical entities that talked to poets and inspired them to write. Now we know whats really hidden behind your stories, hehe.
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