Dream

The lustrous moon shone through the elaborate stained glass casting soft rays upon the marble walls within the old castle. Detailed draperies covering most the wall, shimmered softly in the moonlight telling of ancient stories of dragon and magic. I walked alone through the hall, barefooted against the worn red carpet, my eyes trailing along the reds, blues and silvers,:even though I knew each stitch by heart. It was chilly as usual, and I had the thick fur blanket wrapped around my thin shoulders, my unnaturally pale hair draped down to the middle of my back. As a draft broke through the warm barrier of the pelt like blanket I stopped to turn around. I had the strangest feeling like there was something colder than the night breathing down my neck. My eyes glistened as I looked through the dimly lit corridor, holding the pelt against me tightly but saw nothing but shadowy emptiness. Till something came from the shadows, a thick tall figure. My heart jumped a beat. Besides me there should be no one in this part of the castle. Not the few staff that looked after me nor the night guard. Though there was one that sometimes would follow me close behind on such nights.

 

        "Adelbert is that...you?"

My voice seemed to have been swallowed whole by the space there between me and the figure standing at the end of the long corridor for there was no reply to it. Adelbert, was the captain of the guard and a close companion when others shunned him for it. Though I knew in my heart that it was not him, even though it looked to be about his height and width.

If it wasn't Adelbert...I gulped and took a shaky step back. Had someone sneaked in to kill the freak?

As my heart beat quick in my chest, the figure took a step forward, a frigid wind blowing from it that caught at the blanket and sleeping gown, and my long white hair.  It became a ferocious gale that blew at me, yet I was frozen to the spot. I wanted to run as I saw the figure began to glow with an insidious reddish light, but it seemed the cold wind had frozen my limbs and I would not, could not, budge an inch. 

"Murderer.....Murderer!" Came the cry from the figure and I clamped my hands over my ears. The cry ripped at my ears and mind and caused warm blood to trickle down my ears from the sheer force of it. I screamed and shut my eyes tightly. 

"No, no no!"

The wind stopped. The cries ceased. I stood shaking waiting. Had...it left? I opened my eyes to look straight into the red gaze. "Murderer" Came the voice from the shade, now soft and sinister before it jabbed its arm into my gut, warm blood spilling out and pain. Great pain.

I awoke screaming, cold sweat on my brow, shaking. One. Two. Three. I took deep breaths and trembled. It was only a dream. I balled up my fists against the heavy blankets as i fought to gain control of my breathing. One. Two. Three. Deep breath. Why again? This was the fourth time this week I had faced the shadow man in my dreams. All within the castle that I called home. In the book study. In the mess hall. In my room. And now in Maize Corridor. What is the meaning of this horrid apparition? 

"Why do you haunt me.." My long white hair fell over my face as I sat still, half bent over. The pain was so real this time. Could it be true? What that old showy magician had said so long ago? It was nearing my eighteenth birth night and there were times while I was awake I felt vile things...but wasn't it only because it was the bitterness of being put out of the way by fearful people? To be cast out because the words of a strange old man?

Author's Note

ignore grammar in some places