The Shadows & The man
I awoke in the dream standing in a room talking to a man, I could hear the sound of words but I couldn’t see us talking, It seemed like a hushed conversation with muddled words, he stood closely in front of me facing my direction but straight forward and somewhat off to the side, his face was completely out of sight but his voice replied to me in a soft masculine voice, words which I cannot remember.
Suddenly the dream changed, and I was walking down a dimly lit hallway, it looked like that of an old Victorian house, dimly lit by hanging metal lanterns that had candles inside flames dancing all on their own, I always found that the other worlds had a sort of unexplainable light breeze, all I could see around the light of the lanterns was darkness, a type of darkness that was thick and tangible, slight silhouettes of detail on the frames of paintings and the wall light only slightly by the candle light, otherwise nothingness surrounding me, like being in a silent pitch black void, but only for a moment
Shadows flew around me constantly making odd echoing banshee like sounds, creeping out from crevasses in every inch of the house; I stopped at the open door of a room that was empty and dimly lit by one lightbulb in an old style lantern-like light , the floors a glossy light tan wood, trimmed but everything else blurred around into darkness, I suddenly went from looking in the room to standing in the center of it.
A shadow appeared in front of me in the form of a man, I could see the details of a masculine figure like a man made of pure black smoke, a sliver of a human face peaked out of the smoke, I could only see some of this beings face but what I could see what beautiful, flawless pale skin, rosy lips and dark eyebrows fit to match the darkness of his eyes, the color completely wiped from my memory but I do know like all of them they were not natural.
Little by little I noticed the smoke fading away to reveal his human as he darted from one side of the room to the other, like a shadow escaping the light till he was no longer a shadow only a tall, lean handsome man.
Though I did feel cautious of him, I felt the need to stay still and watch his every move, I could feel his thoughts, he wanted me to fear him yet was amused that I was being so brave to not run away like a coward.
“Brave girl-” the sentence trailed off as he zipped from one side of the room to the other, his words sounded like something from a horror movie, mixed with the voice of a young man yet he sounded slightly off.
“I can see why he choose you” I could hear a grin in his voice
“Worthy of a king…” it came out Moreso as a growl as his words trailed off
“You see-you should try me on for size” he suddenly stopped Infront of me and floated closer and closer till our faces were too close for comfort.
“He really-truly -cares for you” he stated answering a question that lingered in the air.
“Good match” he said as if giving some kind of approval
Threw his muffled talking and fast-paced movements, he shapeshifted to a handsome man dressed in 1800’s Louisiana gentlemen’s clothes a tan suite and red and white striped tie, then back to a shadow creature with red eyes, he was handsome, but his energy was so unstable I was slightly scared but more put off.
He gurgled when he talked his voice a slight southern Louisiana accent and something else, like an old dialect -Mesopotamian is the first thing that came to mind, it was like I was seeing many different versions of him as he shifted from form to form quickly.
“Brave girl- I like you” he smirked with a mouth of sharp teeth as he darted from left to right all around the room never staying still but for a moment; to be around him felt wind blowing around me , like a thick kind of humidity hung in the air; suddenly I heard doors slam and a loud deep voice yelling in the distance calling out to someone, like a challenge.
I didn’t jump but he did, he looked into the pitch-black darkness behind me like he was disassociating; I felt that he could see through the house, he then looked back at me and smirked, in the blink of an eye he darted into the darkness and disappeared.
A man walked into the room but I couldn’t see him “are you ok-” he was cut off as my sons cries filled the air, quickly the scene changed to me speed walking down the same dark hallway frantically looking for my son, I heard my sons cries grow louder and louder as I approached a room, I threw open the door and ran into the room with a large white bed in the center of it, looking like any room in the darkness of night in someone’s house, the room was dimly lit by two lamps on either side of the bed, I saw a tall cloaked masculine figure standing there in front of a window watching and looking in the direction of a closet that had two white wooden sliding doors that were wide open, I turned and looked inside of the closet and there was my son crying in frustration at the fact that his toys had fallen in a pile in front of him on the floor, in front of him was a large octagonal wooden toy box with counting toys on top and a city scene all over it .
I scooped him up and hugged him tightly, he clung to me and I looked back to see my husband stood by the door where the man would have been, I knew he wasn’t my husband but I knew he was only wearing a mask to comfort me, I turned my attention back to the figure that still stood there unmoving “you were supposed to be protecting him!” I shouted at the shadow “he’s ok, only traveling -here with him- safe- nothing gets in” its deep voice with a Nordic accent, cutting in and out.
I was suddenly awoken, and the dream ended there.
Author. NP
09/05/2024
Note: that none of these images are my own, only used as the closest visual descriptors of what I’ve seen In my “dreams” (collected from Pinterest)
