You Can't Run From The Dark

~Book Teaser~

Dessa found herself in an otherwordly forest. An ethereal mist coiled around the gnarled, impossibly large trees as well as the bio luminescent plants that nestled between them. The darkness of her surroundings swirled and undulated with colors that didn't exist in reality, like the night itself was a living thing. She knew immediately that she was dreaming, again. She had been in this very same forest too many times to count. It was a realm of disgusting, monstrous faeries with horns, claws, and sharp teeth, given life by the awful stories her Auntie had told her since she was a little girl. Realizing she was asleep, unfortunately, never allowed her to escape her nightmares, or the evil creatures that inhabited them. 

But this time was different. The faerie in front of her didn't look like the others, at all. It looked almost human. It was a man with two different colored eyes, and if it wasn't for those, or the strange shadows slithering across his skin like quivering tattoos, she would think that it  was a human. But humans were never a source of fear that fueled her nightmares. The only terrifying creatures that were drawn from her subconscious were evil faeries, so this was no human. This was definitely a faerie, and his mismatched eyes were locked on her.

"Do. Not. Run." The faerie spoke, his voice dripping with warning - each word laced with the threat of what would happen to her, if she disobeyed the command.

The strangest feeling came over her. She found herself wanting to come closer, rather than run away from the faerie, like an invisible force was drawing her to him, in spite of the warning, in spite of every rational part of her that knew it was the action of someone who had a death wish. She couldn't stop herself - her body moved of its own accord, and she took a step forward. As if responding to her increased proximity, the shadows suddenly lurched off of his skin, reaching toward her, before they were seemingly drawn back, twisting and turning as if they protested the retreat. The faerie glared at her, his differently colored eyes piercing into her like blades, and his teeth bared, revealing fangs that glinted in the darkness.

"Walk away." The faerie growled, vehemently, his voice reverberating through her body, and the forest around her. "Slowly."

Faeries chase if you run - she'd learned that much from all her other nightmares, as well as the many warnings from her Auntie growing up. She'd said that running triggered their instincts to chase. And too many times in her nightmares, she hadn't run fast enough, and she'd woken up screaming from the feeling of their claws on her face, and their teeth tearing the flesh from her bones. A faerie had never warned her not to run, they had always goaded her to do so, and cackled sadistically when she did as she was told. 

When she made no attempt to walk away, feeling frozen with indecision, the faerie's shadows wound toward her like smoky tendrils, as if the faerie was allowing them closer, to incite her to move her feet. To get away. When they reached her skin, she couldn't fight the surge of fear that suddenly gripped her heart. It was like the shadows were pouring terror into her body, and her eyes went wide at the feeling shuddering through her at their touch. She didn't want to run before the shadows touched her - she'd wanted to run toward the faerie, if anything, as batshit insane as that was. But now, the panic flooding through her made her body want to betray that ridiculous, magnetic pull, and run as fast as she could. 

Dessa stumbled back a step, her heart hammering in her chest. It was like the faerie could instantly sense her sudden desire to run, to disobey, and he narrowed his eyes at her, his shadows pulling back from her skin. The effort the faerie used to reel in his shadows seemed to be almost painful, and his jaw flexed as if he was gritting his teeth against their petulant writhing in the air in front of her. 

"Don't." 

This time, his warning quaked through the trees, rumbled from the ground, and the force of it was demonic. Dessa felt compelled to obey, her mind wanted to heed his command, but her body, still trembling from the terror his shadows injected into her veins, didn't listen. She turned and ran, her bare feet practically flying over the uneven terrain. The faerie roared in frustration, but she was too scared to look back. She could hear trees being uprooted behind her, feel his presence encroaching on her - she didn't need to look. She had to get away. Branches scratched at her face, twigs narrowly missed gouging out her eyes and ripped at her hair, trying to wrench her backward, and the dirt threatened to slide her feet out from underneath her. She couldn't breathe around the terror pressing in all around her. It couldn't be from the shadows now, the effects of their touch surely would have worn off, not long after they left her skin. It was from the very real fear of what would soon happen to her. What happened to her almost every time she tried to run from a faerie in her nightmares.

Tears stung her eyes - she didn't want to endure the pain again, but as she had done so many times before, a twisted tree root caught her by the ankle, and she tripped. She slammed onto the ground hard enough to bring stars to her eyes. The wind was knocked out of her, and she really couldn't breathe now. Her heart was in her throat, choking her, so even if the fall hadn't winded her, or running for her life - she knew she was done for. She rolled to her back, shaking like a leaf.

When the faerie descended upon her prone form and snatched her up, she couldn't even scream. She felt paralyzed by the shadows that wound around her like coiling snakes, as his body made contact with hers. 

"I told you not to run." 

The faerie looked furious, conflicted, and starving. Dessa closed her eyes, bracing for the inevitable moment when he would kill her, or devour her - shred apart her flesh with ease, and relish the taste of her blood. But instead of razor-sharp claws or gnashing teeth, she suddenly felt his lips crash against hers.