I should have been content with where I was going instead of being obsessed with where I had been. Everything in my mind told me to forget the sounds of laughter and evil behind me but, finally exiting the woods, I could no longer resist the urge to see what was chasing me. As I began to crane my neck to catch a glimpse of what was at my heels, my body was suddenly overcome by an unconscious paralysis. Off in the distance to my right was a woman, a magnificent creature, I could not quite make out her face but her presence alone was enough to make time stand perfectly still. My legs stopped moving for the first time in God only knows how long, but my mind was too preoccupied to experience the relief, or to any longer fear the chase.
The long, flowing gown looked as thought it had been radiant at one point but in the final rays of the setting sun, and on the canvas of a decaying wood, it seemed oddly macabre. The sides of her garb were town and revealed hips that would stop any man dead in his tracks. I was no exception. Her shoes at one point had been lovely stems that I am sure only accentuated her unending and tantalizing legs, but now they resembled a sort of moccasin, sitting flat to the ground, the sides withered from a weary travel. Her face was covered with a veil that somehow managed to still display her radiance. There was nothing that anyone could say or do at this point, no one thing that could happen that would stop me from moving towards her. A slender hand unsheathed itself from the sleeve of her dress and beckoned for me to follow. Not even the promise of perfection radiating from the golden city was enough to persuade my stride in any direction but hers.
It was then I noticed a cease in the approaching footsteps. As I rediscovered control of my body I quickly turned around, but found nothing. Only a soft breeze and a decorated forest greeted my stare. My breathing had steadied itself and I was no longer sweating profusely. My legs did not ache, my muscles were not tired, my heart was not pounding. My Mind was as clear as I could ever remember it being and the paranoia that had gripped me so mercilessly now seemed like a distant torture, forgotten swiftly with little effort. I urgently threw my eyes back to the woman in white. I knew there was no resisting the tangled web of her secret fantasy. In infatuation was strangling me with a fury that I could find nothing that mattered more to me in that instant than the sweet Temptress draped in tattered cloth.
I had not taken notice to the dilapidated house in front of which she stood. I did not see the broken stairs, the sunken foundation, the cracks in the walls, the cobwebs in the windows. I did not see her turn and open the door to the unknown, leaving me alone in the dusk. I only saw her veil blow in the breeze, revealing my weakness, as she crossed the threshold and into the building that I was now standing directly in front of. The golden city was a distant memory. I was no longer being pursued, as the prey had poetically become the predator. I lowered my shoulder and crashed through the locked entrance of my own obsession. If I'd only known the Hell that awaited me. If only I had never witnessed the vile Temptress perched in front of my own prison, I could have spent eternity sipping on blood of the chaste and dining on the body of the austere in a city only dreams are made of. Instead, as I slammed the door shut behind me, I found myself wishing I had heard the vociferous laughter of curiosity one moment sooner; and that I had noticed what was hiding beneath that hideous veil.
