Devil in the Dark

Chapter 2

It had been a week since the club. Taliyah had just come home from her job at the tattoo parlor. Her body sore, her mind beyond exhausted. It was around one in the morning and, lucky for her, she didn't have a shoot scheduled for tomorrow. Nor did she have to be back at the parlor until Monday.

The woman dragged herself into her quiet little two bedroom apartment ready to crash.

"Honey, I'm home" She joked, locking the door behind her and heading straight to her bed. Once her back hit the mattress, she was out like a light.

Taliyah hadn't moved at all that night. Not once did she stir. Her mind, however, was on haywire. It was a very common dream for Liyah. She knew exactly what would happen next, but she was incapable of reacting.

Taliyah was just living in the moment, running through a field of flowers that she couldn't identify. Not that she cared to identify them. They were an ashy grey. Soft to the touch, and their smell was a familiar one that she couldn't really pin point. Sweet, but slightly musky with notes of spice.

Liyah bent down to get a whiff of the lovely flower, but paused when she felt the ground begin to shake beneath her feet. Looking up, she could see the moon staring down at her.

'What?' She thought. 'It's the middle of the day.'

It didn't take long to realize that the moon was getting bigger, or...more like closer. Fast. Her body began to shake. She wanted to do something. Run. Scream. Maybe warn anyone else that may be nearby, but she didn't. Deep down, she knew that she would be okay...

Not even two seconds later, the ground beneath her opened up and swallowed her whole.

Her eyes shot open, but her body wouldn't move. She tried to wiggle her fingers and toes, but it was as if her body had been set inside of cement. It was still quite dark out. The glowing red numbers on her nightstand revealing that she'd only gotten an hour and a half of sleep. Her eyes rolled in frustration.

A moment later, she looked over to see something begin to materialize in the corner of her room. It was big and dark. You could see what looked to be a very thick, controlled cloud of smoke twisting and turning about the weird creature is if it were a pet of some sort.

Its hair was big like that of a lion, yet it reached down and kissed the dark brown carpet every now and then. The longer Liyah looked at the creature, the more she started to realize that it's features resembled that of a human, but...different? It looked to be a woman. The clothes she wore reminded Taliyah somewhat of a movie she had seen when she was younger. The outfit was one of dark silk-like fabric. The top resembling that of a neatly pleated, wrapped bandeau. The bottoms, loincloths. Strings of pearlescent beads connecting the front and back fabrics at her hips.

The woman's skin was a matte black color, as if made of charcoal. She was so tall that she had to bend her knees a little to fit inside of the room. Her head tilted downward, Taliyah was yet to see her face.

"I shrink myself to fit inside, only to still be too big. Of all the-" The woman stopped mid-sentence, looking up at the paralyzed human before her.

Everything stopped for Taliyah. Not only was her body frozen, but it felt as if her mind had froze as well. She couldn't think. It had gotten even harder to breathe. The only thing she could do was look into the woman's eyes.

Her eyes.

Her bright silver eyes.

Eyes Taliyah could've sworn she had seen in her dreams. Dreams that she had regularly, as if they were all in a repeating playlist.

"It's you. It's really you. I've found you!" Said the woman as she slowly made her way to Taliyah. Liyah's heartbeat sped up, making the woman stop in her tracks.