The morning
On any given day, I would have dismissed it as a dream. It seemed certainly odd enough, but when I woke, my treasure gone. There was a large mark in the dust on my mahogany dresser where it had been. It was a heart shattering loss, but the price at which I bargained it, seemed, not only fair, but necessary.
10 hours earlier
The crooked hands of the oak tree trailed shadows across the carpet of my bedroom. The chiming of the grandfather watch, told me that it was midnight.
I looked on my large bedroom miles from sleep. Across from me was my mahogany dresser, on which I had put my collection. I had the most extensive one in all of northern Europe and I loved to lead guests in here, for them to gush at my findings. There were rare finds and beautiful delicacies among them, but my true pride and joy was my treasure. I had won it in a collectors auction, where the stakes had risen so high, that I nearly fainted with delight, when I won. Since then the offers from other collectors had rolled in, but I had never sold it, there just wasn’t a price that would be worth it.
The wind blew my floor length curtains across the carpet, revealing the full moon. It chilled me to the bone.
But I had not left the window open, as a matter of fact; I had very fervently shut it, to keep out the December breeze. I tried to stand up, but nothing happened. Alarmed I tried again, but not so much as my little toe flexed. Scared I started to look frantically around the room and that was when I noticed him. At first he was nothing but a slender silhouette framed by the open window. But as he stepped out of the shadows, the fullness of his magnificence caught my eye and made me loose my breath. He was deathly pale, and the moonlight that trailed across his perfectly lined face made him look like a Greek god. He wore a tailored suit that traced his body with the ease and perfection of a movie star and his hair, while wild and untamed, fell across his face as though it had been set by a professional hairdresser. But even though his appearance was breathtaking, the bile rose in my throat as he walked towards me at a deliberately slow pace.
With every miniscule step he took, I knew I was welcoming death. It was hard to make out in the gloom, but I could have sworn that with the quickening pace of my heart a sly smile grew on his lips.
After what seemed like an eternity of horror he finally towered over me, with his cold eyes luminescent against the dark room. They were filled with an animal kind of lust that made my already faint breath shallow.
He bent his long slender frame down over me and for the first time I was able to see his entire face. He had features that would make any male model seem hideous by comparison, but his mouth, though nothing short of perfect, was displaying a set of fangs that made the blood frees in my veins.
“Good evening Charles” he said in a beautiful tenor, as he sat down on the edge of my bed, seemingly to torture me by upholding the inevitable.
“I have been looking forward to this for a long time” he looked down at me again; his beautiful black eyes now a picture of pure desire.
“You have a beautiful life here” his tone was seductive as he gestured to the entire room.
I followed his gaze as he started eying the room. He gazed at my exotic furs, he stared at my beautiful leather furniture and he viewed my exquisite carpets.
“but for all your wealth, you cannot avoid the reaper when he comes in a shape as…” he still wasn’t looking at me when he started what was clearly meant to be quite the monologue, but when his eyes fell on my dresser he paused, Squinted, Looked again and then addressed me in a much different tone.
“Is that… that’s a 1975 Afro dream Barbie in the original packaging, isn’t it?” his tone peaked with a light yelp of excitement as he recognized the model. I still couldn’t talk, or even move my head to nod, but I tried to convey the message of “yes, yes it is!” through my eyes. He looked at me, then, loosing patients, spoke again.
“Well is it?” his tone was much harsher this time around.
When I still didn’t answer he looked at me angrily, then gave a short laugh and all of a sudden I regained movement. With a little jerk I fell back on to the pillow. I hadn’t realized it, but I had been paralyzed in a very awkward position, which made me sore all over. The soreness only added to my confusion as I broke in to a disjointed rant.
“yes, yes it is! It was really hard to get; you know, they only ever made 50 of them and I got this one at an auction; you know it cost me 20.000 $ because I had to outbid this drag queen who was dressed as the doll itself, she tried to attack me later in the parking lot and wrestle it out of my hands…” I had to stop for air. I couldn't help but notice the tall stranger hanging on my every word. He started eyeing me, not with the lust he had once held, but rather with a childish kind of glee.
“ yeah, yeah and you know the reason they only made 50 of them was that the African American society found them racially insensitive and ordered a boycott of the factory. I remember, because it was the year I tried bangs; and let me tell you, they did not work for me…” he continued my rant, without as much as a breath. It was obvious that this was a topic of particular interest for him.
Though I was fascinated by the depth of his knowledge, I stated to notice his face in more detail. It may be that the light was dim, but I could have sworn that his nose was quite crooked and that his lips were really thin and chapped. His cheekbones were high and he had great shadows under his eyes. All these things combined made him look like the villain of a 1930’s cartoon.
It was safe to say that the appeal that had once drawn me to this mysterious character was quickly evaporating; and I started to mind that he was the person who was going to be responsible for my demise.
As he talked, I tried to find a way to angle myself out of the situation. It was obviously not possible to escape from this strange creature and talking him out of my upcoming execution seemed a futile option; so I settled on bribery.
Very subtly, I cleared my throat. He looked at me with mock shock, but let me speak.
“Are you still planning to feast on me” I said in a tone much more level than my emotions were. He shrugged and nodded nonchalantly starring me in the eyes.
“But you know, not for a while” he added quickly, as if that excused it.
“May I then offer you a compromise?” I was barely able to hold my cool as my voice broke on the last note of me sentence.
“What?” his voice was curious, but apprehensive. Having people beg for their lives was obviously not something new to him.
“You can have it!” I blurted out.
He looked at me puzzled.
“You can have the Barbie, it's yours. As long as you leave with it right now and never return.”
He looked at me for a while dumbstruck and then wide smile spread across his face as he realized what I was saying. He looked from me to the Barbie and back.
“Really?” his question was mostly rhetorical, but I nodded anyway. He was across the room in a flash cradling the brightly colored package in his arms.
“Edward and Emmet are gonna freak” he squealed as he looked at the thin plastic figurine.
He looked up at me for one last time, gratitude lining every angle of his face, and was gone. The only thing he left was a slight gust of wind in the curtains.
I stared at the empty space on my dresser for a long time after that, but eventually I walked across the room and shut the window. Though it was dark I swore that I could see the faint trace of glitter run across my porch
