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Talia
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The peaceful life that I was watching my siblings have while at college started to dissolve. In its place was something that seemed a lot darker and scarier. I knew that it was just me drifting into a deeper sleep and not dreaming the things that I wanted to see anymore. In truth, this dream felt more like I was watching a movie that I had never seen before.
There was a woman that was maybe twenty or twenty-two years old. She had bright red and really curly hair. It looked short in her ponytail, but I knew that if it were stretched out, the hair would reach down to her lower back at the very least. She was pale and pretty with a splash of freckles on her nose and cheeks. Her eyes were really pretty as well, a bright green that looked like shining jewels.
She was tall, close to six feet tall or so, but she was skinny and looked very feminine. She was wearing a cute little summer dress that was white with pink flowers all over it. The strappy white sandals that she was wearing complimented it perfectly. She looked like she was ready for a date. She was standing in a parking lot overlooking a sandy beach that was bathed in darkness.
She was smiling. She was happy. There was nothing at all that seemed to be going wrong for her. I could literally feel the excitement that was buzzing inside of her chest. And the way that it buzzed even more when her phone rang. I think that she thought the person on the other end of the call was the person that she was waiting for.
.....
“Hey.” She answered the call excitedly. “No. I'm still waiting for her. I am so excited. I have wanted to go out with her for so long.” She seemed to be glowing a little in the moonlight and that made me suddenly think that this woman might be magical. Was she a witch? “Yeah, I will.” The girl laughed. “Oh come on. I will give you some details, but you don't need them all. You're my brother, for crying out loud.” She seemed to be having a good time. It was infectious. “Oh, I think she's here, I'll let you go.” She went to hang up the phone but said one more thing. “Yes, I will be careful. And I love you too.”
At that moment, the girl turned around. She was in the process of ending the call on her phone, but she didn't manage to do that just yet. The person she saw surprised her.
“Hey, you're not Ashlynn.” She was confused about something.
“Andrea! Andrea, what is going on!?” I could hear the girl's brother yelling from the other end of the call, but I couldn't see the person that had just arrived.
Suddenly, there was a flash of white light. It wasn't a big flash. It was just like something that lasted for a fraction of a second and was gone. A strobe light or something like that. The moment that the light flashed in front of the girl's eyes though, she was under some sort of trance.
“Give me that.” A man's voice called out to her.
“OK.” She lifted her hand in a very awkward way. It was like someone was moving her body for her. Still, the arm raised enough for the man to take the phone. That was when I was able to see him clearly. He was wearing a silver robe, but it wasn't reflecting the lights around him. That was odd.
“ANDREA!” The girl's brother was still calling out to her. “WHAT IS HAPPENING?!” The man didn't say anything into the phone, he just ended the call. He ignored the frantic brother and was focusing on the girl in front of him.
“Come with me.”
At that, the man started to walk away, down onto the beach. However, the moment that he moved, it was impossible for me to see him. I think that those robes, whatever they were, somehow made it harder to see him. Was it magic? Was it the material? Was it something else entirely? I didn't know, and that was enough to anger me.
“I am coming.” The girl started to follow him now. She was moving more naturally than she had when the man took the phone from her, but she still didn't seem to be moving of her own volition. I wondered for a moment if she was inside of her mind screaming at herself to stop. I had a feeling that she was.
The man was leading the girl all the way down to the edge of the water. I thought for a moment that he was going to go out into the ocean with her. However, at the last moment, he turned and started to walk toward the darkest part of the beach. There would be no light at all to see them by. And I could tell that it was rather late, close to ten or even later. There were not a lot of people around. Perhaps it was a weekday in this movie as well. I knew that it was Sunday when I went to sleep. Maybe that was the day that this was happening.
I knew that we were in the United States. Looking at the sighs, listening to the girl talk with her brother, I knew that we were in the US. However, I didn't know where. Were we on the east coast or the west coast? Where would I find this place if I was really there? I didn't know this place at all.
“We are here.” The man finally stopped at a particularly dark spot on the beach. I was able to see, but I knew that most people wouldn't be able to. Was this girl even able to see what was happening to her? “Lay here.” The man ordered her. I didn't have a very good feeling about this.
“OK.” The girl just obeyed him and did as he told her to. She was like a puppet to him. A puppet that he had full control over.
“It is so much easier when you monsters do what you are told.” There was a hint of mirth in the man's voice. “Then again, I do enjoy a fight from time to time.”
“I will do as you wish, Master.” She was completely brainwashed by this man. And I wasn't able to see him at all. His robes and the hood that was pulled up on them, hid him completely. All I could analyze was his voice. It was deep and commanding while also soft. He was not yelling or raising his voice, he was able to command this from her without much effort. However, there wasn't anything unique about the voice. It sounded like so many other men in the world. So many men that I knew.
“You can start by screaming when the time comes.” I didn't see it, but I could tell that he was smiling. I could hear it in his voice.
“Yes, Master. I will scream. Do what you will with me.”
I thought that he was going to take advantage of her. I thought that he was going to force himself on her in the most brutal of ways. But that wasn't it. In truth, I would have preferred that to what I did see.
The man took out a knife. He used it to start carving a symbol into her head. The moment that he was done, it glowed for a brief second. Whatever he had just done, the symbol had taken effect.
With tears in her eyes, some streaming down her cheeks, Andrea just laid there silent as the man started to carve another symbol into her chest. He had needed to cut the top of her dress and rip it open to accomplish this part of the task.
Andrea didn't say or do anything while the man put another mark on her. She didn't flinch, she didn't cry out, nothing. Just the silent tears running down her cheeks.
“You monsters look quite human most of the time, don't you?” The man cupped her breast and squeezed it briefly.
“We have to. We live with humans.” The girl was answering him in the manner that he wanted to be answered.
“Still, some of you are clearly not human. The colors of the hair or the eyes are just impossible. You are almost perfect. In truth, if it weren't for the magic that makes you different, no one could tell with you.” He pinched her nipple between his gloved fingers before letting her breast go altogether. “Are you ready to die, witch?” He sounded excited as he asked her this.
“No.” She spoke honestly and not in the manner that he wanted. His hypnotism was not powerful enough for that one.
“Well, too bad.” He laughed. I think he liked the answer that he got. “You will be dead soon enough. Go ahead and scream, if you can.”
With that his hand flashed out so quickly that I barely saw it. The light reflected off the blade in his hand as he slashed it across her throat. I had heard Andrea take a breath and prepare to scream, but he had already cut her throat so deeply that she couldn't manage it. It was all coming out as nothing more than breathless puffs until she couldn't draw a breath anymore.
“I know you're in there. And I know that you will feel all of this.” He leaned in close to her and kissed her cheek. “I am going to enjoy this.”
