Encounter

I am feeling cold… It’s such a deep feeling that I can’t tell if it’s real or I’m dreaming. I’m not sleeping but lying on the floor half-stunned and frozen. When I slowly sober up, I feel my dry throat because of my stuffy nose which stifles me. I try to gulp and taste the blood like flavor. Which wakes me up a bit. I can hear my consciousness screaming “Get up! Run away!”

When I open my eyes I find myself on a cold wet floor thrown away like a garbage. The hallway I am looking at seems like a part of an old cathedral, small clover shaped windows right under the high ceiling. Only light that brighten my surrounding is coming from these windows, cutting the dusty, heavy air like sharp swords... With a pain at my back I manage to stand. 

As I try to figure out the situation, I remember… I met a man at the party. There was a huge party at one of my best friend's beach house, away from the city, with lots of fancy people and me. I was just looking for some fun after work. The man was probably a friend of someone. He was a gentleman, handsome and… Why am I focusing on him? Theres no benefit of this memory. I have to get out of this place first.

I take a look around. There’s a newly made metal door that doesn’t match the old marble wall and is heavly locked with thick metal bolts. That means at the end of this hallway there must be someone who locked that door from inside. I check my phone in a hurry but it already got wet and not function anymore because of the water on the floor. I know noone will call me till morning. So I decide to walk cautious with silent steps. The place seems like deserted but I feel someones eyes, spying on me. I can sense the danger, so lean against the wall with one arm to feel more secure. 

By the moment of my second step I hear a wisper calling out my name. It’s scarey as hell but also his tone feels familiar… I remember the man at the party, again! It was mesmerizing when he got his lips closer to my neck and wispered in my ear. I feel goose bumps all over my body. Is it him? When exactly the party ended? Dizzy head is not helping but I trust my instincts. My nose starts aching. I just touch it very gently and recognise something wrong with the bone. Right now it has to just wait!

I take another step. I can feel my time is running out! Another step…

Darkness grows when I reached the end of the hallway where the clover shaped windows end. There are some sinister wispers coming from the darkness but I know I need few more steps to find out if there’s a way out. I stop to sense, there’s someone there. I can’t go back and I can’t fight. I don’t even know how to attack! Damn! I am going to die in pain! I am just a woman who works for a tech firm. Lots of thoughts but none of it feels a relief or right explanation. Tears start to burn my eyes and my broken nose. 

Memories come back as my brain trying to find out the answer of the biggest question. “Why am I here?” I remember I was in a car with some people. A man was at drivers seat, riding the car to nowhere, into the wilderness. I was too drunk to talk. Someone asked where he was taking us but he just smiled. After a while all three got asleep. Except me! It was clear that they were drugged. Maybe I drank from the wrong glass. He thought I was going to faint too. That’s why when we arrived he saw me wide awake and got angry. Than he beated me, a stonehard punch to my nose. That was the moment I passed out and this is the reason of my broken nose. So I am in danger but wasn’t killed. Yet!

I take another step. Time is passing!

Humidity increases as I get closer. After 3 more steps I am in total darkness. So I wait until my eyes get used to it. Until I can see something… Finally I spot the silhouettes few feets away from me, there are 3 cloaked creatures facing each other and murmuring constantly. I can feel the fear effect on my body and legs. Without seeing beyond the hallway I start running with fast and light steps like an antelope! Screaming inside and never looking back. Than I run across a greenhouse from glass with too many rectangular desks and flower pots. After it’s corner I start running in a hallway lined up with many doors. They’re like palace style elegant and huge. It’s still dark and smells strong, weird like rotten meat but I am not so sure because of my broken nose. I breathe fast from my mouth and started to feel cold. 

One of the doors close right after I pass by. I feel someones eyes spying on me again. A face comes to my mind. A masculine face directly looks at me. He has dark colored eyes matching with his long dark hair. Attractive silky skin but pale… Like the man I met at the party. I can’t get rid of his face. As if someone rules my thoughts and blockes my vision, I can’t shake away his memory. We are at the beach house. He touches my face, holds my hand and we start walking at the shore bare feet, cold sand shivers me up. Something is wrong but I am already hypnotised by his charm. Like I had to do what he programmed me to do...

I hear his voice again “It’s not too late Bess.” This is the call that sobers me up. Than I see the dark hallway again but this time from up above. I can’t feel the floor under my feet as I take another step cause I am hanging in the air. Without any rope or other stuff. Before I get panic the force that lifted me up lets me done slowly on my feet again. Than I hear a creak sound ahead. I just notice the gigantic auditorium because the light coming through from the half open doors across. Beyond the doors I see my freedom, a large garden appears under the fullmoon and night sky. I get ahead of myself once more and enter the room. I walk without giving a break to examine. Focusing only to the doors standing right in front of me. Force myself to ignore this great room with huge crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, dusty mirrors reflecting the darkness back and full of old furnitures covered with sheets. No, I’ll survive! Few more steps!

“Go on Bess!” I hear the voice again. This time only in my head. Which makes me go faster and when I manage to get out I find myself on the top of the stairs, step down to the garden. It’s a large one with lots of red roses. They grew wild like a small forest. There’s a stone road stretches before me, turns right after a few steps ahead and probably it’s not ending there. So I go! Do I have any other choice?  

When I turn right safely, I have to walk few more steps to reach the fork in the road. I choose left to stay away from the cathedral ofcourse. There are red roses everwhere, moon lightens my way and only noise comes from the wind blowing between leafs time to time. Under the full moon they look mesmerizing actually, if I were here only to explore... The road tied at another bend and here is the center of the garden. A huge mud soiled statue of a man stands in the center, dressed like 17th century aristocratic attire. Around the statue there are 4 ways in different directions but all continue in the jungle of red roses. Perfect! This place doesn’t feel safe, I have to decide as fast as I can.

Than I hear the voice again. “Hi Bess.” It trembles me from head to toe. When I search for the owner of the voice I find him right behind of the statue, hiding in its shadow. He comes out with heavy steps, looking at me like a bait. By the time I plan to run away, thinking which road I should choose he smiles sneaky, comes one more step closer and looks right into my eyes. My heart beats like a running horse but my mind is silent. A silence that erases all trouble, fear, pain and everything. Like everything is normal, as if he was a friend of mine.

He reaches to my hair, put it behind my ear with a gentle move. “You’re so beautiful like a wild rose Bess. I know you’re not afraid of me or this place. You’re a strong nice woman.” His galze and words hypnotize me again. I become the woman he describes. It feels like I am half asleep but deep down there’s fear, my body knows something is wrong. “No, don't do it Bess!” After those words he touches both my arms and looks at me like he's advising a little child. “You have to calm down.” I’m still looking at him as if I have no choice. Well, I have none. He wears dark and aristocratic clothes same at the party. Taller and younger than I remember. My broken nose protects me but I can tell he smells sweet and attractive which I can only feel like a burn at my throat. “You managed to come here, to my beloved rose garden. Do you know that each and every rose here belongs to someone ?” That wasn’t a real question. He looks around himself, proud of what he sees. “Well, in the name of your friends we are going to plant one rose for each.” Than he turns to me with a sharp look. “You Bess... Once upon a time I met a woman just like you. She was strong, brave like you and managed to reach this statue too. So I gave her a gift.” While telling me this story he looks right into my eyes and I can tell he is searching something to hold on, maybe trust. “She was so happy Bess. At first she was just like a curious child and open for new experiences but than she changed...” He looks sad, disapointed most likely. Interesting, I feel him and it breaks my heart too. Maybe deep down I got jealous of his feelings and love to her. My fear is already gone but now I only want to be with him. That sounds crazy and normal at the same time. My normal has already curropted... I want to know the whole story. So I ask him “Why?” With my question he startled. “I want to tell you Bess. I want to tell you all my stories and adventures but it will take a long time. You have to stay with me. Will you stay with me Bess?”

I can’t bare geting away from him. My answer is fast and show of my surrender to him. “Yes.” He grabs me from my head. As I get ready to kiss him, he leans to me and put his teeth into my neck gently. It didn't hurt me. With a painful, poisonous pleasure I let my body free at his arms. While he quenches his thirst, I can see the full moon shining upon us. My vision gets darker as the minutes pass and after a while, darkness covers everything.

I wake up with a strong smell. It makes me thirsty and aggressive like an animal. I know I can fight and I’m strong. So I open my eyes, I find myself in an antique furnished and marble walled bedroom. Guess I was not able to got out but instead of fear, I feel curiosity. I can see easly in the darkness, smell every inch of this place. Roses, dust and the blood! I remember my nose got broken. I check it gently and recognise that it is already healed! Since when am I sleeping?

I step out of the bed and see myself at one of the dusty mirrors. All my clothes are covered in blood. I remember. I remember his story and how he fed on me. Now I feel thirsty as hell too and I can smell the tasty thing which is bleeding in this cathedral. I sniff it as deep as I can and it trigers my animal instincts. So I go head for the doors, I am ready to face my new life and the world he gifted me...