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Saskia had never been afraid of the dark. But since the attack, she had started to feel unsettled when the lights went out. She had just gone to bed and a heartbeat later after she blows out the candles she felt a shiver creep up her spine. She frowned at the shadowy corners of room. "Hello?"

Of course there was no response. She shook her head. She was being ridiculous. There was nobody in her chambers now. Willing her heart to slow down, she lay down and pulled the covers up to her chin. Saskia closed her eyes, but a niggling whisper in her mind forced her to open her eyes again and turn her face the dark corner again.

Shadows was the absence of light, they didn't move. Or did they? Prehaps the shadows played tricks on the eyes when there was not enough light? There was no one in her chambers. Just her. Her eyes searching the darkness for… she really didn't know who or what. I am not afraid. I am not afraid. I am not afraid. Four words circulates her mind until she eventually falls asleep. 

In a nightmare she tilted her head back and forth, her eyelids trembled. In the dream sequence Saskia is in an open field shrouded in fog when someone horrified shouts at her and points; “Escape to the grove, there there is salvation!" She runs for her life, straight into something for the eye invisible. Suddenly she finds herself somewhere indeterminate. Saskia senses that something is wrong. In the shadow, the darkness of the dream, something was growing... or approaching her. Distances was thing wasn't really something that worked in dreams. Something that felt like fingers find their way up and around her neck, but she could not see anything.

"If you scream, no one may hear you." the voice in her nightmare was like a deep growl. And it jolted her right out of sleep. Sweaty and shaking, with a scream stuck in her throat she sat up straight. She gasped for air while something burned on her neck...

fc Laura Berlin ● @open ● Castle Windermere, Triston