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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1772446-Faerie-Road
Rated: ASR · Fiction · Dark · #1772446
This started as a poem, but has grown. Not a full on story yet, so I'm keeping it here.
Faerie Road
Criss Dane


It was a living dream. A fractured memory.

Somewhere along a twisted path I came upon a forgotten place. Even the sounds of the nearby river were muted and all the surrounding woods were bathed in mist. It would have been a peaceful primordial experience.

But I wasn’t alone.

There were things here, hiding in the mist; excited yet angered by my presence. I felt them staring at me; with glowering eyes. Staring with a silent hunger. In the dead silence, I could hear their contempt. I couldn’t begin to imagine what they would do with me. Nor could they!

It was clear from the onset that I didn’t belong. I would have gladly turned and left these other lands, but my path behind had gone as faded as the path ahead. And I suddenly felt as if I had always been there.

The thousands of eyes I couldn’t see moved closer, never veering – as near as I could imagine.

Never could I have dreamed such a place. The mist swallowed everything, even sound. Even my pounding heart seemed miles away. My entire world was bathed in wait – every surrounding molecule frozen in anticipation.

I peered into the mist and tried desperately to decide if it was moving or if something was moving it. Time and time again I thought to just reach out and initiate whatever it was that was clearly inevitable. I never found the nerve.

Then it began.

Those unseen eyes moved in, still not touching, but closing in. Never in my life had I heard malice. Not in a growl or taunt, but in towering, unmoving silence.

They were on top of me; thousands upon thousands of whatever they were. Creatures and entities from a forgotten time and place, all converging here in this single gateway that I had haplessly stumbled upon. I closed my eyes – realizing only then that I hadn’t since my arrival. Resigned and very much alone, I stood and awaited what I was sure to be my final lot. I swore I could hear whispering, all around me, yet somewhere else. As if many lands and many times all converged here in this one spot.

I remember my chest tightening; the way it does on a ride when you know you’re about to fall. I remember air coming through in sobs. I was like a child in the dark. Everything was closing in on me; the air, the mist, time itself, these things I couldn’t see; the thousands of angry quiet invisible eyes. Maybe I would have seen them at this point, but I couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes. I couldn’t face what would be staring back at me. Desperation grew. I just wanted them to take me; whatever they planned, I wanted it done. Anything to break the silence.

Then suddenly I felt a shift in the air; a gentle breeze. I opened my eyes and only then realized I was walking again; though I couldn’t for the life of me recall moving from where I had been standing.

I stopped and looked behind and was dumbfounded by what I saw. Just an open road and sparse trees – the same path that I vaguely recalled walking in the previous moments that now seemed ages ago. There was no mist; no creatures; I was alone. The sounds of the nearby river crept back into my ears as if it had always been there. Mechanically, I looked ahead again and just kept walking.

I know it was some time ago; though now I can’t remember exactly when. From time to time, I walk paths and ask myself if this is the path I took that day. Brief flashes of déjà vu dart across unused corners in my mind and when they do, I stop and look around. But it never is, and I just keep walking.

So little of what I saw and felt that day has stayed with me in these weeks days? years? that have followed. The occasional impression finds me in sleep; never sights or sounds, only that feeling of impending approach.

In then end, I’m left only with a couple of vague certainties: that I was there; and that they’re still waiting.

© Copyright 2011 Krazy Daze (ctrhippie at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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