The Understory

My alarm turns the radio on my nightstand on. I have never been much of a morning person. So, I slide over to the other side of my double bed. The radio gets louder. “Where in the World” by Midge Williams keeps playing. Once it finally reaches a volume I could not sleep through, I sit up in the bed. “Ugh! Why is this thing so annoying?“I ask no one in particular. My eyes slowly open and adjust as I turn the alarm off. A pale, bluish grey hand grabs my hand with inhuman speed. Initially, the contact is cold but the warmth in my hand spreads to this long, slender hand. I look up to see a man with silvery grey hair and iron grey eyes staring at me.

He yanks me out of the bed, and I shove his splotchy buttoned up shirt while wrestling my hand out of his grasp. He releases me and I fall back on to my shamrock green comforter. I crawl to the other side of the bed and he drags me back to him. He presses my face into the disorderly bedding. I push my butt up against his black slacks and he climbs onto the bed with each of his legs beside my hips. Then he continues to press my face further into the bed until black invades my vision from lack of air.

I wake in a double bed with wood panels along the walls and no lights. An open window allows crickets to sing to me in the still night and I force myself to stand. “Creak!” Floorboards beneath me reply to my steps. At the stairway, I see no signs of that strange guy that brought me here. So, I creep down the stairs and find the front door wide open. I run towards the door and the guy from before jumps out from behind the door. He slams it shut before I can make it out of the cabin. “Where are you going? It’s late and you can get lost out there in the dark by yourself.” He says with an unnaturally deep voice.

My jaw drops as he begins to slowly approach me. The rubber-band holding my afro into a puffy ponytail pops. I gasp and bolt up the stairs back to the bedroom. I shut the door behind me and lock it. “Evanescence, I fear that lately I have been losing my mind. I see you and I don’t know if you are really here or just a figment of my imagination.” His demonically deep voice says through the door. I step away from the door and slowly walk backwards to the open window. There is a tapping at the door but it quickly stops. My breathing becomes erratic as I try to climb out of the open window. A force pulls me out of the window into the night sky. I float in the air seeing the twinkling stars pass by me as I land gently on the roof of the cabin.

“Evanescence, why do you run from me? Can’t you see how much I care for you?” He asks me. I shake my head. “My name is Eva not Evanescence!” I yell.

“That is what you want to be called now? I can do that. Let’s go back inside and I’ll tell you all you need to know about this land tomorrow. Okay?”

“Tomorrow. Will tomorrow ever come? Is today the same day that you abducted me?”

“No. You will rest until you remember us. How do you think I found you out in that bustling city? You wandered here every night in your sleep. No one comes here against their will. This is where you belong... with me.”

“I don’t know you. I didn’t...”

I hold my head as everything begins to tilt and sway before my eyes. He pulls me to him and lifts me into his arms. We dissipate and pass through the roof. We solidify on the bed. “Will you try to remember us for me?” He asks as he releases me.

I lay my head on the pillow. My dreams consist of shadowy creatures with animal skulls leading me through the woods. A bigger creature with black antlers and a reindeer’s skull stands on a ledge behind a stone slab. Boulders pose around the slab. The shadowy creatures gently nudge me forward. I walk up to the precipice and stand near the strange, tall figure. “You are here again... Do you like living with the humans in that conurbation?” He asks me in his disturbingly deep voice. ” I manage myself well. How is being the great magician of these mystical woods going for you, Bastion?” I ask him while I look at a heavy blanket of mist sitting on the trees below.

“I like my position but I think that it’s time you come back home.”

“Who will put up the advertisements online to lure the prey here?”

“There is a rural town nearby. We can rely on that... I don’t like that you have been away from home for so long. Your identity can be compromised at any time.”

The next morning my alarm goes off. The radio host laughs loudly through the small speakers. I turn the radio off and jolt up fully realizing that I am back in my apartment. I look around the room but that strange guy is not here. Was it a dream or was he actually in here? I rush through my morning chores and take a taxi to work. Once I get there, my boss calls me to his office and I slowly walk in. I am ready for the yelling I am bound to hear going by the tone of his voice. “Eva, you can’t take three days off without checking in. You have to call us and tell us when you’re going to take your impromptu vacations. You’re lucky the big boss favors you because if you were anyone else, you would be fired. Fired! I know you are a good worker but it was a hard three days without you, kid. You’ve got backlog and I need you to sit in some conference calls for me.”