Beautiful nightmare

Laura didn’t know if she was dreaming or not because of what was standing before her, it had been so long since her mind could be relied on. Drifting between consciousness and dreams, the fine line between both states of mind blurred in a dangerous mess that left her vulnerable to even the slightest of influences. Yet something inside of her told her that what she was seeing wasn’t a dream, despite how impossible it was to believe. Right in that moment, the woman of her literal dreams stood in front of her in all her horrifyingly beautiful splendor.

There is no memory at all of how it started nor why, the concepts of time and reality becoming hollow the more she spiraled into obsession with the things she’d seen, and the woman conceived from those horrors witnessed. Everything simply appeared to revolve around this figment of her imagination, a figment which had now broken free from her shackles binding her to the land of dreams, transforming idea into flesh.

Was this vision truly a result of her mind, or was she in fact the one who had created her solely to love the ethereal beauty. Who was the dreamer, and who of them was the dream?

Before being hypnotized by the apparition’s divine magnificence, Laura had been haunted by terrible visions of unnamable things lurking in the dark. Those nightmares, all of them, chipped her sanity the longer she was subjected to them, and just like the angelic woman before her, these too followed her into reality. Every shadow, including her own, seemed to be possessed by the same terrible things that accosted her in those vivid nightmares she experienced every night. What seemed real could have most likely been a dream, and what she believed nothing more than dreams could have just as well been the reality she had been detached from. Laura could no longer rely on herself to differentiate both and set herself free from the endless nightmares each night.

Yet just as she neared her breaking point, of losing herself to the primal fear of the darkness beyond the stars and the terrors that lurked in it, was when she arrived. She’d shone like a beacon and saved her from the terrible fate which awaited her in the dark abyss. After countless, restless nights of sleep, the moment Laura had set her eyes on that enchanting woman, all her fears melted away. And in their place was blind adoration for this one woman.

It didn’t matter how much she tried to make sense of this sudden obsession over a singular apparition after being haunted by far more terrible ones, nor why upon laying eyes on her she wished to see her once more when she was supposed to be nothing more than a fleeting creation her mind would forget once she woke up. However, despite all of that, it didn’t stop feeling right doing so.

The first moment she had been blessed with seeing her was when Laura was trapped in a terrible nightmare unlike any other she’d been force to be a witness of. As she became embraced by the sweet embrace of slumber before it no longer came for her, her eyes opened only to gaze at a monster which no words could never hope to describe. The abomination appearing before her in shapes and forms long since shunned from the memory of existence once all good life had been created, of which its only memory rests within the deepest fears of all living beings of the terrible vastness that is the unexplainable and uncontrollable.

That horrible deity stood in all its grandiose glory at the center of an ever shifting kingdom of sand and stone. Others like her, human or otherwise, all made their way to the center of the immortal city, the sand beneath their naked feet creating bridges or stairs for every one of them, the path to the heart of the corrupted city all but set out before them. Yet as she neared the ancient abomination, the floor beneath her gave way, letting her be eaten by the sand and stone of that place and be drowned in darkness.

However, for the first time Laura did not fear the darkness, instead, she welcomed it. This new darkness sought not to consume until there was nothing felt, but to embrace all in its reach in the peculiar warmth the death realm held. It felt as if it enveloped her in a loving embrace, motherly or romantic, it didn’t matter to her. It just felt right.

Before she even knew it, Laura had woken up in a house, lying on the floor of what seemed to be the living room, comfortably cuddling in the arms of that strange woman. Never in all her life had she felt so much emotion, so much desire overtaking her. The experience coming to her as both terrifying and exciting, and so she clung to that feeling provided by that figment of her imagination.

It completed her, made her want more unbeknownst to the consequences that would soon follow. Everything about this woman was sublime, pure, perfect. From her vibrant red hair falling down her shoulders to the strange yet captivating purple eyes, her pale as snow skin being so warm and comforting, and that smile so bright, all of it was so entrancing to Laura.

Time was irrelevant to them in that peaceful house, inexistent even, but she didn’t care, as long as she was in her loving arms nothing else truly mattered. And so, instead of the horrible nightmares of cosmic horrors overtaking her mind she was instead transported to common scenes she could as well experience in her life, all while in her presence. Day by day, dream y dream, she fell more and more for this vision, letting her body become excited with every tender smile and teasing flutter of her eyelashes, but the blur in what was real and what was a dream came in the form of a singular word, a name, uttered by her soft lips.

Manmadakka

Never once did she question why she never spoke, nor why she never bothered in having establishing a conversation with the woman before, yet upon hearing that name, Laura had woken up drenched in sweat, her mind flashing images of ruins and temples praising strange runes and symbols. Yet at the center of these places was her mark.

The angelic being she had fallen for was too another cosmic aberration reality fought to banish from its memory, but Laura was already too far gone. The mixture of ecstasy and fear concocted a poison in her mind, and all she could think of was of the beautiful nightmare. In her waking moments all she could think of was that singular name, seeing the angelic figure of the one she’d fallen for lurking in the shadows of her room, her body changing with the shadows, revealing more faces of indescribable beauty while also revealing a horrible visage of what hid beneath that mask of hers. Laura saw the illusion reaching out to her, speaking that impossible language that tore at her sanity the more she heard it be spoken.

It was driving her insane.

Laura tried to escape the visions, but no matter how she tried to outrun them, they would always appear right before her. Soon her legs gave out, falling wherever it was she had ended up in. yet instead of the cold, harsh floor, she had fallen into something softer, something familiar.

She didn’t know if it was a dream or not, if really what she was seeing was real. All Laura knew was she was back in the arms of that beautiful woman, the fears melting slowly away as she stared into those entrancing purple eyes which even looked gorgeous even as tears trailed from them. It made her feel in peace.

As the man held a delirious Laura on the floor, screaming for someone to call an ambulance, he felt her hands trail on his face lovingly. It made him looked back at her, worry clear in his face as her eyes began to gloss over and tears began falling down her cheeks a wide smile from ear to ear making itself present as a black tar-like substance began flowing out of each pore.

The man noticed Laura whispering a single word over and over again, and against his better judgement leaned closer to hear what it was the dying woman was trying to say.

“M-man... Manmadakka…”

Flashes of horrid things outside of his understanding invaded his head in that moment, but willed himself to focus on the injured woman. Yet he could not deny the beauty of those nightmares.