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Bernette glanced over her shoulder. That was her first mistake. She saw the empty blue eyes looking hungrily over her young body. Onward, she ran. Her high heels echoed throughout the dark of the night, bouncing off the empty buildings in the quiet town. She felt his cold icy breath upon her bare neck. Would this night never end? Bernette felt she had been running all her life. As this thought crossed her frightened mind, she made her second and final mistake. She turned, her heel catching the inside of the manhole grate. Down she fell, the hard pavement rushing up to meet her. Blackness enveloped her confused mind. Bernette ran no more. He turned and walked away, leaving her lifeless body in the cold pounding rain. The mission had been accomplished. On the rain fell, oblivious to the red streaked stream that flowed down the street.
************************
The day Bernette boarded the bus, she felt life would finally look up. No one knew who she was or where she was going. No more parents to answer to, no more friends to lie to. Most important to Bernette, there were no more lovers to contend with. At the innocent age of sweet sixteen, Bernette had had her fill of love. Or better yet, the concept of love because for Bernette all love brought was heartache, pain and deep hate.
“Excuse me, Miss, are you boarding the bus”
Bernette turned and looked into ice cold blue eyes, the coldest eyes she had ever encountered. She shivered as she felt their cold stare pierce into her soul. She stood still, unable to move. Those eyes pulled her in deeper and deeper until she became lost in the intensity.
“I say, Miss, if you are boarding, I’d advise you to get on now. If not, please remove yourself from the door!” the voice stated in a deep, flat tone.
Bernette stood there, unable to speak. Abruptly the stranger pushed her aside and boarded the crowded bus, oblivious to the power he held over her. As Bernette hit the side of the bus, she came out of the trance.
“You creep!” she yelled as she jumped on the stairs and climbed onto the bus, still shaken from the encounter at the doorway.
Bernette scanned the interior of the dusty, smoke-filled bus and realized quickly there was only one seat left. With her head held high. she looked neither right nor left as she sat down beside the stranger with the icy blue eyes. Bernette did not realize that she had just begun the longest ride in her short life. Sleep overcame her quickly as if she were put under a spell. As her eyes began to close, Bernette noticed the stranger staring down at her, his eyes draining her soul of all energy.
What a beautiful dream. Bernette smiled as dream images of peacefulness, sunshine and love filled her mind. What eluded her in life, she captured in her dreams. She shifted and pulled in deeper to the security that wrapped itself around her shoulders. Her smile broadened as the dreams continued, so much happiness, so much love. She sighed. This was everything she was running to and all she was running away from. If only she never had to wake from the dream.
The stranger held Bernette tightly against his hot, moist body as she slept. Slowly, his smooth hands moved through her long, thick dark hair and a purr escaped from her throat. Softly, as if he were touching silk, the stranger blazed a trail of hot fire down her young cheeks. He touched her skin as if he were reading braille, so light and tender. Slowly without waking her, he outlined her full lips and pushed back her sleepy head. His arms pulled her closer to his hard, lean body. Bernette’s eyes fluttered open, shocked but not surprised. Strange though the feeling was, Bernette felt no desire to pull away from the stranger. She turned her trembling body towards his and they met in a passionate embrace. Their lips sought each other and searched for the true answer. Her swollen lips opened and welcomed his driving tongue into the hot cavern within. How easily she molded into his body. Bernette’s hands began to move on their own free will. Bernette lost all control. As one, they caressed, explored and found passion wherever their hands and mouths went. The stranger’s hot burning lips began to envelope Bernette’s skin in ravishing kisses.
“We better stop,” the stranger said in short breaths, “before we have to leave the bus for indecent exposure.”
Bernette tried to retain the moment, the passion, the peacefulness yet time moved forward and the embrace was broken.
“I don’t know what to say,” Bernette spoke softly as she looked downwards from his piercing blue eyes, “I’m not usually like this.”
“Look at me when you speak,” the stranger growled. He grabbed her face in his strong hands and looked deep into her frightened eyes.
“I’m the answer to all your dreams. I’m the power within. I’m what you have been searching for all your life. Never turn away from me. I will rescue you from the hell you’ve been living in. ”
Bernette remained silent, scared to speak lest he laugh at the foolishness of her simple words. Finally she looked up and saw someone familiar. Someone she knew in her heart she should fear. Fear? That made no sense to her confused passion-filled mind.
“Do not fear me. I am the light. The truth. I will deliver where others have failed. I will be there, where others fear to tread. I will always be by your side. All you have to do is believe.”
The stranger’s voice seemed to speak from within her mind. Bernette felt his words drive deep into her empty soul.
Bernette did not know what to feel. Confusion clouded her, filling her with fear. How could that be? Hadn’t this man, this stranger, just touched within her soul where no one had been able to reach before? Bernette looked directly into his eyes and trusted her soul to his. She placed her head upon his hot chest and fell back into sleep. Soon a fire enveloped her dreams, quickly turning the images into horrific nightmares. In the distance she felt the sparks warning her but she was unable to read the messages in the dancing flames.
The fire became deeper, hotter, more angry than ever. Try as she might, Bernette was unable to open her eyes and escape from the nightmare that gripped her to sleep. Bernette felt her skin melting under the hot flames. She could feel her skin dripping like molten was down the bus aisle and out the door. Couldn’t anyone else see?
The laughter began softly, then grew louder and louder until a scream pierced the air. Bernette bolted quickly upright, her heart pounding, threatening to explode out of her chest. The stranger changed before her frightened eyes into a horror her mind could not conceive. The stranger held her hot, melting body against his burning skin and continued to laugh in a deep, hollow, evil voice. With as little strength as she could muster, Bernette pushed him away and ran down the aisle.
“Stop the bus! Stop!” Bernette screamed.
The bus came to a sudden halt and she jumped out the doors before they fully opened. She tumbled, falling onto sharp rocks, oblivious to the pain as the rocks tore at her skin. Her body was weak; all her strength had been drained away in that final embrace before the nightmare had begun. The stranger would not have her, she vowed! Never! Bernette ran as if hell’s wolves were on her tail. Yet, no matter how far she ran, the evil laughter mocked her, following her every step.
Where was she? What was this town called? Why was there no one to help her?
The full moon looked down upon her, bathing Bernette in its eerie cold light. Bernette wasn’t going to allow this stranger to have her. Never! She ran on, her shoe caught in a grate and downward she fell, satisfied he’d never take her alive.
The stranger looked down at her still body and spat. With a mournful wail, he turned toward the cold, bright moonlight. He stole her soul. Then, hand in hand, Bernette and the stranger walked into the fiery pits of hell. As they disappeared into the shadows, the pavement returned to its dark form swallowing up all evidence that anyone had been there. Papers played in the wind, dancing in the moonlight and in the distance a wolf howled.
~~~2001~~~
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