As she opened her eyes she realized the room was dark. Morning was still far off but she had wakened for a reason. What was it?
The moon illuminated the room fabulously. She propped herself onto her elbows and scanned the room. Nothing seemed out of place and yet, something was not right.
The air conditioner whirred away from beside the window. The curtains, half drawn, waved lazily from a breeze coming through the opened window. She realized then that, though the air conditioner was set to gently cool the room while she slept, the air in her bedroom felt unnaturally cold. Goosebumps formed on her arms and shoulders. Even her feet, securely wrapped in blankets, felt chilled.
She decided to turn off the air conditioner and close the window.
She began to pull the blankets away when a movement from the corner of the room caught her eye. She turned quickly and watched with horror as a figure detached itself from the shadows of her closet. A man, tall and wearing dark clothes, moved toward the foot of her bed, seeming to float effortlessly across the room.
She tried to scream but found that her throat would not let her. The sound died in her chest before she could expel it. All that came out was a weak whimper of fear as she scrambled back toward the head board. She gathered up her blankets and wrapped them tightly around her shoulders, childishly assuming they would provide her some armor against the terror that had so quickly overcome her.
The man watched her without expression. He cocked his head to his right side and grinned. Even though it was dark in the room, the moonlight seemed to radiate from his face, making it gleam in the half darkness. His teeth stood out like pearls lying on a beach of dark sand. They reflected the moonlight with dazzling clarity. Another whimper bubbled up from within her as she saw his canine teeth glisten like rare jewels.
With her attention riveted to the sight of his teeth she realized only after he was hovering over her that he was no more than a few inches away. She also realized that she was lying flat on her back, stretched across the width of the bed, though she had no recollection of moving away from the headboard. She giggled feverishly when she saw that he too was stretched to his full height but levitating perfectly parallel to her.
With a whimper of fear she began to release the buttons of her own nightdress. One after another, her fingers released each one until she was completely exposed from the swell of her breasts to the soft down of hair between her legs.
As terrified as she was, she could not cry out, although she thought only now that no one would hear if she did. She lived alone in a two story walk-up and the tenants below, she knew, were out of town. Any sound she made would be swallowed up by the night without being heard.
She felt herself shiver and then realized that her nipples had hardened in anticipation, or was it from the cold? Worse, she felt moistness building up between her labia. She was more excited now than she could ever remember being.
She giggled again from pure horror when she found her hands unsnapping the buttons on his trousers.
It occurred to her only when she had opened them completely there had been no zipper. In fact there were no zippers, no Velcro, none of the fasteners found on any modern-day clothing. Instead, his trousers, his blousy shirt, his jacket, all of them were fastened with ornate brass buttons or lacings as if from another era.
His waistcoat was black, so too were his trousers and boots. His chemise was white with black edging on the folds of his ruffle. All told, he was dressed as elegantly as any man she had ever seen albeit with a seemingly Victorian look.
Now with his trousers open she reached inside for his member. It felt cold under her grasp and hardened as she softly stroked it. She gulped in fear as it grew but remained cold.
Again without any memory of having moved, she was on her knees beside the bed and he standing in front of her. Without wanting to but unable to stop herself, she moved forward and took his penis between her lips. The taste was at once heavenly and grotesque. Its coldness almost made her gag but it throbbed as she sucked on it.
With a jumble of emotions clouding her brain, she found herself making love to his member as she had never done before.
As a teen and even when she was a grown woman, men had asked and even pleaded for her to suck on them. She had refused most of their requests, and those she did acquiesce to, she did only half-heartedly. A few bobs of her mouth up and down, one or two tongue baths along the shaft and she was done, much to their disappointment.
Now however, she gorged on his manhood like a starved woman. She made love to it as she never before thought possible, even to the point that she sighed with disappointment when he pulled out of her mouth and laid her spread eagled on her back across the bed.
With one smooth movement he was inside her. She howled with pleasure despite her self-loathing. The feel of his cold skin against hers made her giggle insanely once again. She wrapped her legs around him and her arms clutched at his shoulders. She bucked her hips forward against each of his thrusts and moaned with ecstasy.
Suddenly he spasmed and pushed his hips forward. She felt his member pulse inside her as he came and she sighed with a mixture of contentment and shame. Her orgasm made her quiver as his cold semen trickled down between her thighs.
When he pulled back from her she saw there was blood dripping from one side of his mouth and over his chin. She had no idea where the blood had come from but she suddenly felt weak. With one last glimpse of him gloating over her nakedness, she passed out and opened her eyes to broad daylight.
The brightness made her head ache and she rushed forward to draw the heavy curtains closed. The movement made her nauseous and she fell heavily into the easy chair that sat beside the window. She bent forward, leaning her elbows on her knees as she struggled to gather breath.
She wondered, not for the first time, whether the night before had been a nightmare, or whether she was losing her sanity.
*************************
Sleep would just not come.
She lay in her bed staring at the ceiling. Occasionally, lights from a passing car on her small suburban street would illuminate the interior of her room, the ghostly light passing from just above the window to the space above her head, only to disappear as the car passed the house below.
If she had a mechanical clock, such as the numerous clocks in the house where she grew up, she imagined she could listen to it tick away the seconds as she tried to sleep. The nightstand clock she had was digital and, from the corner of her eye, she could see it flip from minute to minute. She sighed when she realized that she had eagerly been awaiting the next minute to appear on the clock.
With a scowl she pushed the covers away and got up from her bed. She sighed again and stepped slowly to the window.
"This is so damn frustrating!" she thought to herself as she gently pulled the lace curtains back to be able to see the street below.
The air was a little cooler tonight and she tingled as the night air passed over her body from the open window. There was a gentle breeze and the trees outside swayed slowly with a gentle rhythm.
All day she had felt so exhausted, so depleted of energy, she had called in sick and stayed home with what she thought was a touch of the flu. She found two small marks on her neck and realized she must have scratched herself in her sleep at some point.
Although she had no sniffles or other obvious symptoms of the flu, she guessed she had contracted some sort of virus. Whatever it was, she had no energy, had not stepped outside all day and couldn't even bring herself to eat, even though she knew she must be starving.
She had made soup but only managed to swallow two mouthfuls. The reaction had been swift and violent. She barely made it to the kitchen sink before vomiting the contents of her stomach. The dry heaves that followed were equally violent and intensely painful.
After cleaning up the mess in the sink, she dumped the remainder of the soup into the toilet and flushed. After that she felt weak as a kitten.
She curled up on the couch and tried to watch television. She held the remote in her hand and flipped mindlessly through all the channels at least twice. Then she turned the TV off and tossed the remote onto the cushion beside her.
When she felt sick, she often retreated to the balcony where she could soak up some sun and breathe fresh air. Today when she tried that, her eyes squinted shut from the brightness. Pain shot through her eyes and seemed to sear her brain. She flailed madly at the curtains before finally drawing them closed.
She sighed heavily and made her way slowly back to the couch where she rested fitfully until dusk.
Now that it was almost one in the morning, she could not sleep although she was still exhausted. She closed her eyes and a familiar feeling began to overtake her. Something like a distant memory prodded at her and she felt her nipples rise under the loose nightdress she wore.
Despite her exhaustion she began to feel aroused. She felt gingerly at her breast and cupped it softly. Immediately a jolt of excitement overcame her and she shrugged the flimsy dress from her shoulders and let it fall. It pooled around her feet and she stepped over it, her hands gliding over her bare breasts and down to her belly. She gripped the waist strings of her panties and slid those to the floor as well.
When she touched the curly hairs that surrounded her labia an electric shock seemed to hit her.
She reached her hands up high and stretched languidly, enjoying the thought that someone outside, if they had been awake and looking toward her window, would see her in all her naked beauty, posing and caressing herself.
She giggled softly, knowing that this was something she would never have considered doing before tonight.
Normally so staid and prudish, she was not given to flaunting her body, even at the beach. Now with her brain on fire with lust that came from she knew not where, she couldn't help herself.
She looked out with disappointment to realize there was no one on the street to see. She turned away from the window grinning and stopped short when she saw a shadow glide from the corner of her room near her closet.
A tall figure, dark and indistinct in the gloom, glided slowly toward her. She saw then it was a man, slender, towering over her in height and smiling with teeth that seemed to gleam in the moonlight.
Although she knew she ought to be terrified, and deep down she cried out in fear, she strolled toward him and reached her arms to his shoulders. She pulled him forward and embraced him. His skin was cool to the touch, cold if she was being honest with herself.
She didn't care. She pulled him back toward the bed while unsnapping the buttons that closed his trousers. With a wantonness she had never before known, she wrapped her legs around his thighs and pulled him toward her.
She remembered now! She knew this man! They had made love the night before and it was the most thrilling night with a man she had ever experienced.
"But he's so cold!" A tiny voice in her head whimpered in terror. "His skin is cold!"
Ignoring the voice, she ripped at his clothes. At the same time he entered her and she shuddered. His member penetrated her all the way and it was cold. She acknowledged that now. From the root near his testicles, all the way up the shaft and to the tip of his penis, it was deathly cold.
He thrust into her hard and she shuddered again.
