Paper Cut.
Brutally cold, a cruel irony when you considered her location. Having fought her way tooth and claw to at least have a corporeal body in Hell. A minor demoness living on the edge, forced to do deals to survive. Yet bided her time, her plans finally came to fruition. The young Nightmare nervous but ambitious, the bait set by our demoness irresistible. The mare's voice like the dry dust of a tomb.
"So, it's agreed, I deliver your compulsion to a suitable human and I get my soul."
These mares lived under the hoof of the Night Stallion; he owned their soul. Thus, they must do his bidding, slaves to his herd. The demoness smiled, because the mare having no idea what favours called in and other deals brokered, she spoke to the equine.
"Agreed mare Frigoris."
Observing the mare, as cold hearted as her name inferred, yet the deal signed and sealed.
Russ, a typical Roll Playing Game player. At eighteen almost to the point of being a super nerd, his only friends virtual online, or at their monthly meetings. His bedroom adorned with posters and retail merchandise, and a top-of-the-line games machine with a virtual reality headset. His HaloΒ© clock signalled half past two in the morning, Russ being deep in REM sleep.
The Nightmare, phase shifted, the very atoms of her diffused allowing her to walk through the wall, into his room. Shifting back Frigoris placed a offside front hoof down only for it to slide out from underneath her, her near side bent so unsupported her knees gave way. Gravity unforgiving and she slammed into the floor.
"Latro!"
Russ woke with a start. "What?" His hands weaving a defensive spell used in the latest game, yet nothing happened in the real world. There was a horse in his room, so in a panicked voice. "Alexa, bedroom light on."
Neither party prepared, Frigoris reacted as any startled otherworldly magical equine would, from her rear hooves blossomed blue fire which lashed out hitting the ceiling lightbulb which exploded.
"Fucking Hell." Russ's first thoughts it being some crazy dream, his unexpected guest now glowed electric blue all over, and from that ethereal light he could tell, not happy, it spoke again.
"You disgusting mortal, what in all the seven Hells is stuck to my hoof?"
Russ sat up in bed, peered at the hoof before replying. "Pepperoni and cheese pizza."
Mare Frigoris reared up, shaking her hoof. The slice of pizza hit the wall with a wet slap, cold flames surrounded her. Russ's brain tried to keep up, suggesting maybe cut down on the energy drinks. He studied the mare before asking.
"I don't know much about horses, other than a leg at each corner. Fantastic detail, in this dream though, and you can talk...."
Frigoris, snorted before letting rip. "Dream, dream? Foolish colt, I am a Nightmare!"
With that his room burst into blue flames, the dread mare walked up to his bed. Tombstone teeth nipped at the duvet; with a swing of her head, it sailed across the room impacted a shelf of anime merchandise that collapsed onto the floor.
"You bitch!" Russ made to swing his legs out of bed to confront this upstart imaginary image. What happened next, shocked him to his very core. A hoof pinned his leg to the bed, numbness seeped through PJ bottoms, tingling. The mare regarded him, teeth inches from his face. Intense cold with a snort of her breath, her words echoed in his mind.
"You have wasted enough of my time; I have a message that you will remember."
Pain in his head exploded, a complex swirl of symbols, runes of a language long forgotten flooding his brain. He screamed, Frigoris drank in his fear. She turned, and once shifted walked through the wall, a flick of her tail the last part to vanish.
The scream brought his stepmother running, his father walking out years ago. The door opened, the click of a light switch that did nothing. Yet enough light from the hall to view her son, his feet on the floor, holding his head in his hands.
She sat beside him held him close, and reassured him, "It's only a bad dream." Recovered his duvet and tucked him in, staying only until he being exhausted, fell asleep.
Morning broke, he shivered, the horse nothing but a bad dream. Once out of bed, he noticed across the room the wreckage on the floor. Many of his hero's not surviving the battle of the duvet, a pain in his thigh. On pulling his PJ bottoms down, there the proof, a hoof print blackened the skin. The name, "Frigoris."
Overcome by a sudden drive to find a sheet of paper and a pen, his hand gliding across it as the ink drew arcane complexity. His gaming mates, Tony, and Duncan could meet him here, and he would dazzle them with this. What a Halloween surprise, perfect, a time when the barrier between dimensions at its thinnest.
Our demoness, recognised the strong pull of energy from the realm of Earth. The little fool did her bidding, activated the portal. She dissolved into fine smoke, drawn upward.