Of Light and Shadows

The girl awakened from the deepest of slumbers. It was the sleep of the dead, she mused as the cobwebs of her dreams slipped from her mind like a dust covered sheet dropping from a long hidden piece of furniture in an abandoned manse.

Immediately, she noticed the pitch black of her surroundings. "Why is it so dark," she murmured. Her voice seemed to carry on the chilled air about her. It's so cold, too, she thought, as she looked toward the clock on her nightstand. She saw nothing. She reasoned that there must have been power outage, and started to return to sleep, pulling the covers up over herself. As she reached for them, she felt nothing but a rough coverlet of some sort, a texture almost like burlap but not quite.

Sitting up, now more than a tad perplexed and more frightened than she was wont to admit, she noticed something else. Something other than the blackness, and the cold and the rough texture of what should have been a percale sheer and a thick down comforter. She noticed that the darkness seemed to be everywhere about her. More than that, it seemed to be enveloping her more with each passing second.

She peered toward the large bank of windows she had loved so when she had bought the small cottage with the remains of a trust fund left by her Nana. She could not see them. Even in the dark, she had always been able to make them out. An outline, if nothing more, should be visible. Yet, as her emerald eyes searched the blackness, she saw nothing--Nothing at all.

The girl was really frightened now. A part of her thought that perhaps her dreams had taken a black turn towards a place she truly did not want to go; however, her senses, heightened by her mounting trepidation, told her that this was not at all the place in which she had slipped into bed so very long ago. While her brain tried to grasp what had happened (or was happening, for that matter), she seemed to be coming up with more questions than answers. For one thing, she could not even remember her own name.

Somehow, while she slept, she had lost that part of herself. In fact, she did not know for sure if there had been a cottage at all. The more she thought about it all, the more scared and cold she became. Instinctively, she clutched the rough covering to her nude body. "Naked," she thought aloud, at that moment not really noticing, nor wishing to notice, that her voice carried off into a vast nothing which surrounded her. She had not been nude when she slipped into--or had she?

She was stirred from her self-evaluation (whatever "self" that might be) by the sound of heavy boots walking upon stone. Muffled by the walls of the chamber, she could sense them growing closer. There were other noises bracketing the sounds of the boots nearing the chamber. They were skittering sounds and mewling, but the mewling, while certainly not at all human, sounded intelligent, like a language, rather than just noise, as from an animal.

The footfalls stopped and the girl heard a door open, it creaked loudly in protest to the movement. Torches finally lit her surroundings and she could only think of the chamber as more dungeon cell than bedroom. The torches moved in a slinking, jittery motion at about three to four feet off the floor. The things carrying them were hard to make out, as her vision was now trying to adjust to the contrasting light and shadows that danced aimlessly about her. The torches were placed in holders and whatever had carried them skittered out.

It was then that she saw him. He was a huge figure shrouded in the darkness at the very edge of the light of the torches. She could only make out his outline. It was the outline of a massive man, if that is in deed what the figure was. She only guessed that it was a 'he' and not a 'she'. Something told her that she was right about that, and she decided to trust that something.

The voice was deep and resounding, like the voice of God. It was all around her, even in her as he spoke. Upon hearing his voice, she calmed--a little at first, then a lot...then completely. "Be not afraid. I have not come to harm you, child," he said. The voice set her at ease, even mesmerized her. In an instant, she had forgotten her fears, the cold (it had become warm about her, she noted with a faint surprise.). She even forgot that which she had forgot. With the sound of his voice, she understood she was his.

The girl knew immediately what she must do before this being she had not yet glimpsed, only heard---not just heard---known. She slipped down off the small bed she had awakened upon, gathered her small feet beneath her lithe, nice body and knelt before him.

To do such a thing would have never, ever occurred to her in that previous existence of which she had only faint remembrance. That girl, no she had been a "woman," would never have bowed before any man, not even one seemingly composed of shadows, as was this being.

Yet, the girl she had become, perhaps always been, knelt before him, as if it was the most natural thing to do. She was made for this, she decided. The fact was that, as she committed the act of submission, she truly realized that this had been her purpose all along. Her head bowed and her golden tresses (had they not been darker and cut short at one time?) cascaded down over her face, onto her soft shoulders and ended just below the round orbs of her ample, yet firm, bosom.

Breathlessly, she awaited his approach--his approval. Her heart pounded in her small chest, and she lowered her hands, palms up, onto her thighs. She was careful to part her knees just the precise amount, so that she was open to inspection.

She heard his steps. Her first glimpse of him was of the toes of his large, black boots. Her eyes tried to capture more, but were only able to gather in the blackness of the insteps. It appeared to be some sort of hide, like leather, yet made of nothing of the world she had formerly known.

His voice was softened to her, yet still it swarmed about her and within her. It seemed to embrace her fully and completely. He spoke to her as if to a child---a beloved child. "Well done, girl. Well done indeed," he praised, as he began to inspect her. She watched as his boots moved out of her sight, leaving only the stark, stone floor for her to contemplate. "I have been awaiting this moment for longer than your mind could grasp, child."

Circling back to stand in front of her, He bade her to stand, which she dutifully did. The first time he touched her was to lift her chin. She did not know whether it was so that he could view her face, or that she might look upon his. Either way, both were accomplished in the one simple act.

Her first gaze upon him made her heart skip. He was, for lack of a better word, she thought, beautiful. His features were exquisitely chiseled, yet inexplicably soft. His hair and his eyes were black as night, as the darkness from whence he had emerged. She had half-anticipated that his skin, in contrast would be pale, but instead he had a dark, ruddy complexion, as if he had been away at sea for a lifetime or a host of lifetimes. His skin was completely without imperfection. He was quite tall, and she had to look almost straight up to gaze into his deep, dark eyes. They seemed to peer within her, and she could feel his essence encompass her soul. It was in that moment that she knew all she would ever need to know about him, yet she hungered to know even more.

"You are just as I had imagined," he began, his voice making butterflies dance in her stomach. His gloved hand slipped up from her chin to caress her face. The feel of him, even through the supple material of the glove, caused her to ache for him. His touch was all she would want from this moment forward. She felt dampness at her sex--dampness that betrayed her absolute and complete hunger for him. As if sensing this, he leaned in close and whispered softly into her ear, "I will take you soon, my child. Worry not as to that."

First, he would tell of himself. She obeyed when He told her to sit upon the small bed, as he recounted an eternity spent in this place. Until now, it had been an eternity punctuated only by loneliness. He had been chosen to take this place, just had she had been chosen for him. The time of this choosing had been upon the creation of The Dominion. He explained only perfunctorily about The Dominion, but enough to convey that it was more a "whom" than a "what". More would be forthcoming but only in due time. The only thing she truly needed to know, he told her, was that The Dominion was responsible for all that is, was and is yet to come.

"We, all of us, have purpose in our service to The Dominion. Mine is to mind the Shadows. To ensure that the balance of Good and Evil is not undone, neither by an overabundance of the Shadows, nor by a lack of them," he paused. He could see that her mind, though far from that which it had been in her former life, had yet to expand to enable her to fully understand the depth of that which he was trying to explain. Wisely, he moved on to more immediate concerns.

He sat beside her on the little bed, and as he did, she felt the bed expand beneath her. It changed from the straw bed of a slave to the vast, lush bed of the divine. In the flickering of the torchlight, she saw the bed change before her warm, green eyes. A large, silken canopy formed from mist above them. The torches, she saw, faded away to be replaced by candles on large candelabras all about them. A large fireplace appeared in place across the room from them, and she saw that the small, stone room had stretched to become a vast, luxurious bedchamber.

His gloved hand touched her once more, now upon the soft flesh of her firm, porcelain thigh. The mere touch of him made her shudder with lustful and loving need. He smiled softly to her. His ebony eyes caught just right in the glow of the surrounding candles. "I have ached for you for an eternity," he said, his full lips forming the words, so that they almost seemed liquid.

As if his own needs were laying siege his will, he paused, and then turned away. She felt her heart sink, as he did; though, she knew with certainty that their coupling was near. "First, I must convey to you the importance of never leaving this place," he said, his voice changing to reflect the vast importance the statement.

*****

The being explained to her that her very existence, and his for that matter though that message was not conveyed to her, depended upon her remaining within this place, this Lair. She must never hazard to step through The Portal, for beyond lie the beings of shadows. Those beings, he told her, were the ones he was tasked with keeping at bay.

"Great and terrifying evil lies beyond that doorway," he said in a hollow voice, pointing to the immense wooden door through which he had entered with those skittering things. So enthralled had she been with him that his entry had quite nearly slipped from her mind. "None of that can touch you in this Lair. This place is sanctuary and created by The Dominion for my use. Here, I can create any world, no matter how vast, we may wish."

"Yet," he paused at this point, turning to look into her soft, alert eyes as if to ensure that the girl understood completely the gravity of his words, "my powers, though beyond your present comprehension, are much rivaled by some of those outside that door."

The very thought of it chilled her. In his eyes she saw both dominance and fearfulness. Her small, pale hand reached to his cheek. She was uncertain of whether she should touch him without asking permission, yet she could not do otherwise. She wanted, no she needed, to touch him---to feel her flesh next to his with no glove to separate them.

Timidly, her hand moved to his clean-shaven cheek. It moved of its own accord, as if she was watching rather than doing. Then, finally, hand met face.

The sensation of the first, hesitant caress sent a cascade of emotions through her. She felt her heart quiver. His flesh was so very soft, she thought; yet, she knew there was untold strength beneath the flesh. It reached out to her hand, sending a pulse that electrified each and every nerve in her body. Her mind tried to wrap around the phenomenon, but it could not. She felt heat in her loins. Her sex was on fire, and she came instantly. Her honeyed walls undulated, as the orgasm overtook her.

The girl fell back onto the bed, the sheet was cool to her flesh. It caressed her, as she reclined, her breasts rising and falling rapidly, as she struggled to gather her breath and her senses. "My Lord, what has happened to me?" she rasped huskily, hardly able to speak at all.

Slipping off his gloves, revealing large, powerful hands, he laughed softly before answering, "Oh nothing. Nothing compared to what you are about to experience."

With that, He leaned down and touched his lips softly to hers. He would take her now.