Gloom

Chapter 4

Inwardly, I was infinitely grateful that at no time during dinner did I mention to my family about the man who had followed me. Even she knew in advance that my parents, as overprotective as they were, would attack me with a thousand questions. Shortly after, Dee went to her house.

After everyone went to rest, I stayed watching television on the sofa until I waited for me to get sleepy. A voice in my head ordered me to go to bed early, but for some reason I didn't want to obey it despite the tenuous uncertainty that fluttered in me. I flipped through the channels, paying no real attention to any of them, until I felt my eyelids grow heavy.

Turning off the TV, I was invaded by a small pang of insecurity.

One besides me said that nothing would happen, that I had done enough damage to the demon to scare him. But deep down, I knew my little attack had only made him angry.

I observed my surroundings when I began to feel a ravenous cold in the environment. I rubbed my arms and blew my breath into my hands. I decided that I should go to my room as soon as possible, before something bad happened… As if that could save me from  him . 

Then my uncertainty vanished as I lay on my bed, being replaced by pure serenity, before letting my eyelids drift shut.

In the last few weeks my nightmares took very strange paths, to the point where, in addition to being terrifying, they were incoherent. This time I was inside a place without light or walls, like a kind of completely black empty room. Out of nowhere, I could make out in front of me a tall and dark silhouette, imprecisely shaped but that looked like a great shadow, a figure with only dark glowing yellow eyes. A smile appeared on his face of featureless darkness. His teeth were sharp, thin and pointed, like tiny blades. His gesture widened in an unreal and grotesque way, so much so that it covered almost his entire face.

Suddenly, in front of the shadow, a second dark figure appeared, thinner and shorter. The first one approached him with a threatening air, to later transform into a huge black cloud. And, in that vaporous form, it impossibly entered through what was supposed to be the mouth of the smallest shadow. Both silhouettes became one, and then that pair of bright yellow pupils from before flashed into the new being that had been formed. Then a smile spread across her face and, looking at me, he stuck his tongue out of her and slid it over the pointy teeth in a hungry gesture...

I woke up with a start, three minutes before my cell phone alarm went off.

I sat up in bed, my breathing labored and the furious pounding of my heart pounding in my ears. I had never had such a dream before, and I had no idea how my mind was capable of conjuring up such images, worthy of a horror show.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand, trying to relax. And I got up, determined that the hot water from the shower would make me quickly ignore what my subconscious refused to forget.

It seemed the demon was gone, but the nightmares stayed.

I thanked heaven when the workday was over.

The day had been lousy. When she was taking her order to someone, I accidentally spilled hot coffee on the table of another customer, a middle-aged lady who, luckily, had good reflexes and got up before she got burned. Of course, she didn't react kindly and I got a yelling lecture from her. Although I did feel somewhat guilty for my clumsiness, her aggressive reaction managed to annoy me. However, I knew that if she didn't want to lose my job I had to be obedient, so I just clenched my fists and lowered my head. I was more than aware that this would only end in an incident that would be deducted from my mediocre salary.

I rubbed my temples, trying to soothe my headache as I waited for Diana to be ready to go.

"Do you drive?" Her,” she inquired happily as she reached my side, fiddling with her car keys.

I narrowed my eyes in his direction, wondering with annoyance how come he always looked so cheerful.

I slowly shook my head.

-Oh, come on! he insisted. Why not? You have license.

"Because it's  your  car," I pointed out. I won't risk doing anything to him. I don't have money to pay for something like that.

—How little confidence you have! One of these days I'll get you to drive, you'll see.

I gave him a half smile without much desire, and got into the vehicle. After several minutes of driving, while she kept her eyes fixed on the road, I felt the need to murmur:

-Know? You don't have to drop me off at my house every day. We agreed that you would only do it when we left late.

"I won't let you go alone until I'm sure that psycho isn't following you anymore."

I pursed my lips. A strange pang went through my chest.

It had been three days since there had been any trace of the…  demon . She now lived immersed in the uncertainty that she would return when I least expected it. Although at night she felt that an atrocious cold was creeping through some unknown part of the house, there was nothing more strange than that. The tv and lights were now working properly, not turning on on their own. Everything seemed to have returned to normal.

Nightmares, on the other hand...

I couldn't stop thinking that something was not right with my mind. It was not normal that I could create such macabre images in my subconscious. Not like that, is it?

I shook my head, sighing heavily.

"Nobody's after me anymore, Dee," I assured her. Calm down.

"Not until I'm completely sure of that."

"Maybe it was just a coincidence."

He looked away from the road to look at me for a second.

"Does it bother you that I'm going to drop you off at your house?"

"You know it's not that," I replied, "but I don't want you to cancel appointments or stuff for doing this." I don't even live that far, if I were less lazy I could walk away and you know it.

"You'd have a great butt," he said, raising and lowering his eyebrows.

A short laugh escaped us in unison. After a little while of silence, she turned to me again.

"I'll leave you alone when we leave late, on one condition," she said, and I looked at her, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. The next time we have a meeting at work, you should come with us.

I sighed.

"Why do you want to see me suffer?"

She rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, drama queen. Accept it or I will leave you every day as if you were a girl coming home from school.

"Okay, you win. I shook my head and decided to soon change the subject before he started taunting his victory. How are you doing with Anthony's friend?

A remarkable joy manifested itself in his expression, and I knew that that alone was enough to make him forget the matter quickly. I smiled again as she elaborated on the high expectations she had for the date and the boy.

I stayed in the garden, waving to her as I watched her car drive away. I dragged my feet until I reached the house. I was betting that anyone who saw me could see my low spirits.

I didn't understand what was wrong with me. She couldn't understand why she couldn't stop thinking about what happened with that… subject? Man? Being demonic? Whatever it was.

I couldn't  forget it .

Although it was the first time in more than two weeks that I felt a bit more serene, the first time in days that I wasn't overwhelmed by the horrible feeling that eyes were following me wherever I was, there was something in a tiny corner and darkness in my head that made me restless.

She was more than sure that he was a demon, and a real one, not the kind that appeared in movies, internet videos or anything like that. That guy, that…  thing , was real. And now that she thought about it, he never promised not to come back.

Extremism.

It was clear to me that he didn't have the ordinary look that we all thought about demons. He told me that, had it not been for the unusual pale grayish tone of his skin, and those huge wings loaded with black feathers, he would have sworn that there was only a thief in front of me or something. He …he almost looked like me, somehow. Suddenly, the terrifying idea crossed my head that, perhaps, everything I thought about them were nothing more than prejudices imposed by religion, legends and fiction.

But what certainly mattered was making sure that he was really going to leave me alone. Had my attack been as effective as I wanted?

The denial of the latter was obvious.

I was lying flat on my bed, arms outstretched to either side of me, staring up at the ceiling. I let out a breath. With my fingertips I massaged my temples, still hoping to soothe the headache that horrible uncertainty seemed to cause me. Why did a psycho demon spy on me for so many days? What was it that he really wanted?

Deep down I was aware that the subject told me the purpose for which he had tirelessly watched me, and the reason for appearing in front of me as he did, in the living room of my house in the middle of the night. But he could no longer remember. I knew it was something to do with my head, that he couldn't…  access  it ? What was he referring to?” I frowned as an uncomfortable feeling settled in my stomach. I couldn't help evoking the moment when he asked—I didn't know if it was me or himself—what kind of creature was I?

"Maybe they were lies, they were to distract you ," a voice suggested in my head.

I started biting my nails out of sheer nervousness. As far as I knew, that could be true. But then what other reason was there for him to do what he did?