When she Came

I woke suddenly, convinced that something was wrong. I felt as though I was not alone. I was right, when I looked; she was there, standing at the bottom of my bed.

‘Who are yo…? What the fu…?’ I mumbled, wondering how she had managed to get into my house and – absurdly - what time it was.

‘Come,’ she said.

I glanced at the clock: 00:00, it said.

‘What the hell…?’ I started at the woman, she was young, but somehow seemed ancient. A look in her eyes that suggested she had seen so much.

‘Come…’ she repeated, reaching out a hand towards me.

‘What..?’ I fumbled for the bedclothes, suddenly very conscious of this stranger in the room and my nudity.

‘Come.’

I found myself getting up, out of the bed as though her words and that reaching hand had me under her spell. It was as though I had no volition of my own. I took a step around the side of the bed to where she was waiting; suddenly realising I had an erection. She did not even glance or acknowledge it.

I decided I must have been dreaming.

I glanced back at the bed, and surprised myself by how unsurprised I was to see my sleeping form still there in the bed.

‘Come,’ she said, turning to lead me out of the bedroom. I thought about turning back to the bed, ignoring her, but even as I did, my feet were moving, tracing her footsteps, which left a sort of ghostly wisp of mist behind them on the floor as she walked away.

She stood at the top of the stairs, waiting for me to catch up with her.

‘Come,’ she said again, this time glancing over her shoulder as she walked through the wall.

‘Bu….’ I said even as I felt the solidity of the wall open for me, I felt as though I was dipping my whole body in custard, or something like that, something that looked solid but was in fact permeable. Then, I was through and outside; standing in mid-air, naked. I was standing on nothing as she did the same a few feet in front of me.

This is some dream, I thought.

She turned her head to look at me once again. ‘This is no dream,’ she said. ‘Come.’