At Dusk

The nymph

Mathias turned from side to side chasing sleep, which was more elusive tonight than ever.

Angela had already plunged deep, he could tell. The rhythmic breathing that came out of her parted lips gave him the safety he needed to mull over the news she had brought home earlier. Apparently, Laura had gone missing. Probably dead, but no one knew for sure. The family was in an uproar.

He did not believe it, not for a minute. She was, if anything, a very capable and self-sufficient individual. Not the type to whom things happen at all, but who cause things to happen to others. How did he feel about it? 

Nothing. He felt nothing, he reassured himself. The unrest he was feeling in the pit of his stomach was due to the unfamiliarity of the situation. 

Getting up from the bed in a swift movement, Mathias walked to the balcony. The pouring rain had swayed into a shapeless drizzle by now, but watching it fall didn't do his jumbled thoughts any good.

He walked over to the fridge and grabbed a Heineken. That should help. Taking a generous sip, he sat on the couch and stared blankly at the smooth black screen of the oversized television. He ought to get back to bed, he thought, he ought to lay down beneath the white-flowered sheets and hug his wife reassuringly.  

She had already had a shit day by the time they told her that her sister had gone missing. 

They had been married for a couple of years now. No kids. He had promised himself that the warm feeling would arise someday. And it did. Some kind of affection, but not love. He had never experienced love in his life but once. An insane need that now appeared completely foreign to him. 

He found a cushion on which to rest his head as he tried to remember it, what if felt like when he met Laura for the first time.

Then he woke up in the middle of a forest. 

Startled, he stood up and started pacing around. His legs were slightly bent and covered in a thick brown fur that extended to his cloven hoofs. Cloven hoofs?  He must be dreaming. He must have fallen asleep on the couch holding his beer.

Shiiiit!  

He contemplated his reflection in the calm waters of a nearby stream, which functioned as a mirror. The dark fur camouflaging his manhood stopped just below his belly button. His torso and face remained the same, but from his head two horns now protruded, denouncing his true nature.

He didn't have time to fuzz over what that meant, for she appeared just beyond the edge of the woods. Mere meters from where he stood. Her perfume reached him, fresh and sweet like orange blossoms. 

She appeared to mock him from afar invitingly. Then ran towards the meadow, her lilac gown dancing behind her.  

He thought for a moment about the realm he had left behind. A hut in the farthest reaches of the forest, a comfortable pile of dry branches for a bed. A bittersweet feeling took over his mind, making him question if this time he had lost his sanity for good.

But he didn't have a choice, did he? He had to chase. Sooner or later he would get to touch that wild fiery hair, that soft skin of hers, and then there would be no day or night, no end or beginning. Heaven and earth would merge into a single horizon. It would be a handsome reward for the cat-and-mouse game they played almost every night.

Shutting down everything but his tracking skills, he sniffed the air and followed her scent, mindlessly hunting his irresistible prey. 

He caught her not long after, by the riverbed. She was stunned to see him this close but did not run away. Instead, she seemed to float in his direction. Mad with desire, he tore the fabric of her dress away, something he had already done countless times in his mind. 

She melted like butter under the touch of his still-human hands. No words escaped her lips until they both fell into the soft bed of weeds that grew on the riverbank. Then she said things that were confusing to him as if they stood so far apart that he could only hear the echoes of her voice. 

Maybe if he moved closer he would be able to hear better. Closer, closer, and closer. It wasn't long before he gushed out, his semen hot and thick like volcano lava. 

After he peaked, he laid on his back for the longest time, watching the mist descend from an unfriendly sky and swirl around them. He the hunter; she the prey. Or was it the other way around?

His body went numb bit by bit. His eyelids fought to stay open as she dragged him back to the woods, chanting all the way. Now her voice was much closer ad clearer, but he still could not make out what her words meant. Only when they arrived at a candle-lit hut did he begin to feel apprehensive. She just smiled at him, a charming, mischievous smile. 

She placed his dormant body on a table and, just like that, tore his heart out with a leaf-shaped knife. He watched everything with terror, not being able to move. She held the pulsating organ in her hand and placed it in one of the many jars in one of the many dusty shelves, leaving a trail of blood behind and a wide gash in his chest.

With bloody fingers, she turned her attention back to him and drew a symbol on his forehead. 

"A heart for a heart."

***

Mathias woke up shivering from the cold, with a faint headache poking at his temples. He must have fallen asleep quickly last night, so quickly he did not have time to go back to bed. He got up and combed his hair with his fingers, avoiding by inches a half-finished beer that still sat on the floor.  

Noises were coming from his bedroom. Angela must have woken up already. His phone showed him it was half-past six. Why was she awake so early?

A faint light broke the darkness of the room as he carefully opened the door and walked over to the nightstand. She wasn't there, but the crumpled sheets were still warm, denouncing that she had left only a few minutes ago.

He went back to the kitchen, but she wasn't there either. She wasn't on the balcony, she wasn't in the living room. He found her in their shared bathroom, standing under a cascade of hot water.