The End of Eden

XXIV

I'm back in my bed. Four must have carried me again, all the way back to the sanctum, and they must have all tucked me into my bed, and left me to sleep a whole day away again, because when I open my eyes, soft light is drifting into the room, casting everything in a golden pink haze. And I realize I love him for always taking care of me.

But I am not in my room. My bed, yes, but I'm in the middle of the Fields of Elation, giant poppies surrounding me, clouds low in the pink sky. It was the poppies that was the giveaway, because not even Sleep appearing to me means I'm dreaming now, and I see his giant form wading through the flowers, shrinking to a normal size by the time he reaches the patch of flowers where my bed is.

"My love," he calls out to me, and I sit up, the blankets falling away as he comes to my side.

"Where are we?" I ask, looking around at the dream world he has created for me.

"This is my Eden," he says, his hand brushing along my face. It is a more fantastical version of my Eden, and I love it all the same. "My love, you remembered who you are to me today, and it makes my heart swell in pride."

I smile, remembering exactly what I had told Annabelle. "You have given me the strength to stand up to her," I say, looking up at him, his eyes blinking at different times.

"I did not give you your strength, only the ability to find it in yourself," he says. I would disagree, that he has provided more than strength alone in me, but he pulls from his body the cloak he normally wears. He looks so much like Vessel, it's almost uncanny the resemblance. "But I did choose you as my bride, which will afford a great many things to us."

"I know," I say, and I watch him settle onto the bed beside me. I don't feel a sense of nerves creeping up in me as he shifts beside me, only reverence. I look up the back of his head, the white ridges that form his skull that meld into the human body he has. I have never seen this side of him before. "We are one. I have given myself to your chosen vessels."

"We are one," he agrees, his face turning to mine again. "You have one additional duty to uphold as my bride."

The silence stretches out between us as he shuffles down the blankets that cover my body. I can feel every set of eyes taking in every curve, every hollow of my body.

"What has yet to be done?" I whisper.

"You will give yourself to me," he says. I want to say that I have already by marrying his vessels, by giving them my entire being, but I know that is not what he means. In this waking dream, I feel no anxiety, no fear, no apprehension. I only feel love. Love of myself, and of Sleep, and his vessels, and the love they bore for me.

"I know what you want from me," I whisper, his face moving ever closer to mine. I am nodding my head when his mouth touches mine, his body rising up beside mine to rest between my open legs. He is gentle, like how the rest of the vessels are with me. My hands come up to rest on his face as he kisses me, his strange long tongue flicking against mine.

His hands rove over my body, from my neck, to my chest to my stomach, then to the apex of my thighs and down. Over and over again, he explores my womanly body with his hands, and then his mouth eventually follows, tasting every single inch of me, like he has never tasted a thing before.

"You are honey on my lips, my bride," Sleep utters, tasting me. His hands settle on my waist, and I shudder at his tongue lapping over me, then sliding inside me. I gasp as he slithers inside me, and I look down at him between my legs. One set of eyes, I know, are watching me, another set closed, and the last set focused on his tongue sliding out of me. My hands slide down my chest, one hand pausing to squeeze a breast, the other landing on his hand holding onto me.

I let my head fall back onto the pillow below me as his mouth settles around my clit, his tongue wrapping around me, sending shocks of ecstasy through me. His mouth pulls from me between kissing me, he speaks. "I know why my vessels yearn to taste you now. I know why they desperately crave to join with you now.  I know why they want to be inside you now."

I feel delirious already from his mouth, but his smooth words tip me over the edge of orgasm. It feels a million times more intense now, the world shuddering with me as my body rides out the orgasm, the moans of pleasure echoing all around us. The absurdity of his words being my undoing makes me giggle, until I feel him above me again, his mouth touching mine again, my honey being spread on my lips by him now.

"I know why they desire to bring you such euphoria," Sleep says as he slides into my already aching body. My head is back on the pillow, my body arching upward into him as he spreads me open wider than I have ever felt, his length touching me deeper than I have ever felt.

"Oh, Sleep," I gasp, his body pulsing inside me. I entwine my legs with his, my hands running up his arms to loop around his strong back, so much like my Vessel in the waking world, like the rest of them.

His mouth is back on mine again, his tongue flicking inside my mouth, tangling with my tongue, running along my teeth, sliding down my throat. I want to gag, but in this waking dream, there is no such thing. I only accept him into me, and as my eyes open, and look toward the golden pink sky beyond Sleep, I see him there, for what he really, truly is, like a veil has been lifted from my eyes.

His mouth, open, shows many rows of white, sharp teeth, a circular maw where his long tongue protrudes from. His three rows of eyes remain the same, his symbol dripping blood onto my body now, whereas it was just red before. His back erupts into two sets of tentacles, black leathery things that spring out, each one wrapping itself around my legs and arms, while his fingers, which grip my throat, end in blackened talons.

I want to scream in this perfect world, but his hand around my throat prevents that as he drives himself into me over and over again, his tongue choking me. I squeeze my eyes shut against the horror that is the true face of Sleep, the face he has allowed me to glimpse for only a second.

But when I open my eyes again, he appears as he did before, like my vessels appear to me, and while his loving hands stroking me, his mouth is on my neck, teeth sinking into me. Rows of jagged teeth split my flesh as he spills his seed into me, and in a gasping cry, my own orgasm reaches up and meets his, my body clenching all over, and around him, my back arches and I open my mouth and finally

scream.