Phantom Love

Chapter 8

        When I open my eyes all I see is feather beds and silk scarves and honestly, I'm super fucking confused. Was I not just in Emerson's room? I think to myself. After blinking a few times I look around and watch as the women around me pull on long flowing robes of dark purple as they stand in this strange, unknown room. The walls in this cavern are made of black stone and I don't see windows anywhere in the room. The vaulted ceiling is almost 20 feet tall and heavily draped with silks of various colors.

       I look to the fireplace that's sunken into the floor and surrounded by sheep skins and large pillows, making me want to curl up next to it. The beds are elevated on a platform-like area that surrounds the fireplace. As I'm admiring the silk drapes that give each bed privacy a shimmering light above the beds snags my attention. It takes me a minute to realize that the lights that I'm seeing aren't the typical electric ceiling lights I'm used to but instead are floating orbs that shift in and out of the silk draperies like fairy lights.  

       I look around the room in absolute wonder as I take in all the beauty. I've never seen something so comfortable or so lavish yet simple and homey. There's no gold or silver, there's no fancy decorations, and the women themselves don't adorn themselves in any sort of riches outside of the daggers I see poking out of their robes. The room's soft simplicity is what makes it so beautiful. It also looks like a great room to have sex in honestly. Like, get that fire going and push some mattresses together and you have yourself a super comfortable looking sex chamber. I should totally keep this layout in mind for future endeavors.

       When I look down at myself I realize that I'm not who I was when I fell asleep. I'm smaller, much smaller. Like I'm in a child's body. I'd say somewhere around 12 years old. 

       "Lady, are you ready?" A woman asks me from high above. 

        My head nods up and down without my permission as I watch the body I'm in reach out a small hand and clasp the woman's. I have no idea what's going on but I figure I might as well just stick with it, not like I can go anywhere else. We follow the parade of women dressed in dark purples and my head moves down to my own robes. They're a pitch black velvet adorned with lace and gems, making the robe itself look like a night's sky. 

        Sadly my stupid head moves up again before I can get a better look at it and soon we walk into the most stunning assembly hall I've ever seen. All three sides of the room are open to the elements and everything is made out of black obsidian. Silk draperies fall from hooks in the openings and reach from stone pillar to stone pillar. The sound they make as they flap in the wind seems to soothe something in me as we walk towards the end of the hall. 

         When we get there I realize that this entire hall is built on a jutting protrusion in the mountain side. As I look around there's nothing around me but mist and, what I'm assuming is, a long fall. I can see the body of rock from when we emerged from stretch out far above and behind us but everywhere else is a misty unknown that sends zings of awareness throughout me. I stop just at the end of the hall and situated just beyond the pillars is a stone ledge that juts out and into the misty surroundings. 

         Just as I'm thinking about how there's no way in hell someone is getting me out on that ledge. I feel someone squeeze my hand before they give me a gentle push towards the ledge. Against my brains better judgement, my body slowly walks out onto it and my eyes close. I feel something rise from within me, a familiar feeling that has me wondering why it is so familiar. I feel it pulse out of me and spread out into the environment around me. Soon, I'm opening my eyes and singing. It's a haunting but beautiful melody that sounds so fucking familiar but I can't place it once again. I can sing along to the words in my head without issue even as this alien body produces the sounds.