The moonlight streams in my window like silver spears, piercing through my thin summer blanket. I shiver and shift under the covers, not for wont of heat, but for wont of safety. Outside, the neighbor's dog can be heard barking. It's incessant, and unsettling. I know what it does. It only barks at night, and it'll be like it always is.

My curiosity drives me to look closer. Maybe tonight will be different. Maybe, I can sleep tonight, perchance to sleep in the abscence of dream. My feet swing out of bed, and I pass barefoot to the window. Peeking out of the frame, I stare for the dog.

He stand on all fours, at his usual spot, staring up into my window with his red glowing orbs of hellfire. His barks slice through my walls and pierce my ears with startling clarity. With every bark, the space between us shrinks, until he towers over me like a titan, his growling shaking the earth beneath me.

I shake my head, stepping back, hand over my ears, eyes firmly shut. No, not this again. He only comes at night. He's always there. I'm never allowed to leave. His presence there confirms it. His eyes, his piercing eyes. He sees me!

I jolt back to my bed. My memories plague me. Every time, he sees, and every time, he comes. I can't hide. He sees too well. I can't run. He follows too devotedly. Like a hound, he chases me until I'm weak and then devours. Devours my mind, my body, my very soul. I can't do anything against it, for he rules me. He rules it all, and soon he will have it all.

My blanket offers no solace as his thoughts come to torment me. It burns. My mind burns as he invades, tearing up all. I rattle around, shaken, my breathing erratic. I lift up, not wanting to meet him, but knowing that the inevitable will eventually happen. My body spasms as the heat from his takeover worms throughout me.

My eyelids droop, and I sleep. I know it all too well. The field. A burnt field of charcoal and ash. In the distance, his frame looms. Behind him, his kin. They slaver and paw the ground beneath them with anticipation. I am rooted to my spot, as the feeling of dread once again overtakes me. My feet touch ground, and I know what will happen if I don't.

I run.

I run as fast as I can, but they run too. They chase me down. A flight across a vast expanse of flame-eaten flesh, a deadly dance. I hope it to finish, he hopes it to never end. His footfalls, his breath, his unearthly cries to torment in the night, threaten to swallow me. With each step, his breath down my neck spurs me on. I dare not look back, lest Sodom swallow me and Gomorrah rend me apart.

He is Destruction.

I find no rescue in the landscape. It cycles back in on itself, becoming ever smaller as my dream goes on. Yes; that it is a dream, but feels so real!

His claws leave deep graves in the ground, and I know what it will feel like to have them pierce my flesh and bone. I have felt it upon thousands. His teeth gnash together with Hell's fury itself, and I know what it will feel like to get them 'round my throat and slash through, end to end. I have known it time and time again.

My screams echo on and reach none anywhere. I know what torture is to come, yet in my will I desperately try to escape it with all my might. But he will catch up. Yes; for he catches up with all, and all cannot escape his grasp.

As he gets ever closer, I lose my limbs. One to fatigue, one to the chains of inevitability. As he relishes the end of the chase. He pounces upon me, the pain already washing over me as a splash of noxious poison; his bladed brand nigh to pierce my chest-

"Emilie! Emilie! Emilie, for the love of God, Emilie!"

My spasms wrest my body from the bed as I am wracked with pain, my eyes cracking from the intensity, though they seem to break and again. I arch in a devilish sort, my screams piercing my own ears. He hears. I know he does. This is his prize; to know I am in torment. This is what he chases after; my fear of the inevitable.

"Emilie! Please, look at me! Emilie, damn it!"

Hands hold my arms down, yet my elbows still cradle my burning corpse as it smolders in agony. A face yells at mine, though my mind is broke beyond comprehension to listen. Eyes look at mine- not hellfire, but ocean blue, forest green. Awash in the great color of the inviting deep, I subside.

"Emilie! What in hell was that?" A mouth moves with the subtle grace of care.

My breaths shallow and ragged, I talk not of events, the memories scarred into my brain so well I have no choice but to remember.

A fingertip brushes my cheek. "Emilie, you need to calm down. Was it Apollyon?"

My head lolls up and down, too weak from the charring of purgatory to hold itself.

Arms encircle me with a cool, calm embrace. I steam against the chill, but mold to it, feeling solaced. A voice whispers in my ear. "I will protect you, Emilie. No more Hellhounds. Peace, Emilie, peace."

I am lifted, and carried, the pain of my nightmares hidden from me as a new reality is formed. I am laid in a cool bed, far from his reach. His barking cannot reach me here.

A form sits at the foot of my bed, and chanting. The words hold power. They are alien, unrepeatable, yet still unchanging. They weave their way into my mind as I start to slumber once more. Rather than the feeling of being dragged into hell, it is the feeling of slipping into a floating calm. Void of all, simply there.

It consumes me, yet I welcome it readily.

I wake up, feeling rested. At the end of my resting place, there he is, slumped forward, still mumbling some incantation. He snores in-between, rising and falling with each breath. I crawl forwards, draping my arms around him, leaning into his neck. "Good morning, Malachi."

He opens his eyes, and looks at me, reaching around to take hold of me as well. I let him swing me around until I am held by him. He brushes a lock of hair out of my eyes, and smiles. "Have a good sleep, my dear Emilie?"

I smile back, warmth flooding my face. "Yes, all thanks to you, Dreamguider. Your mind is a peaceful place."

He places his forehead against mine, and we sit there, simply connected. A peace pervades the room, a simple bond between a Dreamliver and her Dreamguide. His very presence puts an ease on my soul that leaves with him when he goes. With him, I am home. I lift my hand up to caress his face. "Take me home, Malachi."

FIN

Inspired by: Ease My Soul - Trivecta (feat. Charlotte Haining)