Once Upon a Nightmare

Sarah didn’t think she was giving up anything when she accepted the gift-card.

She hurried into the dark alleyway not knowing how long she had, whether Frank was minutes or seconds behind her, she knew he was coming. He wouldn’t let her leave. The last time she had tried, slowly tucking small bills into the back of her underwear drawer, he had broken her arm in two places. He wouldn’t just let her leave now.

Headlights flashed across the mouth of the narrow space. Instinctively she ducked out of sight. Was it him, the ugly truck he drove, coming to run her down? Her steps quickened even more when the driver didn’t stop. She needed to get out of sight.

Deep inside the alley, she slid into a recessed doorway. Back pressed into the damp wood, she was hidden from anyone unless they came through the door. She finally felt hidden; she would never feel safe.

“That’s not true.” A voice whispered from the darkest shadows. “There is one way.”, it hissed.

A shiver ran down her spine. It wasn’t something she hadn’t thought about before. That Frank passing away in the night would solve her problems. But she never wanted to free herself by hurting others, even if it was someone who had hurt her. “No”, she told it, used to talking to herself after being kept from anyone else for so long. All that she had been left with was herself. “I can’t. I want to be better.”

The voice chuckled at her, growing stronger as she talked to it. “Not that way.” Judgement tinging the words as if they knew what was in her head. She reminded herself they did because they were a figment of her imagination. “Power”, it whispered. “Influence. Money. They can keep you safe.”

The shadows weren’t as deep anymore, slithering together into a hunched form. Colours leeched out of the surroundings to tinge the shadows into a facsimile of skin, hair, and expression. Washed-out grey eyes watched her, flicking over each of her injuries, visible and invisible. Cataloguing her.

A hand held out a card. “I give you power. Influence. Money. You give me life.” It patiently waited for her to take it.

She had no life to give. Silently, she took the power being offered.

= + =

The sun beat down, bright and burning. Sarah turned her face up into it and let it warm her. She could never have imagined the changes her life had seen, not the least of which was a move across the country. Away from the grey, freezing life she had known to freedom and fun.

Each day brought something new and wondrous. Remembering she had little in the way of food in her fridge, she ducked into the convenience store on the corner before heading home. Slowly browsing the shelves, she threw anything she wanted into the basket. The fancy chocolate Frank had bought for her while they were dating, until her weight became a concern, was the last thing she added to the basket. Not because she was craving it but because she could.

“Please.” A woman pleaded.

Turning the corner, she saw a woman that could have been her mirror image a year ago begging the store owner for a small pile of apples and a loaf of bread.

“I’ll pay for it.” She spoke before he could tell her no. Pulling out the gift card she had been given, it rippled in her fingers to transform into a credit card. Always being what she needed, and now she needed to help this woman in a way no one had ever helped her.

“Thank you.” The other woman whispered.

= + =

A display in the window Sarah was passing caught her eye. The new range of purses had been released, and the bright purple was precisely what she needed.

Except there was a dirty man hunched over on the sidewalk beside the door, in the way of the people just trying to go about their day. She hesitated before finally deciding not to go in. She could get the purse later or have them deliver. Memories of terrifying nights on the streets forgotten.

= + =

Sarah sneered at the woman in front of her. Why couldn’t they just do what they were told? It was always the same, she mentally sighed, they didn’t have the backbone to help themselves. They didn’t know the right way to do things.

= + =

They were new, the Neverwhere space between hell and the mortal world stretching out unknown and endless around them. Curling up, they pressed themselves against the barrier and waited.

Watching the people wander through their pointless lives. They remembered when they were one of them. A long stretch of years that had very few points of true happiness. Oh, they had thought they were happy. Especially in the later years with someone always there to do for them. To make them feel powerful while treating others how they had never wanted to be treated again. It wasn’t happiness, it was self-satisfaction.

And now there were long years of purgatory ahead of them.

They had always taken the easy way, and it always led further into darkness. A lonely childhood had changed with Frank’s half-hearted offer of a way out. They had ignored the alarms tolling in their mind, grasping it and then being shocked the first time he let loose the anger they had always known simmered too close to the surface.

They had gotten themselves out, or at least they had thought they had. Forgetting the shadow that had bargained for something they didn’t think they still possessed. Now they knew better and would laugh at the self-delusion if they could.

Across the barrier, bustling daytime gave way to still night. A shade ran into the reach of the shadows where they were hiding. They could almost taste the sharp copper that had filled their mouth on this night once upon a nightmare.

“I’ll never be safe.” The shade’s heart whispered into the unforgiving night.

“That’s not true.” The night whispered back.