Dark
Rider
I became aware as consciousness found me, itŐs
fingers entwining deeply into my soul. Crushing me at the same time as it gently
stroked my head. Lovingly. The nightmare continued and the mare was a stallion.
A black stallion that glistened in the moonlight. Once again I was back in the
field being chased by a dark figure on horseback. That awful sound of animal
hoofs pounding over the grassy hills.
I was running alongside a
waist-high wall made from large rounded pebbles. The twisted grass writhed like
a grotesque bed of worms, its razor sharp splinters snuffed out as the laughing
white face disappeared behind a racing cloud. The black sky studded with
occasional stars against the wispy clouds appearing like apparitions. Ghostly
fragments in my picture of horror. The waxing gibbous Moon came in and out of
view. There was a terrible dryness in my throat from my exertions. A pervading
and impenetrable darkness.
All-enclosing
fear is black and shapeless. Being trapped in a room without air.
Suffocating.
The screaming
wind brought with it the incessant sound of the galloping horse rushing up directly
behind me. I could taste the metallic sharpness of fear as I drank it, my
throat burning in the acid. The sword flashed in the moonlight as the rider
jumped over wall, cloak flapping wildly like the ragged sail of a tall ship in
strong winds. The horse rose above me gliding almost silently yet carrying its
rider, face half hidden in the dark shadow of an absurdly large black top hat.
The flash of teeth and glint in the eyes could only be imagined rather than
seen.
I
jumped over the wall. The horse leapt over again to go ahead of me. I rolled
forward over and grabbed some grass. It was slippery in my sweating hand. I
came to my feet and managed to jump over the wall. And on it went. This bizarre
game of cat and mouse. I fell over the wall for one final time.
Totally
exhausted.
The
rider had brought its horse to a sudden stop. It reared up and spun around on
its hind legs, but the wall remained separating me from my pursuer. I crouched
and the rider seemed to sail over me towards the Moon. Relentlessly chasing me.
It had jumped through my blind-spot and momentarily vanished from sight though
I could still hear the horse, but galloping away into the darkness. Suddenly it
appeared, the rider brandishing a sword flashing in the moonlight. The horse stood
high on its rear legs. The front legs came crashing to the ground and the rider
dismounted in a flourish. A cloaked arm sliced downwards towards me as sparks
flew away from the contact of metal on stone. This sword was real. The stone
wall was real. My terror was real. My nightmare was real. Haunted by my fears
that had become so real. I turned to face my fears. The cloaked figure that was
striding directly at me. It was so close that waves of terror flooded over me.
The sheer suddenness of its arrival. It being there. The brutal reality. In
front of me almost within reaching distance. I had no option but to attack it.
This was my end. I dived towards it.
The
darkness. The silence. Respite.
I became aware
of the sound of a horse galloping towards me...
© Louis Brothnias v.1.1 (2011)