At first I thought you were wearing some kind of nightgown; the soft sliver of your bare breasts as they quivered in the dim glow of the moonlight filtering through your bedroom window corrected that assumption.
You are older now but in that moment I saw you as I remember you on the day we first met: chestnut brown hair worn in a bob at the shoulders, alabaster skin pulled taut over long bones and lean muscles.
All of the years spent mountaineering in the back country had gifted you with a hard body that made you the envy of women half your age. Your parents superb genetics deserve recognition as well.
You always were the apple of your parents' eye, the favorite offspring and favored sibling, but I digress . . .
On the wall next to the intercom, in handwritten letters, was the phrase Listen, Serve, Obey.
Muted sobs racked your body as you tried to speak. "After everything they've asked of us . . . " you cried, the salt of your tears catching the moonlight and fluorescing in the gloom.
I rested the flat of my fingers on your ribcage and kissed your right shoulder three times.
"This loneliness won't be the death of you," I whispered in reply.
Watching you wade on hands and knees through 40 years of failure made me want you all the more. Eventually you rose to your feet.
Face to face I felt the warmth of your breath catch in my throat.
"I miss you most when I am lonely," you whispered.
Your lips curled back, revealing glimmering incisors and canines.
The liquid absence of your eyes caught the shine from the moon, revealing a creature more theriomorphic than human.
In that moment I knew exactly how this encounter would end.
Your fingers wove around my neck, nails feeling for and then digging deep into the space where the skull and spine met. I felt the warm wetness as skin separated from bone.
When my vision returned I could just make out the rivulets of blood as they streamed down my chest and shoulders.
Your eyes bore the same deep shade of crimson, illuminated in the predatory glimmer of the softly-fading moon.
Once more you brought your lips to my throat and bared your teeth, tightening your grip on the base of my skull.
"This one's for old times," you said, smiling. Your black eyes twinkled.
I heard the snap, but I didn't feel a thing.
You do not have to love me just because you are every women I have ever wanted. I was born to follow you, a monument to the many men who (have) love(d) you or are waiting to love you, myself included.
I started off the year 2020 with eight New Year's "Resolutions."
I ended the year accomplishing ten, adding new "resolutions" along the way.
In layman's terms, I grabbed 2020 by the throat and throttled it, shook it, watched it die in my hands as it gave way to a new year.
Now there is only 2021.
I will continue seeking knowledge. I will continue growing stronger. There is nothing left to do.
Don't attach. Hit hard. Disappear. Keep moving.
It was always simple combat, one against all. One never relenting, knowing no other way to go but until collapse.
Things should start getting interesting right about now.
