The memory of a cold, vicious snarl echoed through my mind and rattled around in my skull. Things were better now; meaning home life and social environment and friends and such, but sometimes a monstrous nightmare of my past would come back to haunt me.
Like right now, I’m sitting at a picnic table at the park, surrounded by friends that care about me, birds singing, sun shining, happiness all around, but still the darkness that was once my life is invading my privacy and taking over my thought process.
No longer do I see my friends and the blossoming trees of springtime. My vision is blurred over, so instead I see Him, standing over me, cackling like He does, triumphant in ensnaring me in His most brutal torture: invading my mind.
I can barely hear the concerned words of my friends, it’s like I’m underwater and I can almost hear them from above, drowned out by Him taunting me.
“No one can save you now, Melanie. You belong to Me,” His voice like fingernails on chalkboard, or like shards of metal scraping against each other. I’m cowering away from Him, terrified once again, and He is standing over me, victorious. Suddenly, the wicked smile on His face transforms into a snarl bearing all His razor sharp teeth, and He lunges forward with the speed of something completely un-human. A fraction of a second before He tears me apart, where I can feel His hot breath on my face and I can see nothing but His cruel, despicable red glowing eyes, He vanishes.
Everything appears to be back to normal. Blue sky, the sound of children laughing at the playground in the distance, surrounded by friends; except now, instead of sitting on the picnic bench, I’m laying on the grass, panicky and shaking and breaking into cold sweats, and my friends are all around me, looking very concerned and they’re trying to figure out what happened.
“Melanie, Mell, can you hear me?” Mike is repeating, a worried shake in his voice. I’m looking around franticly, searching for Him. I finally look up at Mike, kneeling in the grass on my right, and he just waits for my reply.
“Yeah, yeah I can hear you,” is all I say, voice shaken.
“What just happened?” asks Ava, on my left. I don’t answer for a moment, scanning the park one last time to be sure He is really gone. Ron, Stacey, and Lilly are all facing me, also seated in the grass. Everyone has a look of overwhelming concern on their face, and it makes me feel guilty for worrying them and also angry for multiple other reasons, none of them directed at my friends.
“I- I’m fine,” is my reply, regretting the stutter that made its way into my voice. No one believes me.
Great. Now everyone here thinks I’m crazy too. He is actually beginning to destroy my life a SECOND time. As this occurs to me, I become more afraid, and I know that somewhere He is watching me, satisfied with my anguish—for now.
“I will return,” I barely hear Him whisper in my right ear, and I don’t even bother to turn and look, because I know that when I do, He won’t be there.