darker_london | Renee - Further nightmares

She was naked once more, and despite the fact that she was standing in the middle of a street, it seemed perfectly normal. Not necessarily comfortable, but not shameful or embarrassing. Besides, the street was empty. It seemed old, as if located a century or more in the past. The road was made of stone rather than asphalt. The buildings were low and wooden, some of them with thin whisps of smoke rising from their chimneys.

Off to her right and a little way down the street was the only building emitting any light. The warm luminescence of an open fired spilled out the window and under the door. Renee could hear voices and laughter from within. They sounded vaguely familiar... curiously, she approached the building.

The window was too dirty to see anyone clearly, but the door was slightly ajar, so she took that as an invitation and pushed it open. Inside seemed to be a somewhat rustic bar, almost empty at this late hour. Marcel stood behind the bar, absently cleaning a pint glass. She felt a stab of panic in her gut, but something prevented her from running. It was the voices...

She turned and looked in their direction, finding Ry, Scarlett and Kait drunkenly slumped around a table. Kait was laughing hysterically, almost falling off her chair as she swigged courage potion straight out of the bottle. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, which Ry and Scarlett seemed to find hilarious, and staggered over to the bar.

"I want one of those!" she slurred, pointing at something that Renee couldn't see past a shelf filled with colourful but dusty bottles. Kait was leaning over the bar in such a way that she almost fell out of her low-cut, black dress. Marcel nodded and gave a small smile before plucking a butcher's knife from the wall and handing it to her.

Kait smiled her thanks and returned to the table, standing before Scarlett and Ry who leaned back in anticipation. Giggling, Kait stabbed the knife deep into herself, blood spurting over the faces of her audience of two. Renee covered her mouth in horror, but could do nothing to help. She was frozen in place.

Kait seemed to lose her balance and, still giggling, collapsed to the floor, the knife still sticking out of her stomach. Ry almost fell off his chair himself with laughter, while Scarlett buried her face in his shoulder, tears of mirth running down her face.

From a back door, Pierre entered the room. He glanced at Renee but gave her no further acknowledgement. He simply leaned down and, without a word, yanked the knife from Kait's body. Her giggling came to a slow stop, like a clockwork toy winding down and gradually becoming inert. Ry made a disappointed sound as Kait's eyes became lifeless, staring straight at Renee, a drunken grin forever frozen on her features. Pierre made his way out as silently as he had entered, walking straight through Renee on his way.

The entertainment that was Kait being over, Scarlett turned to Ry. "That I was disdainful, and that I had my good wit out of the 'Hundred Merry Tales' - well, this was Signor Benedick that said so."

"What's he?" Ry answered.

"I am sure you know him well enough..."

Renee felt as though she were going to be ill. Somehow, she managed to command her feet to propel her out of the tavern, Marcel watching her flight with mild amusement.

No sooner had she made her way onto the street than there were a million bright flashing lights in her eyes. She couldn't see what she was doing, where she was going. She turned around, away from the lights, trying to get her bearings... and found Avery behind her.

She looked at him questioningly, not knowing what to say to the boy. Rather than expressing any anger like she would have expected, though, Avery simply shrugged as if to say, "I don't know, it's your dream," before ducking into an alley and disappearing through a side doorway.

My dream... Renee followed the boy through the door, but on the other side, he was nowhere to be found...

She had entered a lavish, red room. There was soft carpet beneath her feet. Flickering candles in sconces upon the walls gently lit the spacious but comfortably warm room. A fire burned merrily in an ornate, marble fireplace. On the far side of the room was a bed covered with silk sheets and huge, luxurious pillows... and leaning against a pile of these was Scarlett.

She was dressed in a slinky black nightgown that left very little to the imagination. Her legs were entirely exposed, while her midriff could be seen through semi-transparent black material. Only the lower part of her breasts and the secret place between her legs remained truly hidden by black silk. Her lips and nails were painted the deepest crimson, and the soft scent of her hair filled the room, a sweetness Renee usually only knew when deep in the other girl's embrace. With a sultry smile, Scarlett beckoned her to the bed...

Renee smiled back, moving slowly towards Scarlett despite her intense desire to break into a run and dive onto the bed with her. Instead, she slowly climbed on top of Scarlett, running her fingers over her leg and up to her hips, playfully moving back down to her inner thigh. Scarlett leaned forward a little, her lips inches from Renee's, inviting the girl to kiss her. Renee did so, softly at first, then hungrily as those lips she had desired for so long pressed against hers. The kiss was strong but tender, Scarlett's tongue working her way into Renee's mouth. Goddess, this was Heaven. Renee slipped the nightgown off Scarlett's shoulders, exposing her breasts. Renee caressed them eagerly, her kisses moving down Scarlett's neck. The redhead moaned as Renee's lips found her nipple, gently sucking and flicking her tongue over it. Scarlett held Renee close for a moment, then slowly shifted down under Renee so that she was eye-level with her once more. Now that she was close to her, Renee noticed that Scarlett smelt of hemlock.

"Aren't you going to get undressed?" Scarlett asked, her expression slightly concerned.

"What?" Get undressed? But she was already naked...

Scarlett nodded and reached tenderly for Renee's stomach. Renee closed her eyes, preparing for the simple pleasure of her lover's touch...

Her eyes snapped open once more in horror as Scarlett plunged her hand deep into Renee's wound. Renee screamed in agony as Scarlett pulled something cold and hard out of her.

The ceremonial knife, embedded in a twitching, half-formed foetus. "Silly mortal trappings," Scarlett chided, and tossed the weapon and the foetus aside. Reaching out, she hooked her fingers under Renee's flesh once more and tore it away...

"Such beautiful skin..." It wasn't Scarlett's voice she heard the scene faded as if torn away with her flesh. It was the Irish girl...

It was like she was free-floating without her skin now. She was nothing, located nowhere. She slipped back into the black.