Elise

This one was inspired by a dream I had a while ago...
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Caught somewhere on the edge of wakefulness and sleep, I curled up and tucked my free hand under my pillow. A small itch gnawed at my leg, I reached down to scratch and heard a giggle. With a start, I sat straight up and gazed into the black vale of night in my room.

"Who's there?" I've actually grown accustomed to such encounters in my room. This, however, was different. I wasn't awake.

A giggle resounded in my room. Reaching over to switch on my light, I stumbled around only to find that it's no longer there. The orange light pouring in from the lights outside faded into a dull brown, coating my desk in vague contours. From out of the corner of my vision, something stirred.
Another giggle.

"I'm too tired for this, what the hell's going on?" (Or something to that effect).

Her glare was cold, not like ice, but a sense of nothingness. She danced in the middle of the room, twirling, gracefully swaying her left arm in arches. Light seemed to fall into her, as if she were absorbing the world around her... feeding off it. Her eyes were intense. They seemed to shift color, depending on the angle of view.

The sight of her brought my heart to a stand-still. In a graceful curtsie, she bowed to me, low to the ground, as if she had heard my heart's applause. I hadn't noticed before, but she presented something to me with her right hand... if a hand is what you would call it. Great hooks and rivlets spiraled upwards in five mangled shafts, branching from a gauntlet of a palm. The darkness swirling about her arm seemed to connect and penetrate her skin. Though grotesque, her right arm and hand was a dark mystery, and thus intoxicating to behold.

Within her grasp was a small box. It looked ancient. Rosewood, or perhaps painted oak. Small splinters protruded from the edges, and seemed to be trying to escape from beneath the metal trimmed corners, as well as the lock in the middle.

[I bring you a gift. Inside are answers you seek... Do with it what you will. Play with it. Practice with it. Take it in and then let it out.]

Hesitating, I accepted the gift from her and held it a few inches from my face, struggling to make out what it was. As I tried to open it, I was discouraged to discover that it was locked.

The woman cackled mockingly. She giggled and pranced about my room like a child with a new toy. She was overjoyed... and though she appeared disconcertingly mischievous, there was an innocence to her laugh.

"What's with the box? I think it's locked... (Man, even in my dream I felt groggy and wasn't thinking straight) Who the hell are you?"

[Ah, I thought you would have recognized me.] She once again curtsied low to the ground. [I am (Elise)... your muse.]

With that, she crouched down, kissed my forhead, stood once again, and with a smile and subtle bow of her head, she lept into the darkness of my room. Looking down, I found that she had taken the box back... she had taken my inspiration.

As I lay in bed, trying to get back to sleep... or end the dream rather... I heard a constant but faint echo of her laughter. Sometimes mocking, sometimes loving and innocent.