I thought I was dreaming. The world seemed to change at a very fast pace, leaving me grasping and confused. The air had a dreamlike quality to it, like it was non-existent, and I felt like I was being smothered. I wasn’t the only one in the room. There were shadows that seemed to take on the shape of demons, dancing around me like we where children around a campfire. But they weren’t the ones I was afraid of, it was the dark figure that stood stock still in the far corner of my room, and he was very real.

I should’ve screamed I know, but something in its face forced the scream back to my stomach and held it there. It was the same thing with my urge to move. It was quelled instantaneously by the stranger’s intense gray eyes, holding me firmly in place. I’ve stood here for the whole of five minutes, and so has the stranger. In the light of the moon spilling out of my windows, I took in his face. Strong nose, square jaw, eyebrows arching beautifully over his almond-shaped eyes that showed warmth despite the cold symmetry of his face, the stranger looked surprised, even afraid.

Emotions seemed to make his features stand out more, making him look fiercer. Drenched in cold sweat, I struggled to find my voice before he could make a move, as it looked like he was ready to pounce. I was about to open my mouth when the headlights of a passing car swept across my room. Not taking my eyes of the stranger, I felt my heart leap up to my throat.

My pulse quickened impossibly, I was sure I was going to rupture something. My breath came in short gasps. I saw what I first thought was the stranger’s shadow when the car passed. My mind couldn’t comprehend but my eyes refused to deny what it saw. The stranger had wings. I hadn’t seen it before, but now that I knew what it was I saw it too clearly. The shock of seeing the black, satiny wings seemed to jolt my system back to life, and I reached back to my bedside table to grasp anything I could possibly throw at this creature, this beast with the face of an angel and the wings of a devil.

Out of the corners of my eye I saw the creature move, grasping at something behind him, something that could possibly end my life. My hand closed around the snow-globe and with all my strength I turned to hurl it at him. To my horror, I saw the beast already preparing his throw, but still I didn’t hesitate for surely I would die if I did so. The snow-globe flew across the room, and so did the something that it threw at me. There came a deafening smash, and I almost cried out in joy for I thought that the snow-globe had hit it.

I turned to look at my adversary, and stopped in shock. The very air seemed to stand still, and I could hear the cicadas no more. Across the room where the creature had stood, shards of broken glass too big to be from the snow-globe lay on the floor. The creature was no more, and in its place laid the mirror that I had broken. In my panic I had forgotten that I had a huge mirror in my room. I was trembling all over as I walked towards the ruined scene.

There were still pieces of mirror left attached to the wall, and in one of them I could see an intense gray eye staring back at me. I whirled around, expecting the intruder, and something hit the remaining shards of glass on the wall, shattering them. Pain shot up my back. No, not my back. Slowly, almost reluctantly I turned my head. I saw my back alright, but there was something else attached to it that wasn’t there before I went to sleep. Black, satiny wings.

Outside the cicadas resumed their sonnet.