Free Blessed by David Michael

homework. She liked to escape to a less stressful place sometimes and books were the perfect tool for getting there as far as she was concerned.
    After dinner, she headed to the den and flopped down on the couch with her book of the moment while she digested. She quickly sank into the story that was laid out in front of her and vanished into the world contained between the covers.
    As she closed the book several hours later, she felt the sense of accomplishment that always came with finishing a book. She stretched and mulled over the story that she had just participated in and quickly decided that she had really enjoyed it. Especially the closure at the end. Nothing bugged her more than when an author left you hanging at the end of a book. It was like watching a movie where the main character just walks off into the forest at the end for no reason. It wasn’t something that tickled her fancy.
    Her parents must have gone to sleep while she was reading. All the lights in the house were off except for the upstairs hall light where her bedroom was. She was willing to bet they had both said goodnight, and that she had responded, but for the life of her she couldn’t remember.
    She flipped the light off at the top of the stairs and flipped her bedroom light on after closing the door behind her.  
    She went through her nightly hair brushing ritual, laid out an outfit for the next day, said a prayer, shut off the light and let herself sink into slumber.
    The face that swam out of the darkness was only vaguely familiar at first. The shadows that passed over it, kept her from getting a good look. She could only catch a glimpse of an eyeball here and a jaw line there. As her vision cleared and the scene before her came into the sharp relief that only a dream could, she saw that the shadows weren’t shadows at all. They were tentacles, exactly like the ones she kept locked inside of her—smokey and ethereal, yet solid and threatening all at the same time.
    They were writhing.
    Constricting.
    Like she always did, she ran forward to tear the tentacles off of the man and, like they always did, they fought back. Pulling her into them and sticking to her skin everywhere they touched.
    It never took long for them to completely surround and consumer her.
    She tried to scream and a tentacle slithered into her mouth and down her throat. The taste of dead flesh filled her mouth as the thing probed and groped for something inside of her. As she choked and gagged on the slick black mass wriggling inside of her, she could only ask herself how she could have let it out. Because of her, this poor man was trapped inside of her personal hell with her. If only she could have contained it.
    As her vision dimmed from the lack of oxygen being carried to her brain, she prepared herself for the painful end to the familiar scenario. A part of her knew she was about to wake up screaming and covered in sweat, but it didn’t make the experience any less terrifying or real.
    Then something new happened.
    She felt the tingle in her chest.
    As it spread through her body, she could feel new life entering her. She started to vibrate all over again until she was sure her chattering teeth would cut through the black slime that was slowly choking her to death as it searched for whatever was inside of her that it was after.
    Her chest seemed to open up and a green spotlight came tearing out of her sternum. From the palms of her hands and the pads of her feet, beacons of bright green light blasted through the darkness. Light even shone from her mouth and eyes. It was like someone had wrapped her skin around a case of green road flares and lit them all at once.
    Whenever the light came in contact with one of the tentacles, it shrieked and hissed before vaporizing with a gentle pop and drifting away in the form of a dark haze, no longer a threat.
    The intensity of the light never let up. It grew brighter and stronger the further away the black mass was pushed from her