Free Your Dimension Or Mine? by Cynthia Kimball

she gazed in the direction she thought they were coming from. “Ah,” said a smooth cold voice, “my pet has awakened.” A loud squeak jarred her mind, making her body shudder. It sounded like an old iron gate that needed oiling.
    The quick sound of a match being lit and the flicker of fire and candle coming together met her senses. The light wasn’t much, as it was still quite a ways away from her, but it allowed her to see a man in dark pants and a dark shirt walking toward her, the candle in his hand. Her eyes darted to where his face would be, but it was in shadow.
    Everything within her started to shiver as she stared at the man holding the candle as he came closer and closer. When he was a few feet away, he stopped. “Has my pet come to terms with her enslavement?” he purred softly.
    She gulped. “Who-who are you?”
    He chuckled. It was not a pleasant sound. “Ah, pet, I am your master. I have been since before I found you.” He reached out a hand to touch her, and she shrunk back reflexively. “Do not move away!” he snapped, his voice colder than ice. Moving quicker than she expected, his hand grabbed her jaw, and he turned her face toward him. It must have been her nerves, but she could have sworn the instant he touched her, a strange thrum went through her body. His voice became a low rumbling purr again that made her relax. “Now, pet, again I ask, are you willing to accept your enslavement?”
    For some reason unknown to her, she wanted to say yes, but a pain started in her ankle, and it was quickly gaining in intensity and moving up her leg. “Let me go!” she cried out in a whisper.
    “Go where, pet? You are in my dungeon, on my estate. There is nowhere for you to go until I am finished with you, and I have no intention of finishing with you for years. “ His words were still spoken in that slow, hypnotic purr, and unconsciously she leaned in toward him. The change in her position allowed her to see his face, and she quickly flashed to his eyes. Their bright red irises caused a terror that made the hair on her arms stand on end.
    “NO!” she screamed as the pain in her ankle exploded.
    Sitting straight up, Ari looked around her bedroom, breathing in short desperate gasps. “It was a dream, just a dream,” she whimpered as she clutched her ankle, which was searing like crazy.
    Reaching up to her face, she felt the tears leaking from her eyes. “That was the scariest dream I have ever had. Why would Orion appear in my nightmares?”
    Pulling herself out of the mess she had made of the blankets, Ari stumbled her way into her bathroom, wincing at the pain in her leg. “Need to get this off,” she whimpered as she started her bath. Quickly stripping, she slowly unwrapped the gauze from around her ankle and slipped into the bath before it was even a quarter-way filled. She still shivered from her nightmare and needed the warmth the bath could and would provide.
    Leaning back, she tried to breathe through the leftover anxiety as the water slowly engulfed her body. “It was a dream, only a dream,” she whispered to herself.
    It was a nightmare!
    Thinking back on what her dream mind had created, she wasn’t surprised her psyche had placed the man at the coffee shop and Orion as the same person, what with the last message of his that she’d read.
    “Maybe I need to stop online dating,” she whispered as the burning in her ankle became negligible and the heat of the water slowly relaxed her tense muscles. Sighing, she turned the water off and leaned back against the tub. She knew she should start trying to remove the jewelry, but convinced herself it would be best to let it soak as long as possible. After all, she did not want to tear her skin again.
    Closing her eyes, she tried to focus on Terrian, but found it difficult to do so. Every time she would pull the image of his photo into her mind, it would quickly be replaced with Orion’s. Frustrated, she elected to think of something,