The Demon Knows My Vice

Mariah simply never remembered her dreams. Of course, that wasn’t to say she didn’t have them. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Her dreams, as she knew them, were as vivid and intense as her waking life - they swirled with colors, emotions, and what seemed like a thousand different faces. But with the rise of the sun, they slipped from her grasp, fading into the ether like smoke in the wind.

But this dream... it was different.

As she stirred in her slumber, the rhythmic lull of the ocean in the distance, she found herself rooted in a vast void, wrapped in an inky darkness so profound it felt more like a tangible shell rather than mere absence of light. No features distinguished one part of the void from another; no sound echoed through its oppressive nature. Her heart pounded furiously, a dissonant symphony echoing in the hollow darkness. This was not her comforting den, brimming with her familiar marks and trinkets; this was a stark, cold reality that smothered her senses. An icy dread clung to her, freezing her thoughts and fogging her mind.

The deafening silence of the void was punctuated only by her own ragged breaths, each one echoing ominously in the eternal darkness enveloping her. She tried to reach out, hoping to find tangible proof of her existence, but as she tried to move her limbs, she discovered that they were lifeless- held frozen by an unbearable force. Struggling as she tried, she just simply couldn’t move beyond the weight of her own paralysis, rendering her body almost fatally still.

The realization of her helplessness swept over her like a swift, chilling wind, sending a jolt of panic through her veins. She tried to call out, to rupture the silence with her voice, but the void absorbed her attempts, swallowing the echoes of her fear. Every instinct within her screamed at her to run, to escape this abyss, but she was frozen in the pitch-black void, and entirely at its mercy.

"Mariah Mendacium"