There was something following him, he was sure of it. The quiet, almost imaginary footfalls gave it away, the soft pad of cat’s feet walking in another dimension. Suddenly, he stopped to try and catch the stalker off-guard, but the sound instantly faded away. Had he imagined it? He thought he could still sense something. Perhaps the night itself was following, seeking to swallow him up in its suffocating embrace.

Distantly an owl shrieked, a harsh sound to his ears tuned to focus on the faintest footfalls, which made him jump violently. “Stop being silly!” He chided himself. Why did every sound frighten him? Was he going insane with paranoia? He imagined phantoms closing around him; it never used to be like this. He used to be able to enjoy the night and its secrets. Instead, now every corner filled him with dread, every shadow held a thousand fears…and memories! It was her fault; if it weren’t for her he would be able to walk the streets in bliss ignorance of what could lurk there. How could a silly childish game of Blind Date change things so dramatically? ‘Like a white snowfall on a green landscape,’ that was what Kitty had said, but the truth was far darker. Snow could melt away in time as if it had never been there: this could never be erased if he had forever to forget about it. He wished, not for the first time, that he’d never gone to the silly Blind Date contest. He wished he had never met the women who had ruined his life, though not in a way anyone could ever imagine. Realising he was just standing in the street like a fool, he walked on gritting his teeth. Why had he demanded she tell him everything? Why hadn’t he just left her alone? Why? Why? Why? He would never have known. He would never have to be afraid of the things he didn’t know are there. But now that knowledge made him cringe and refuse to dwell on it.

Such a great idea it had seemed at the time, to organise a Blind Date competition, just a childish game. He had just turned 20 that day, and they persuaded him to sign up, it would be fun.

Most of the night’s events had passed in a whirr: the lights flashing; the crowd roaring; the prickly feeling of hundreds of pairs of eyes on him; the smell of so many sweaty bodies crowded into a small place combined to daze him, to inhibit his thinking so that everything made no sense. He didn’t know how he managed to keep going. He was dimly aware of his body, talking and smiling as his mind shrank back like a cornered animal, letting his instincts for survival take over. Now looking back, he scoffed at such cowardice. So much had changed in those few years; he could no longer comprehend how he could have been so afraid of such a small thing.

With a suddenness that sent him reeling, his mind had snapped back into his body as he set eyes on the one who had chosen him. He knew her. Kitty! He didn’t think anyone knew her real name. Even when she had been at school the teachers just called her Kitty. She was usually a solitary figure lurking in a dark corner, never apparently having any friends, seeming such a venerable timid creature, always dressed in black with dark make-up, the gothic look, which stood out all the more because her skin was so pale it seemed insubstantial. It gave her an air of mystery; she was like a wrath of the night; a shadow no one noticed unless it was brought to their attention. She had such a habit of going unnoticed that it was contrived into an art. Yet, in contradiction, it seemed that she also knew how to make herself the centre of attention, and was never afraid to do so. It was such a sharp contrast it was uncanny, like trying to make black and white the same colour, yet she somehow managed it in so many ways without going into any grey areas.

Now, for the first time, he realised how beautiful she was. It astounded him that he had never noticed it before. She was regarding him with such a pale innocent face; he just wanted to hug her. Her black dress draped on her with folds of waiflike material; the cut emphasising her slimness and mystery. Her long, silky, black hair glittered from under her dark hood, a wisp falling across her pale face. Everything stood still.

The prize had been to spend a whole six weeks in a holiday cottage in Devon. He’d expected it to be wonderful, whatever happened with Kitty. But on the first night when they had just arrived, he heard Kitty leave at midnight. Curious, he had torn himself out of the snug blankets that covered him, and waited for her to return. He sought to confront her, and demand to know what she’d been doing. However, one hour later when she came back through the front door, and collapsed in the hall, he could do nothing but try to comfort her exhausted, shaking body as she cried into his shoulder. When her shaking had quietened he endeavoured to find out what had happened. She shook her head and pulled away from him.

“What’s happened?” He pressed undaunted, squeezing her hand for reassurance.

“You don’t want to know.” She muttered darkly, not looking at him. Her tone suggested the end of the argument. The way she said it almost made him leave it at that: unconsciously he started to leave that line of argument. Oh how he wished he’d left it at that. What had possessed him to get a grip on himself and press the matter further? Why couldn’t he have left her alone?

“Yes I do want to know Kitty” he didn’t understand why that statement seemed to affect her so.

“Ha, you don’t know what you’re saying!” her short laugh had no humour in it, perhaps irony though.

“Kitty! Stop this nonsense. I want to know what’s happened.” He raised his voice, angry at her evasiveness. Slowly her face turned towards him, and regarded him icily. If looks could kill, he would’ve turned to dust right then.

“Very well Mark. If you really want to know, I’ll show you.” She growled. There was a hint in her voice that she no longer cared. What he didn’t know was that it was his life she no longer cared about ruining.

“Yes I do!” How was he supposed to help her unless he found out what was wrong? How naive was he not to consider she didn’t need his help? He had followed her determined, as she stalked through the door, not even looking back to see if he was coming. They walked through the damp night, past warm windows, and pools of streetlights. The last time he would ever walk the streets blindly unafraid of its darkness! She walked the streets as if she owned them, taking one turning and then another, as if she knew exactly where she was going. How could she? She had told him she’d never been here before in her life. Why would she lie to him? After what seemed like a long time, they came to a wall that marked the end of the street they were going down: it contained a small wooden door. She paused. Then, setting both hands on the splintered surface with her palms spread, she hummed softly, tunelessly, to herself.

The solid, apparently impenetrable, oak door vanished!

Mark blinked, looked again. The door was gone! He tried to make sense of what his eyes were telling him with a mind suddenly turned sluggish, and could not. Perhaps his eyes were just so tired they weren’t telling him the truth. Yes, that was it.

Kitty swept through the opening without hesitating, like she had completely forgotten he was there. Slowly he approached the moss covered, half collapsed wall, with renewed doubt, and peered cautiously through the opening. It looked forbidding! There was no other way to describe it. It repelled him like a stern hand pushing him away. The golden light from the streetlight up above didn’t cross the threshold where it ought, into the dark place beyond. Kitty reappeared at the doorway making him jump backwards. She was smiling wryly at him. “Not so keen to follow me now are we? Changed your mind? Turn back now while you can”

“No!” Hardening his resolve, he walked across the threshold. Immediately he wished he hadn’t. The temperature took a sudden, unnatural drop, chilling him to his bones. The ground squelched under his feet with something that clung to the bottom of his shoes. He could hear the constant dripping, (or rather, glooping,) of something up ahead. He found it difficult to breath; the air had the constancy of treacle. As he laboured to draw breath he could hardly see Kitty just a few steps in front of him in the thick blackness, a blackness that was so inky he was ready to believe that that was what impeded his breathing. He turned around and was able to make out the door, as think and impenetrable as ever.

Ahead of him, Kitty uttered a sound he never believed it humanly possible to make. Everything flared into brightness. Squinting against the sudden painful glare; he saw large torches flickering against the walls. The walls of a cave! Now how could that be possible? As his eyes adjusted to the intense light, what he saw was repulsive! Slime coated the walls. A brown sticky substance he didn’t think he wanted to know about glooped onto the floor where it collected in slimy pools, one of which he was standing in. It hung in curtains on the roof, falling in clumps every so often. Kitty halted in the middle of the chamber. “Welcome to my realm young man. Make yourself comfortable.” She said sarcastically. “Don’t like it so much now. Regretting following me?” She watched him hesitate, and wonder what in gods name was going on.

“No.” He announced finally. “I just don’t understand wha…”

“You will!” She broke in. “You’ll wish you’d never set eyes on me. I should never have brought you here, but there’s no help for that now.”

Mark didn’t understand. What was happening? Was this some kind of a cruel joke? She laughed; the kind of laugh that makes you shiver.

“No, not a joke young man. I only wish it was.” She watched for his reaction, but he just looked at her stunned. How’d she known what he was thinking? She laughed again. “Want to know more?” She said enticingly. Mark nodded slowly; he needed to know what was happening. “You’ll wish you didn’t.” She clicked her fingers sharply and a bright blue orb of light appeared in front of her. “But if nothing else will sate you, come here and touch this with me.” She rested her hand on the fiery ball. Mark was too dazed to even consider the fact that you don’t get balls of blue fire hanging in the air, and gingerly reached out and touched it. The blue flames tickled his fingers but didn’t burn. The cave and its slime disappeared in a flash of blue light, to be replaced a second later with a dimly lit cavern. All around columns of rock reared up from the ground like the bars of a cage. They went off into the distance like a forest of tall trees. And were as high, he realised as he looked up to the expanse above his head. The columns ended at varying heights in points, then there was a large space before more spikes of rock hung from the roof like the jaws of a gaping animal. The light was coming from millions of tiny pinpricks in the ceiling. On the ground, a cross between moss, and a thick carpet, muffled any sound. The walls were so far away, (if there were any, which he had just assumed at the time,) they were blocked from view by the thousands of teeth, rearing up from the flat ground. For a while he stared dumfounded. “I still don’t understand. How did we get here? Where are we? Underground?”

“You could say that. We’re in another dimension of a sort. From which I must protect the world!” She said it as if she didn’t quite believe it, as if it was some responsibility pushed on her she wasn’t able to live up to, but no longer cared about. Mark still didn’t understand. Another dimension? What was she talking about? There weren’t such things. He suddenly felt as if he was caught up in one of those strange, supernatural, TV programs. Such things didn’t exist. But here he was, no matter how much he refused to believe it. He caught movement in the corner of his eye and instinctively turned towards it. A shadow seemed to be coming towards them across the carpet-moss. A second before he realised what he was seeing they were on him. Crawling. Stinging. Biting. He tried to scream. They crawled into his mouth. He fell to the floor. There wasn’t a part of his body that didn’t burn with pain. Kitty screamed.

An ear splitting sound with unexplainable force behind it. Sparks flashed blue and the creatures were lifted off him and tossed aside like toys; torn apart and left to scurry off into the shadows. His last sight was of one of the insect like creatures lifted up, and torn apart in another flash of blue light, before he lost consciousness.

He woke up to a soft humming; a comforting sound that eased the tension in his limbs and dulled the pain. Ho opened his smarting eyes to see Kitty bending over him, caressing him. In a flash his memory came back to him and he shuddered. He climbed painfully to his aching feet.

“Are you all right?” He felt concerned for her, though his body felt like it was being stung by thousands of needles.

“Ha! Yes, I’m ok. It’s you I’m worried about, but thanks for asking.” He thought he detected a note of sarcasm in her voice. She appeared to be unmarked by the creatures. Had they not attacked her? Why not?

“Can we go now?” he pleaded. His voice sounded alien and thin. Stepping back, Kitty summoned the blue orb again, just as a distressing wail sounded in the distance. It sounded like a wounded animal and conjured up images so horrible he quickly pushed them from his mind. The noise, however, had an unexpected effect. Kitty sprang back from the orb as it flared bright red and disappeared in smoke. He stood staring at the place it had been for a moment, and then looked questioningly at Kitty.

The sound rang out again and this time Mark couldn’t break free of the fear that engulfed him. An image of an enormous beast formed in the front of his mind. It was black, and slimy, and repulsive, and filled him with so much pure terror he was frozen still. Swinging from side to side menacingly, its reptilian head mocked him. Stumbling backwards, mark just wanted to flee, but not being able to make his legs work. Instantly it attacked, and Mark screamed, but before it reached him if faded away into the darkness around it. Then another creature, too horrifying to describe with long bloodstained fangs, red eyes, and breath like rotting meat, replaced it. Then another replaced that one, and another, and another. He couldn't break free of the images suffocating him, as the wailing sound sung out. But then another sound joined it, closer, counteracting the effect. It rose to a high-pitched screech, drowning out the other sound and allowing him to come back to himself.

Kitty was standing there, head back, screaming. Overhead a green flash lit up the ‘sky’ and the wailing stopped abruptly. “You have a habit for attracting predators young man.” She rebuked him. Mark didn’t even try to understand what had happened, there was too much to even think about. Quickly, Kitty conjured the blue fireball, and made him touch it, before anything else could go wrong. Then, mercifully, they were outside, back in the street. Mark breathed out. “What was that? What happened?” there was so many questions he didn’t know where to begin.

“It was a white coloured kreack.” She said offhandedly, as if it wasn’t anything special. “Its voice installs so much fear in its pray they are unable to flee or fight when it comes for them, and it fancied you for its dinner.”

“Those creatures…when it was howling, they weren’t real…”

“Yes they were.” She broke in before he could go on. “Huh! It’s not clever enough to make up imaginary creatures from scratch.” She said it as if it was obvious. “It picked the creatures that would scare you most to show you, so you would be nice and terrified when it came.” Mark swallowed, this was all too much for him.

“You mean they’re real things?” Still not able to grasp it. “In this world?”

“No, just in that sort-of-dimension. Though if I can’t stop them they would soon cross over, and god forbid that!” She seemed unconcerned about any of it. Mark looked around fearfully, as if one might be hiding somewhere behind him.

“And that blue orb, and them blue sparks, and that green flash? How did you get those creatures off me?” he didn’t know what to ask first, so he asked them all. She shrugged, unconcerned.

“Simple magic relay.”

“Magic?” He said weakly. Whatever next? After what had happened he would believe anything. That was the only time he went with her to the other dimension, and nothing on earth could have made him go back again. He didn’t enjoy the six weeks at Devon, or even the rest of his life since then. Now, even three years later, after he had left Kitty behind and moved on, he still had vivid nightmares about it. Ones that terrified him so much he woke up screaming. New creatures found there way in to his overactive imagination, ones he hadn’t even seen in the visions while he was there. And they wouldn’t go away. He couldn’t forget about it or brush it aside. He was wary of every shadow. Those insect-like creatures might be there; every place unknown could conceal a deadly animal.

Mark Siel arrived back at his house, and tried in vain to forget the memory of that fateful day, leaving the damp moonless night and its fears behind him. A fire was still burning in the hearth, but somehow it didn’t look as welcoming as the ones he’d seen through the windows of the other houses, but it would have to do. He took off his coat and shook the last traces of the outside from it. He was safe in his house. Nothing could touch him here. He wished he could believe that.