A Sojourn in the Moonlit Night
The ballroom was smoky thick with a fine air of elegance that caressed my cheek and made my eyes slightly water. Uniquely glamorous women in the most pristine, elegant gowns pranced about the room with men in perfectly tailored tuxedos and fashionably groomed hair. A huge crystal chandelier hung above them, spanning the width of at least four of the couples and standing twice as high as the tallest man. Its light flickered around the room creating a patterned effect on every surface, as well as the faces around me.
I looked down at my shoes, thinking that possibly they weren't fit for an evening of this calibre. They were my most beautiful shoes, yet compared to those of the other ladies in the room, I felt under-dressed.
A smartly attired string ensemble in the corner of the room played Mozart and Beethoven, with accompaniment by flute or piano where necessary. They controlled the dancers as they swung with sure-footed grace around the ballroom. Each dancer was smiling peacefully - playing their part perfectly in the magical arrangement.
Tables decorated with bouquets of orchids sat on the other side of the room. Fine china and silverware sparkled in the reflected din of the chandelier as the guests talked and drank from small crystal glasses. This is where he sat. I
recognised him the moment I saw him. My eyes seemed to remember his as if we'd already met a thousand times before. They met with mine as he perused the room and I felt the immediate pleasure of his company, as if he had transported his gentlemanly aura across the dance-floor towards me. He smiled at me, and I blushed and smiled back, looking down at my shoes once more in an embarrassed attempt at maintaining my composure.
When I looked up, he stood in front of me.
“Bonjour, cherie,” he said to me. I didn't see his mouth move because my eyes were transfixed on his. I'd never seen such deep eyes. Resembling bowls overflowing with melted diamonds, they seemed to be endless and never-ending. They transported me somewhere that left me stunned, and before I could reply, he had continued with our one-sided conversation. “You must be Eleanor,” he said. “I hope you've managed to make yourself comfortable at my soiree.”
“Yes,” I lied, and immediately regretted it because I knew that he'd probably seen me arrive moments earlier. “This room is beautiful. I couldn't have imagined anything to be this beautiful.”
“Cara mia,” he said, staring at me. “Follow me, I'll get you a drink.” His hand took hold of mine lightly but forcibly and I was led towards the bar where people where chatting about a number of interesting topics that I'm sure went over my head. He handed me a champagne flute of pure, delicious beauty.
“I've never tasted champagne this amazing before,” I said.
“Ah, yes. I see you have a fine palate then, my lady.” He took a sip and smiled at me. When he smiled I felt the room brighten. The patterns created by the crystal chandelier became more prevalent over his face and his clothes in a way that made my eyes slightly water again. “Have I told you how beautiful you look this evening?”
I blushed again. To look upon his face was almost too much to bare. Pure perfection is what I saw in not only him, but the entire scene. The music, the people, the dancing, the light. I felt overwhelmed with a sense of passion and excitement that I'd never experienced before. I asked him his name, and he told me: Dante.
He led me over to a large fireplace burning logs that smelled like a cedar forest after a fresh rainfall. As we stood together, him looking upon me and I looking upon my shoes, a single flute player began to play Die Zauberflöte. The trill of her flute made butterflies flutter in my stomach, and when I looked up at him, he touched me on the cheek. “Shall we dance?” he said. “Cara mia?”.
Before I could respond he was whirling me around the room, my feet felt like they were lifted above the ground, floating on air. It seemed like I had lost control of my body, and his hands upon mine conducted me around his ballroom like he was in front of an orchestra. Happiness overcame me, but I could not stop moving. As the thirteen high pitched notes echoed from the woman's flute in quick succession and multiple repetition I felt removed from the entire situation. I
couldn't feel my feet as they spun and twirled and stepped and curled, and my body moved with a graceful ease that I never knew I possessed. It was like only the two of us existed on a heavenly platform where nothing and nobody could disturb us. When the song came to an end, the spinning gradually slowed and my feet eventually were reunited with the ballroom floor.
When I opened my eyes, a flushing smile on my face and a deep pant in my chest, he stood, as before, in front of me. “Shall we sojourn to the balcony, my dear? It is a perfect evening outside, and it would be a waste not to witness its beauty.”
The spectral light lit up the marble balustrade that ran the length of the balcony – a phosphorescence radiating from its uniquely textured surfaces. A waiter emerged out of nowhere with two more flutes of champagne, disappearing as quickly as he had appeared. I turned to face Dante, but in the shadows I could not see his face, only a mere outline of his head and hair, and two small, shiny, diamond-like holes where his eyes stared out at me. I suddenly felt very alone with him. I felt so alone that it seemed like the rest of his guests had disappeared.
There, alone with Dante, the balcony started to resemble some sort of ancient cliff-top overlooking a mythical kingdom. As I looked down over the edge I saw gigantic waves crashing against its base, slowly eating away at the granite which suspended us high above.
The wind caught me and pulled me from the edge.
“Dance with me in the moonlight,” offered Dante.
“But what if we fall?” I asked.
He just laughed and said, “I think I've already fallen, my dear.”
I still couldn't see his face as I took his hand. The world began to spin. No longer could I see ballroom, balcony, cliff-top or otherwise. I could not see any of the other guests, or even hear any music. We spun together, dancing in the moonlight, until a heel on my shoe broke and I was flung backwards, landing on my back on the hard ground. I was alone.
Looking around for Dante I noticed that I did not recognise at all where I was. Did I fall from the balcony? Was I dreaming? As I stood and brushed myself off an immense coldness came over me and I began to wish I was dreaming.
Or would this be more of a nightmare?
“It seems you have fallen now too, my sweet,” said a voice from the darkness. “Have you never danced with a man in the moonlit night before? It can sometimes prove quite dangerous, I must say.”
I did not recognise the voice as Dante's, but I knew I had heard it before, I just couldn't remember when. “Dante!” I screamed into the nothingness around me. “Dante, where are you?”
“I'm right here, my love,” said the voice in the darkness. It came from behind me now, but I still couldn't see who it was.
“Who are you? What do you want? Where am I and where is Dante?”
I heard him laugh, and then I could slowly make out a silhouette against the moonlight shining through a window. It was a bedroom window.
I suddenly found myself in a room. It was my room, from when I was a little girl. A man sat on the edge of my bed. “Remember me, child?” he said.
“Dante?” I asked, although I already knew it was not him. I finally recognised the voice. It was a voice that plagued my childhood with fear and torment. A voice that spoke to me in the night, keeping me from my pleasant, childish dreams.
“You ask for Dante, but I am more, my sweet. Won't you come and sit next to me?” He placed a hand on the bed next to him. I took one step towards him but did not sit down. I wanted to see his face. “There's a good girl. Did you enjoy our dance? Such a pity we had to cut things short, I was enjoying myself immensely.”
As my eyes adjusted to the light I was able to make out more features on his face. The beautiful face that belonged to Dante was no more, and I now faced this creature eye to eye. I remembered him, his face had not changed. His gaunt, emaciated features were hard to forget. A long, needly nose poked out towards me above his dark lips. His wirey, thin hair fell from the back of his elongated forehead, accentuating his pointy crown. And his eyes, I remember his eyes more than anything. As black as the darkest nights of hell, they looked right into you - into your soul, into your very inner being. It seemed like I could feel his eyes inside of me, looking around for something he missed.
“Why are you doing this? Why did you wait all these years to come back?”
“I have never left you, darling. I have watched you for the past two decades, sitting here, always, on the edge of your bed. You just refused to see or hear me. But now I am back, mon cherie, and I am hear to stay. You've taken my hand, and we danced. You've fallen, and you can't come back. You accepted my invitation, which I made sure I was to ask of you, and you took my hand, and we danced.
"Darling, oh, did we dance. You could've denied me my chance, my dear. Yes, you could have. I allow that privilege to all my prey, and not just because I like the sound of it, because I am honest and fair. But it is too late to change your mind, sweetheart, you've danced with the devil in the pale moonlight, and now, you are mine forever.”
And with that he leant forward and gave me a subtle kiss on the cheek. When I opened my eyes, he was gone, and I was back on the ballroom balcony. The band was playing and guests were eating, drinking and dancing once again. Dante was no where to be seen, and I wondered if whether or not I had just had some sort of hallucination. I left the party, alone and confused. I didn't know what to make of what had just happened to me. I sat in the back of my driver's car contemplating the realness of the whole situation, discounting one thing after another, over and over again until I had convinced myself it was just a dream. That was until I pulled up outside my building. I thanked the driver, and, as I got out of the car, I stole a quick glance in the rear-view mirror, and there, once again, I saw those deep, dark, unmistakeable eyes.
11TH APRIL 2013