I lie awake in thick blackness. There is darkness beneath my eyelids as well as above. Darkness is all around me; there are no shapes or figures in this place. The darkness consumes it all and lingers like a soft, black curtain of velvet.

My body is still in the deep silence. For a fleeting moment, I wonder if there is something out there. Could there be something cutting through the darkness like a silver knife? Could it be just beyond the corner of my eye, waiting for me to move? I want to reach out to touch so much as a leathery wing, but my arm is frozen to my side.

A shadow, darker than the others, glides over me. Could that be a spirit of malice or woe? I reach out to touch its dark, silk robes, but there is nothing. The room is ominously still and vacant.

Strange thoughts begin to dance in my head like black imps with ruby red eyes. Evil things drift through my blank mind. I imagine ghosts and demons all around me with their fanged mouths opening wide to release wicked cackles. I can swear I can smell the rotten eggs and sulfur of Hades. I can swear that I can see the red flicker of fire in the corner of the dark room.

I close my eyes as a pathetic, trembling sound escapes from within. How nice it would be to sleep at last. I wish for nothing more than the pastel dreams I once had. I wish I could leave this dark place at last. Yet before I can make a final wish on a sparkling, unseen star, I fall into a deep sleep.