Your Gothic Nightmare

Eloise
scenario by Howard Taylor

Three shillings was the price for the gravedigger to save my everlasting soul. My stomach churns with nausea at the prospect of a horrific choking suicide, buried alive alongside the old knight’s skeleton. Ignoring the gravedigger opening the last of the tomb a blinding vision of Christ appears above me, confirmation of resurrection and salvation. Before I descend the ladder, I look down into the depths of my future grave, I see no reflection, only the same darkness I glimpsed in the eyes of the succubus who brought me this desperate fate.

I recall that first encounter; it was a new moon, dark clouds making it a pitch dark night when I followed a beautiful apparition down to the shore. She was a witch, a temptress, a ship wrecker, but as I looked into the eternity of her coal black eyes I saw a depth of suffering that god alone could interpret. I was overwhelmed by a natural desire to make her safe, though it was clear I couldn’t make her feel anything. I took her hand that was cool to the touch, and she said 'My name is Eloise’. How precious what followed yet I was getting sicker by the day. I learned the true cost of my folly in the ancient book of Khephra. Eloise was a succubus, who would take not just my life but my eternal soul, unless I died on consecrated ground on a full moon. My life alone would have been a small levy, to feel deeper and see further than I ever thought possible. How can so much pain come from something so beautiful, perfect and pure?

The gravedigger shuts out the moonlight and I think I hear something crawling around down here. My fate is set, eaten alive or not, I am beyond madness and I see life clearly. I shed no more tears because everything is as it was meant to be, pain was a sweetener for life. My eternal soul will move through its life span of pleasure and pain, grief and most importantly, love again and again.

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