My Constant Companion

He leaned in and whispered softly in my ear. “You look beautiful today.” He paused, “Not that you aren't always beautiful.”

I kept my face impassive even though I wanted to smile and roll my eyes at the same time. I was trying to ignore him, my constant companion. I, well we, were standing in the hallway of my apartment building, waiting on the elevator. The hallway was deserted save for the two of us.

“Oh, I see you're ignoring me again.” He whispered.

I could feel his breath on my ear, a small ticklish feeling. I shut my eyes for a moment. His voice always sent a shiver down my back, that deep, husky tone he spoke in. God I hated him. It was bad enough that he decided to invade my dreams, he had to invade my reality as well. The bastard.

“Nikka.” He taunted. His hand moved about an inch away from me, still too close for comfort. “I know you can hear me, doll.” I opened my eyes again. When I continued ignoring him he said after a pause. “Fine, be that way.”

I glanced to my left. He was furrowing his brow, his arms crossed, making them look even more muscular than usual. And He looked annoyed, I guess I would too if I had been ignored. I turned away from him before his eyes met mine. The elevator dinged and the doors opened. It was empty. I walked in and he followed, standing directly in front of me, smiling down at me.

I huffed out a frustrated breath. “What? Am I annoying you?” He questioned.

“As a matter of fact yes, yes you are.”

This made him chuckle. I pressed the button for the lobby then crossed my arms and frowned. “So you can hear me. Good I was beginning to think I was invisible to you again.”

“Shut up.” I said through my gritting teeth.

“Oh doll, don't be that way. You know I don't mean any harm.”

“Then why don't you go away?”

He leaned in close until his face was level with mine, his hazel eyes bright. “Because you want me here.”

“Do not.” I said through gritted teeth.

“Oh really? It doesn't feel that way.” He smile and stood up straighter. “You look cute when you're angry.”

Bothered, I exclaimed, “Leave me alone, Shannon.”

As those words left my mouth, the doors of the elevator opened. Two people, a man and and older woman, stood there. They gave me a strange look, but I pretended not to notice and slipped pass as I exited the elevator. Shannon chuckled as I half jogged out of the building and onto the damp streets. He followed, as always. No one noticed him, no one ever did. And it made me sick.

Okay, I was being a tad bit melodramatic, maybe sick wasn't the right word but you have to understand why Shannon frustrated me so.

He first came to me a weeks ago, in a dream. A simple dream where only saw his face, he smiled and that was it. But it stuck with me. Like perhaps I knew him, had met him once, it felt too real. I remember my dreams well but none had felt like that one, he had only smiled, that was it. I only saw his face, but it wasn't enough. I wanted to see him again.

For days I searched my memory for him but came up empty. Who was he? Was he even real? Then as if to answer that question he appeared, in the flesh, in the real world. And in my apartment no less.

“Who are you?” I asked in shock when I opened my bedroom door and there he stood. I nearly jumped out of my skin. “How did you get in?”

“Good question, doll face.”

He casually leaned back against a wall in the hallway, looking as if he belonged there. Short dark hair, kind yet seductive eyes, a short beard that very looked good on him. Short for a guy, not much taller than I, stocky, with nice broad shoulders and chest and musculuar arms. He wore a gray pull over hoodie and a pair of dark tight fitting jeans. He waited for me to speak again.

I asked nervously, with a stutter, “What, what do you want?”

He wore a sly smile, “Just to see you.”

“What?” I asked, confused, his smile widened. Oh that smile. Despite my fear I could appreciate that smile, the twinkle in his eyes as he shook his head, amused. “You aren't real. I mean, are you?”

“Of course I'm real.” He sounded insulted.

“Okay, why are you here?”

“I just told you, to see you.”

I frowned, thinking. “Do I know you?”

He took a step closer to me, I backed up further into the room.

“Don't be afraid.” His face grew serious as he leaned, closing the distance between us. I could feel his body heat, so he was real, I suppose, and so very close.

I closed my eyes, for a brief second, anticipation growing in my stomach, but for what I couldn't tell, when I fluttered them opened again, he was gone. I stood there frozen. Where had he gone?

I looked around my bedroom. Empty, I went into the hall. Empty. I searched the entire apartment but he was nowhere in sight. Then I saw that my door was locked, all the windows locked. I lived on the fifth floor of my building, how did he get in? Better yet, how had he gotten out?

After a moment of anger, fear and confusion I called my best friend Ivy. Ivy has been my friend since childhood, both of us being only children we developed a close bond, we were more than friends, we were like sisters.

She rushed over when she heard the panic in my voice. “Nikka, are you sure you weren't just dreaming?” She asked me after I explained what had happened. Her big blue eyes scanning my face.

I looked up at the ceiling. "I wasn't asleep, I was wide awake.”

“You weren't high were you?”

I furrowed my brow at her. “Yeah, cause I'm high all the time.” I told her, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

“I was only kidding.” She patted my shoulder. “You're really shook up aren't you?”

I nodded my head and then put it on Ivy's shoulder. She brushed back my curly brown hair and then her her arms wrapped around me. “It felt real V. Maybe I was sleep.”

“Or maybe you haven't been sleeping enough or eating enough or someone gave you a hallucinogenic drug or maybe...”

I moved to get a good look at her face. “No one drugged me Ivy. I've been sleeping and eating properly. I don't know... it just felt real. Maybe my mind's playing tricks on me. First I had a dream with him, then-”

“Whoa.” She cut me off. She stopped hugging me and we both sat up straighter “You had a dream? With him in it?” I nodded my head. “What was he doing in the dream?”

“Nothing. I just saw his face.”

“And you're sure it's the same guy?”

“Positive.”

“Well that is weird.”

“You're telling me. I'm glad I didn't call the cops, they'd have me carted off to the loony bin in a heartbeat.”

“Yeah and I'm not about to visit you there. Too many crazies and creeps.” That actually made me laugh.

I had convinced myself that I had been dreaming, that was the only logical explanation, people don't disappear into thin air. People also don't come to you in dreams then appearing in your apartment days later and you had no clue how they got in. So my dream theory kept me feeling sane.

Well until I saw him standing outside of my apartment building. I had just walked outside early one morning to take out the trash. He was leaning against a car, wearing a t-shirt, jeans and red sneakers, a grin spread across his face once my eyes locked on his. I shut my eyes quickly, “It's all in my head, it's all in my head,” I chanted in a whisper. I opened them and he was still there.

He stared, hazel eyes roaming my startled face. Absentmindedly scratching his beard, he said, “Good morning, Nikka.”

“How do you know my name?” I murmured, but he heard me all the same.

“I know a lot.” I swallowed hard. Someone was leaving out of the door behind me. “I'm Shannon by the way.” He smirked.

I dropped my trash bag and grabbed the person who had exited the building by the arm, I turned to them for a second, not really seeing them. “Do you see h-” I had turned back around, and of course he was gone. I looked up and down the street. Not again. My eyes widened in fear.

“See what?” They asked, annoyed.

I took me a second to answer. “Never mind.” I stammered.

The person, whether they were male or female I don't remember, walked away once my grip on their arm loosened. I stood there and wrapped my arms around myself. I felt a sickening chill come over my body. What was happening to me?

That wasn't the last time he appeared. I could be just about anywhere and he would appear, messing with my sanity. No one else seemed to be able to see him so after a while I stopped asking. I was beginning to think I was having some short of breakdown, it wouldn't be at all surprising. Shannon, as he called himself, was in my every thought.

Then he began invading my dreams again, and not the sweet and pleasant kind of dreams either. These dreams were of an animalistic nature, of sexual perversion and full fledged lust. Dreams that made me wake up covered in sweat, gasping for air and gripping the sheets. Dreams so vividly real that it hurt to wake up and realize I was alone, that the man who had given me so much pleasure wasn't lying next to me. Every night I saw him there, I began to crave it, I couldn't wait to fall asleep just to see him, feel him.

My Shannon. His big arms holding me, his lips on my skin, those hazel eyes lustfully gazing into mine, his strong hands pinning me to the bed, his laugh, his moans, his voice, his scent, his body, his everything. It was becoming addictive, it wasn't healthy.

No man alive compared, maybe that was why I couldn't get him out of my head. He lingered around my mind like a parasite, living in my dreams, he stopped showing up while I was awake. So it was almost too good to be true, when I woke up, one month exactly since my first dream of him, moaning his name sweetly, to find him lying next to me in bed. A lusty grin playfully on his beautiful face, his fingertips lightly trailing down my bare skin. That's when I knew I was truly losing it.