afterimage

I woke up, and you were there, looming over me. Part of me wished you were there, the same part that knew I was awake and that your image was a holdover from a dream I had just before I woke. I roll over and imagine you here with me; your touch and your smell. Groggy and sleep-ridden as I am I fall asleep thinking of you, and dream of you again. When I wake this time you are there across the bed and I reach out to you, feeling your long limbs curl around me, strangling me to death.