Reflections of Night and Day

Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction created from a mind too often caught up in dreaming. If you are offended by stories containing lesbianism or incest then please discontinue reading and seek distraction elsewhere. This story may be printed to be viewed while offline, but any reposting is not permitted without the authoress' consent.

Comments and feedback are always welcome, but please keep any criticisms constructive.

*

The soft light of a sensual moon fell upon the subtle warmth of her creamy skin while she remained in the grips of restless sleep. Each line of her athletic form was further enhanced by the caresses of shadows. These shadows only seemed to harbor the secrets held within herself.

A whimper left full lips. Its sound trembled throughout the dark, resonating within the quiet. Her chest rose in the dramatic collection of a slow breath. An image flashed before her eyes causing her to moan aloud.

As if beyond her control, she enacted the movements consuming her within her dream. Lithe fingers gripped at the sheets adorning her body, believing them to be the silken hair of the woman bringing her closer to the abyss of pleasure.

Lost and succumbing to the warm breaths curling over her moistened flesh, her breathing grew raspy and erratic. Her thighs bloomed open in gracious acceptance of the searing tongue she could distinctly feel teasing her depths.

"I love you," she felt tickling her intimate skin. It did not move her to feel anything beyond the intensity of the physical. In fact, the words had left her with an emotional ache to understand their meaning.

The arms around her thighs, insistently pulled her closer to a famished mouth. She cried out in her sleep and in her dream as she was impaled upon that eager tongue determined to claim her.

Pace hastened to a feverish ardor. Her body trembled with her desires. She was writhing, completely at home within that realm of insatiable need. Her body bowed upward with a mighty jerk. She screamed, the fount of her juices offering up the rewards for her lover's diligence.

It was that scream which woke her from her dream. Her dark brown eyes flashed open. Breathlessly, she stared to the ceiling overhead. Her entire body was covered in the mists of sweat. She reached upward with a distinctly timid slowness. Her fingers ran through her long auburn hair, feeling how saturated with perspiration it had become.

Wearily, she rolled onto her side. She whispered so faintly as to scarcely be heard. "Happy birthday, Aurora."

She clasped her hands together, her legs drawing upward into a fetal position. With her fingers tightly interwoven, she drifted off to sleep. It was in that sleep that she came to embody a woman lost in prayer. In truth, she did have a prayer upon her lips even though she had yet to voice it aloud. That prayer was simply this: Please tell me why I have these dreams.

Once these dreams had seemed to be nothing more than the vivid images of an overactive subconscious, but now... now they seemed so much more than that. They were real in a sense that she had never known. What frightened her most was that whenever she recalled the visions of her nights, the dreams did not seem like dreams at all, but rather, they appeared to be memories. Whenever she awoke, she felt as though her nights had found her living the life of another. But who and why, she often wondered. Wondering these things, however, never brought her any closer to unearthing the truth. In fact, it often left her feeling more and more helpless.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The world seemed somehow far away. It had been separated from her by the protective clutches of a glass wall. Her head inclined to the right, she stared outward to something beyond even the reaches of sight. Her almond-shaped eyes were dark and shown with a catlike intensity as she grew more lost in her own thoughts.

Sunlight lovingly filtered through to touch her lengthy hair. The gentle perfume entrapped within every strand exuded a fragrant grace as captivating as each lock's cinnamon hue. Those layered tresses framing her beautiful face only seemed to further the aristocratic nature of her beauty.

She drew in a slow breath, taking in the scents of imported coffees and freshly baked pastries filling the air. Around her, the woman dressed in a tailored black leather jacket and a long-necked emerald sweater heard the chaotic sounds of the coffee-shop at an echoing distance. She absently crossed the athletic length of her jean-clad legs.

"Aurora Hunter," she heard, suddenly waking her from her reveries.

Aurora turned away from the windows, taking in the sight of her friend staring at her in a mix of curiosity and concern.

"I'm sorry," she stammered. "What were you saying?"

Maya, a woman with glowing caramel skin, parted her lips. She released a playful laugh that bubbled from her petite depths. Tilting her head, the sunlight glinted in satiny short black hair. She studied the woman across from her from behind silver-rimmed glasses. Her dark eyes asked the question before her voice uttered the words.

"What's going on with you, girl?" Maya asked. "You're a thousand miles away."

Aurora sighed as she gave her friend an apologetic gaze. "I haven't been sleeping well."

Leaning forward, Maya placed her hand upon Aurora's arm which rested against the table. The bordeaux red of her sweater was a flash of brilliant color as she moved. "Is it the dream again?"

Saying nothing, Aurora nodded.

Maya affectionately squeezed the forearm beneath her hand. "I still say you should talk to someone about these dreams."

"And say what? 'Oh, can you help me with my dreams that feel more like I'm seeing someone else's experiences?' " Aurora rolled her eyes at how ridiculous it sounded to her.

"Is that what it feels like?" Maya observed her friend a bit more closely, realizing that this was the most Aurora had discussed her dreams and how they made her feel.

Meeting Maya's eyes directly, Aurora nodded again. "I've never felt anything like this before. It's like I'm connected to someone I don't even know and I can't explain how or even why."

Maya moved her chair closer to Aurora and then wrapped her arm around her, hugging the young woman's shoulder.

Aurora rested her temple against her best friend's, taking this opportunity to allow Maya to comfort her.

"I know what will make you feel better, sweetie," Maya said softly.

"You do?" Aurora asked.

"Epic shopping."

Aurora laughed and nodded. She lifted her head. "Yes, let's get this day of shopping underway."

"That's my girl!"

The two friends rose from their seats then made their way toward the door.

Aurora was digging for her sunglasses within the confines of her purse while attempting to maneuver through the steady stream of people coming into the coffee shop. Behind her, she clearly heard Maya struggling not to drop their coffees in the battle for the rights to the door.

The coffee shop had been so warm, so comforting. It was a dramatic contradiction to the cold which rushed to meet her as she stepped outside.

The sudden overwhelming flash of sunlight reflecting off the windows from the building across the street temporarily blinded Aurora. She knew nothing but a world of unfathomable white.

Unable to see, Aurora squinted at the abundance of painful light and ran directly into a patron attempting to enter the coffee shop. The impact caused her to drop her purse. Apologizing profusely to the woman, she stooped down and gathered up her things.

"It's all right," she heard said with a softly-spoken gentleness. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you."

"Good."

Aurora looked up to see that the woman moving past her was nothing more than a beautiful silhouette of elegant lines with the sunlight at her back. She stopped, staring upward in a moment of awe. Her eyes could only glimpse a graceful hand of flawless ivory. Aurora found herself unable to take her eyes off of the bracelet adorning the woman's delicate wrist. She had never seen anything more beautiful or more unusual. The bracelet looked as though it might have been plucked from the pages of history and gently offered to this woman.

Lost in thought, Aurora collected the last of her belongings. She gratefully noted the sun no longer posing a problem as the woman of silhouette suddenly became a woman dressed in all black with silken raven hair that ended dramatically at the small of her back.

Maya looked from her kneeling friend to the back of the woman entering the coffee shop. She smiled. "She was beautiful," she said, recognizing that look in Aurora's eye.

"You saw her?" Aurora asked while rising to her feet.

Maya nodded then frowned slightly in thought. "Well, I saw her as much as anyone could. She was wearing very dark sunglasses and let's not even talk about her face."

Aurora rushed to catch up to her friend who was already walking down the sidewalk in a determination to begin their day of shopping. "What about her face?"

"Don't get me wrong, sweetie. Her face was stunning, but it was hard to make out any details while her hair was masking it." Maya smirked. "Perhaps our mystery girl is shy. Her head lowered the moment I attempted to look her direction."

Looking over her shoulder, Aurora wondered about the small glimpse of the woman she had just missed. "It did?"

"Mhmm... and I believe she even blushed." Maya laughed under her breath. "Yes, a real wallflower, that one. Basically your polar opposite, wild child." She offered Aurora her coffee then hooked her arm in her friend's as together they walked. "Now, come on. Let's hit the shoe store on the corner. I've got to get those heels I've had my eye on."

Aurora smiled, but it only served to mask her thoughts which drifted to the sound of the woman's voice.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Night had returned with a looming sense of inevitability. She courted Aurora who possessed a sense of serenity now, though it had come after the greatest of battles.

Aurora sighed quietly into her pillow. Her hand reached out for the phantom body she yearned to have lying next to her. Then lovingly she nuzzled at her pillow. It was in this state of seeming peace that her subconscious traveled to the dreams it seduced each night.

Reality and fantasy merged into a plane of indistinguishable luster and life. That world claimed Aurora wholly.

Her hands were pinned down on either side of her head as a mouth hungrily sought to seize her own. She closed her eyes as they kissed heatedly. With a moan, she began to suckle and nurse at the soft tongue which had been so sensually caressing her own.

Their kiss broke with a passionate gasp for air and an insatiable growl. Aurora shivered from head to toe inflamed by the mouth moving to feast upon the delicate flesh of her neck. An erotic bite elicited a hiss. Her lashes fluttered open, forcing her gaze to fall upon her wrists held down with such passion. She narrowed her beautiful dark eyes on her hand. Fixed upon wrist, she saw it. A bracelet glinted in the moonlight, but as she sought to make out its every detail a sound fought to be heard.

Aurora found herself more enthralled by this sound. What was it? She listened more closely until at last it became clear. It was music. Where had she heard it before? What were those words which she knew meant so much?

Bolting upright, Aurora woke from her dreaming. She stared wildly about her apartment, trying to once again reacquaint herself with her surroundings. The slowing of her heart was accompanied by the image of the sun cresting in the brilliance of dawn.

The sunlight fell in a piercing shard of light to a picture poised upon the far wall. She gazed on the picture with a bit of wonder present inside her brown eyes. Curiously, she rose from her bed and walked across the spans of her room toward the picture adorned in light.

Staring back at her, Aurora saw two very different faces.

Her mother was a graceful woman with flowing golden hair and blue eyes that smiled as she looked out to a dusk-kissed sea. The airy powder-blue sun-dress dancing on the breeze emphasized the inviting softness of her every line and curve. She lovingly held her three-year-old daughter's hand in her own. From the smile upon her face, it was clear that she was completely unaware of the expression touching her child's face.

Tracing her fingertips over her face, Aurora searched for the words to describe the emotion she saw so clearly within her eyes. Was it loneliness? Was it longing? She had never seen a child with such an expression. With a bit of a lean, she looked more closely at her face.

Aurora looked like a porcelain doll. Her auburn hair floated on the currents of wind, but the subtle hint of olive to touch her skin had yet to awaken with the presence of an active life spent outdoors. At that age, Aurora's skin had been so very fair.

The image of a woman in ebony flashed before her eyes with such resounding force that it was all Aurora could do to escape a bout of fleeting vertigo. She remembered the dream, the bracelet she had seen upon her hand and wondered if perhaps it could have been the same bracelet.

"That's crazy," she mumbled. Dismissing the thought, she raked her fingers roughly through her hair. "Pull it together, Aurora. You're losing it."

She wearily made her way to her bathroom, hoping that a shower might somehow help her, but when she emerged from its hot water still feeling as though she was overwhelmed by her confusion, she decided that she would do things a bit out of routine. Instead of waiting until evening to run, she would run now and hopefully rid herself of this tension collecting throughout her body.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Her breathing spoke of a consuming calm. Aurora had run beyond her worries, beyond her dreams. All that existed to her now was the sound of her heart beating clearly within her ears and the sound of her breathing rolling with a oneness to match the ocean, itself. She veered from the sandy dunes toward the trail that would take her high above the deserted beach to the cliff overlooking the sea.

A flicker of white clapping in the breeze caught her eye. She stopped then frowned curiously as she stared at the piece of paper weighted down by a rock. Kneeling down, she moved the rock away. Then frowning, she read the words scripted across the page.

"I'm so sorry."

Aurora lifted her head, staring before her to the path which would take her to the view of the ocean. Was whomever left these words waiting, she wondered. She swallowed at the lump in her throat, suddenly overwhelmed by this impending sense of dread. Looking at the final word, she noticed the stains smudging the print.

"Tears," she whispered. Aurora narrowed her eyes on the words, struggling to make them out.

"Please, HEAR ME. I wasn't strong enough to exist without you in this life so I beg you... 'Turn my world upside... FIND ME' in the next. Fate be kind to us then. I love you, my Soul Mate.

"Yearning for you with an unbearable ache,

Selene Wolf"

With a horrified gasp, Aurora scrambled to her feet. She sprinted with all her might to the top of the path just in time to see a woman dressed in a mesmerizing crimson dress drawing nearer to the cliff's edge.

The woman's long black hair tickled at her naked shoulders. Her ivory skin was a flawless display of softness. The corseted dress affixed to the wiles of her body was enough to enslave a world, but instead it claimed only one servant this day: Aurora, who lunged forward just as the mysterious woman courting her death began to fall forward.

Gritting her teeth at the sudden jerk of her body, Aurora was slammed mercilessly into the earth. She held the forearm of the woman in red, determined to hold on with everything she possessed. Tears lined her eyes as she peered down to the face upturned to stare at her with shock and wonder.

Alabaster beauty ---timeless and gracious--- was the canvas to features of refined perfection. So great was their allure, that each feature possessed the power to render the greatest artists overwhelmed and weeping with their sudden sense of inadequacy. Raven tresses of shimmering thickness whipped in the sea air, but those locks of satiny grace could not mask the eyes that peered up at Aurora while lined with glistening tears.

Aurora released a trembling breath as she gazed down onto this pained face.... her face. She knew those eyes because they were her own. The leonine gaze of dark sienna were lined in intense kohl, emphasizing their almond shape.

How was it possible for this woman to be her mirror image in all but the color of their hair and the slightest differences in their skin, Aurora wondered. She remembered the picture of herself with her mother. Her skin had been so pale then, so much like this woman's, but that thought fled from her with the feel of the woman slipping.

Aghast, she shook her head from side to side. "No!" Aurora reached out to clasp the woman's arm with both hands, attempting to solidify her grip.

The woman in red watched as her arm eased more from Aurora's clutches. She stared at her wrist, feeling it bruise as Aurora held more fiercely. When she witnessed Aurora's upper body begin to slide over the edge of the cliff, she blanched in horror.

"Let me go!" she pleaded. "Let me go or we'll both fall!"

"I'm not letting you go, Selene," Aurora vowed. "Hang on to me!"

Despite the dire circumstances which Fate had found them in, Selene's face managed to transform to that of utter tranquility. In her beautiful eyes, a sort of softness took shape. Her letter had been found. She would not simply be forgotten.

Selene felt the persistent lure of gravity. Her eyes watched her wrist venture from this woman's hold until all that remained within fighting hands was her own hand. She gazed deeply into tearful brown eyes. Her gaze seemed to say, "It's okay."

And yet, Aurora argued that sentiment with her own eyes so completely. A sob rose from inside her throat. She gripped tighter at lithe fingers and finally fingertips.

A scream ripped from her soul as Aurora lost her hold. She reached outward, but it was in vain. The hand she ached to hold was gone.... gone in a blur of cardinal red.

Compelling herself to her feet, Aurora stared down into the water, realizing that Selene had been swallowed by a wave. In the haze which followed, she felt something within her hand. Some object had slipped from Selene.

Opening her hand, she saw a bracelet. It was the bracelet from her dream, the bracelet from the woman outside the coffee shop. She placed it upon her wrist then took a few hurried steps backward before she leapt. She leapt directly into blind faith. She leapt into the consuming realm of destiny and whatever it might hold for her.

The roar of the ocean grew deafening until it swallowed Aurora whole. The complete immersion into the sea robbed her of all sound, bringing about a sudden sense of absolute silence and solitude. Still, in the distance of her thoughts she recalled the reason for her madness, the only shore she cared to cling to when she could feel herself drowning: Selene. Then there was only blackness.

~~~~~~~~~~

Slowly, the feel and sound of the waves rolling in to tickle her face brought a groggy woman to her senses. Eyelids parted to take in the vibrancy of day. She groaned, weakly pushing off her sandy resting place. On her hands and knees, she scoured the horizon, but saw no one.

"Selene," she whispered in remembrance.

Aurora released a saddened whimper while struggling to her feet. She ignored the saturated weight of her cinnamon hair which seemed all but dark mahogany now. She brushed it from her face then trudged her way from the beach, thinking only of home.

Leaving the beach, she found her way to the quiet place she had parked her car. Aurora slipped behind the wheel. Her hands gripped the steering wheel as she stared forward unseeingly. Slowly, her breath grew to tremble until at last it left her in a violent waver. She cried with abandon. She cried for her failed attempts. She cried for the woman who was now gone, but she also cried for what could have been. She cried for what Selene might have known in her life had she continued on, but most of all, she cried for the opportunity to understand their intertwined paths now lost.