That moment when the attack ends

The sleep demon has lost another fight.

No more forgotten dreams

Remain as evidence of the psychic bruises.

Her eyes open reluctantly

As the bruises of the battle fade.

She yawns to get the air back into her body

And flops back down on the bed.

The demon is still under her bed,

Bleeding his green blood on the wooden floor

Among hair balls and the odd crumb

That escaped midnight devouring.

“Curse her! Curses on her! Curse her!”

He watches his own blood evaporate from the cracks

And limps back to the open portal to hitch a ride.

“Loser! Back from the land of zees so soon?”

The other demons laugh at him,

Leaving him to hitch a ride with, shudder,

A tooth fairy,

The worst of all the fairies!

He sits in the back with the stinky rotten tooth

Cursing his bad luck.

“Why did the captain send me to her,

Of all humans, why her, why me?”

Every night is the same;

She sleeps. He enters.

She dreams. They fight.

She awakes. He loses.

He goes home defeated again,

And sees the demon doctor for a pick-me-up

Before filing his report and getting into bed.

Is his sleep dreamless?

Or are his nightmares of her

Also forgotten upon awaking?

While another sleep demon

From another level

Exits cursing and bleeding

Through an even smaller portal...

“Curse him! Curses on him! Curse him!”