Eric Saunders awoke a second and a half too late.

Only moments earlier the girl of his dreams swam through his thoughts slowly and sweetly. She danced through the make-believe of his dreams, filling his heart and satisfying his soul. Never could any mortal man know of such pleasure, he thought as he drowned in love for his alluring Aphrodite. He could still in his slumber smell the perfume in her hair as her breathing slowed and her eyes shot rapid glances behind safeguarding eyelids. In the haven of dreams, he found true serenity and the security of his soul.

With a short gasp, his eyelids pounded open. Paralyzed with fear and the faint smell of urine exuding from between the sheets, Eric found himself unable to turn away from the momentary glimmer of light reflecting off cold metal. He really had no time to scream as the ax was brought down with immense force upon his forehead, effortlessly splitting skin and rupturing blood vessels. His brain was rendered incapable of thought before he could even understand that his skull was being severed and mutilated, smashed into countless miniscule fragments. Sooner than the blade had been lodged into the back of his head, splitting his jaw open and tearing the top of his spinal column, Eric was already dead.

The tantalizing scent of her beauty still lingered in his blood-filled nostrils.