Run.
She was running.
A forest dark and terrifying.
Glowing eyes.
A thunderous growl.
Fear.
Hunger and Violence chase her.
A blur of shadows and fur.
Too slow.
Teeth and Claws sharp and terrible.
Pain.
A vessel shredded.
Warm blood spilling from a missing limb.
A ghost pain of incompletion
The growls of a beast, excited with the feast that’s to come.
Run.
A howl at the moonlight.
Fear.
Adrenaline.
Death comes within the jaws of a beast.
Fear calls for the power within her blood.
She cries for help and the forest heeds her call.
Spiritual lifeblood leaves her.
The plants come alive.
Tendrils of greenery hold the violence back.
But the call of the wild is not so easily stopped.
Howls tell of a tale of hunt that is yet to end.
She ran.
The forest that once seemed like a home now casted eerie shadows that promised many horrors hidden within its depths.
“I’ve made a mistake” she cried, adrenaline barely containing the pain from where the beast had ripped out her arm. Her small legs strained to the last and burning as they took her as fast as they could.
Suddenly a piercing howl boomed through the forest, chilling her blood and driving her mind into a swirl of fear and desperation as all sensations were foregone. Only the thundering beating of her heart and the thumping of her feet on the ground mattered.
Escape.
Run.
Must not stop.
She could sense it approaching, hungry, greedy, excited for the prospect of tearing apart the foolish silver haired prey that entered its territory.
Fear.
“No, no, no, nononononono” weakened by the blood spurting from her missing arm. She could sense her body weakening as her mind became more distant.
The forest was silent, as if watching the spectacle. The trees that once seemed like friends and allies now were deathly and terrifying, as her hazy mind saw the twists and contortions of the bark as faces. Expressions filled with malice, grinning evilly at the prospect of her blood soaking their roots.
She tried to reach deep within her, but no power remained, the forest took it all as a toll to hold back her pursuer.
Still she ran. Passing the nightmarish creations of her mind as the fear and blood loss pulled her figure down into the pits of madness.
A howl pierced her being once again.
Feeling it approaching, she could feel her mind pleading for her to give up, to accept her fate, all the pain would go away. It would all be over in a flash of teeth and claws.
“NO! I WILL NOT DIE!” She willed herself. Screaming in delirium, for all the pain and terror in the world could not compare to the empty blackness of death.
She ran, feeling her pursuer coming closer with every heartbeat. The aura of brutality of what was to come giving her strength to continue pushing her broken vessel beyond its limits.
Something changed. Her hazy mind barely being able to acknowledge as the grassy floor changed into one of grey rock and jagged edges that cut into her barefoot feet.
But she continued. She saw herself running into the maws of a huge beast. Large and terrible as it encompassed the rocky hill before her, with jagged stalagmites and stalactites turning into fearsome teeth as she ran towards the depths of the cave.
Her pursuer was still onto her. It's claws leaving deep gashes in the rocky floor as it growled longingly for her flesh.
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The dark depths terrified her, but she couldn’t stop now. Her weakened mind didn’t allow for anything to disrupt it as it took all her mental fortitude to continue running.
A crack in the rocky wall led deeper into the cave, it was small, she barely being able to clumsily squeeze her diminutive figure inside as the jagged edges of rock cut into her flesh.
Just as she passed a thunderous shock of muscle and fur hitting the walls of the cave resounded. Followed by a booming rumble that made her lose her footing.
She was blinded now; The cave didn’t allow for any light to ever grace its depths. But the hungry growls and the terrible sounds of claws gnashing against rock willed her to continue, putting her already numbing remaining arm in front of her as she blindly walked deeper into the cave.
But as fate would have it, it wasn’t to be.
A thunderous howl shook the cave, paralyzing her.
A terror so primal that it pulled back her mind from the hazy and feverish thoughts of survival. making even the earth tremble in fear.
Trembling, all was trembling. Terror radiated to all the surroundings and even the cave shook, dust and splinters of rock falling around her unmoving figure.
She was numb to the noises of rasping and cracking rock, only coming back from the paralysis as a sensation weightlessness assaulted her.
“Falling?” a stray thought escaped her mouth, as she wondered this was the sensation of death, falling into the depths of it’s abyssal maws.
She was wrong, for this was not death. Her body slammed into the rocky floor, her figure broken and shattered. Her remaining limbs twisted in wrong angles as whatever blood remained in her vessel pooled around her.
Only the sound of her ragged breathing and the fading thump of her hearth broke the eerie silence of the cave. The bestial presence of the pursuer absent at last.
Death’s embrace was cold, colder than anything she ever felt. She thought that terror was unable to affect her anymore, but she was wrong yet again. For this fear came from deep within her soul, freed from shackles of her mortal body into the never-ending coldness of the abyss.
Cold.
Fear.
Fading.
“NONONONO” She screamed with a voice that no longer escaped from her mouth.
Darkness.
Death.
Enveloping.
“I DON’T WANT TO DIE!’
Cold.
Fear.
Fading.
She screamed a soundlessly as the coldness encroached her.
Warmth.
Something warm touched her body. Different from the abyssal embrace.
An alien intrusion. Primal, Hungry. She felt it enveloping her, she couldn’t stop it, nor did she want to, as she reached for that warmth.
“MUST SURVIVE!”
The alien sensation continued, she clawed and screamed, reaching for that warmth, sinking her nails and clinching her teeth into it, but her body was already long compromised, and the abyssal pull on her soul was too strong.
“SURVIVE!” She screamed reaching one last time, biting, clawing, ripping apart, destroying. Devouring the warmth, attempting to take it for herself.
But it was not to be.
Death’s gate closed.
Coldness enveloped.
Sinking down into the abyss.
She fell into nothingness.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Noise
Feeble
Noises
Screams
Screams In the distance.
Shaking.
“A”
“Ay”
Nothingness
Screams.
“Ca”
Shaking.
Cold.
Screams.
“Let”
Shaking.
“I’m dead”
Screams.
“Ca-et”
“Ay-th”
“Cayleth”
CAYLETH!
“CAYLETH!!!”
She opened her eyes, a wooden roof welcomed her, the familiar sight of the shack she called home, a small single room dwelling equipped with a central brazier that burned lightly, driving away the encroaching cold of winter.
Firm hands grasped her shoulders, shaking her body lightly; Taking her out of the terror-stricken paralysis. A familiar voice called to her.
“Cayleth.”
She looked at him, a man with a long face, small nose, thin lips, and green eyes that gleamed in the shack’s low light like that of a cat. A face she was all to used seeing bear an infuriating superiority expression, but now all that adorned it was worry.
“You were screaming, are you alright?”
She tried to speak, only to realize how sore her throat was, and as if dam had burst all sensations are returned to her, the pain, the terror, the coldness. It’s all too much.
Tear’s burst from her eyes.
Two ivory white arms, whole again, wrap around the familiar figure, burying her face in his chest as streams of water fall unimpeded down her face.
Raz was surprised but embraced her small body in the end.
“It’s quite nice when you act your age, but could you please not scream your lungs out just because of a nightmare? I don’t want that bastard Rob spreading nasty rumors abo..” he stopped halfway noticing that the girl’s small body was still shaking in his arms and just how cold she was.
“Sorry. It was pretty bad huh?” he said with a regretful tone that was very unlike him.
Cayleth merely continued to shake in his arms, her small back trembling with bursts of uncontrollable fear, still trying to suppress the memories of the past.
She embraced him, feeling his warmth, afraid that the cold nothingness would return and take her away.
This persisted for some time, minutes, hours, days, it didn’t matter within the coldness she felt.
“Sooo… if you want, I could stay here with you.” Raz said, unsure of what to do in a situation like this. He had never seen his friend in such a state.
This sparked reaction from Cayleth, as her arms lightened their grip on him, and she seemed to relax a bit.
Picking her up, he seated on the straw cushioned fur mat she was sleeping on, laying his back on the wooden wall, putting Cayleth on his lap and resting her head on his chest.
“Now I will do this for you, but it doesn’t mean that I’m into kids, so if yo…” He was about to say something stupid again, but once he noticed the empty gaze and fragility in the Cayleth’s emerald eyes, he stopped himself. This being one of the few times in his life he regretted being such a blabbermouth.
‘this is so unlike her… what happened?’ The man thought. Usually his comments would be met with a cold chagrining gaze and more than harmless punches by her part, some of which the bruises were yet to heal. Her behavior weirded him out so much he couldn’t even get mad at her for likely waking all the neighbors.
“You can sleep, no one can hurt you now… I’ll protect you.” He tried reassuring the trembling girl, still unsure what to do.
Cayleth finally being able to repress the painful memories enough to focus in the word around her, noticed his troubled expression. ‘Now I’ve gone and done it…’ She felt regret that she needed to rely on this man more than she already did, but the warmth comforted her, and drove away the empty coldness that had spread through her being.
“Thank you Raz.” Cayleth said in a weak, raspy voice, having someone to rely on seemed to tranquilize the girl, as her mind exhausted from the terror gave in and she passed out, falling into slumber in his arms.
Raz simply stayed there, embracing the sleeping Cayleth, surprised at just how fragile her diminutive figure felt.
This was a situation he never pictured himself taking part in, Cayleth wasn’t someone weak or frail, despite her appearance these terms were the complete antithesis of the girl the man knew.
‘Should I try asking her when she wakes up?’ He thought, hearing the peaceful breathing of her slumber. ‘No that won’t do, anything that can affect someone like that is best left forgotten and buried.’ He too had wounds that were still scarring and healing, but the gaze in her emerald eyes spoke of something much more terrible, and that terrified him.
Everyone had their own sad stories, but she was usually such a strong person, what could’ve scarred her so deeply?
“You sleep now, tomorrow is a whole new day” He reassured, both the sleeping girl and himself.