I slowly opened my eyes and this feeling was like waking up from a long sleep. When I found myself in such a dark room, my whole body felt the chill of the air that I could feel from my skin. There was no sound I could hear, not even the sound of my own heartbeat. When I tried to move, I was stiff from head to toe. In my heart myself is dead, loneliness in this boundless shadow is indeed the death that I deserve. When I started to give up on closing my eyes, I suddenly heard the voice of a man right in front of me.
"Welcome to the realm of the dead."
The sound immediately startled me to wake up and made me sick. The pain made me see the dark memories, the screams, the blood spurts, and even the suffering of many people from those memories instantly flow in an instant very quickly. But the pain didn't last long, with a heavy breath I started to think about myself but it still made me wonder.
"Who am I?"
Instantly a torch lit up to illuminate the room I was in, though the flame of the torch was dim. With the dim light from the torch I looked around me like an old place where there was a lot of dust with cobwebs in the dark corner of the wall. In front of me there is a black table with a red cloth on its surface and I see there is a candle in the middle of the table. For some reason I suddenly felt goosebumps when I realized there was someone behind the darkness sitting in front of me, I tried to get up from my chair but I couldn't move my body at all. That's when the candle in front of me suddenly lit and I saw a terrible figure sitting in front of me. The creature was covered in darkness with the shape of a human but it had big hands with sharp nails, besides that I could only see its two glowing eyes staring at me horribly.
“Welcome… Dixen,” said the creature.
It turned out that this voice was what woke me from the dead and made me feel the pain of those memories. Since I couldn't move my body, I ventured to speak to the creature that might know about me.
“D-Dixen? Is that my name?" I asked.
"Yes and I just erased your memory."
The creature's words didn't seem like a lie since I just had an excruciating headache. What is the reason he erased my memory? Will he kill me? Negative thoughts had filled my head and at that time I felt hopeless because I saw my current condition.
“W-Why are you doing this? A-Are you the demon that killed me?” I asked again.
"Don't compare me to that lowly creature, you'll understand why I did this." Answer the creature.
I really didn't understand what the creature was talking about because I now felt fear and despair when the creature stared at me closely. When I blinked, the creature suddenly disappeared but I'm sure it's still around here. Without me realizing it, a large hand with sharp nails had crawled over my shoulder and it made my breathing irregular because I couldn't look back.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Don't be afraid of me, I used to be a human like you but now I'm different because I've been cursed,… even my name.” Say the creature.
“W-What do you want from me?” I asked holding back fear.
“You live in a world full of suffering and even you die from suffering too much. Let me tell you why you died, it's because your body was made an offering by the Demon Lord. What is your answer? You want to live again don't you?"
Those words made my head hurt with a snippet of memory flashing through my head. It seemed that the creature was telling the truth and I had no other choice but to obey it because in my little heart, I wanted to live again.
“I… want to live again, even if my life is full of suffering but I want to fight my suffering to live!” I'm determined.
"The right decision! Now listen to my words, I will give you a very special gift and use this gift to kill the Demon Lord even at any cost. My advice is to kill the Demon Lord immediately before he wakes up.”
When the candle was blown by the creature, my vision immediately darkened. When I woke up again, I was immediately shocked because I could feel my heart beating again and now I was in a narrow and dark coffin. With all my might, I tried to get myself out of the crate by hitting and screaming. It wasn't long before my hand managed to get out of the coffin with many scratches and finally I was able to come out standing on top of the grave with the nameless tombstone.
“A-Am I alive again? Where is this? I seem to be in the middle of the forest.”
Because the moon was covered by clouds, the atmosphere of the forest was currently dark. Without thinking I slowly started walking through the forest with no lighting to find a way out. The more I went into the forest the more difficult the path I took and the further I walked there I began to hear strange sounds.
The voice sounded from a distance like a roar and made me stop for a moment to look around. When I took another step, I heard small, indistinct whispers and that's when I heard a scream not far from me.
“AAAAH!!!”
Panicked and shocked, I started to quicken my footsteps and took a direction I didn't expect. Running scared down the dark path and the bushes, I was finally in a meadow. With panting breaths I began to calm myself but unexpectedly I saw a torn corpse covered in blood and a woman who was crying covering her face. For some reason I immediately felt horror when I wanted to approach the crying woman and soon I heard a whisper that now sounded very clear.
"Run."
At that moment the woman turned to me with a ghastly pale face with tears of blood running down her cheeks, then her mouth opened wide with a loud scream that made me stiffen in surprise.
“AAAAAA!!!”
The woman quickly strangled my neck so hard it made me feel pain, fear, and despair mixed into one. With all my might I fought the woman's strangulation but what strength my whole body began to weaken, my voice could no longer come out as my blood began to flow out of my nose and eyes, slowly the sound of my heartbeat began to dim and my vision slowly began to blacken ending with the sound of my neck bones breaking. broken.
Crack!
…
“Welcome back… Dixen.”
That voice, I recognized that voice from the darkness and woke me up from this nightmare. Was this all just a bad dream? Or am I dead and going to hell? My head is full of questions as I feel my neck and face are back to normal but I don't feel my heart beat anymore.
"What did you do to me?" I asked looking into the dark creature's eyes.
The creature looked like it was smiling or happy but I couldn't see the expression on its face because it was covered in darkness. Finally the creature clapped for me softly.
"Wasn't that great? It is a special gift from me to you.” Say the creature.
"What do you mean? I-I even felt the pain of this death a second time.” I said looking at my shaking hands.
Finally the creature explained what special gift had been given to me, “Still don't understand? Alright I'll tell you. At night your body will become like a living creature and you can be killed but don't worry your soul will rise again, great isn't it?!”
Feeling hopeless, I covered my face and said, “Then how do I deal with the creature that killed me?! I don't even have the strength when he looks at me."
"I told you, you can do anything you want. Now it's time for you to wake up." Answer the creature by blowing out the candle.
“Wha-…”
Before I said I suddenly woke up in the same grave as when I first woke up, in a nameless grave. This makes me wonder what kind of world is this? Am I going to keep repeating this nightmare endlessly?