The sweat on my skin boils, a pitch black surrounds me, My vision dim, and my head throbbing. I'm losing the battle to the sleep that's eating at me. The heat is only getting more intense, my skin screaming at me to move, but I'm so tired; I just want to give in to the exhaustion. The throbbing in my head is the only thing keeping me from doing so.

"Hey," a voice yells, but it sounds faint, dampened, just kind of muffled.

I force my eyes to open, ignoring the haze of sleep and pain that's seeping into my head, steadily regaining my consciousness. I see a silhouette, the shadow of a demon from the darkest pits of hell, watching, waiting. Its long sharp horns attached to the deer skull resting slightly askew on its face, its gaunt body sending a rippling wave of chills throughout my body, and its inhuman height making my stomach eat away at itself.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Dude, this is not the time to lie there," it was a girl's voice, her slim fingers wrapped around my arm, pulling me up, "We've gotta move!"

As I blinked away the hot film that filled my eyes, I realized that there's a blinding light surrounding me which led to the realization of why every breath I took burned. All around me trees were being consumed, huts being engulfed in flames, and the silence revealing herself to be an aching roar. The screams I hadn't noticed before are almost louder than the chaos around me. The burning light spread everywhere, despite not being able to, we had to run. I did a quick scan of my surroundings. I saw maybe about twenty to thirty people. All of them running. Running away from the horror of what was behind us. The same thought raced through my head over and over again as I was being dragged and forced to join the rest of them.

How could this morning have been so peaceful?