All Ren could see was dark blood staining the ground. It wasn’t just his house that was surrounded by it, but his whole street.

He hopped closer and closer to where his house was and noticed that it, like many other buildings, was completely collapsed. He heard no movements or voices. The entire block was completely silent.

Another thing that confused him was the lack of actual bodies at his home. He didn’t see his mother, father, sister, or brother.

The dried blood made it near impossible for him to move the rubble, but as he kept trying, he came up completely empty.

There were no limbs, neither was there any bodies. His family seemed to have completely disappeared without a trace. He couldn’t see any visible trail that indicated that his family made it out alive.

More tears started falling down his face as he realized that he had no one. His family was gone, and all of his neighbors and friends around him were dead, their cold bodies rotting on the ground.

Once more groaning with the effort of movement, he hopped back to where he first saw that red light. As he turned the corner into the market block, he saw the glow again.

As he took it in, he realized something that he hadn’t noticed before. The glow seemed to be coming from outside the village.

He hopped his way to the edge of the village, only to turn once again and take in the destruction of his home with blurry eyes.

He clenched his jaw and fists. With tears still dripping down his face, he left the village.

As he headed out of the village, he located the direction of the glow. It seemed to be in the woods that surrounded his village, south of it.

Taking in the woods, terror crept back into his mind. From a young age, horror tales were told to keep children out of the woods. Stories about sick and cruel beats, and ungodly abominations that would kill and eat children came to mind.

These things made him hesitate for but a moment, until he readied his tired eyes and body to jump into the forest.

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The ground of the marked trail was littered with small leaves, sticks, and stones. Huge trees blocked the sky, and an oppressive feeling came with the woods.

The feeling made your body feel undoubtedly heavier, and the sounds of beasts came every other second.

Rustles in the bushes came from Ren’s right, and he turned just to see a grey blur jump out at him, maw wide open.

Ren jumped to the side, grabbing a stick as he landed quite ungracefully. He saw what came at him.

A furry creature standing on four long legs. A skeletal ribcage poking out of its torso, and a body that looked like it hadn’t seen a meal in weeks.

Dark red eyes that emanate huger, and a mouth wide open showing off the many rows of teeth that the beast had.

Ren felt fear creep back up, and threw his stick at the beast as it began charging him.

The red glow was getting close and close as Ren hobbled further, the beast right on his tail.

He felt something sharp and nasty close around his one remaining leg, tearing it off.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Ren screamed as his body fell to the ground, and without any legs to support him, he was unable to get back up.

It seemed that the wolf was extremely hungry because when Ren looked back, the wolf was feasting on his leg as if he no longer existed.

Thankful for the quick reprieve, and with adrenaline pushing his brain into overdrive as he bled out, Ren started crawling towards the light.

Closer, closer, closer. Ren repeatedly chants in his head as he makes his way forward.

He pushed through the thorny bushes and cleared away shrubbery that littered the ground. A little later, he saw what made the glow.

In the center of a clearing, a huge circle that's very presence made the plants around it back away in fear lay.

Huge lines ran through it in a complex diagram that Ren couldn’t understand.

As he made his way closer, he heard the howl of a wolf, that seemed the radiate pure hunger, and a desire for blood.

Tears still falling down his cheeks, Ren pushed his finger into the dirt to use whatever strength his frail body had left to pull himself closer to the circle, as it pulled his very being closer.

Ren risked a glance behind him just to see the wolf, with a frozen expression on its face staring at the circle.

Ren realized that like the plants around it, this circle had the ability to ward off any living creature, except him which he found strange.

Unable to do anything else, he crawled on top of the diagram, and it lit up like the sun in the sky.

The light encompassed his body, looking for points of entry. It found gashes along his whole body and came to his legs.

Ren felt the light enter his body and riggle its way up his legs. It felt like millions of insects at insane temperatures crawled up his body.

The light surrounded his heart, plunging into it. After it made its way inside, it went deeper, into something more metaphysical. Ren’s soul.

At that moment, as the light started tearing at his soul, pulling it from his body, Ren felt something that he had never felt before.

He felt what it was like, to lose yourself.