Chapter 27

I'm so out of it that I've stomped my way around for the longest time before I even realize that I ended up surrounded by trees from all sides, so is only natural that, once I completely stop and look around me I find myself completely lost in this strange forest.

Well, that's just great, anything else now to worsen things up uhm?

If it wasn't enough to have my sulking mood to go further down even more the stress of all of this already weighing my head into a headache, and to make things worse this land never touched by the warmth of the sun only gets colder the deeper I get into these woods under it's humid shaded grounds.

Great, going to freeze to death now, just great, at least I won't have to face my problems tomorrow morning right?

Well, that's a dangerous thought right there.

I shake my head, trying to get rid of this feeling, and finally decide to turn around and try to walk the way I came from, hopeful that I had taken a straight path into the woods, only that, not even noticing how I came to stay too far into the forest my chances of remembering the path I took were basically nonexistence.

Still what other choice did I had? Walking the way I came was the only possibility of me finding my way back to the village, and I was not up to wait for anyone's help after that disappointing discovery.

So no, no waiting out for help, no smart decision made, and in the end I just managed to get myself lost even further to the point of not knowing where to go and where I came from, all lost in a circle of identical looking trees, rocks, and mocking birds chirping around.

At that moment where all I wanted was to just crawl into a hole and wait it all to pass, as if that on itself would be enough to get rid of my problems, I see some movement at the corner of my eyes.

And that makes me freeze in place.

Was that… hair? No, is leaves in the wind, but these tree leaves are bigger and sharper, how could they resemble flowing smooth hair? Or was I finally losing my mind in some sort of hallucinogenic effect? Perhaps this forest was enchanted even!

None of the options would surprise me, nothing around such odd city would anymore.

And yet I cannot shake the feeling of been watched away from me, not the chilling goosebumps I feel running up and down my spine, especially when I see movement once more at the corner of my eyes, but once my gaze lands there there is nothing to be seen.

"H-hello?" Great you stupid, just go there and announce your presence why don't you? Just a stupid move that the first ones to get killed in horror moves do, but I guess it turns out true that we turn stupid when fears crawl under our skins and accelerate our breathings.

But wait, does that mean I'll be the first one to die? P-please don't, ha, haha, that's not funny, not funny at all.

And yet my heart races even faster when not only one, but two shadows cross my vision this time around, and one of them I'm fast enough to catch a glimpse of its silhouette.

Or of what looks like a form… for I see the passing flowing long dark hair, the peeking red shot drugged eyes staring widely at me, and the ear to ear smile showing white teeth between bangs of hair.

And the lack of a body below the neck.

A blink of my eyes is enough for the floating head to disappear once more, but it does not get rid of the fear it causes me as its afterimage lingers at the back of my mind, and as much as I keep thinking "this isn't real this isn't real" the more my head shoots to every side trying to catch another glimpse of such creature as I back off step by step, foggy mist coming out of my lips and making me wonder if this forest may be haunted by ghosts, and if they had just come to get me.

A full out scream erupts from my throat when, in these small steps back that I keep giving, I end up supporting myself on lose ground and falling back down, but not onto grass rooted ground, but a hole I did not realize was there, far deeper than I thought at first, sucking me in and my screams along the fall.

My vision flashes and then blackens at the jolt of pain once my back hits the uneven floor, and as I gasp for air as my lungs have their air squished out of them I'm overcome by pain and even pass out for who knows how longs, my surrounding coming to vision, blinking into existence as my conscious cames back and forth, of a long hole on the earth, smelling of still air and rotten soil, of the dimming sky up above, of a long tunnel carved inside the earth, reaching into complete darkness, twisting and turning, and the smell…that putrid smell that only made me sicker.

Are those… faces? Glimmering eyes in the darkness… Eyes staring back… A growl, low and threatening, talons rasping against the soil, rough on the small rocks that stood on its path, long bony fingers reaching out, and only pain and darkness taking over my coherent thoughts, the only thing keeping me awake been the sense of danger, but no good came out of it when such strange creature had me on its reach at its mercy.

Only that, before it could touch me, whatever it was, it snarls up at the jingle of a chain, and as the warm orange light of a lamp starts to illuminate the hole from up above I can tell that my time is up as the darkness finally manages to reach out deeper, until there is nothing left to see and I blackout from the pain, unsure what the future has in store for me, and if the carrier of the lamp is a savior or actually my doom.