A Left Turn towards Sunrise

Lee could see the bleeding red light from across the river, all from the corner of his eye, as he resolutely kept walking onwards through the forest, following the path of the water to guide him through the night.

He did not turn his head towards the beast. He made no move to change direction away from it, or closer to it. And he did not alter his pace of walking. He squinted slightly into the darkness ahead, underneath a particularly massive tree whose branches blotted out the light of the moon and stars, to hopefully see a little further.

Lee kept stumbling on, despite the tearing pain. He panted at every step, and became partially worried that he would inhale a fly, and choke on it, disrupting his progress and pace. He needed to get as far as he could walking, too tired and weak to run any further.

He began to see the glowing, blood coloured tendrils reach out from across the water, and make their way over, reaching out towards him, with the probable hope of latching onto him, and depriving him of his senses once more.

The red lights undulated just like the waves of the river, but the movements looked almost sickly, tainted. The darkness seemed to cling onto them, hugging close, and dripping downwards, like steam gripping a ladle over a hot bowl of soup, only more viscous and sticky looking.

Lee pretended to not react to the sight, determine to keep his senses open and focussed on the forest around him. He began to edge away, a little bit at a time, his feet slightly nudging away as he took his steps from the river and deeper into the forest, while still keeping himself able to see the river for guidance.

He hoped the monster wouldn't notice him moving away from it, but he knew that it was impossible. Any animal would notice if its prey suddenly vanished, if their meal suddenly ran away.

He heard the creature slithering across the grass, keeping pace with him as Lee kept moving through its hunting grounds just out of reach, disgustingly tantalisingly. It was moving slower tonight, happier to let Lee keep going at his own pace. It wasn't reaching out with its thousands of hands, which grabbed at him, carded their fingers through his hair, and softly stroked at his skin, plying him to come close enough to be fully consumed.

Was this another tactic to hunt Lee down with?

Had it learned that running after him and then whispering poison in his ears wouldn't work?

Was it trying now to appear more non-threatening for its meal?

Did it seriously think that Lee wouldn't remember what it had already done to him already, a single night later?

No matter what, it was behaving differently today, the tendrils of energy still coming closer and closer, if slightly slowing down the further they reached, still waving up and down, undulating just like the river water.

The monster looked deceptively calm to Lee.

He didn't want to take any chances. The only reason he would want to approach the monster ever again was for when it was dead, to examine its body safely. That was the only reason why anyone should ever want to go near something like that, other than to bury it.

Even monsters deserved burials.

Even if his dad never got one.

If he was able to purchase any paper and ink in the next town, he would write down everything that the beast spewed out at him, an draw out a sketch of the red light, the red eye, the slithering tail, and the thousands of hands.

He would take his work to the nearest temple to get a monk to hopefully pray an incantation, exorcise the forest, do a ceremony, or submit a request to the nearest cultivation sect. He wouldn't be able to pay for cultivators to go and look at the issue himself, and in the best case scenario, the temple would be able to contact for an important mountain monastery sect, which didn't accept payment following the laws of ascetism, to investigate the monster then eliminate it.

But who knew how long that took. The nearest mountains that he knew of were the ones visible from the rice fields, and he was certain that no monastery existed up there, with nothing in the sky above it, and no travellers making their way towards it. A letter would take days, weeks, or months to be delivered, and for all he knew, the monster could have killed again in that time.

It could have killed his sister, or his mother, and he would be at fault, for not returning back to the village and warning them.

The only way to solve this problem and save their lives, would be for him to keep the monster attached to him, interested in him, until it was dead. He would have to stay in this forest, every single night, until somebody arrived to kill the beast.

Lee sucked in a harsh breath, the air hissing through his teeth, tilting his head slightly to see that he was out of the monster's sight now, the trees thick enough to hide the other side of the river from his view. He could barely see the water as well, relying on his hearing for cues on which direction to take.

The slithering noise had also vanished, and Lee guiltily hoped that its maker had just decided to go home. And that no new prey entered the forest.

Lee began to calculate how much the paper and ink would cost himself, before promptly giving up and deciding that it would be a moot cause.

He was nowhere near any big cities or towns, where paper was used all the time and readily available.

Most of the people here were only literate because of the monks leaving their temples to teach the poor in the hope of gathering good karma, and also because the Luo family had been paying for a school for years to assert their dominance, and keep the people of the village firmly within their debt.

If ink and paper were sold in these areas, they would be undoubtedly low quality and would only be reliable in the act of falling apart. Lee knew that he would also need brushes, and he would have to sacrifice some of his water, if he wanted to eek out as much of the life he possibly could of an ink stone. Between all the supplies, Lee wouldn't be left with much money for food.

And if he was going to spend money now, it would be on that pot he needed to cook his rice.

He would just have to remember all the details of these encounters and hopefully be accurate to relay them to the temple.

He didn't want to turn around and gaze into the single, glowing eye of the beast anymore than he had already done so.

A sudden flash of red lit up the treeline to the side of Lee, from the direction of the river.

He could see multiple strands of glowing red light now moving closer and closer towards him.

Lee finally turned to look away and began to sprint, trying to outrun the lights along the river, while retreating further into the darkness of the woods. He didn't know their range or scope, whether the monster could see in the dark, or was blind.

He had to concede that the beast had night vision, considering it seemed to be nocturnal.

Lee panted harshly as he kept running, slightly relieved that he couldn't see the monster itself that was now running on the other side of the river, the disgusting, slimy slithering noise back.

He kept running, jumping over rotting logs, and skipping over the trees and random holes in the ground.

He heard the owls above, hooting in their nests up in the trees, and he heard the scurrying of the small mice and rats, weaving around the bushes and the shrubs. The moon, shining brightly in the sky above, light radiating like it was reflecting off of a surface of silver, glowing wax, swirling brightly.

He did anything to remember the forest around him.

Lee could barely just see glowing fireflies, from the corner of his eyes, and glowing a warm yellow in front of him, floating as if they were little fireballs made of magic and sparks, whizzing blurrily past him as he kept running.

He kept his eyes locked on the forest.

The plants were a much livelier green now. Even in the dark of night, their health and vitality obvious to Lee. If he weren't in the middle of escaping and he was wandering through the area in the light of day, he knew that he would almost certainly stop and take a close look at all that he came across.

He lamented that it was a shame, saddened by another lost opportunity to finally to finally explore and express his curiosity.

Something wet brushed the side of Lee's neck.

The world was suddenly dyed red.