Enter the wood

With a sudden surge of disgust at your own cowardice you dismiss the nagging voice and stride confidently into the dark forest.

Instantly the trees seem to close around you, shutting off light and escape. Their jutting braches remind you of claws of monsters, reaching down to rip you to pieces.

Leaves and twigs crunch underfoot, seeming to scream your presence to the surroundings, and you wince with each footstep.

Evie slowly closes the distance between you, the small girl seeking comfort in your presence, comfort you yourself do not feel.

A sudden rustle cuts through the silence, a rustle not caused by either you or Evie. You whip your head around to scan in the direction it came from, but see only dark shadows and trees. Evie presses herself up closer to your body, and whispers fearfully into the darkness:

“Cam… Cam, I think there’s something out there…. I have a really bad feeling about this, maybe we should just turn back?”

Her words ring true in your mind, and you agree wholeheartedly, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to venture into such confined spaces with the current situation.

As you begin to turn around to move back the way you came, another rustle cuts through the stillness, this time accompanied by a crunch of breaking twigs.

You spin, glancing quickly all around, but see nothing, the darkness and shadows deep enough to hide virtually anything.

You begin to back slowly down the path, turning your body, looking all around.

Another rustle makes you spin, and you focus a quick surge of magic into your eyes to help you see. The shadows recede in your eyes fractionally, the spell being poorly made due to your anxiety.

A fast moving shape flits across your vision, moving rapidly up a tree, making you jump with surprise. You instantly relax, it was only a squirrel. You laugh silently at yourself for being so fearful, and turn slowly around to face back down the path.

Suddenly, out of the shadows bursts a black figure, and races towards you. Fear freezes you to the ground as your mind races to decide what to do. With an obscene fascination you watch a pointed claw race towards your right eye, seeming to move in slow motion. You try to move your body, but it refuses to obey your commands, leaving you with the only option of watching. The point fills your vision, your entire world being narrowed to the approaching doom.

The claw slowly pierces your eye, sending pain surging through your mind, and continues on. The world seems in slow motion, the only two things existing are the point, and the pain. Ponderously the claw pierces your brain, stopping your thoughts dead.