A dark fairy tale about traps, lures and falling for shadows.
When you see an eldritch dark horror made of shadows by the side of an old cursed trail that no one dares to go, you expect it to be less charming as it tries to trick you with deceitful...
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Art by James Fenner (@JMFenner91 on Twitter)
I had been walking on the trail for a while, my pace slow and dragging and my legs feeling like heavy lead pulling at iron chains. The moon was high and bright in the sky, casting a clear shadow on the grass next to the trees at the border.
The forest's limits were as clear as they possibly could, a distinct line marking the edges of its domain. As I dragged my feet on the trail, I thought about what I was going to do when I finally had to stop to talk to him.
I thought about killing myself, right in front of him... make him watch me die in agony, unable to reach me or stop me, make him impotent and powerless that way. It was a vindictive thing to want, a self-destructive feeling that sizzled in the pit of my stomach, burning with acid and mean-spiritedness inside of me.
Each step felt like I was sinking into quicksand, but I kept going, one step after another, dragging my feet on the gravel.... I thought about telling him that this was the last he would see me. That I was leaving to never return. That I would go far, far away, to a distant land where no one knew who I was or what had happened to me.
If my fate was to perish with this darkness inside of me, it didn't matter where I was going to be. This cancerous thing could fester inside and poison me then, wherever I was until it ended me for good.
Pain was all I could feel now, it soaked through my shirt and dripped down my pants. I put a hand over my chest and pressed lightly as I thought about asking him to take this piece of himself out... take back this curse he had given me so I could try to survive on my own...
I wouldn't survive, though. I knew that I wouldn't. He was going to have to kill me, then. It would be a fit punishment for him, retribution for his decision to try to cheat on my death...
Or perhaps this could be the prize he'd always wanted, just some last thing for him to come and finally collect. Maybe killing me had been his plan all along, and this would only be the completion of a long-awaited wish.
I tripped over my own feet and stumbled a little, catching my balance at the last second. Walking was turning out to be an endless torture. The pain in my chest had become something fierce and it was getting hard for me to breathe now.
I forced myself to keep moving while I thought about what else I could do... I could just go into these woods and become a monster, like him... there was always this option to choose, I suppose... Would I turn into an evil spirit, a prisoner forever bound to this forest, locked in there with him for all eternity until I would lose myself and become one with the shadows, I wondered...
Could that be who Erebus really was? What he used to be? A lost man who had fallen for one of Redwood's snares, locked in there against his will for god knows how long, only to be forced to lure in more souls to be taken and thus, continuing this never-ending nightmare? Was I just the next in line to perform the jailer's role in this hellish prison? Would I want this life sentence for myself then too?
A prickling at the back of my head announced his presence.
