Hunted Dreams

Hunter 1

 The cold feeling off the floor froze what felt like my skin, a thick sweater and pants were all I wore. I could no longer feel my skin, atop a sleeping bag, I clutched a white cane with a crow head carved into its wood. The cool wood against my blistered skin.

The peculiar design was of my own choosing, before my life became that of a common poor. The only thing that gave me solace was this cane, my last bearer of the life I lived before.

My eyes could no longer stay open, falling down like Icarus trying to reach the sun. Greeted with a familiar darkness, I feel colder than usual. The constant feeling of my body shifting, it was strange. My sleeping bag didn't feel like I was punctured by small jagged blades.

I forced my eyes open, fog covered my sight. I find my cane, using it to pull myself from the ground. Different types of Black and White leaves on the ground, veins of red leaves on walls.

The walls surrounded me, walls made of leaves. It was an anomaly, a maze, the area behind me was blocked off. Their colors and placement constantly shifted, like leaves falling in the wind.

I tried to break through the wall, but to no avail. Giving up, I slowly make my way to a fork in the road. I go the way the red leaves aren't.

It felt like time had purposely stopped itself just so that I could suffer.

The paths seemed to go on forever, It never changed. Yet I relented, going on even with no certainty of making it to a goal. It made my body sting with anticipation. The idea of making it to the end, it also unappealing. Going on forever with no clear goal was interesting. The human drive to continue, even with no hope.

After following the paths without red leaves, I make it to a dead end. I look at the wall. It was like the one behind me when I started this adventure, I laughed. I place my hand against it, exhausted. I could now feel the exhaustion of overexerting my body, the way my limbs shook with the minimal exercise. I looked up to where my hand was placed.

The leaves started to fall, through the leaves was a unique figure. It was as if time had stopped just for me to see what was ahead of me, a warning? Or was it for my betterment? The curiosities of the unknown had stabbed me over and over. What made this interaction so exciting?

Its body was that of a wooden mannequin, short light ashen gray hair, its face remained neutral. A black Veil covered most of it. But the mouth still moved, I held up my walking stick. Ready to attack if need be, the anomaly ahead of myself.

"Wait!" I step back and trip, hitting my head. I reach towards my walking stick. Not out of fear, but instinct.

I didn't understand why my body deemed that I should fear the being in front of me, It made my curiosities peak if anything. Monsters were fantasy, ghosts and spirits were falsehoods. Yet it felt as if God had sent me an omen of new answers. A way to discover what it is that drives people... Most of all, me.

An epiphany of my beliefs, that nothing is supernatural nor unexplainable.

"Wait! I'm friendly!" I try to move back, bend down and hold out a hand. The joints had round pieces which seemed to be how they moved. I feel my breathing quicken, barely constraining myself from inspecting every last piece of it "I'm Jaune... And you are?" I calm myself, taking its hand.

A sense of familiarity struck my soul, curious? It is unusual for me to feel this sensation, the feeling of knowing something. It is always at the edge of an abyss, standing at the tip. Threatening to jump off, knowing I'll chase after it.

Even though the abyss screamed, faces and hands constantly tried to climb out. They eventually gave up on leaving, now they wanted to drag me down with it.