Mending Broken Wings Flash Fiction Contest: From Darkness (BEING EDITED)

Chapter 1: First Awakening

Elodie awoke with a sudden jolt. Her fingers trembled as she reached for the nearest pew and lifted herself up. It was dark and the air smelled like holy water and dust. She quickly took notice that there was no one else around and everything was silent except for the soft, low thud of her heartbeat.

"Hello?" Her raspy voice echoed off the walls. Nobody answered. Elodie's eyes finally adjusted enough so that she could make out where she was. A church.

She took an unsteady step towards one of the only slivers of light peaking through a stained glass window and gasped when she felt something jangle against her chest. Elodie looked down, and there was the smallest key attached to a chain wrapped around her neck. She held the key up to the light and noticed five notches carved into the body of it on both sides.

Strange. She thought, and turned around to search for the door leading out of the church. Once Elodie found her way outside, she took in her surroundings. There was a wilting tree right near where she was standing casting a dark shadow on the entrance to the building, a cemetery to the left of her (which would be on the right upon walking in), a single post out in the distance with a noose hanging from it, and what looked to be a forrest beyond everything else.

Eerie fog crept around Elodie's ankles as she realized that the silence around the church house was defeaning to her ears, and she began walking in the direction of the trees. She continued walking for about ten minutes before her head started to feel light and her vision started to blur.

A strange sensation began to tug at her bones, and she looked around to see if something, or someone, was there. She came to a halt when she thought she heard a ghostly whisper behind her. Elodie whirled around as her throat turned to chalk and her shaky hands balled themselves into fists. She gulped hard, telling herself that she was only imagining things.

Only then did she spot a very faint outline of something standing a few feet in front of her. An aura of danger and evil surrounded her, she could practically feel rage biting at her skin. This creature was dark like death itself. It had eyes of glowing rubies, and a face of nothingness. Her breathing became ragged as she realized the eyes were focused on hers.

Suddenly there was a shift in the darkness and Elodie watched with fear as the hooded figure lifted it's arm ever so slowly to her. In the darkness of the woods and the fog, she could only make out the figure holding up five bony fingers.

The figure's hand twitched and a moment later, Elodie's body was flung backwards and hit the ground with a loud thud. Pain shot up her spine as her back clashed against a root sticking out of the rock hard earth. Her head spun for a couple seconds before she sat up to see that the figure was no longer standing in the space it had been before.