~Fantazme~

                I step closer to the edge, peering down into the dark abyss before me. For whatever reason I’m here, I’ll never know… I swallow hard. It was so dark and the bottom wasn’t visible. “Maybe THAT’S why it’s called the bottomless pit…” I muttered bitterly to myself before looking around. “Hmm….” I picked up a rock. It was heavy… heavy enough that if I dropped it down into the foreboding darkness, I’d surely hear it when it hit the bottom…

I took a deep breath and held it as I tossed the hefty rock over. Then it was just a waiting game. How long until I’d hear then inevitable bang of rock hitting rock?

Ten seconds…

Twenty…

Thirty…

No crack…. How deep was this thing?! I bit my lip nervously before turning around and looking behind me. The colors of the thick, green forest were, in the only way I can think to describe it, leaking.  Bleeding, as if ink got wet and was running down a page. My heart leaped out of my chest as I watched the green slowly fading into black and white. The trees, bushes, ferns…. They all started withering. They were turning slowly black and so thin that you could see straight through them. All of the ones in sight, one by one, died before my eyes.

Then I saw it. A cloaked, shadowy wisp slowly emerged from the death. I don’t know what it was… It was at least seven feet tall… extremely thin…. And the only thing I could see, aside from its long, dark, hooded cloak… were its bony, pale hands.

It beckoned for me to follow it. I didn’t want to, but my feet started, horrifyingly enough, traveling toward this figure. As I neared, the stench of death hit me in a thick wave and I gagged, yet kept walking, as if under a spell. Eventually, I stood in front of this creature and I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I was shaking so badly, it’s a wonder I could even stand, let alone how I made it the whole way over here like I did.

Then I saw it.

Then…. I understood.

It was here for ME…!

The thing gripped a long, tall scythe in its left hand. Then I noticed its actual hand…. Made of bones, rather than flesh. I was…. LITTERALLY staring Death in the face, and had no clue as to what to do.

I watched in horror as it raised the scythe gracefully above its head. I let out a scream and the demon in front of me faltered and almost dropped its weapon of torment and destruction. Whatever spell it had on me finally released and I fell flat on my back.

Within a second, though, I was back to my feet, no matter how weak, and running back the way I’d come. In times of fear, though, memory can be quite a sneaky concept…

I tried skidding to a halt, but was too late. I screamed as I sent myself hurtling over the edge into the pit. Life, today, was apparently too elusive for me to find.