Awaken Demons: Stheno

Chapter I

CHAPTER I: The nightmare

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Complete and utter silence enveloped the air. Tall trees surrounded me, their crowns to high to even see their ends. Between them, a clear path of dark soil and little rocks was made for foreigners like me, who didn't know their actual position, lost in the deepest of the nature.
And there I was, in the middle of a trail in a thick forest, appeared from nowhere.

I was trying to hear something, anything: the chirping of a bird, a branch being broken by some animal or someone, a howl... nothing. My hearing was highly developed, more than a simple mortal, humans. Usually, I heard even the low-pitched sounds, and I was wondering why my body wasn't working correctly. It was impossible in a forest not to hear even the trees dancing at the wind's melody, leaves joining in the mother's nature waltz.

It was disturbing.

I had no idea to where I was or what I was doing in there, but something inside me, started to get alarmed, sending to my body a clear message: what I was living wasn't real. Intuition never failed me, people even called it 'woman's intuition', but it was far from that, and sometimes I hated it, because I wasn't able to change the current situation, even if I knew danger was near.

Taking a deep breath, I decided to close my eyes, and when I opened them again to see if I was inside a dream, I looked down at my left wrist. The vintage gold bracelet Rolex I usually wear struck 3:09 pm. Few seconds later, I checked it again. The watch my mother gave me as a last gift, indicated 3:57 pm. Yeah, definitely I was living my own nightmare. I knew it before it all started.

It wasn't the first time, far from it, but I had to learn methods scientists proposed to verify if I was deep asleep or conscious. One of them was to check the time, since one hour may be translated to a mere five minutes in real world, or even less, they moved slower. Another one, more drastic, was to kill yourself to wake up but, as the last time didn't work, I skipped the idea.

I cleared my mind, a cold chill running down my back. I expected the worst.

My eyes switched upwards, but I still couldn't see the sky, only a few sunbeams going through the intensity of the vegetation. Sighing, I started walking. The only thing I could hear were my biker boots making contact with some little branches and dry leaves in the path.

Lost conception of time, I walked for what seemed like hours, and stopped when I heard something move between the wild shrubs. I tried to follow its movements, but the speed made it difficult.

My steps halted when I felt someone, or something, behind me, making me turn around as fast as I could, but no one was there. Eyebrows furrowing in confusion, I looked around again for the creature, or animal. It was too small to be a human still, nothing caught my attention, nor my hearing. But, when I turned around again, a gasp was released from my throat, facing someone more or less 65 ft (20 m) away from me. 

I licked my dry lips, trying to give voice to my thoughts, "Who are you?" I couldn't see her face because of the darkness, but I was sure she was a young woman. Not receiving any answer, I saw how the girl turned on her heels and started to walkaway. "You! Wait!" Yet, there was still no answer.

I ran after her. She was walking at a normal pace, and her long brown wavy hair came into view as I got closer. When I reached the girl, I hold onto her shoulder while I got my breath back. "Hey! Please, just wait." I panted hard while she waited for me, and when air was again in my lungs I turned her around to face me. Then, for a moment I was shocked, frozen in my spot, my mouth let an involuntary gasp.

A faceless face: no eyes, nose, mouth, or ears. Nothing. I let her go and stepped back, not knowing if she could look at me or even hear me. "Help me, please." A wobbly voice echoed through the towering trees and thick vegetation. It was her? How on earth could she mutter even a single word? "Can you speak? But how is that possible?" My question didn't catch her attention.