Labyrinth: Into the Malignant Book 2

Twisting my Mind

(I imagine the forest like the place in the music video by Stromae (Quand C'est is the song). His movements are like the Wanderers and the monster is the limbs on the trees. Its very creepy just like I wanted.) ok... now for the actual chapter!

Everything was dark, almost pitch black. Trees overran the forest causing black shadows to crush everything underneath. Dead leaves crunched and broke like glass in the easy breeze that lurked around the forest. There was a constant trickle of water that was the tickle to my ears that I could never sooth and a sporadic thump of a branch bumping into another sounding like someone was knocking, but there was no door. My shoulders shook in the cold and my eyes squinted in the harsh darkness. If it weren't for the reflection of the moon, I would be stumbling in a void of nothing that desired nothing less than to swallow me up whole and destroy my very existence.

No one dare spoke for the fear of being caught. My Intangible pulled me close as Edoneon led the way. He stepped around the dead ground as if he had walked it a million times. I pulled out my sword as we creped along. We were close to throwing ourselves over the edge of sanity and into the chasm of the unknown. The skinny limbs on the dead trees seemed to move like snakes to suffocate anything that passes.

There were walls made of stones in ruins spotting the forest as we walked. Sometimes the stones would grow into stairs up a hill and others would be so broken that deciphering where they were going was impossible. I ran my smooth hand along the rough rock and imagined who built them and who tore them down. Some of the stones were lodged into trees as if a giant with the strength of one hundred men had thrown the stone into the black bark of the tree.

The trees held faces made from the branches so mortifying that any child would lose their sleep for the remainder of their life. As the breeze shoved through the forest, the branches would move making the faces within the trees shift into a silent laughter only the dead could hear. They watched us with a sharp eye and never let us escape their clawing gazes.

I began to see dark figures in the woods originating from my imagination. They would peak around a tree and through the thick fog before disappearing. They threatened to harm us with their brute force and intimidating presence, but never attacked. The figures beckoned me over to them with an irresistible pull, but the strong presence of Leegan and my Intangible held me back. The monsters wouldn't let me pass without me promising to see them again.

We reached a large round floor of stone with the walls in all different states of ruin. We walked across the middle before a noise stopped us. Edoneon froze in his tracks as the sound echoed again from the other direction. I lifted my sword slightly before a horrifying, hysterical laughter exploded out of the silence. It came from one direction, and then switched to the other. I kept turning and jerking in attempt to find the source of laughter, but all it did was tease us. When the laughter rested in one spot, I took a step forwards as saw a flash of gold.

I walked towards the tree the laughter was coming from before it suddenly stopped. I reached to start climbing, but someone tried to hold me back. I could tell from the touch that it was my Intangible, so I turned and gave him the look that I would be okay. He allowed me to move again and I began to climb. The branches were fragile towards the bottom, but sturdy at the top. I was about halfway up when I grabbed a warm branch. I jerked my hand back and inspected the strange branch. Suddenly, I was looking into eyes of gold.

            A piercing scream shot from within me and I pushed backwards forgetting the only thing that would catch me is the air. My eyes squeezed closed from the anticipation impact, but a rough hand scarped my arm before grasping my hand. My body jerked to a halt before slamming into the thick trunk of the tree. Hysterical laughter bubbled from the mouth of the person as he took in my shaken expression.