|| CHAPTER TWO :
— the torment of darkness
///
The forest was dark and foreboding. And the sky plunged into an ominous darkness, awakening predatory creatures out of their lair.
Jeongguk underestimated the utter blackness of macabre in the woods when the never-ending lights of the village center vanished beyond the forest edge. He looked up to the veiled evergreens in the lightest of mists, their somber sable gnawed trunks extending towards the almost indigo charcoal sky. The uncertain path became the deepest shade of brown and the moonlight bleached the stones sprawled around it.
"Bloody hell!" He muttered.
He had already lost the race against the long-forgotten afternoon sun that fell absent beneath the face of the earth.
Although there was a Demilune moon, its silvery gleam was unable to penetrate the dense canopy above. He was in far too deep to turn back now—he deplored not taking shelter at Hoseok's cabin. The twilight he had mistaken for night passed rapidly. It could be no backer than a coffin; six feet under and piled with dirt.
He had been so entranced by the village's excitement that he had forgotten he lived on the other side of the taciturn, deemed to be cursed, forest and needed to return to his mother who lay crippled in bed.
Tightening the hood of his mantel over his head, the cold air blew against the thin sheen of sweat glistening upon his moonlit skin. Leaves crunched beneath his feet and a ferocious screech pierced his ears, aggravating the tempest in his heart. His ragged breath turned into plumes of smoke as he plodded though the obscuring forest.
The darkness shrouded him and his body screamed and clawed at him to hasten himself. His long ebony hair tangled in the hostile gust as he broke out in sprint, tightening the strap of his weighted satchel around his gaunt shoulder—his pottage surly cold by now.
He vowed to never venture to the village center at the minacious our he had—that is if he were to make it out alive tonight, of course.
Along the dim tree line luster were three lanky silhouettes. He came to an abrupt halt, narrowing his now-sombre eyes at the spooky figurines. A plethora of child crept down his spine, both from the gelid temperature and the eerie figurines draped in dark maroon mantels.
The women scowled into the gloom and pulled their hoods from the disarranged thatch of grizzled black hair upon their heads.
"Have you lost your path, young boy?" Asked one of the scraggly women, her voice scraping against the corroded walls in her gullet.
Jeongguk swallowed thickly. "W-Who are you?"
"We are whatever you wish us to be," the women stepped forward, "What be your name, young boy?" They weaved simultaneously around the trunks of trees and crept down the hill.
"That is none of your concern," he stammered, "I must head home now, madams." He stifled an outburst of fear as he carefully cringed away.
"Head home in the darkest of night, alone in the forbore of delight?" The lanky woman with a crooked nose accompanied by a carbuncle crooned. "I kid you not when I say there roam wild beasts in here."
Jeongguk's lips molded into a strained grin. "I know of the dangers in the forest. F-Farewell, madams." He turned on his heel, shoulders tensed.
In the flash of light, the three iniquitous women surrounded him with bared teeth as shiny as gold.
YOU ARE READING
HUNTING THE HUNTED | VKOOK
Fanfiction[ongoing] ✎＿You were either the hunter or the hunted. Jeongguk was a village boy who lived on the outskirts of the ominous forest with his crippled mother, whom he loved dearly. In his village, one was ranked highly and respected if they were to sla...
