Oasis

「Prologue | Nightmares」

December 24th, 2004 | Forest in MI

"Mommy..."

"Daddy..."

"Where are you?"

A child's voice echoed throughout the dark forest pleading for a sense of direction to lead them to their parents, when their cries were met with silence the little girl continues to run deeper into the path that lead her astray from civilization at a near by village—as the trees engulfed her only exit from the woods. If she were to turn around she wouldn't be able to identify her way out on her on.

With each stride of her tiny legs the deeper she finds herself lost in the unknown surroundings through the snow, sending fear through her and desperately searching for her love ones. Playing hide-n-seek in a dark forest was such a dangerous game to play especially when the seeker had no sense of direction to guide them.

"This isn't fair. I'm not good at hide-n-seek. Mommy. Daddy. I give up, you win!" The little girl pouts crossing her arms over her chest as she stops in her tracks to survey the trees around her—her sapphire eyes lingers to the swaying of the leaves on top of the tall trees as the wind begins to pick up through the midnight air while snow starts to fall. Shivers runs through her body as goosebumps erupted on her cream colored skin, her dark hair in pigtails dancing with the wind—along with her black babydoll dress with white rounded collar that splits in the middle and white lace trimmings along the edges of the dress's skirt that reaches passed her knees. They were covered with white cotton stockings as her tiny feet supported by her black Mary-Jane shoes.

The scent of rusting iron hits her button nose as the wind forces her to inhale the aroma. The little girl slowly makes her way to where the scent was coming from, her natural instincts kicking in even at a very young age.

Following the scent she was force to face an open field where she witness a gruesome sight—paddles of blood across the snow covered ground, making it look like red colored ice cone, but would not suggest for consumption—body parts scattered all around the clearing and the smell of freshly slaughter evident through the air. The child's stomach turned and slowly nausea was making itself known from the sight before her.

She froze on the spot she's standing on as yellow pair of glowing eyes stare right at her through the darkness around the clearing just along the trees, across. A growling rumbles through the silence making the vicious creature's presence known and the hair on the back of her neck stood as chills goes straight through her spine.

Terrified shrieks filled the night as the little girl's fright finally catching up to her. Her body shaking, tears spilling from her eyes and shuddering breath taking over her as she processed the scene before her with her young mind. She's at the age in which curiosity plays a huge factor of her learning abilities to absorb the environment around her—like a sponge.

Blood. There was a lot of it. She couldn't make up of who's body parts were shredded into pieces in front of her because it painted a clear picture similar to ground beef at a butcher's shop. It was impossible to identify the corpse—not even putting the remaining pieces would help solve the puzzle of their identity.

The monster can sense her fear, taste it even—as it slowly makes its way out of the darkness, stalking slowly towards her, like predator would and appearing under the light of the full moon. Revealing a wolf—its sharp canines coated with saliva glistening from the moonlight. The wolf was ready to launch itself towards the little girl but before that could happen she was snatched up into a strong pair of arms from an unknown man—halting the wolf from the lunge it was trying to position itself. The man was carefully soothing the girl's distress to calm down her cries of terror—rubbing soothing circles on her back, she visibly calms down a bit.