Death Itself

Prologue

Prologue

Harsh breathing punctured through the natural sounds of the night; the white mist of hot breath accompanied the ragged gasps escaping cracked bleeding lips. The temperature had dropped below freezing in the past couple of hours, but the figure shuffling through the trees had stopped feeling its bite long ago. They had started out running. To where? They didn't know. All they knew was they had to get away; quickly.

The figure swiped at a low hanging branch in their path with their good arm. The thick foliage from the forest was too dense to carelessly run through. They had learned that lesson the hard way when the steep drop had appeared from seemingly thin air. Don't run blindly through a forest at night. The cuts, scrapes, and twisted – most likely broken – arm could attest to that. The pain had been excruciating for the panting figure, but it had dulled to a painful throb once the cold completely set in.

Where is the town? They could have sworn they weren't dragged that far into the forest. The crunch of dried foliage broke the almost eerie silence of what should have been a forest full of life. A gasp of fear escaped before they quickly slammed their palms over their mouth, the broken arm screaming at the sudden motion, but the figure was more concerned with muffling their breathing as they stopped, listening for any other noise. The silence was so loud all they could hear was a ringing in their ears as they strained to pick up any sound. It had made noise on purpose.

With a puff of air on the back of their neck, it felt like the icy cold hand of death was trailing its fingers down their spine, goose flesh rose to meet the all-consuming terror that strangled the air from their lungs.

Someone's behind me. With a gasp they took off running again – numb legs burning and heart racing with adrenaline. They didn't look back; all they knew was they had to move.

It was here, stalking them like a predator did its prey.

Sounds unlike anything they've heard before suddenly rang punishingly into their ears, causing them to come to a dead stop in the middle of a grove of trees. Screams of agonizing pain and anguish reverberated around them. So loud it was painful.

The sharp feeling of despair and helplessness suddenly dropped upon them like a cloak of murder. Is this what it feels like to die?

A burning path of pain slashed across the back of the figure's legs with what felt like millions of tiny knifes stabbing into their nerve endings. The pain was excruciating and inevitably brought the person to the ground. Their face slammed into the floor covered in dead leaves and sharp rocks, the crunch of a nose breaking echoed loudly in the air and the tang of blood mixed in with the salt from the tears on their cheeks.

The forest around them was silent once more.

Wide, dazed brown eyes flickered sluggishly to the sudden appearance of a tall looming figure ahead of them. With a burning sense of resignation and horror, they knew what stood before them.

It couldn't be anything else, but Death itself.