The Risen

I ran as fast as I could through the woods lit only by the queen of the sky herself. The moon was full and accompanied by millions of stars as she watched silently at the scene beneath her. Though the moon was bright I still found myself struggling on the uneven ground; I tried my hardest to keep my footing from catching the finger-like roots of the dying trees around me as they reached for the sky begging her for help. Whatever happened here killed everything and covered the entire forest in a thick mist. What could do this? Why? Even at lightning speed I was still terrified my pursuer would catch up to me. All I could hear was its massive body slam into the earth as it lunged after me, but then I heard a new noise.

As I leapt over a tree root I’m struck by an ear-piercing screech that seemed to spread to the outer rim of the world and slam back into my eardrums; echoing recklessly in the walls of my mind. I was so put off by this unnatural sound that I lost focus of what I was doing and I started to wonder why this...thing, was chasing me to begin with. I don’t remember pissing off any homicidal demons. I don’t even remember how I got in these woods now that I think of it. My thoughts were viciously cut through by another high-pitched screech from behind me.

It was so loud my ears started to bleed and my vision blurred. Still I kept running... with every ounce of adrenaline I had powering every step I took. Even though I tried to focus on my footing and what I’m running from….. it was too late. I thought the beast behind me had caught me; this had to be it. As my vision started to clear up finally, it allowed me to see it wasn't my attacker grabbing me but a root bent over the ground that the crook of my foot hit sending me flying forward down a hill.

As I rolled down the unforgivable terrain, I could feel every sharp stone and stick stab into my body without mercy and it took every fiber of my being not to scream in pain hoping to not give away my location in case my attacker lost sight of me, but that hope was frail. Finally after what felt like too long for survival I stopped tumbling and landed flat on my back in what seemed to be a clearing surrounded by trees and with a loud smack everything went dark and silent. after a while I started to hear an unfamiliar voice break through the deafening quiet yelling, " Wake... Wake child... NOW!". I then gasped, jolting into consciousness immediately remembering my situation.

I assess my wounds and found a lot of gashes up and down my legs from the rocks and my side was bleeding pretty bad, but with how long the cut was I don't think a rock did that. I could feel blood trickling through my hairline and down my face from the top of my head; I was beat up pretty bad. Without even a moment to regain adrenaline, I see it standing covered in shadows in the treeline, just watching me. It found me! I tried to get up and keep running but I grew to realize I had no mobility in my right leg as the excruciating pain yanked me back to the floor without mercy.

Realizing my defeat, I braced myself for what was starting to move in on me from the trees. It was massive even from this distance of a good couple yards! As it broke from the shadows I grew more and more mortified at what I saw. It had to have been around 14 feet tall and was built of nothing but mangled muscle. It's skin was black and looked burnt with chunks of it's flesh missing. It's mouth was made up of a giant smile of needles that looked unnaturally added to its face and it's eyes were these two black beads inside its two gaping eye sockets that looked like they trapped death itself inside them. It's hands were almost human aside from size but the nails were made up of extremely long blades that were already covered in blood from trying to catch me earlier.

It closed the gap between us faster than I could think and once it got close enough to touch me it let out another screech that shook the earth and sent a sound of victory to its allies. I lost. After all our efforts to win this war against the darkness I'm about to die at the hands of this new evil because I lost my footing? My father always said my klutziness would be my downfall... I just didn't think it'd be literal. As I brace for the last strike I saw its arm getting ready to take at me, I allowed myself these thoughts to try to make peace before I left this war.

As I start to shut my eyes I catch a glimpse of light behind the demon in front of me and I can hear a low but powerful growl echo from the trees. It shot through the treeline with lightning around it and within seconds was behind the beast. Before the beast could even turn to face whatever this was; to my shock, a blade sliced the monster in half! When the body fell to the ground I was able to see who beat this monster. A man, equipped with armor that seemed to be made by odin himself and a sword infused with lightning capable of cutting through the earth.

His hair was black and his skin was pale even under the glow of white light coming from his eyes. In a voice that made my body feel weaker than human he said, " Elara, you need to wake up. Wherever you are is not where you're meant to be and we need you. I will protect you in this realm for as long as I can but if you don't find us when you wake then soon the darkness you encountered today will devour us all." He then grabbed me off the ground and told me to focus into his eyes.

As I stared into them the white light grew brighter and brighter until it was all I saw and then I woke up. Not that there was too much to wake up to. I open my eyes to a giant hospital light blaring in my face still dazed from the crazy situation I just survived. Was that really a dream? Well either way I'm still stuck here; in this hellhole called Athens Sanatorium. A place where I'm deemed insane simply because my parents said so. At least in my dreams I'm meant for something bigger than this sad reality but unlike my imaginative dreams of power and greatness, This was a war I obviously still haven't won and honestly?....will I ever?