Black robes, pure darkness. Nothing but trees to guard me from the jaws of death itself. The trees themselves, unknowing, uncaring of the fate that I've accepted, while the figures stare back at me, just like the pines before them, and every other human who would glare. These creatures however, show no facial expression. They remain motionless, awaiting a panicked mistake, or a sudden movement, still as the sands. Should I move? Should I run? Do I really want to die, even if I know what the outcome will be? A result where I don't return, where my luck finally runs out. I can feel my blood coursing up and down, every little function that keeps me on my two feet.
I feel... I feel...
Empty.
I've lost weight. Maybe even all of it, vanished, I've felt this way before. It's etched into my mind somehow, like it happened just a day or two ago, maybe even a few hours. I can't quite seem to remember. Gah! I need to know, I just have to. I get the feeling that what triggered this also happened when I was young. When I was in-
Danger.
That's why my mind is going blank. Why my body is starting to move on it's own, my right hand swinging into position, palm facing forward at the now swiftly approaching reapers. A white light shines from the traces of my hand, illuminating to an absolute maximum, blinding. There's only one real thought that I'm drowning in now, and it's just to get rid of these things, these reapers. I feel something on my face, it's warm, but it doesn't belong to me and it's increasing. Being thrown at me from the left and the right, spitting. Just as bones crackle and pierce my eardrums. Drowning out voices in my head telling me to stop, trying to convince me that my final hour has ticked over, heaving itself into an existence which lived to fail. An existence where curses like this exist.
The light now dying down, leaves me to cope with the realisation of what I've done, as I regain full consciousness bit by bit. I can see now, but there isn't much to look at or grab my attention, merely cesspools of blood, bones and two black robes to cover them, acting as souvenirs for death's life. Vice versa.
Blood and bones huh, I did this didn't I. It happened again, I couldn't control it.
"Why!" I shout in agony, straining my throat, releasing a puny and hoarse cry for help. That shout was the last straw of energy I have left, my knees start to give in, staggering into a tree. My shoulder crunching the bark as it falls into snow, never to be seen again. Though the bark revealed ants, finding their way onto my shirt and around my collar bone. I don't even care anymore... Wait, I killed the reapers right... which means I survived, all I have to do is concoct all of the energy I have left and sprint back the way I came. I can survive.
"haha." Whether it be out of madness or hope, maybe even the realisation of my situation, I release a defeated chuckle, one which could not be topped in by any form of dread or regret imaginable. It's worth a shot though. So I push back all of the dark thoughts into a room, locking the door on them, paving the way for another grueling few hours. Or maybe I'll die quicker than that, because my body has been completely overwhelmed by the cold, encasing the ability to feel my limbs in a safe.
Here I go. I'm in autopilot again, mouth lulling open, eyes dead. My left hand gripping my right shoulder instinctively, despite the pain I no longer feel. This isn't how I wanted to end up, this isn't the person I wanted to become. I always secretly hoped that one day, I would get the hell out of here. Moving on to a better life, where it's less likely for me to keel over from hypothermia. Maybe I won't, because I'm starting to feel warm, a certain type of warm. A warm that reminds me what my goal actually was today. to go to a bookstore, that's all I wanted to do. But Perhaps not. as it's getting hotter, and even more so. Where am I again? I think I killed two grim reaper things, out of the three. Out of...The three. There were three of them, and I forgot one.
"Stay the hell back!" I'm alive again. I feel the cold, I feel the adrenaline, but most of all. I feel fear, while a cold piece of metal slides through my back, puncturing my right lung. A scythe. Destroying any oxygen and determination to keep on going that I have left. It's now impossible to breath, as if it wasn't hard enough. The reaper briskly pulls the scythe out through my back, leaving me to die on the ground. I mean, I wasn't expecting much else, there was always a thought inside of me, a thought that I had not even the slightest chance of escape. Even if I've only been stuck in the forest for what seems like a few hours, it still feels as though the pines have held me captive for years upon years. Guess that's what misery feels like.
I never really got a chance to say goodbye, not even to one person. It doesn't disturb me though, I think it's better to just close my eyes and leave. That's right, it's finally time to see the emptiness of void awaiting my arrival.
...
I still feel wind on my back.
...
Is it truly wind? It feels more like an artificial breeze.
...
I can't take it anymore, I need to see. I've never wanted the power of vision more than as of right now.
There's a light, a sort of sky blue one. It swims through the blackness towards me.
"You're probably confused aren't you?" It quizzes me, however well it may know the answer. It's so small I could probably fit the thing in an empty eye socket. "You're not dead you know," Comedy, "I'm currently preserving your body, as you were never meant to arrive on the past side of the world," Surely, "Surely is correct. You're not exactly human. You are... how do I put this. Let's just say, you're the same species as I."
"Bullshit."
"You'll see." It says, as darkness is no more, or maybe, darkness has lessened. Being replaced with a charred shade of brown, with a familiar, yet unfamiliar texture. A texture which I place my hand upon. Sliding my palm up and down for a few seconds before realising that I'm crouched on some of the greenest grass I haven't seen. With what is absolutely the strangest tree bark I've ever felt.
"Where did that sassy little thing send me." I whisper to myself looking straight up, to which I find some of the strangest fireflies. Although, they aren't, because blue fireflies don't exist... I really have gone insane. Cause it's just more of those stupid blue things that say they are I and I are they.
"Welcome to your origin world. Dova," The blue light informs. "Take a look." Abruptly, the bark in front of me crumbles and disintegrates, revealing a forest filled with about fifty those same critters flying around in the air, and those oak trees I've always seen in books. Not an ounce of sunlight protruding through their leaves... Wait, who's Dova?