Brianna didn't know what or who brought her to this dark forest. All she knew at the moment was that she wanted to keep living. She ran as fast as her two bare feet could carry her, huffing and puffing with every move. She desperately wanted to stop but her body won't let her, like it had a mind of its own. Her survival instincts had already kicked in and she was willing to do anything to survive.
The ominous shadows cackling behind her were relentless. She knew if they wanted, they could have caught up with her because she had seen them disappear and reappear before her. Rather than that, they liked that she was terrified, like predators, the sound of her racing heart was just like music to them.
Brianna decided to do the one thing she hoped would help her overcome her fears. This was something she had seen in many movies, something she knew would not work. "I am not afraid, I am not afraid I am not afraid, it is just a nightmare, I will wake up anytime from now," she chanted ,her mouth trembling with every word. She had already tried pinching herself out of the nightmare but it didn't work.
The forest was pitch black, with the moon's rays sipping in through its branches. This was barely enough light to see, she had to trust her instincts to guide her through a forest she had never been in before.
Unfortunately for her, her body was giving up. She being running for hours without stopping. Her bare feet had been pierced by sharp twigs and thorns on the forest floor. However, she only paused briefly to pull them out. She was bleeding from her feet but she couldn't stop to treat them which only made matters worse.
Her bluish-grey eyes were swollen from crying, and her cheeks were stiff with tear lines. With every step it got more difficult to move and, finally the inevitable happened as she fell on her face.
She briskly struggled to sit up, her wide eyes scanning her environment meticulously. She was encircled by huge gory-looking trees that gave her the illusion that they were moving closer to her, an illusion that was not an illusion. As she registered her fate, fear engulfed her body like an icy blanket. This left her shaking like a leaf on a windy autumn morning.
All along she had her cell phone, which she used occasionally to shoo away demons when they got too close. The only thing she discovered about these shadows was that light repels them. Whenever she pointed her phone torch at them, they would rapidly move away from the spot. They had no physical form, they were mere shadows. They can touch but cannot be touched.
With her phone tightly in her grasp, she turned her head in every direction she heard any unusual sound, her eyes following the reflection of the light with a strong sense of fear glazing in its core.
They stared at her bareback because of the sleeveless dress she was wearing, their dangerously sharp claws itching to touch her. They moved each time she turned her light to make her feel like they were directly opposite her whereas they were behind her. Just like every human being, she couldn't see her back.
There was a struggle between the shadows on who would strike the first blow to get her attention, but then they decided to do it at the same time. Each shadow demon slashed her back simultaneously with shrieking.
"Aaaaah! Stop, please stop," Brianna cried at the top of her lungs but it was for nothing. The shadow demons didn't cease attacking her. Desperately , she tried to fight them off, her cries drowned out by the sound of their scratching and shrieking.
Her back was burning. It felt like acid had been spilled on it. She managed to grab her phone that slipped out of her hold when they started attacking her. She turned halfway, shifting the torch to where the attack came from but the monstrous shadows quickly shifted to her back again and continued their assault.
Although her arm bleeding, she refused to let go of the phone. The shadows kept slashing her on the same spot repeatedly, tearing the first layer of her skin. She was crying and tossing around, knowing in her heart that her end was near but then something bizarre happened.
There was a sudden, pin-drop silence that left her heart beat the only sound in the air …
For some reason, the shadows stopped attacking Brianna, and she laughed bitterly at her pitiful situation. Her phone battery life was only about 1%. The one time she didn't charge her phone this happened to her. She could still feel the presence of those things although they weren't attacking. To her, this was just another of their petty predator tricks.
Her ears tingled as an eerie, disembodied voice that made her shiver whispered in them, "You will be safe under my control~ let me use your body..." Brianna felt a pair of cold hands lightly brush her shoulders which made her shudder involuntarily. "I'll give you everything you've dreamed of, just let me in, " it added.
Brianna didn't know anything about supernatural beings but one thing she believed in was that anything that wanted to control you was never right. The voice of the thing that tried to trick her was so soft and comforting that she felt like giving in to its demand. This is because at the moment all she wanted to do was close her eyes and wake up from this nightmare.
The offer was tempting but Brianna had not completely lost her sense of reasoning, those malevolent shadows had already poisoned her with their scratches, and she was certain she would die from the poison spreading through her system, so why would she want to give control to an entity that might as well be her death?
Despite the tempting offer, Brianna refused to be enslaved, instead choosing to take her fate into her own hands and face the potential death that awaited her. She was determined to die a free woman, no matter the consequence.
The peace that came with the ghostly voice was immediately shattered the moment her phone torch turned off. The shadows she thought had given up on her returned and doubled the velocity of their attacks; puncturing every part of her body with their poisonous claws.
"Just let me take control please..." The entity pleaded with Brianna desperately, but she resisted it. There was no saving her now. She knew that no matter how much it begged, it was too late.
She was in a pool of blood. Her body was no longer hers because her mind had become numb from the pain. She could only cry as she prayed silently for it to be over. The creatures were not so kind. They let her suffer a bit more before one of them finally jabbed her heart.
As her heartbeat counted down to its last, Brianna's life flashed before her eyes. She realized that she would die a miserable death for something she never knew of until came to this strange place. It was all his fault, the man she loved, her soulmate. If she could turn back time she would have preferred their paths never crossed.
*-*-*
Brianna was all smiles as she walked into her boss' office. Today was the day she ultimately got her first case as a lawyer. For over six months she had worked directly under the CEO of the firm, learning his ways and hiding her contradictions about his bashful methods.
She had followed him to court all this time carrying case files and his briefcase like a common secretary. However, due to warnings from her colleagues, she didn't complain.
The lack of work equity by her boss got to her. She threw away all the advice from her coworkers and politely expressed her displeasure. He didn't look offended by her complaints and even congratulated her on her courage. He further told her to come back the next day to get her first case.
She confidently entered her boss' office after being ushered in by his assistant. "Good morning Mr. Anthony," she greeted her with every charming, one dimpled simile on her face.
The blonde-haired man responded to her greeting but with a rather devilish grin. He offered her a seat and handed her a flat file.
As Brianna went through the file, her smile fell and her brows creased. She was too engrossed with the file in her hands to notice the jesting look her boss gave her.
She kept reading through the file over and over hoping to see something else. However, rather than see progress, she was dipped in the pit of disappointment. She looked at her boss with a stunned expression. "Sir, this is a rape case," she told him.
Anthony raised a mocking brow with a smirk dancing on his lips. "You wanted a case I gave it to you, but now you want to complain?" Anthony asked, crossing his fingers on the table. "It seems you're not pleased with what you asked for," he added, challenge and amusement in his voice.
Brianna's mouth dropped open, appalled by his behavior but she quickly closed it. The smirk on his face made her realize that he meant to punish her for challenging his authority by giving her a rape case first. She had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from retaliating, understanding that any response she made would only make matters worse.
In her head, she briefly imagined punching Anthony and storming out of the office but her rationality prevented her from enacting it. She forced a smile. Her left eye twitched as she said, "No I didn't want to complain. Thank you for the opportunity. I won't disappoint you." With her internal anger barely subdued, she turned her attention to the task at hand, hoping to prove to Anthony that she was more than capable of doing the job.
When she was done speaking, she stood up with the case file in her arms. She walked out of the office without giving Anthony the opportunity to stop.
In their firm, the case he gave her was very popular. It was a case that no lawyer could solve, and every lawyer assigned to the case got fired after failing...