Ikem lightly grabbed his head as he slowly sat up, wiping the sand away from his eyes and face.
He froze.
There was a humanoid torso made of white mist in front of him.
'Shit!'
He looked up, and quietly cursed his luck as he saw it, the Abyssal face of the Phantosia gleaming at him with it's trademark look.
Staring motionlessly at it for a few seconds he blinked continuously.
He hurriedly scrambled to his feet, and without as much as a second thought he ran.
Running like the wind.
His heart pounded heavily with each step he took, each beat sounding like complaints on the stress it was being put through.
But the owner was just the same.
Ikem muttered as many curses and insults as his poor mind could muster.
Why couldn't life just let him be?
"What in the heavens?!", he cussed aloud, "I thought that thing was static, why did it just start moving".
He didn't know where he was going, as he ran based on instinct, yet, he was in no way going to stop and check.
The rocky stones in the path were crushed beneath his Camp boots.
At least it had also survived the strings of his misfortune.
At some point, Ikem decided to turn and check the pace and distance of the Phantosia.
He stuttered, almost pausing mid race.
The Phantosia was still where he last saw it, unmoving.
Ikemefuna narrowed his eyes as he slowed his pace whilst swallowing hard.
'Is this a trick, a game, it's playing games with me?!, damnit it is taunting me'
Ikemefuna stopped running, choosing to wait and watch the Phantosia's actions, from what he judged as a safe distance
The idea sounded perilously stupid– even to him.
But his curiosity had to be satiated.
One was normally expected to flee from danger, not stop to watch it.
Alas, curiosity they say, killed the cat.
For as soon as Ikem stopped, the Phantosia moved again.
Performing it's uncanny movements, eerily similar to teleportation, it appeared right in front of Ikem.
"Whaa..?" Ikem yelped in surprise, backtracking. Trying to avoid gazing into the Phantosia's eye.
His fear quickly deepened.
Again, due to circumstances, this proved an impossibility.
For as soon as the Phantosia emerged, it stuck it's head forward, floating till it was on equal level to Ikem's face.
It pressed on.
It's Malevolent purple eyes, shimmered darkly, proving inescapable.
And try as Ikem did, he couldn't escape them.
They shone with a deadly allure, disastrous, sinister, insidious.
Like the legendary Siren's song.
The eyes etched itself telepathically at the back of Ikem's mind, tugging at his psyche.
Pulling hard.
Without a sound Ikem fell, loosing the fight. He saw the world go dark.
The churning wind, ruffling his hair.
His consciousness quickly trickled away, his eyes were still open, but now wide without clarity.
The Phantosia loomed almost an inch away, it's macabre smile, twisting into something much more grotesque and hungry.
It stretched both of it's abominable appendages, anchoring them steadily unto Ikem's head. It's eyes turning, swirling with a deeper light.
It was time to feast.
It's mind wandered, using one of it's deadly abilities, it latched onto Ikem's memories, deciding to begin his feast from there.
It entered a thought current, but, unlike the norm, this stream was empty?
It went back, choosing to enter another odd looking stream, but this stream was also void of anything.
The mind was like an ever flowing river, drifting in a particular direction, foward, similar to time.
For one to travel backwards, they would have to move up the current, braving different stages of the stream.
And this was what the Phantosia did.
But unlike what it expected, the stream of memories were empty.
Everything covered by an impenetrable grey mist.
Totally unexpected.
But it forged on, driven by a demonic hunger, a hunger to devour all things in connection with the divine.
Until, it found something, a tiny seedling memory, not well hidden inside the mist.
The memory was tiny, insufficient, not enough to quell it's hunger.
But it would have to serve as a start.
Without warning it gripped the tiny seedling with an unseen hand, and implanted a wisp of it's consciousness inside of it.
Choosing to devour it from the inside.
Within the time span of a breath, it began, and it left Ikem's body in a fit of wild spasms.
******
Inside The Dream World,
Small Scape, Agwu Forest.
Forgotten Memory.
Eight Years Ago.
Huff... Huff... Huff...
He ran as quickly as his small legs could carry him.
Aware of the reality, that stopping once only stood for his death.
He was tired, bruised and battered.
But he carried himself onwards with gait and determination.
His breaths came in heavy puffs, his lungs contracting forcefully with each intake of air.
Long vines, each as thick as an arm, whipped his face and body as he ran past, dry twigs snapped beneath his bare feet; painfully giving him splinters.
Yet he trudged on, Persevering despite the pain.
The little boy of nine gritted his teeth, his eyes flashing with a steely, unshakable conviction, unwilling to give failure a chance.
His chest heaved with exertion, and upon each step he took further, his body swayed precariously.
A stark notice that he would collapse at any moment.
'I Have To.. Make.. It', he wheezed tiredly.
He carefully turned his head to check on his pursuers.
He had been running relentlessly for almost an hour, and they showed no signs of catching up.
He knew better than to believe that they had lost him, the momentary loud cackles and haughty laughter that accompanied their presence slowly drew closer.
He understood that they were waiting to pick him off from the shadows, when he least expected it.
Like they did with Sister Nkem.
He could still hear her screams each time he closed his eyes, as her soul's essence were hungrily devoured by those things.
His helplessness as he watched his Sister taken from him, and then replaced by a sinister malevolent entity.
That was how they worked.
He shook his head, trying to remove the disturbing thoughts that clouded his mind.
He swallowed hard.
He knew he couldn't stop to think, and he had long since learnt that crying would not fix anything.
Turned back his head, he peered into the distance, reeling at the abysmal chance of his survival.
Dense Oak trees covered the forest for as far as he could see.
Their twisted, gnarled branches, creaking as the wind blew past, seemed all the more eerie.
Billowing in desolation.
"Young.. demigod.. why do.. you.. run"
A rough voice called out from behind, it was dark, and sinister, with an unsettling silence.
Like an owl's hoot.
But it was not a humans voice, it carried the undertone of something purely evil.
The boy ran faster in response, his lips quivering, like the string of a drawn bow.
'They are close'
He put in more effort despite his waning strength, his muscles tensing beneath his young body.
"Don't come" he shouted, "I taste bad"
Yet, another voice spoke up in return.
"Don't be silly.. little Ikem, we .. sure.. you taste... delightful"