It moved slow at first, dragging its feet through the damp ground, its posture severely crooked.
As it drew closer, Ren's stomach twisted. Its skin hung loose over rotting muscle, torn and peeling to expose worn tendons and brittle, yellowed bone. Its mouth sagged open, the jaw barely attached, rotted teeth visible beneath split lips. Where its eyes should have been were empty, only sunken sockets staring blindly ahead.
Yet somehow—
The thing noticed him, its head snapping toward Ren with a sharp, unnatural jerk.
A rasping wheeze rattled from its throat as it moved.
Not with the slow, mindless shuffle of what one could call a 'zombie'.
It speed-walked toward him, its deteriorated limbs jerking around frantically.
The sight of it froze Ren for a moment far too long. Because the corpse lunged before he could move.
Skeletal fingers stretched out to him.
Ren lashed out blindly, his fist connecting with the side of the thing's jaw.
CRACK
The brittle bone shattered on impact.
The entire lower half of its jaw snapped clean off, dangling for a moment before dropping to the ground with a wet thud. Bloodied drool spilled through the gap, splattering the dirt beneath it.
But that didn't stop it. It surged forward, its hands clamping down on Ren's shoulders.
The touch was ice-cold, like flesh left to rot through a long, merciless winter. Its fingers dug deep into him, pressing painfully against his bones, pinning him in place with inhuman strength. Ren gasped as his heartbeat slammed violently against his ribs.
The corpse's head twitched and snapped forward again, as if trying to bite down. With its jaw gone though, all it could do was hiss grotesquely, its blackened tongue dangling uselessly from the ruined mouth.
Ren struggled—and that voice welcomed it. The soft, delicate voice whispered into his mind.
'Just let it take you, little soul...Stop fighting...This is your fate...'
Ren snarled, forcing himself through the haze of fear.
With a desperate surge of strength, he threw his weight backward. The corpse lurched forward, its grip slipping enough—
Just enough.
Ren tore himself free, stumbling backwards as the momentum nearly sent him sprawling.
The corpse recovered, its head snapping toward him.
Panic took over. Ren snatched up a loose rock from the ground and hurled it without thinking. The stone struck the corpse's shoulder, doing little more than staggering it for a split second. He didn't wait to see if it mattered. No, he was smarter than that. He turned to escape.
'Don't run, little soul...It's only a matter of time until you slow down...'
He pushed himself forward, refusing to listen.
Then—
Footsteps, heavy and fast, were closing in.
Something slammed into him from the back, driving him into the ground with bone-jarring force.
The world spun as he tumbled across the dirt, breath knocked out from his lungs.
Before he could recover, it was on him.
That same jawless corpse.
Bony fingers pierced into his wrists like talons, pinning his arms down.
Ren thrashed around, panic surging as he tried—and failed—to break free. He was stuck. Helpless.
That familiar, crushing hopelessness clawed its way up inside, forcing tears from his eyes.
Then the corpses fingers moved, sliding to his sides, scraping across his ribs, digging in as if flesh offered it no resistance at all.
"No—! No! It hurts! Let me go! Stop—stop it!" Ren screamed as pain tore through him.
His vision was blurring, consciousness following just behind.
The voice held him there. Not by his own will—but by its.
'Poor little soul...Give in, the others are waiting...'
Ren refused.
Never the bravest, the fastest, the strongest, or even the smartest.
He understood something quite simple.
There were choices in life—choices you had control over, and choices you didn't.
And this—
'No...'
Rage burst from his chest, blood gushing out from his mouth.
'I've given up my life once. I can breathe...I can breathe...I can't give it up again.'
—was a choice he still had.
With everything he had left, Ren slammed his elbow toward the corpse.
CRACK
The impact was sickening.
The corpse's skull caved inward, its head snapping as its grip faltered.
But Ren didn't hesitate.
He grabbed its shoulders, yanked it toward him, and drove his knee into its chest. The sternum shattered beneath the blow. The corpse collapsed backward, twitching violently against the ground. Ren got to his feet that instant.
He ran until his lungs were about to collapse, until each breath came sharp and shallow.
The rattling wheezes of the corpse faded into nothing behind him.
Still, he didn't stop.
The forest stretched beyond, endless and suffocating.
Until, Ren stumbled forward as the dense forest gave way to an open clearing.
Boots struck uneven stone.
His body trembled from exhaustion, vision swimming as he limped ahead.
Then he saw it...
A structure—ancient and crumbling—half swallowed by the land itself. Broken pillars jutted from the earth, twisted by time and decay. Fragments of walls still stood, defiant against the forest's encroaching grasp. Something he had never seen with his own eyes…A ruin.