The cold air scraped against his pale skin, whipping through the tattered edges of his cloak.
His breath came short, but he didn't stop.
The forest wouldn't let him go so easily.
That soft voice crept into his mind, eerie and close.
'Stay.'
'Why run?'
'You'll never make it.'
'Rest.'
Ren squeezed his eyes shut, but the forest persisted—almost amused by his struggle.
When Ren opened his eyes again, the world had changed.
The trees were blurred, their shapes stretching unnaturally as if pulled out by unseen hands. The path ahead of him twisted and collapsed in on itself, folding in at impossible angles. The ground was unstable beneath his feet. He wasn't running forward anymore. He was running nowhere.
No matter how hard he tried to focus, the world bled together.
Forest and sky smeared into a shapeless void. His sense of direction slipped away completely.
Then, as if nothing had happened, the forest reset.
The trees straightened. The path reformed. The world settled back into place.
And that's when he saw a figure lurched in the distance.
It moved slowly at first, dragging its feet through the damp ground, its posture crooked.
As it drew closer, Ren's stomach twisted. Its skin hung loose over rotting muscle, torn and peeling away to expose worn tendons and brittle, yellowed bone. Its mouth sagged open, the jaw barely attached, blackened teeth visible beneath split lips. Where its eyes should have been were empty, only sunken sockets staring blindly ahead.
Yet somehow—
It saw him.
Its head snapped toward Ren with a sharp, unnatural jerk.
And rasping wheeze rattled from its throat.
Then, it moved.
Not with the slow, mindless shuffle of a zombie.
It speed-walked toward him, its deteriorated limbs jerking.
The sight of it froze Ren for a moment too long.
Because the corpse lunged before he could move.
Skeletal fingers stretched out to him, as his instincts finally screamed to move.
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. Blackened 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 the forest welcomed it.
The soft, delicate voice whispered into his mind.
'Just let it take you.'
'Stop fighting.'
'It's 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 back as the momentum nearly sent him sprawling.
The corpse recovered instantly, its head snapping toward him again.
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.
Ren didn't wait to see if it mattered. He turned away to escape.
'Don't run, little soul.'
'It's only a matter of time.'
'You'll slow down eventually.'
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 wildly, 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 fingers moved.
They slid 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 blurring, his consciousness threatening to slip away.
The voice held him there.
Not by his will—but by it.
'Poor little soul.'
'Give in.'
'Join the others.'
Ren refused. He knew wasn't the bravest, the fastest, the strongest, or even the smartest.
But he understood something simple.
That there were choices in life—choices you could control, and choices you couldn't.
And this—
"No!!!"
Rage burst from his chest.
"I've already given up my life once. I won'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 sideways 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 instantly. He ran until his lungs felt ready 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 endlessly, shifting and suffocating. Until suddenly, the trees broke apart.
Ren stumbled forward as the dense forest gave way to an open clearing. His boots struck uneven stone, and the ground beneath him felt solid in a way that the forest never had.
His body trembled from exhaustion. His vision swam 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.