Fate: Diabolical

A Desperate Chase

She could feel him closing in behind her and although it made no sense, she was sure she could smell his rage. Something reached in the darkness, grasping her by the back of her shirt, throwing her off-balance and sending her staggering to the left. The ground disappeared beneath her as she teetered on the edge of a precipice, hidden in the darkness. She hung perilously for a moment; the grasp on her shirt the only thing stopping her from succumbing to the fall. The friction from the material burned as it tore away from her body, freeing her from his grip but throwing her tumbling headfirst into the darkness below.

She rocked to and fro. Sneaky hidden rocks beneath the snow jabbed at her, nettled branches from nearby tree’s clawed at her, cold snow filled her mouth as she tried to scream. She smashed violently into a tree, her left shoulder flaring up in agony. She heard it ‘pop’ and the scream she had been holding flew from her mouth as she clutched her shoulder and squeezed her eyes, forcing little tears to spring fourth from the corners. Everything was numb, and yet everything still hurt. She tried to pull herself together, but the pain was like nothing she had ever experienced, and it was all-consuming. She forced her gaze to the top of the hill she had just fell from and her scream was sucked back into her throat at the sight of a huge, black beast above her. The creature turned its burning orange eyes on her and somehow, she knew it was her attacker, but she didn’t have time to reason as the embodiment of nightmares leapt from the precipice on four legs, its thick mass blurring into invisibility as it blended with the night sky, only noticeable by the way it distorted the stars. She grabbed the trunk of the tree with her good arm, small splinters embedding themselves into her frosty skin and hauled herself up, frantically throwing herself deeper into the foliage. She half-ran, half-fell into a clearing, well-lit by the moon and the break of trees and her breath was stolen by the sight of hundreds of piercing red, yellow and orange eyes surrounding her, peering out from the shadows in menace. Her fight abandoned her, her body finally gave in, her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she crumpled to the ground.