What crawled out
714 Words
Chapter 2:
Darkness should have been the end.
Instead...
It became the beginning.
Silence surrounded me.
Not the peaceful kind. The kind that pressed against my ears until I could hear my own thoughts screaming.
I couldn't breathe.
Then I realized...
I didn't need to.
My eyes flew open.
There was no sky above me.
Only damp earth.
Twisted roots stretched through the soil like skeletal fingers. Tiny insects crawled across my face, but I felt nothing. No fear. No disgust.
Only hunger.
A whisper drifted through the darkness.
Wake up
They left you...
Make them remember.
I tried to scream.
Dirt rushed into my mouth.
My fingers twitched.
I clawed upward.
The soil refused to move.
Again.
Again.
Again.
My fingernails cracked. Warm blood seeped into the dirt, yet I couldn't stop.
The whisper returned, softer this time.
Dig.
Something inside me answered.
A strength that wasn't mine surged through my body. Every handful of earth suddenly felt lighter.
The darkness above me broke apart.
Cold night air rushed into my lungs...
Except I still wasn't breathing.
With one final push, I burst out of the grave.
I collapsed onto the wet ground, coughing out dirt that should have suffocated me days ago.
The Blood Moon still hung overhead, bathing the forest in crimson light.
Three days had passed.
At least, that's what they had wanted.
I slowly lifted my trembling hands.
The skin was pale.
Black veins spread across my wrists like ink beneath glass.
My fingernails were broken, stained with dried blood and mud.
My body looked alive.
It didn't feel alive.
The forest was unnaturally silent.
No crickets.
No owls.
Not even the wind dared to move.
Then
A pair of glowing golden eyes appeared between the trees.
Another.
Then another.
Six wolves stepped from the shadows.
The largest growled low in its throat, its silver fur glistening beneath the moonlight.
Every instinct told me to run.
Instead.
I stared back.
The growl stopped.
The wolf slowly lowered its head.
One by one, the others followed.
Not in fear.
In respect.
Or perhaps...
Recognition.
A chill crawled through me.
What... am I?
The answer came from somewhere deep inside.
Not alive.
Not dead.
Chosen.
I stumbled backward.
No..
My voice echoed strangely.
It sounded like two voices speaking at once.
Mine.
And someone else's.
Before I could understand what was happening, a loud flutter filled the air.
Hundreds of crows descended from the darkness.
They circled above me, their cries piercing the silent forest.
One landed on the crooked wooden cross above my grave.
Its black eyes met mine.
A single thought entered my mind.
Go home.
The memories came crashing back.
Daniel's smile.
Maya's laughter.
The cabin.
The shovel.
The crushing weight of dirt pressing against my chest.
The moment I begged.
The moment they walked away.
Tears slipped down my cheeks.
They were ice cold.
I loved them...
The whisper answered without mercy.
Not anymore.
A sharp pain exploded inside my head.
For a split second, I saw Daniel.
Alive.
Comfortable.
Laughing inside my apartment.
Holding a glass of wine as though nothing had happened.
As though I had never existed.
Rage flooded every part of me.
The earth beneath my feet trembled.
The wolves disappeared into the trees.
The crows burst into the night sky.
Without warning, the branches ahead slowly bent aside, forming a narrow path through the forest.
Leading toward the city.
Leading.
To him.
I glanced back at the shallow grave they had left me in.
The loose soil was already settling, swallowing every trace of my death.
Almost every trace.
Something glittered beneath the moonlight.
A silver necklace.
Daniel had given it to me on our second anniversary.
Forever,he had whispered as he fastened it around my neck.
My shaking fingers picked it up.
The moment I closed my hand around it...
The chain crumbled into black ash.
I watched the ashes drift away on the wind.
So this...
My voice was barely a whisper.
is what forever looks like.
I turned toward the city.
Toward the people who had stolen everything from me.
The moon cast my shadow across the forest floor.
But for a brief moment
There were two shadows walking beside each other.
One belonged to me
The other smiled.
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