Red Night

Episode 2

Diria fervently hoped it would have left the hill before it became thick and almost opaque.

She was alone, and never being so was more terrifying and staggering.

Diria still managed to cover perhaps a few hundred meters when a silhouette appeared in the strange, hateful mist.

At first, she was relieved, for she took the silhouette to be that of someone lost like herself, or who knows, even better, someone who was looking for her.

But soon, to her dismay and horror, this was not the case. It was approaching her fast. And she could see that it was the silhouette of a being that was anything but human.

It was imposing, dark, and the smell it gave off was so nauseating and morbid that the young woman almost fainted from disgust.

She would have liked to step back, turn on her heels and walk away, but she couldn't, and neither could her body.

So she watched, terrified and powerless, as this disgusting, macabre monster approached her. And when he was no more than a dozen meters away, his smell now unbearable, she was hardly surprised at how hideous he was. Hideous and evil.

His clothes, a suit and a long coat, were in an appalling state of disrepair, covering a body in a state of decomposition? He wore a large hat like a necromancer's, and his skinny, half-emaciated face showed his bones, sharp teeth and a bulging yellow gaze, like that of a reptile before its prey, fixed and atrocious.

Diria could easily guess its intentions; indeed, it had stopped before approaching slowly, inexorable, deadly.

Already, it was opening its wide mouth set with sharp teeth capable of shredding any flesh and breaking bones with ease.

And right now, it was her flesh and bones that were about to be shredded, in less than a minute.

This is the end, Diria thought, her mind so clouded with fear and unreality that she didn't know what to do.

But soon, in this situation of mortal danger, her instincts took over.

It spurred her body on and made her limbs work as hard as they could. So Diria stepped back, turned and ran.

Somehow, she knew she'd never make it, but at least she'd have the satisfaction of having done something - a small comfort, but better than nothing.

But more than anything, she was certain that if a miracle was to happen, it would happen in this forest.

It was paradoxical, she agreed, for this indomitable and majestic forest was not the source of all this evil? But perhaps it would also be impartial to all who entered it.

Like the rest of the world, she was unaware of its origins, its intentions and its raison d'être, but at this moment, it represented Diria's last salvation.

But alas for her, the forest was too far away.

But curiously, at a given moment, the monster that had been pursuing her with deliberate slowness to play with her, stopped, all senses on the alert, looking around feverishly, almost fearfully.

Now it was his turn.

She could clearly see that he was straining to break, sniffing the air, piercing the mist with his hunted gaze.

He did so for a long time, giving his prey enough time to reach this incomprehensible and terrifying realm, which was to be her only chance in a world now as red as blood.

However, on reaching the threshold of this abominable territory, she hesitated to continue, trembling like a dead leaf.

But when she felt the macabre presence of her flesh-eating hunter behind her, threatening her with his deadly aura and intentions, she finally decided to enter.

If outside, in this blazing kingdom of twilight, Diria defined it as icy, it was nothing compared to the coldness of the forest.

So cold, in fact, that Diria could only take two steps before falling to her knees, stiff with cold and pain.

She could feel nothing, her whole body so numb and wounded.

Her heart and brain seemed to have ceased functioning, and her breath seemed to have stopped.

She vaguely heard her predator howling with rage and frustration, having also stopped at the threshold, pacing back and forth in front of the place she'd entered, unable to decide to enter as he seemed so terrified.

Diria was so tense that she was unable to make the slightest move, even to turn around and see what the monster had decided.

She soon found out when she saw his gaunt-fingered hands with sharp black claws moving slowly towards her.

He was trying to grab her as he lay on the ground, stretching out as far as he could, but with his feet out, as if that fact had to count for anything.

Diria, realizing that he was going to succeed in his stubborn and enraging maneuvers, gathered up what remained of her strength and swung forward to get out of his reach.

She was thus able to face him, and gave him a look as victorious and reckless as his was hateful and demented.

He should have given up, but apparently that wasn't in his nature, the kind of guy with misplaced pride. The monster howled with rage and leapt to pounce on the young woman.

Diria didn't have time to understand what was going on, because at the very moment her predator began this action, which was probably as stupid as it was insolent and above all reprehensible, everything changed: the place she was in, the forest, the coldness, absolutely everything.

Diria couldn't believe she was now in a place that seemed even larger, with ruddy-red soil and a total desert.

"What is this place now," Diria asked herself, wincing in terror.