The scent of smoke and burning flesh, nipped at her nostrils, as she stood alone in a home. A blue book lay open on the ground, it gradually began to join the flaming foundation of the wooden cabin, along with the rest of the furniture. A Lovely blue couch blackened, inked pictures melted away. The visored knight stood in the center, snapping her head toward what sounded like multiple springs breaking away from something. Right... The house was burning down. Caught in an odd trance, the armored figure staggered out. She freed her lungs of the burning toxicity. Now to figure out what was going on. Out into the crisp, cold air of what was once, a cozy little snow town, she watched as figures of many shapes ran in panic. They were running from-... Strings? Glowing, blue strings? But who-... Something wasn't right here. This whole scene wasn't right! None of it made any sense. The strings on the ground, covered the whole town, they draped over the colorfully decorated trees. It took a doubled glance to not mistake those unfitful tendons for Christmas decorations.

Suddenly, as if they responded to her presence, the odd, glowing abominations leapt up.

The panicked knight narrowly escaped the tendrils, and bolted away. She had the urge, that someone... or something was around, watching her. She regretted looking up at the sky, it seemed to be... warping? No... Digitizing, pixilated, just all around collapsing into itself! The knight turned, when there was a noisy thunk onto a building marked library. When she looked over, she missed who it was. But, there was something else that caught her attention. Three much smaller creatures scattered, running off into what now looked like a burning library. What, why were they going in there?! Did they not see the fire? It was a library! Filled mostly with dusty tomes and surface books. Usually, those are flammable! When the knight spoke, words refused to leave her tongue, forcing her to make a snap decision and run inside of the building.

The library was empty. All but the the crackling of glass and flickering of oranges lay before her. The tall bookshelves that once had her favorite book series crumbled. But that didn't matter, where did the children go? In a vain attempt to keep oxygen, the knight pulled out a rag, and held it up to the rounded visor hiding her face, where the mouth should be in particular. The lack of air was weighing down on her by now, and as she trotted deeper inside of the fiery trap... She started to feel... hopeless?...

Why

Did

It

Feel

So...

...

Hopeless

The knight reached the other end of the library. But no one else was there... What? She had just seen them come in! ...Had they been wiped out so quickly? The knight felt a shiver run down her spine. Now she really had the feeling someone was watching... Turning slowly, the knight saw the three small figures in the air, ensnared by those same glowing, blue strings. A pair of red and yellow orbs appeared from another set of giant bookshelves, followed by an inverted black body, lounging Casually. It was as if she were staring in the eyes of some psycho! Their skeletal hands shifted lazily, and those same blue strings suddenly appeared to be laced all around, like a web. Another pull, and a sickening crack pulled three figures into view. The knight lunged up to save the children.

s... t o o - l a t e...

The three victims exploded into glittering dust, and fluttered away...