1- Forest
-Would recommend you read this on ao3 because the tags and longer summary there
It felt like I was floating. There was nothing around me but the rushing air and the rapidly passing lights of a cityscape.
Then I realized. I was falling, fast. There was a numbing pain in my chest. It was so warm, yet so cold. It felt like when your foot falls asleep, but worse. I don't know how to describe it, it hurt so bad, but I couldn't feel anything.
I don't know how, but I could tell I was getting close to the ground. Closer, closer, and closer, until there were just a few feet separating my back from the ground, then-
"Liko!"
I jolted up, my sleeping bag shifting as I moved.
"Wake up, Auntie made breakfast!" That was my dad. I wasn't falling. I was in my tent.
With difficulty, I forced my groggy body out of the bag, the warmth of the bag calling out to me, begging me to get back in. Slipping on some warm clothes, I trotted out of the tent.
My little cousins were screaming and chasing each other around, holding sticks vaguely shaped like swords while stabbing each other in the back. My aunties and uncles were huddled around a campfire, fighting the chill of the morning. Jokes and laughter rang out from the group, mixing with the playful squeals of my cousins. Some would call it chaotic or annoying, but to me, it was normal. I had lived my twelve years like this, surrounded by my family.
I joined the group by the fire, grabbing a plate of bacon Auntie Courtney had cooked over the fire. I was content to sit and eat with the group, listening but not quite understanding some of the jokes.
Uncle Chang was laughing as he finishing up a story, "And I said, 'That's not a dumpster!'" He paused, and everybody seemed anticipatory for what he was gonna say. "'That's my car!'" Everyone groaned, and I held in a laugh. Chang was so not funny that it was hilarious, and he knew it.
Even my youngest cousin Ian groaned at him. "You're stupid Uncle Chang!"
But Chang was too busy laughing cackling at his own joke, slamming his hand down on his knee so hard it could have shattered.
By the time the sun had set, everybody had huddled around the campfire. Jokes were told, laughs were had, and everyone was happy.
A tap on my shoulder alerted me to my father behind me. "Hey." He said, voice as soft as the breeze that ruffled the trees, "Follow me, there is something important to say to you." He wasn't the greatest with English, having immigrated here from Vietnam a few years before having me, but he was always so easy to understand, he barely needed words to communicate.
He loved me, and I always knew that. He was open with his emotions.
I followed him as he led me to a tree a bit away from the campfire.
"Liko," He said, "I need to tell you about your mother."
That really caught my attention. I had never met my mother, and didn't even know her name. Dad never spoke about her, but he didn't seem angry that she had left. He told me it wasn't important, so I let it go.
"Why?"
He sighed, a bit sad, though I didn't know why. "You are almost at the age she warned me of."
"The age?" I asked, "What does that mean?"
He ignored me. "Your mother," He continued, "She is a goddess."
"You wanted to tell me mom is pretty?" I guess that's where I got it from. My aunts and the girls at school always said I was "pretty" I didn't let it all go to my head, but it was something I took pride in.
"No no no." He tutted out, "A goddess." He raised his arms to the sky, palms upwards, "A goddess," his voice grew breathy, "of the heavens."
"What are you-"
He cut me off, grabbing a bronze knife from his pocket, "She said," he laid it down in my hand, wrapping my fingers around the handle, "to give you this."
"Dad," I looked at the knife in my hand and back up to him, "you're confusing me"
A scream made me whip my head back to the camp, then back to my father.
It happened too fast. One second, he was standing there, a sad look on his face, and the next, he was on the floor.
Some abomination of a dog was on top of him, tearing his throat out.
I froze, my body going numb. My fist clenched around the hilt of the little knife, tightening to the point it hurt. Then I ran. I ran like a coward.
I ran until I saw the light of our campfire, mouth open to scream. Scream what, I don't know, I just wanted to cry.
The same dogs were at the site- nearly a dozen of them. The bodies of my family were strewn about, guts hanging loose and limbs mangled. I could barely recognize them. I tried to breathe, but I couldn't, my lungs and throat desperately sucked for air, but I wasn't breathing.
I felt it before I saw it, a dark blur slamming into me. My back exploded in pain as I was thrown to the floor. I felt claws tear into my chest and a wet feeling spread across my body as my torso cracked under the weight. I felt so many things I never knew a person could feel, but my body just wouldn't do anything.
Slowly, torturously, the dog opened its drooling maw and clamped it over my head. I could feel the right side of my face crack and break. Shards of my shattered bones tore through my skin. My jaw screamed in agony as it crumpled under the dog's bite.
I screamed, wet and horrible. I couldn't think. I was going to die. 'I don't wanna die!' My fingers twitched, and blood flowed into my mouth, turning my screams into gargles, 'Please! I don't wanna die!'
I swung my arm as hard as I could, the knife my father gave me stabbing into the beast. A terrible red leaked from where I had hit it, right in the stomach, but it merely shuddered and continued lazily gnawing on my head as if it were a dog toy.
I forced my arms to move, each movement sending agonizing pain down my spine. I ripped the knife out of the dog's stomach, the squelch of it coming out followed by even more of its blood gushing out.
I stabbed it.
Shink!
I pulled it out.
Squelch!
I stabbed it.
Shink!
I pulled it out.
I kept stabbing and stabbing and stabbing and stabbing and stabbing until finally-
The dog shuddered, and just before it fell on top of me, it was replaced by a cloud of gold dust.
"They were over here!"
"The trail leads this way!"
"Lieutenant!"
I don't know how long I had been lying there, staring into the sky, but the sun had come back up, it hurt my eyes.
I could barely think, the only thing I knew was pain. My face hurt, my arms hurt, my chest hurt, everything hurt so much.
I could feel my own blood pooling beneath me, a warmth cradling my body, trying to lull me into sleep.
But there were people here, I could hear them. They would help me. I screamed, but my throat wouldn't make noise. I yelled, but my mouth wouldn't comply. I whispered, and it came out as a weak gurgle.
"Lieutenant!" Somebody yelled. It sounded so very loud, but at the same time like a mouse screaming for help amongst a massive crowd. "This one's alive!"
I felt my chest lurch and shudder, and could feel my lungs collapsing on themselves. Just as I was about to close my eyes, something brown entered my blurry vision.
"I see." It sounded like a girl, around my age maybe, but they spoke like a grumpy adult. She sighed, and began to do something with whatever was in her hand.
I forced myself to swallow the blood stuck in my throat and speak. "Please," She stopped, frozen. "Help-" Blood forced its way back into my throat, and I ejected it from my mouth. "Me."
She didn't speak, and though I could hardly see anything, I knew she was staring at me. "Forgive me." She said, somber. "But this is for the best. I shall not prolong thy suffering."
A stream of adrenaline hit me, making my body work just a little bit better. My eyes cleared up just enough to see a girl with brown hair and sad, dark eyes gazing down at me. "Please," I gargled out, "I don't wanna die." My voice got high as tears escaped my eyes. "Please."
"Tis my fault this occurred in the first place." She pulled an arrow out of a quiver. "We were pursuing a horde of hellhounds," She nocked the arrow, "and accidentally herded them to thou." She pulled the string taut.
"Please," I begged, my jaw aching and throat filling up with my own blood, "I don't wanna die. I don't wanna die." I tried to raise my arms, to do anything. "Please."
Her grip around the bow wavered. Her jaw clenched and she swallowed hard.
"Thou shall find peace in Elysium."
Time almost slowed as she let go of the string. I could see the arrow flying through the air, headed straight for me. I felt as the tip pierced my right eye, bursting it open. I screamed as hard as I could, but all that came out was a raspy exhale. Then-
Nothing.
There were pins and needles all over my body. There was molten lava being poured into my face, injected in my lungs, spread across my chest like lava. I couldn't feel anything from my left arm.
I brought my other arm up to my face. I squeezed where the right side of my face should have been, and felt something squishy, wet, and morbidly warm. I had felt this before, when I and my cousins had found a dead squirrel on the road. It was flesh. Just flesh. No bones, just flesh.
I realized I hadn't breathed since I had woken up and forced myself to swallow the dirtied air. It felt like I was drinking thousands of glass shards. My lungs burnt at the feeling of air, a cold pain blooming in my chest.
I forced myself to keep breathing. Everything felt so cold and numb to the point of being incredibly hot and painful. I had to deal with it, I refused to stop breathing, and though the call of sleep was so alluring to me, I knew I would never wake up.
I tried to look around, and a scream forced its way through my lungs.
My eyes screamed in pain. I brought my hand up to my eye, feeling something sticking out of it. I tore it out without thinking.
All I saw was black. The pain, it hurt so much. I hated it. I hated it so much! I was angry! I don't even know why. But I was so angry.
I sat up. snapping what was apparently an arrow in half and hurling it into the forest. My head hurt. Why did my head hurt?
I found myself walking around the forest in a haze. Every little thing felt so painful, but it felt like I could barely feel it.
I tripped and fell, forcing myself back up every time with stiff, difficult movements. This was probably the direction of our campsite, but all the trees blended in with each other until I didn't even know if I was even moving anymore.
The sun had begun to set, the forest around me dimming, and the brown trees turning into massive, shadowy towers surrounding me from all sides.
'I don't think this is the direction of the campsite.'
Left.
Right.
Left.
Right.
I didn't even know why I was walking. We had been camping in some forest in Indiana, there was nothing around for miles.
Left.
I was going to die.
Right.
If it wasn't from hunger-
Left.
It would be thirst.
Right.
If it wasn't thirst-
Left.
I stopped. And I looked down at what remained of my left arm. Looking past the protruding bone and missing finger, there was something else wrong with it. A viscous, green pus leaked out of sores scattered across the whole thing, dripping down my arm.
I don't know how long I had laid there after I had been shot, but it had been long enough for something nasty to settle in, and I was smart enough to know how bad that was. It would probably spread to the rest of my body and kill me soon enough.
I leaned against a tree and slid down until my bottom hit the ground. There was nothing I could do.
I had sat by that tree for three days. It didn't hurt that bad, and my head was too foggy to truly think about what was happening, it was like I was taking a nice, long nap. It felt nice.
My whole arm had become green, a raging spider web growing under my skin that nearly reached my shoulder. I felt bad for the animal that would eat my dead body, as it would likely inherit the infection.
I looked up at the bright sky, hesitating before calling out.
"Mom?" My voice hardly sounded human, days of not being used and missing half your jaw does that. "Is it true? Are you a god?"
If anyone could see me, it'd seem like a madman losing it in his final moments. Covered in filth and grime, I reached a hand to the sky.
"Help," I begged, "Please help me Mommy." A tear streaked down my face, and for the first time since I awoke, I cried, a disgusting, ugly sound.
I sat there for another day before the pain started truly reaching me. There was no more numbness, my arm felt like someone had taken a knife to it and begun carving off the skin. My face felt like it had been painfully picked apart and eaten by men dining with fancy steak knives and forks, the flesh torn and raw.
She had not helped me. There had been no golden chariot coming down from the heavens to save me, no helper sent by the gods. Somehow, the thought of my father lying to me angered me more than the possibility that she was real and had simply chosen to ignore me.
Something rushed through my body, and I could feel my body move for the first time in days. My fingers twitched, and my legs tensed. Slowly, painfully, I slid my back up the tree until I was fully standing, my legs wobbling and shaking. A weak noise escaped my lips as I used my arm to push myself off the tree. Stumbling once, I managed to find my balance.
I had no idea where I was, no idea what was happening, but I wanted to live. So I walked.
My throat ached, my face burned, and I could hardly feel my arm anymore. The sun had set, leaving me in darkness. I could hear small creatures scuttling around in the dense foliage I walked through. Well, I hoped they were small.
Water. I needed water. And food, but my throat was so tight I didn't even know if I could swallow anything.
I had no clue on how to find water or food. So I kept walking.
IT BURNED.
My whole left arm felt like worms were burrowing into it and feasting on my bones. It was so covered in pus it looked like that was just the color of my skin. It was creeping up my arm, reaching the shoulder. It was going to kill me, I could already feel my whole body reaching an unnaturally high temperature.
I stumbled, falling to my knees and clutching my arm.
"Please," I pleaded through a painfully tight throat, "Please help me Mommy." Tears rolled down my face, stinging the exposed flesh.
I waited, eyes towards the heavens. Nothing happened.
My fingers dug into the hilt of the knife my father had given me as a sob racked through me. "Please!"
A breath got stuck in my throat as my eyes lowered themselves to the infected arm. Bringing the knife to my shoulder, I could feel what was left of my jaw locking up, slicing through my tongue.
As the knife dug into my shoulder, I screamed.
My head throbbed with a searing pain, each pulse sending shockwaves through my skull.
Where was I?
Instinctively, I lifted my hand to touch my face, trying to understand why it hurt so much.
Why does my head hurt?
As my fingers grazed hot, wet flesh and jagged fragments of bone, a surge of confusion hit me.
I blinked, attempting to clear the fog in my mind.
Oh yeah. I was walking.
But something was off. I looked down, expecting to see my left hand. There was nothing. No hand. No arm. Just an empty space where it should have been.
Oh.
My feet kept moving on their own as my mind grew fuzzy. I hated this forest.
I could hear something. Very faintly. It could very well have been the sound of my own body falling apart, it would make sense after walking nonstop for nearly a week. It sounded like the honking of cars and the yelling of people.
As I grew closer to the sound, I began to smell something, something dull and disgusting. Smog and car exhaust. I nearly broke out into a sprint before I stumbled and was forced to slow down.
The city was massive. Skyscrapers and businesses lined the streets, cars ran along the streets, and the sidewalk was littered with people. And yet… No one helped me. Trying to call out for help, my throat closed up and didn't work. I tugged on a man's sleeve with my arm, and he shoved me off, glaring at me like I was a dirty rat who had gotten into his pantry.
As I stood there, in the sea of people, I could feel myself dying. So I did the only thing I knew I could, I kept walking, as I had done over and over again.
As I stumbled and collapsed on the floor in front of a massive, ornate brick building, I felt my eyes close, and allowed myself to fall asleep.
-AN
-If your from another one of my stories I cant even promise to update anymore idk man
-I really like the idea I have for this story but idk if ill be able to pull it off.
- Im trying a more snappy and more horror-y (I know im not very good at it) writing style
- I dont wanna make a happy story so its not gonna be happy and fluffy, and I dont mean theres only gonna be a little fluff, I mean for the 60k words I have planned for this theres gonna be like 2 happy scenes
-Really fucking obvious forshadowing and but also some really subtle stuff that im proud of :DDD
- If youve seen attack on titan thats the kinda vibe I want for this
- Also this will NOT be some corny ass "op gary sue" character written by some dumbass 13 year old, I wanna make a well written character
-Ive had the idea for this fuckig story developing in my head for months and I need to get it outttt
- Love you :3