Eyes black as coal stared out into the mist in stark contrast to the pale skin that met the cool air. Fingers, long and thin, clutched at the tree branch, long since dead and dried. A dirty, tattered white dress flapped in the breeze, thin with age around bone thin ankles and filthy feet..

The moon rose overhead, filling the foggy area with a suffused glow. All around the girl lay a forest, long since dead from some unknown source. Not even moss lay on the trunks.

The girl stared on, unblinking in her gaze, her head tilted slightly to the side. The man felt his gut wrench as he looked on her, unsure why he felt the unsettling feeling in his bones.

He backed away slowly, regretting his decision to enter this dead land in the first place. The girl held her gaze, unwavering in its intensity, those black orbs threatening to swallow him whole.

He breathed out and turned around, running as fast as he could away from the horrid sight. he looked ahead, only to see the same girl in front of him somehow.

He let out a gasp, looking behind him. The girl had vanished. She now stood in front of him, closer than she had been before. He could now see her greasy, coal black hair.

"What do you want from me?" He demanded.

The girl didn't reply, save to cock her head and continue staring at him with that cold, emotionless gaze.

Further unnerved, he ran back the way he came, only to find it changed. He found himself on the shore of a fetid lake, smelling of rotten fish and sulfur. He gagged at the smell and looked behind him.

The girl stood closer, barely a stone's throw away now. He could see bits of bare skin through the holes in the cloth.

Frantic, he looked back at the lake and back at her. she had gone once again. He closed his eyes, knowing she had moved behind him again somehow.

He opened his eyes, his breath coming in short, frightened gasps. There, standing in the water, a mere arm's length away, stood the pale child.

He noticed something, though. The child... was smiling. And the girl... didn't breath.