The world around me is growing chaos as I chase the blur of a shadow that I’m not even sure exists anymore. The twigs and branches snapping beneath me as I continue onward with darkness and rain filling my vision. I need to find them. I need to know who these eyes belong to. The thorns of unkept land are constantly piercing and tearing at my skin as I sprint throughout the entirety of the muck. The bursts of lightning being my only indication of where I’m going.

However, after god knows how long, I’m met face to face with the ground as the world around becomes twisted. I struggle to get back up as I look for any signs of the figure... Nothing. I can no longer differentiate between North and South from East and West. Everything begins colliding with each other and I can longer remember where I even came from. I take a gamble and dash towards the trail with less debris and begin growing uncertain that I had even seen the eyes, to begin with. I can barely hear my thoughts over the roaring of the storm around me and as if on cue, a burst of lightning strikes a nearby tree.

Not again, I can’t let this happen-! Memories begin resurfacing as my sprinting continues. Memories that I’m determined to stay dead. The feeling of ash filling my lungs causes me to collapse, seeing nothing but the world around twisting and crumbling everything I had ever known. My visions grow dark and I can feel the wisps of fire itching towards me, determined to bite at my unconscious body like some sort of trophy. The unknown pulling at my life like a threaded needle. I’m brought to reality as I am brought to the side a cliff. A cliff? But, that's miles out from the village as far as I’m aware, there isn't any kind of hills or cliffs near the village within a seven-mile radius.

My thoughts are dismissed as I continue running, it would take a miracle to find at least shelter at this point. I have practically given up on finding the figure, at this point, it was probably my hallucinations. My head is pounding as I turn left, then right, then...left? God who knows where I’m even going at this point.

I’m beginning to slow down from sheer exhaustion when I see a dark figure from the corner of my eye rise. My hope soon turns to unfiltered terror as I’m finally able to see the creature’s face… A Nightmare……

I’m frozen solid as the creature looks me from head to toe, it’s undead eyes bulging from its skin strained skull, It’s mouth hung open with saliva and blood coursing down the side of its chin, It begins to shamble its airtight body towards my direction, the pure terror of it all not sinking in as adrenaline quite yet. However, just before it begins to swing at me in immeasurable speeds, I finally come back to my senses and force my aching limbs to move at a top sprint in fear of my life ending here. I can’t describe the unrelenting sound of how the creature shrieks with an almost wailing cry like someone had just murdered their loved ones right in front of them.

It is a creature that no longer loves, a creature that no longer cares for its own life or for the lives of those it comes into contact with. It is no longer able to feel, and it is the true embodiment of pure unfiltered evil. The pure image of our now tainted world and what it has become. Many have theories as to what these creatures are, some speculate that they are the tortured souls of the recent Padoram invasion, or the souls of those from the old world. My mother used to tell me stories about the old world that had been passed down in our family for years. A world where technology flourished- whatever that was. The world almost seemed...impossible.

I could never believe my mother’s words about auto-mated machines that did most of humanity’s work for them, now humanity must survive by sheer strength. Only the strongest survive. However, after many wars and plagues, creatures - now referred to as Nightmares - began picking off the weak and families who traveled would find their mutilated loved ones in abandoned apartment buildings. Most of the old world is gone and no longer has any remnants, however, there is still the old church or even winery that travelers and traders talk about.

Now, as I am running for my life from the creature that is most likely responsible for hundreds of other’s demise, I can longer doubt my late mother’s words. The tearing of trees and the agonizing shrieks of what was once human fuels my adrenaline and just as I feel as though I’m finally free… I’m falling down the edge of a ravine from about a 30ft drop.

I land on my back as pain immediately courses through me and my limbs go numb. My vision is mucked by rain and mud. An all too familiar feeling blossoms a tight pain in my chest as tears prick the ends of my eyes.

The day of their funeral, a day I would never forget. Both mother and father were buried together, and just as things couldn't get worse, I was orphaned as both of my parents were deceased. I don’t know where my brothers were or are. However, my oldest brother Theo would come back to the village and spend most of the time with me as I was the last of his family. He would teach me to defend myself and would take care of me when I was sick. He taught me many survival instincts that would be so useful right now if I wasn’t a pre-dead body waiting for its mutilation.

Theo was supposed to return to the village soon, what would he do once he finds out I’m missing, let alone dead? Would he do everything in his power to find out the truth? Or would he continue on with his life? I wouldn't mind if it would be the ladder.

I’m fading in and out of consciousness as I feel a warm, metallic liquid fill my mouth and trickle down my face. I watch in desperate horror as the Nightmare has difficulty finding me through the rain and mud that was somehow able to mask the scent of blood. About ten-agonizingly long minutes later, it decides it’s no longer worth the undead creature’s time and decides to scramble away with its bones clanking together like branches.

I begin to hear footsteps followed soon by a muffled voice. I assume it’s that of a higher power damning me to hell as I was never one for religion and that most of the priests in the village would scream that at you if you didn’t believe. Except, when I open my eyes I swore I could feel a tender touch feeling my forehead and tilting my head to allow the blood and water to spill out like a river. The Voice sounded warm and it felt like a drug at that point. When I looked up..there I saw that pair of beautifully familiar eyes looking straight down at me. The eyes that had led me out here in the first place. They were emerald green seemingly glowing amongst the night. A beauty I hope to find again.

And As quickly as I woke..my world went dark.