Episode 3: Cold

“Mom!!” Ven screams in a panic.

He bends down toward her and cradles her head in his arms. Blood pours from her mout,h and she is covered in scratches and blood so dark that it resembles crude oil.

“V....Ven,” she struggles to whisper. Ven’s hands tighten at the sound of her voice.  “I’m here! I’m here,” he shrieks, tears streaming down his flushed face. “Who did this to you?!”

“I- I don’t have much time,” she strains. “Listen to me.”  She coughs up blood.  “I need you to run. Go to the forest. He will come for you there.”

“The forest? He?! Mom! What are you saying? We need to get you to the hospital!” Ven screams. 

He attempts to lift her, but she places her hand on his shoulder, urging him to stop. Auroa reaches for her neck with bloodied fingers and pulls on her skin. "Shafta!" she shouts.

Suddenly, a diamond-shaped necklace with a glowing red gem appears in her hand.  She takes Ven’s hand and places the necklace into it.

Then she suddenly changes.

Her hair turns completely gray, and she becomes very frail, as if she has aged fifty years in an instant. Wrinkles spread across her face and hands. She no longer resembles the beautiful middle-aged looking woman Ven had always known, but instead looks like an elderly woman who has aged gracefully over time.

Ven stares at her in awe.

“Go,” she says. “I love you....my son.” She takes one more deep breath, and then her body vanishes into thin air.

Ven stares at the spot that his mother had been only moments before, finding nothing but the blood she spilled. 

He quickly snaps out of shock when he feels a cold breeze brushing past him. 

He looks behind him.

Nothing. 

He looks up.

 A black, shadow-like creature stares back at him. 

It smiles a sinister smile before letting out an ear- piercing, screech, revealing jagged, bloodied-teeth. 

It leaps toward Ven, but he rolls out of the way just in time, narrowly avoiding the creature's deadly attack.

He quickly gets to his feet, slips the necklace around his neck, and bolts toward the forest, replaying his mother's final words to him over and over in his head. He dashes through the streets in his bloodied clothes, drawing the attention of concerned citizens, before reaching the park that leads into the forest. Without slowing down, he hops the fence.

*Where am I supposed to go from here?!*

He glances back and his heart drops. There isn't just one creature chasing him.

There are five!

Each one is eager to tear him to shreds, and they're right on his tail.

 Ven pushes himself even harder, desperately trying to outrun them, but his hope of escaping vanishes when his foot catches a rock. 

He tumbles to the ground hard. 

He rolls onto his back and he looks up just as the creatures leap toward him.

Their terrifying, ear-piercing screeches fill the air.

Their jagged teeth glisten as they prepare to tear into his flesh.

Accepting his fate, Ven screams and squeezes his eyes shut.