Chapter 1
The skies opened to reveal the inky black sky. No moon, no stars, just dark sky and clouds. Beneath the clouds lay a world that was shrouded in a terrifying stillness. People below slept soundly, the lights in their cottages and homes dim at best. But below, in the dark forest, there was a light.
A flame to be more exact, carried by a figure that couldn’t see three inches in front of them but made their way carefully through the forest. The trees creaked at the figure’s entrance into their domain, as if knowing that it didn’t belong here.
The flame was dimmed by the darkness around the world and the figure slowly made their way to a village that slept, unaware of the person that crept towards them.
The boots worn by the figure were thin and worn, the soles waiting to be ripped open at the slightest movement as they had been worn for ages. The figure entered the village, the cold cobblestones turning colder where the figure stepped.
The girl couldn’t figure out what was going on, she was terrified as she sat in her bed and stared at her window. She knew that someone was coming despite there being no footfalls that indicated someone walking.
She was huddled along the wall, her legs pulled to her chest as she shivered. The air grew colder as the figure approached her house and as time passed with the quiet and the darkness growing terrifying, she attempted to convince herself that this was nothing. She was having a bad dream.
After all, it was Bar’En Duel, the darkest night of the year and nightmares must be running rampant. Vampires must be having a festival with the blood of their victims dripping from their mouths. Monsters mixed with the things from nightmares were sure to be conquering the world tonight and the girl would surely hear of it tomorrow.
The figure watched, the lantern being lifted to her window and making her start to quiver in fear.
“Bad dream,” she whispered, closing her eyes and rubbing her eyes, “This must be a dream.”
“Nice try,” a crueler voice said darkly, forcing her to open her eyes and be met with the blood gray eyes of a monster, “I’m no dream. But I’m no nightmare either.”
She suppressed a scream in fear, slapping her hand over her mouth. If she moved, if she screamed, it could very well be her blood that was painting the walls of the cottage that night.
“I’m going to play a game,” the voice said, the monster’s eyes wandering around as the dim light from the lantern hung in the air with a sickening feeling radiating from it.
“W-What kind of game?” the girl asked after a moment of silence that was mixed with dread and fear.
A cruel smile formed in the darkness on the figure’s face, the lantern being drawn closer. “A game with you. And if you lose, you will be destroyed. Your soul will never find its way to the Gods.”
She whimpered in fear, trying not to let out a sob and cry of fear. She had heard of such games, the games that the monsters in the dark played. No one had won the game, no one but one person that had met their untimely end three months ago when they were...thrown from a cliff and burned alive in the lake of fire they landed in.
“You have twenty four hours,” the monster breathed, “Before I come in and I tear everything you ever were apart. Piece by piece.”
Tears were pouring from the girl’s eyes and the monster let out a dark chuckle before finishing, “You have twenty four hours to find me.”
