Yantober

Feet ran through the forest. 

Darkness and eerily quiet except for the crashing of brush and snapping of branches as you ran through the dark forest. 

How did this happen?! How did it come to this?! Being chased by a monster in the middle of the night.  It had started when you had awoken to screams and horrible noises coming through your window. Jolting awake from fear, you made the mistake of rushing to your window to see what was going on. That was your first mistake. Your f/c eyes widened at the sights of homes on fire their insides flickering in the nights as people screamed ran through the streets in fear. Women shrieked. Mothers clutched their children. Men shouted some brandishing makeshift weapons. What was going on? A small woman shrieked running right past your window making you flinch hard looking down instinctively. A young woman ran past clutching her nightgown up in her hands to help her run.

Right behind her cackling was some kind of shirtless man clutching a..fan?? He was so fast you barely saw him but you definitely heard his voice. "I love when they play hard to get!!~"

You could only watch as they ran around the side of your house disappearing. You stood there stunned watching as villagers ran around the chaos. Until you made your second mistake. You looked far right and noticed something off. The crowd of your neighbors ran around wildly, but there was one person who wasn't. A man in blue walked calmly through the crowd, clutching a spear in one had. You noticed him because of how out of place his casualness was..That was until he paused in the crowd. Seeming to sense your eyes, he slowly turned around and up. F/c eyes locked onto deadly blue eyes as you could finally see the entirety of his face, and the two horns protruding from his forehead.

Demon.

Fear spiked through your body, body acting on it's own as you instantly slammed the shutters shut closing them and stepping back to breath hard. Demon. THAT WAS A DEMON!! What was a demon doing in your town?! Was it just him or their more!? Was he the cause of this?! You didn't have time to think about that. Every fiber of your body was telling you to run. So you did. You ran quickly down the stairs intending to vanish through the front door and make a break for the woods to hide until you could come back or get farther to safety. However you didn't even make it halfway through your kitchen when a force so powerful from outside rammed into the door so hard the thick wood instantly cracked from under the pressure.

You shrieked. 

Your scream was like a beacon for all the fear in the world, diving towards the voice that emanated from the vocal cords and through your open mouth all that raw human fear went, striking everywhere in your body and mind. Your body froze. As if your very muscles were frigid with ice from the inside out, painfully still. The sound shrilling out of your throat, pushed forward by the force of the air from your lungs, echoed throughout the night. A sound that could shatter glass and make even a deaf person cringe from the eardrum shattering sound. In the moment you did the only thing you could do. Make a run for the back door as the door was completely kicked off it's hinges sending splintered pieces of wood across your floors.

Every runner knows that the first warning sign of danger is a sense of dread, a feeling of impending doom. You are about to run away from a monster. But how do you prepare for this? Y/n had always hated dark forest with its lumbering tall trees. It was a place where she felt fear. The dark teased like taunting bullies, each sway of a branch creaking it's maniacal glee and every whistle the wind whipped by your ears whistled their sick pleasure in watching her panicked state of mind. SLAP, SLAP, SLAP!! Went the sounds of her feet against the black ground and curling tree roots, like spiderwebs under her feet, ready to snag her and make her join the abyss any moment. The darkness caged you in with the mockery of noises, a canopy of night shrouding the way out. But for now you only knew one thing.

RUN.

Your body felt light, only being able to feel every time your feet slapped against the ground which would surely be sore later, but you didn't care. You could be hurting for the next ten years for all you cared! Please gods just let you get away! Your eyes darted around for any signs of escape only being shown endless darkness instead. Your arms were partially extended in front of you, to push and swipe down any bush, branches, and other plants in your way as you ran. Stumbling and half tripping over large tree roots and clumps of grass in your wake, but still making good distance. Until the burning in your lungs threatened to make you drop, and you were forced to start slowly down step by step until you were hugging the side of a tree for life, your arms desperately gripping the rough bark until the imprints were deep in your palm and your knuckles were deep white, forcing your body to step around the tree until you reached it's front and you hid yourself behind it from the direction you just ran from. Your back hit the hard tree and your head tilted towards the heavens, hands clutching your pounding heart. And there was silence other than the mockery of wind and branch creaks. Your throat and lungs were on fire. Your heart pounded almost painfully in your chest. And you did not dare move in fear of seeing that-...that-....MONSTER somewhere behind you.

You stood there, shaking harder than a tree in a tsunami in dead of winter. Other than the gasps of air your body forced you to make, you dared not make a sound. Not a noise. The whole time you stayed perfectly still as ever so slowly your heart rate decreased the longer the silence went on and the longer nothing appeared. Slowly your lungs and throat's fire extinguished with the help of the cold wind you swallowed, and what was left behind was just a dull soreness. The rapid beating of your heart calmed slowly until it was just a little above what it would normally be beating. Your eyes slowly regained focus from the sheer panic. And your body calmed down but not your mind. Your mind still raced in fear from what you just saw and you stared straight up at the creaking branches of the tree you hid behind. The panic still clear and making you do nothing but listen in anticipation, like a rabbit hiding from a pursuing fox. But still...nothing but silence. And when your eyes slowly looked to the right and your face followed until your cheek and side of the face was pressed against the rough tree bark awaiting for any sounds, but nothing still came.

It was a stupid decision...A bad one really but-..

You slowly scraped your back against the back of the tree slowly inching your way to the side of the tree, and ever so slowly, poked your head out. Not all the way. Just enough to look out at the direction you ran from and saw...nothing. Nothing but darkness and trees. And that made you pause. There was...nothing? Nothing at all? Slowly you pushed your head fully out to see better, and took your time grazing your eyesight around the darkness, straining your eyes in the limited light that seeped between the leaves and branches. Quietly listening for anything running after you, but still nothing came. ...You-..You must've lost whatever that was. You exhaled a shaky sigh of relief and slumped back against the tree. Eyes closing as a wave of relief washed over your tired body. That was until you opened your eyes. And shrieked again.

The scream was cut off as a cold, clawed hand was slammed into your mouth. The force made your head and right wrist he gripped, painfully hit back against the rough bark of the tree which would surely leave a goose egg and some scratches later. Your muffled scream rang out as you stared into the eyes of the demon, who had indeed turned out to give chase, as he stared at your instant struggling. Free hand pulling against the arm that pushed against your head, and in a final panicked attempt to get away, you kicked your legs out. You struck the demon in various places your legs could reach, but you might as well have been kicking a brick wall. He didn't even flinch at any hits you gave him no matter how hard you tried, it only seemed to make him grip harder.

"Stop struggling," he spoke so casually to you, "Your fear is making me sad."

"Let me go!!," you shrieked behind his hand as you pushed at him and kicked him to no avail but your voice was completely muffled.

"Please don't act like this. It'll only make it more difficult for us in the long run." He leaned forward causing you to tense up at his sudden closeness. "You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. I knew from the moment I saw you that we were meant to be together."