Dark shadows stretched too long across the ground, the hair covering it swaying with every little breeze brown and dirty.
Still so many trees in just the inner circle to be a tiny forest of its own, each one gray harsh and dead.
Blood dropped down fom it's branched slow and drowning, each tree bearing many drops.
I ran through the trees as fast as I could sweat droplets hit the ground behind me, and my hair swaying with a chaotic rhythm.
My chest rose and clenched every second with each ragged breath, the silence torn by hoarse breaths and swift footsteps.
My vision blurred as I got closer to the Center, 'Weird... no guards closer to the center? Oh! Oh shit right, there is that guy with a skull mask. He managed to get me to fall down with a glance... or wait, was it his gaze or just the borders of his territory?'
I glanced at my gloved hand and then huffed before returning my attention forward.
'If I remember correctly the borders of its territory is why I fell unconscious.'
'... What is that?!'
A few trees away is an unnaturally weird tree, the tree trunk torn on multiple parts by petrified hands protruding from it as if trying to get freed from that same tree.
The hands looked almost like just bone and skin sapped of life, with barely any flesh between the skin and bones.
This particular tree bled the most.
My hand moved on my forehead to wipe the sweat as I panted, I was tired and now? I think I'm feeling rather anxious.
I took another step then another then another, then I was running, the abominable tree swiped by as I continued forward.
I could already see one more here and one there, far in between but as I get closer to the Center I'll probably get to see more of these trees frequently.
As I got closer to the Center I felt a shiver run down my bones, not from any specific direction but from every direction.
I pressed my back against at tree as quickly as I could panting loudly, as I kept looking around for whatever cause me this jump-scare.
'Nothing? Not həre either and not there... shit.'
I couldn't see it but a silent cold pressure was just growing more uncomfortable, I could feel it like cold water.
'That's... him?!'
From between the trees far in the distance I could see the figure with the skull on its head.
He was walking around looking for something or someone, it hit me like a wave and I suddenly felt dizzy.
My knees almost buckled as sweat rolled down my face and falling down onto the 'hair' like dripping leaks.
'I must run!!'
I turned around and forced my feet forward against their defiance, it felt like pushing a car.
I took a step barely then I managed another one, taking a deep breath I forced myself to take two more steps.
Then I took a few more steps each one draining, but I pushed forward.
'I have to reach the Center I have to break the seal... but what if that psycho got there before I break the seal? He'd be able to kill me.'
It's another way to go to the underworld but not a pleasant one, not to mention the complications and the convenience.
Even if I got to the underworld as a soul there is no telling what I'd be subject to, or if the lord of the underworld would even send me back to my world as a spirit I might veey much gain nothing.
It's all a mess, even if I got to go back to my world.
As I continued to run forward, I could feel lighter my feet moving easier, the strain fading slowly with each step.
I smiled as I ran faster each step ramming the ground with more force than the last and each step faster than before.
I managed to move even closer to the Center and as I did the smell of rotten flesh is now becoming unbearable and appalling.
The closer I got to the Center I could see more blood raining onto the ground... and disappeared somehow, somewhere.
I could see more weird trees, with more hands some with faces some with bones instead.
Then as I got even closer to the Center I moved too close by a weird many-hands tree, when I got too close it creaked?!
'The hell!!' I thought as I immediately stepped away.
I stared at the still and unmoving tree with caution, a drop of sweat rolled down my nose.
Each petrified arm protruding from the tree seemed much bigger and more looming and eerie.
Blood dropping from the branches just like each and every other tree just much more than the ones before.
The wood was brown and gray almost like wet ash.
After a second a hand moved then another, in the next second the entire tree bowed to reach for me with every hand and branch.
Wailing of screams caught me off guard the sound too sudden and overwhelming at once.
The second I turned to jump my leg was already caught, my gloved hand got caught immediately after then my other leg.
I tried to resist but the long branches coiled around my other hand and around my torso.
I was pulled to the embrace of the tree unable too move.