Mute tears cleared lines of dirt away from Jinar’s face. Thomas was his first friend, his only brother. They stayed up past their bedtimes on the weekends until they beat the newest game they had got on the hardest difficulty. Thomas was the only reason Jinar had the courage to talk to Ivy and Willow making them apart of this family. Willow was the one who challenged him physically, pushing to be faster, to be better in every way. Ivy was his little sister who made his heart smile, he was duty-bound to keep her safe at all times.
“It would’ve been better if I never met them..” Jinar mumbled as he sat up. Taking the full weight and misplaced responsibility for what is happening to them. A storm cloud blocked out the suns healing rays. He grew silent and was all out of tears. Jinar grunted in pain as he stood back up and started to shuffle his way to the other side of the clearing back into the forest, back into the darkness. The suffocating silence deafened him once more.
It seemed Jinar was suddenly unwanted by the thing as he stumbled, bumping into nearly every tree, for what seemed to be an hour or two, with no interruptions except an occasional shuffle of the trees. He didn’t know which direction he was heading anymore but he couldn’t stop now. He has no choice, his friends had no choice.
Birds chirping lured his conciseness back to its rightful place. Jinar shook his head and covered his ears to see if this wasn’t a trick. It wasn’t. Jinar blindly followed the noise, being drawn to it like it were a sirens song. It was only five feet ahead, two trees away directly behind the second tree. The thick trunk concealed the birds but seeing them would’ve been a sign Jinar was looking for. A beacon of hope to give him the boost to mis mental that he needed, that not everything was wrong in this forest and that not everything had to hurt here.
The birds melody continued into an elaborate orchestra and his hope grew with every step. “That’s a Northern Cardinal.” Jinar whispered out of instinct. Being reminded about every time Ivy heard a bird that she couldn’t see that’s what she would say. She was learning about birds but that was her favorite one and didn’t bother learning about the others, deeming them as not that important.
This reality fractured like a broken window as Jinar began to circle the tree and saw a motionless deer. Its dark, unblinking eyes staring in every direction at once. Jinar knew this time it was different, there was no whispering or dread. He was just lured here to be shown the deer. He continued walking, revealing more of the deer from behind the tree or that lack of deer that was.
The deer was missing half of its body. It was just the head all the way down to its front two legs and after that point its chest was void. Like someone picked up an animal cracker and bit the backend off. The smell was so rotten it burned Jinar’s eyes. The smell of a mountain of abandoned milk cartons, soaking in the sunlight of the summers hottest day, made Jinar gag and turn as to block the vital parts of his face from direct contact with the smell. But something caught his attention, out of the corner of his eye he saw something so wrong it made him think that everything up to the point about the deer was normal.
Jinar bravely took a big step towards the deer. His watery eyes were locked onto it, to be more exact, he was staring at the part of the deer that wasn’t there but should’ve been. The exposed end of the deers chest was facing away from Jinar and he wouldn’t have been getting steps closer if it wasn’t for a few red vines stretching out of the from its wound and reaching into the forest going so far they were swallowed by obstructions and shadow.
Jinar was standing over the deer and knelt down to investigate the vines. They were thick and fuzzy reminding Jinar of the red ropes that movie theaters would use to make lines for their concession stands. The vines made squishing sounds as they moved around every few seconds like blood was being pumped through them into the dead deer. Out from the deers open wound spilled red moss that was slowly but visibly spreading in all directions. Consumed by curiosity Jinar extended his hand out with one and covered his nose with the other.
The deers eye turned on its axis as if being controlled by something ungodly, turning to look at Jinar suddenly. This made Jinar stop before being able to touch the moss or vines. “His flesh has cooled off. The key is ready..” The deer whispered, using Thomas’s shaken sobbing voice, moving its mouth like a mans. Instantaneously as it finished the sentence it was ripped away, being dragged by the red vines deeper into the forest. Jinar fell on his back and crawled on all fours backwards until colliding with a tree.
Thomas’s blood curdling scream of pain and fear tore Jinar’s heart straight down the middle. Thomas had never expressed these types of emotions to or near Jinar but he knew they were his and not the monster stealing his voice.
“Thomas! Just hold on!” Jinar’s voice erupted as he stood and started to do a half-run, half-walk towards Thomas. Each step erupted a fire in his own body, starting at his feet and traveling all the way up his legs, causing a burning sensation one would feel after working out to much.
“Wait..” Jinar questioned if this was all a dream once he saw the treehouse off to his left. About twenty feet away. Thomas’s cry was coming not too far up ahead and based off of his location to the tree house now he knew the cry was coming from the old barn.
Jinar focused his gaze to the tree house wondering if he should just scream at Willow and Ivy to get out of here without him or Thomas but couldn’t. He knew Ivy would need to be dragged out and as tough as Willow was she would need help.
He then turned to face his right and couldn’t believe reality anymore and lost any sense of direction he had just gained. There was their treehouse again, just as it was and is to the left. He looked beneath the treehouse to the right, just a little past it and saw another kid. Jinar was too wary and confused to feel anything but distrust at this moment.
“Thomas?” Jinar said not putting too much volume to his voice. But the kid just stood there not saying anything, just turning so they were staring at each other now. Jinar raised his right hand and waved at the kid and the kid did the same. Jinar then took various steps and moved his arm in different ways, the other kid copied him exactly. Turning back to his left Jinar realized there was a kid standing just beyond that tree house as well and it just got done mimicking his last movement.
“Doctor.. have you finally come back?” The kids whisper can be heard from what had to be thirty feet away. At first it was trying to use Jinar’s own voice and became a low mixture of all of the kids voices talking in unison. Jinar didn’t know what to say so he just began walking to where he had last thought the barn was. He thought just children on each side began to follow him in parallel but quickly realized dozens more treehouses had cropped up in his path towards the old barn.
“You have come back for the red moon?” The voice whispered again but from the right this time. Jinar plugged his ears, shut his eyes so tightly he began to see stars and began humming loudly trying to cover up the voices. He began his march in darkness. It had no right to sound like his friends and yet it didn’t need it. This thing was far above any naive law the kids could think of or create, it was the ruler of this forest and by staying inside it Jinar and the rest of them had unknowingly signed their life’s away. Just like a deer passing a pack of wolves that were already feeding on a fresh kill, Jinar knew he was safe for the moment but at any moment this thing that was toying with him could end it all.
Jinar tripped on something and crashed to his knees forcing him to open his eyes and catch himself. One of the roots had wrapped itself around Jinar’s shoe forcing him to remove it to get free. Looking ahead now Jinar’s jaw dropped in disbelief. Every time he saw something new he thought it couldn’t get worse but seeing this he knew that for a fact now. Straight ahead was the old barn, it was in pieces in the wrong type of way but it was all still there. The barn was splintered into clean cut pieces and suspended in the air. Copies of the treehouse encircled the barn. The door way, the only part of the barn that was still connected to the ground besides the floor, still had the shiny rock Thomas and Jinar had put there.
It the middle of all of the floating pieces was Thomas, he was floating there peacefully still. His chest struggled to fill with air but at least he was still moving. “Thomas.” Jinar called out with uneven steps now he hobbled forward reaching for his friend. The copy of the kids never disappeared and had still been mimicking his every move, they were just as close to Thomas as Jinar was. Jinar couldn’t worry about them, they were just copying him and Thomas was so close.
Jinar passed through the doorway to the barn, making his way to Thomas. The kids who Jinar realized looked just like him were in the barn with him staring at Thomas like he was their saving grace, a gift from above. Thomas was suspended high in the air and was closer to Jinar than his clones. Jinar knew he could grab Thomas by the foot but didn’t think much past that. He didn’t consider if he could drag Thomas back to earth or what would happen when the copies reach him to.
“I have you, don’t worry Thomas.” Jinar said as he jumped and grabbed Thomas but as he began to pull on him they didn’t move but a few inches, just enough to hold Thomas still and stay on his tiptoes. Jinar was surprised to find his clones were helping him pull Thomas down so much so that he now had his whole foot on the ground. They worked together until Thomas was lying on the splintered, wooden floor of the barn.
Jinar sat on the floor and his two clones did the same, forming a circle around Thomas. Jinar looked up at the clones but they stared blankly at Thomas with a half smirk forming. He began to wonder if that is how he looked right now but shock it off.
“Hey Thomas, we need to get out of here. Come on man.” The steady rejuvenated voice of Jinar washed over Thomas but he remain motionless. It was not enough to preform any miracles. Laughter filled the stiff, frigid air coming from Jinar as he stood up suddenly having enough of everything and insisted on not waiting anymore. It not seeming that important Jinar wrote off the fact his clones didn’t stand with him.
“Don’t worry. I’ll help you.” He said reaching down for Thomas. Jinar wasn’t sure how he could carry Thomas since they both were about the same size and they both had no muscles to speak of but he had to try. After all he has his goal right here, he just needs to walk him back to Willow and her and Ivy can help carry Thomas out.
The moment he wrapped his hand around Thomas’s wrist, Thomas’s mouth shot open. “The alter is ready doctor.” One of the clones whispered in Thomas’s voice as it stood from the ground and stared at Jinar.
“The key is ready doctor.” The other clone whispered, in Jinar’s voice after the first clone was done and repeated its actions systematically. But these words weren’t coming from their mouths, they were just moving their mouths to sync it all together. The whispers were coming from Thomas.
“Leave him alone!” Jinar screamed stepping over Thomas and pushed the one who was trying to mimic his own voice. The clone without any resistance or effort collapsed under the weight of the push and vanished with a sea of red spores taking its place. The spores flew into the air until they reached the tops of the trees and then proceeded to fall like snow.
“You too!” Jinar screamed with naive courage and pushed the other clone expecting the same thing to happen, to be rid of the immediate threat and the immediate wrongness. Jinar’s hands passed through the other clone but instead of it disappearing the clone looked at Jinar’s arms that were now elbow deep into it and let a low rumble of a growl out.
“Doctor.. please. I need your help.” The voice whispered, again not coming from the moving mouth in front of me but from Thomas. Thomas’s body made a rattling like all his muscles had disappeared and his skin was just a sack for bones once he stood up. His eyes remained shut but behind his heavy lids it was clear he was staring at Jinar.
“What?” Jinar stumbled back, his arms remained in his clone and it mirroring him stepping towards him. Life began to lose meaning and gain it back simultaneously as Thomas’s icy hand gripped Jinar’s forearm. Goosebumps crawled over every inch of Jinar and his breathing became hysterical.
“This body is for the mass. Your body is the key we need.” Thomas whispered, the words crawled through Jinar’s mind tainting any pure memory he had left like ink over paint.
“Thomas… please?” Jinar chocked to say barely making the words sound coherent and not a jumble of alphabet soup.
“The alter needs its key doctor.” Thomas said placing his other hand on Jinar’s lower back. With inhuman strength Jinar was lifted into the air. Normally when his father picked him up, Jinar would’ve found this scary and exciting, being only filled with laughter and pleads to be put back down. But now, now it was his nightmare, having his eyes locked with Thomas’s face and his own. The clone and Thomas took steps together moving Jinar carefully.
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“Thomas! Please!!” Jinar screamed kicking his feet wildly. He never would’ve planed to harm Thomas, even if it wasn’t really him but the panic took over and he kicked Thomas square in the jaw sending his head backwards making him stare at the sky. Jinar struggled to bring his apology up quick enough, not out of feeling remorse, he was rather frozen we dread when Thomas brought his head down slowly with his eyes wide open now. They looked like the inside of a magic 8 ball, hiding something deeper inside that you can only get glimpses of at this angle.
“Thank you so much for coming back doctor.” Thomas smiled. The ground began to shake violently and the sound of the floor boards being ripped apart from behind Jinar covered up his sobbing. Jinar turned his head around, bracing for the deer to be there but it was a solid black slab of polished black stone about 8 feet wide.
“The red moon will rise once more.” Thomas said. Him and the clone began taking steps towards this alter. Jinar couldn’t breathe anymore, the breath was stolen away like his innocence.
The clone placed Jinar carefully on the alter and Thomas released his cold, death grip. The clone climbed on top of Jinar and laid flat on him, their chests were against each other, only being separated by their cloths. The clone rested his head against Jinar’s shoulder and it began to mimic a birds song.
“Thank you… doctor.” Thomas’s arm reached towards heaven, red moss spores collected and collided with each other in Thomas’s hand, a shattered fragment of the alter that Jinar is being held on now manifested into a twisted looking knife. Thomas raised it in the air above his head with both hands. Jinar took in one last breath, one last breath to plead for his life. Maybe he can break the creatures control over Thomas. One last breath to represent he kept fighting to the end. The knife plunged through the clone and Jinar before that breath could be used.
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Jinar had rushed Ivy up the ladder and said his last goodbyes to Willow before sending her up the ladder after Ivy. Willow and Ivy expected Jinar to continue deeper into the forest but he never moved.
“Jinar?” Ivy whispered after she crawled to the edge of the planks and peered through the open floor board. Her bright gold hair strung down the side of the treehouse, reaching towards Jinar since it was clear by his blank stare into the forest that her words couldn’t.
“Do you see something?” Willow asked, her trembling hand was tightly placed on Ivy’s back. She to was leaning over the side of the treehouse but she wasn’t looking at Jinar. Her gaze was searching the horizon, hoping to catch a glimpse of nothing.
“Ivy, wait here. Somethings not right.” Willow mumbled in one breath. She crawled towards the branch ladder that wasn’t that far, maybe two more scrapes of the knees. She reached out towards the first branch on top. Something couldn’t be wrong, that was the first friend she had ever made. The only person that didn’t seem to care how much of a show off she was, the only person to put up with how annoying she thought she was.
“Wait!” Jinar’s caused Willow’s hand to recoil rapidly away from the tree branch and retreat in front of her chest. This made Willow both excited and then dread. Willow crawled back to the edge of the treehouse and took motion to resume her old position. She froze, physically shaken, when Jinar came into view. With tears running down his face from black, inky eyes, he was staring back at her and Ivy. His body trembled as if embarrassed at what he had just done.
What little light that hadn’t been swallowed by the forest was replaced with a read tint. It was as if you put on red and blue 3-D glasses at a theater but both sides were red. Willow looked up quickly to figure out what type of cloud could’ve cause this unnatural shift. She couldn’t believe her eyes as she saw, between all the pine needles and branches, a colossal red full moon fill the sky. This didn’t matter, she will figure out the gravity of that situation after they all get out of the forest together.
Willow’s dirty hand slowly found its way to over her mouth. “JInar?” Her voice was muffled but clear. Jinar didn’t react in the slightest to the plea but instead started to walk towards the ladder. Each step he took shattered Willow’s confidence that they were going to be ok, shattering the one thing that was keeping her up right in this dire situation. Without that support she knew she would end up just like Ivy and let her emotions come forth and hinder her.
“Willow.. Hey Willow.. Ivy..?” Jinar’s words ripped through the girls heart with a flew swoop. His voice didn’t sound right, it rattled as it traveled to their ear like it was a tv playing a sound. Both of the were now sitting as close as they could to the edge while keeping the where the ladder and treehouse collided with each other.
“It would’ve been better if I never met them..” His wrong voice echoed followed by slow creaks and snaps of the branches breaking one after another. The air was filled with the smell of a hoarders house. It was too diverse to be linked to one thing distinctly but rather could only be made when combing the smell of rotting food, dust of years of inactivity and perhaps a dead animal trapped under all the items that can’t be identified. The snapping sped up with intense speed and had stopped suddenly right before the entrance on the floor. Jinar’s hand broke the tension like a hand breaking through water. It was covered in cuts that poured blood down his arm. The back of the hand was what Willow noticed first, it was covered in moss dyed with blood.
A big ripping sound broke her concentration as Jinar’s hand swung backwards violently. Then quick sessions of more rips and tiny snaps followed as the arm began to twist and seemed to stretch impossibly long reaching for Willow.
“Hey!” A man screamed. Willow could not tear her eyes away from what she had just seen her best friend transform into. Jinar didn’t let the scream distract him either, his finger nail was scraped across Willow’s cheek, ripping a large chunk away.
“Help!!!” Ivy screamed crawling under Jinar’s arm and to the other side of the treehouse towards the mans voice. A gunshot was the only thing that caused Jinar’s hand to retreat away towards back to the ladder. Willow’s mind had cully retreated, the gun sounded so muffled for her, it didn’t even caused her to blink. Another gun shoot attempted to warn Willow of the danger she was in. Ivy took the warning better and let out a scream for every gunshot.
Willow’s legs struggled, shooting off in every direction, as she slowly stood up trying to get a better look at Jinar. If she could just see that the hand didn’t belong to him, then she could die happy. Another gun shot and the hand fell limp and a loud thud caused the tree they were standing on to tremble as much as Willow.
“Dear Lord, our father. Please forgive my sins as I wash these sins away.” A different man shakily chanted. For just one instant, Willow allowed her attention to be diverted and looked over the side of the floor boards. Three large men covered in camo and carrying big guns were running towards the base of the tree aiming the gun down at what just fell.
“Thom..?” Jinar’s weak voice could be heard before the gun shoots cut it short. Willow legs decided that this is the moment they had no energy left, that they could not support her anymore causing her to fall backwards off the side of the treehouse. Willow screamed as Ivy could only just watch.
Willow felt her whole world had just ended the moment Jinar stopped talking that she only screamed out of surprise not fear. If she died now then she could meet Jinar in heaven. She thought ‘We were both good people, right? I know I’m a bad person but at least I do good things.’
With a quick but soft end to her fall she looked around for something, paying no attention to the big man who had just saved her life because to her he was no one, instead she needed to see him.
The other two men were pointing their guns down at a withering and pulsating body that belonged to Jinar. His arm was bent so far behind is head that a splintered bone poked out from the bottom of his arm. His jaw was wiggling, with each breath he took, as it laid over his neck. He let out a cry and his body snapped as each bone sunk back into his body in the wrong directions but was quickly interrupted by more gun fire. Willow had to look away at this point, facing to face the forest once more.
“Jinar!!” Ivy screamed causing visible goosebumps on everyone that heard it. Willow was filled with grief, is hadn’t fallen she could be up there shielding Ivy from this view but instead Ivy was forced to see something that would mess even with the adults shooting our friend.
Willow’s vision was blurry and partially obstructed from her own tear so she didn’t see at first. Something was slithering in from the forest towards them. When rubbed her eyes and caught a glimpse of a red vine. It looked like a spaghetti noodle what had been rotting away for what had to be 100 years. And it went just past the boots of the man holding her and between the other two that were still shooting Jinar’s screaming body.
It plunged deep into Jinar’s skin and without delay dragged him back into the forest, it reeled him in like a fish on a line.
“Lord please watch over our souls for only your strength can protect us against this demon.” The man who was holding Willow, the one who prayed before shooting Willow’s and Ivy’s best friend, prayed once more. A slight warmth began to fall over Willow’s skin, it was as if god came down and could now be felt in this moment. That feeling quickly faded.
“Come on! Climb the tree and toss the other one down! I’ll catch her!” One of the other men barked. The one man who hadn’t said a thing yet jumped the tree and climbed it with ease even though the ladder we used was mostly gone.
“Get away from me!!” Ivy screamed, her body can be seen rolling around and her legs were like spike traps snapping up and keeping the man at bay. Willow turned around quickly, rolling in the mans arms, causing him to drop her. She bolted to the ladder and tried to goto Ivy’s rescue but couldn’t make it any further than her initial jump onto the trunk.
“Willow!!” Ivy screams cause Willow to freeze. Willow just failed to save Jinar and now she’s helpless to save Ivy. The man in the treehouse with Ivy was yelling something at Ivy but none of the girls cared what he had to say. It wouldn’t make up for killing their friend. From this point on, Willow decided, any word from these men would be utterly useless and would just sound like noise.
“Help me!!” Ivy screamed again, sending a new surge of adrenaline through Willow’s arms and legs. She began to find the strength she needed to keep her feet in place, the strength she needed to support her whole body as she slowly climbed up the tree.
“Sto…!” Ivy began to say again but it was cut off too quickly, like someone hitting stop on a recording. Willow turned her head up to look what happened. Ivy’s body was flying through the air. Her body was thrown by the brute , deliberately aiming for one of the other men to catch.
“Ivy!” Willow’s mouth and body were moving on instinct. She couldn’t allow another friend to be hurt, never again. Willow pushed of the trunk, scrapping her arms and legs, and flew through the air reaching, mirroring Ivy’s desperate reach out towards her. Willow’s heart shattered and fell down an abyss, filled of the space between them. Their fingers never touched before they were both snatched out of the air by the men.
“Can you stop! We aren’t trying to hurt you!” The man holding Willow said. A defying sound of wood cracking swallowed us whole. Everyone turned all attention to the woods where the sound could be heard. There was a deer, not one of the twisted perversions of a deer but just a deer, standing in a bare path leading deeper into the woods. Willow knew the path lead to the barn.
“These demons may tempt us and they may strike us but they will never break us for you are our shield lord.” The man holding Ivy said before putting her gently on the ground. He knelt down with his back towards her and motioned for her to climb on while he was readying his big gun and checking to see if it had enough bullets.
“Are you ready brother?” The man holding Willow said. Willow, for the first time, looked at the face of this murder and was shocked. He wasn’t scary, he looked completely normal besides his arms being covered in tattoos. The markings were too strange and Willow had trouble putting a name to them besides, abstract line art.
“Our god has given me the strength to carry these burdens for you my child. Please allow me to carry you to safety.” The man knelling said turning just his head to face Ivy noticing she hadn’t climbed on yet. She was still obviously shaken about everything and couldn’t move. Her watery eyes were still fixed on the spot Jinar was shot.
Willow looked up towards the deer again. It was slowly walking down the path towards them. It wasn’t normal behavior which made Willow’s breathing grow heavy and quick. The deer, that seemed normal at first, was quickly making us all feel dumb for ever thinking it was. Its arms started to twist and snap into place at its side like it was doing a bow before it raised its head and chest completing the vision of a man. The deers head was still staring up at the heavens before its own hooves reached up, wrapping and stretching around its neck like rope.
“Please kid, we gotta go.” The man whispers stealthily flew towards Ivy but they didn’t even reach her. She was by all means captivated and stunned in the worst ways possible.
The deers grasp around its own neck kept tightening until blood was pouring down its body painting the path a new color. A sound that was awfully close to velcro stung Willows ears as the deer pulled of its own head and tossed it to the side. With a great thud the head began to roll slightly. The whole scene played out like one of the cartoons Willow would watch late Saturday nights, a villain pulling off its mask unveiling that it wasn’t a monster rather just a man this whole time. That is not at all how this one turned out, what was under ‘the mask’ was nothing but empty air on top of a bloody mound of blood and fur coming full sprint like it were a professional runner competing in the Olympics.
“Ivy.. We beed to go now!” Willow chocked out with great difficulty, each word felt like it was a square object trying to fit through a circle. Willow’s desperate plea woke Ivy up enough to have her wrap her weak arms around the mans neck. Without delay, the man, took off followed by the one carrying Willow.
“The demon is placing a foothold!” The third man, the one without a kid to carry said. He easily caught up to us. Willow’s morbid curiosity nudged her to peek over the mans shoulders and look back towards the deer.
There was a sea of red moss, spreading like it was a bad oil spill, covering every twig, weed or tree in its path. Leaving them in a thick layer of the moss. The moss stretched out in both directions further than Willow could see and only moved forward with the deer as it gained on them.
Willow’s vision became blurry the longer she stared at the blank void above the deers neck. Static started to creep in and blur her vision like she was staring at the sun. She wasn’t sure if it was the man shaking or the ground but being moved more than usual in this scenario caused her to shut her eyes tightly. This was all too much for anyone to handle, too much for a little girl to handle.
When Willow opened her eyes once more she started to see buildings through some trees. “That’s Jinar’s house.” Ivy’s words were hallow with a sliver of hope seeing a place she would often call home when hers couldn’t be. Willow felt the same way but instead of feeling the hope she felt a pit growing in her stomach. That was her home too, it belonged to Jinar and his family but it was their oasis. How can she go back there without Jinar? Willow and Ivy left matching tear drop shaped stains on their rescuers cloths. Brothers. The safe house is in view!” The one carry Willow said. They were about 30 yards away and remarkably the deer was 50 feet behind us, not moving anymore. It stood there locking eyes with Willow. The deer reached up to the blood moon and red vines started erupting from its body, almost filling in the rest of the gap to the moon. The vines spread out in all directions. “The masses..” Willow could hear a whisper borrowing into her ear. With great clashes and earth shaking force the vines came crashing against the ground in a seemingly random pattern.
In unison Willow and Ivy screamed causing not a second of dead air between the vines. The men carrying them were chanting something that was falling upon deaf ears.
The man who wasn’t carry a child had made it to Jinar’s house already and held the front door open. He had one hand raised at the beast and his eyes were shut tightly as his lips moved with haste.
“Brothers!” The man carrying Ivy cried out followed by the sound of running water and Ivy’s mute screams. Willow whipped her head around and saw the man had been pierced through the stomach by some vines and his blood was draining out of the wound and dripping from his mouth. He was only ten or so feet from the door. Willow’s eyes searched frantically for a sign that Ivy was ok, that she didn’t have to say goodbye to another friend.
Ivy was being held in the air in front of the man who was dying, the one who barely had enough strength to stand. He had saved Ivy with his last action by getting her out of the way. Before Willow could break free from the man binding her she lost her sense of gravity, the world had been turned on it’s head as she was thrown into the open house by her rescuer who was now rushing to Ivy’s aid.
Willow groaned, trying to recenter her balance. She desperately gripped the thin carpet covering the hard floor as she tried to crawl towards the, still wide open, front door. A towering man calmly stepped between her and the door. He grabbed the door and shut it softly before he proceeded to lock it.
“Wait… Ivy’s out there. There’s still people out there!” Willow screamed. The man chuckled softly as he turned around, spinning on his heel and squatted down to meet Willow’s eyes.
“Oh yes, I know. But there’s also a very angry god out there. I’ve been waiting so long for its return and I’m not going to let any extreme holy group get in my way this time.” The man said. Willow’s eyes widen when she realized this man looked exactly like Danica and she probably would’ve mistaken him for Danica if it wasn’t for his silver name tag pinned to his white lab coat that was stained in what could only be guessed to be blood or red moss. The name tag read ‘Dr. Stein.’
