Naked Woman Runs from Demon

[IsabellaRose]

You grit your teeth, your pulse pounding with defiance as you look up into the demon's burning eyes. The collar feels impossibly heavy in your lap, but you know, deep in your bones, that accepting it means surrendering everything you are. With a final, shaky breath, you fling the collar aside, letting it clatter to the pulsing, fleshy ground. You rise to your feet, legs trembling but steadfast, and take a step back.

"I refuse," you say, your voice quivering, but your resolve steady. "I would rather face whatever comes than be your thrall."

The demon’s eyes narrow, his burning gaze simmering with a dangerous mixture of amusement and displeasure. "A foolish choice," he says softly, a rumble like distant thunder. His lips curve into a cruel smile, and he takes a single step back. The heat of his presence recedes, and you feel the air around you grow cold and sharp.

"Very well," he murmurs. "It may be entertaining to watch the shadows devour you."

He raises one clawed hand, and with a subtle motion, he disappears, fading like smoke into the dark.

The moment he's gone, the air fills with an unholy wail, a discordant symphony of pain and hunger.  The creatures, the chorath, twitch and convulse, their jagged limbs scraping against the pulsing ground as they lurch forward, no longer restrained. Their eyeless heads snap toward you, the hum of their gaping maws filling the air. One steps forward, claws sinking deep into the fleshy earth, its limbs elongating unnaturally as it pulls itself closer.

You turn and run, sprinting through the twisted landscape, your feet slapping against the pulsing, squelching ground. The air is thick with decay and the smell of blood, and the heartbeat beneath you seems to speed up, as if driven by your fear. The world around you shifts, the pulsing structures of bone and sinew twisting, making your escape feel like running through a nightmare maze.

Behind you, the pack of chorath gives chase, their limbs skittering with a sickening speed. You veer left, darting between two towering spires of twisted bone, hoping to lose them. But the flesh-like ground beneath you quivers and shifts, as if it’s aware of your movements. Ahead, a narrow crevice opens in the ground, an impossible path downward into shadowy depths. You can leap into the unknown or risk being torn apart by the creatures that follow. But then you see it, a jagged ridge of bony, flesh-like structures to your right. If you can climb it, you might reach higher ground and put some distance between you and the creatures. You hear the guttural screeches of the chorath drawing nearer, feel the vibration of their claws sinking into the ground behind you.

• If you leap into the crevice and risk the unknown depths below, click here. <link forthcoming>
• If you climb the jagged ridge of twisted bony structures, click here. <link forthcoming>
• If you keep running, click here. <link forthcoming>