Faster. She had to run faster. She couldn't see it, but she knew it was near, she could hear it. The snapping of branches around her was defeaning. Her mind swirled and tumbled as she tried to think of a plan, anything, that could get her out of there safely, but she couldn't think of anything. Her mind was full of static that jumped at her brain leaving a painfull stinging trail along the corners. A horrible fog lurked in her mind stopping nearly all thought except for fear.She didn't think she could escape, but she didn't have it in her to give up.

     Long snake-like branches reached out snapping at her ankles. She tripped several times, but didn't fall. One branch wrapped around her waist and lifted her up off the ground. After shifting her body just right, she plunged her hand into her coat pocket and retrieved a kitchen knife. She stabbed the branch, and it dropped her with a thud. She scrambled to get herself back up and continued to run.

     She was running much slower this time. Her whole body ached. Her right leg was weak and made a horrendous popping noise with each step. Her left leg had a burning sensation pulsing through it with each heart beat. The monster, source of the branches, was moving slower too. Part of her hoped this was due to her injuring it, but she knew the truth. This was just a game to it, a game of cat and mouse. A game she can't win.

     With a broken, raspy war cry, she turned around and leaped at the monster. One of the snake-like appendages pierced her torso, not deep enough to kill her, but deep enough to cause stomach-turning pain. Another one tightly wrapped around her throat, while a third returned to its original place around her waist. She was lifted up again, higher than last time. Her eyes met a smooth, white surface with no noticable imperfection. A ripple started on the surface. The ripple increased in intensity causing a split to form. From the split came a black thick liquid that smelled of rotting animals and pine wood. The split grew and the area around it was made jagged and razor-sharp. The appendages tightened and she found herself growing light-headed. In a last resort, she reached at a close tree and grabbed onto a steady branch. She tried to pull herself closer to the new branch in an attempt to get away. The one twisted around her waist was pulling back at a slow almost taunting pace. She and the monster were playing tug of war with her body, and she was losing.

     Pain. Blistering, horrible, bloody pain and sickening snapping sounds came from her waist. It hurt so bad she couldn't stand it anymore, she was growing weak. Her eyes slammed shut and her grip on the branch loosened as she lost consiousness. She couldn't win.

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     That was how it had happened, that was how her friend had died. It had happened two years ago, two years without (F/N).

     (Y/N) and (F/N) had always been close friends. They had so much in common: a love for things that went bump in the night, an urge to learn more, and a deadly curiosity. The two of them were always getting in trouble, wandering into things they should have stayed out of. They induldged themselves with conspiracies and folk lore. They talked of demon summonings and new world orders. They roamed around abandonded buildings and shady forests. (F/N) death in that case was almost poetic, sad yet appealing at the same time.

     It had confused the police and detectives put on the case. Details about the actual case were sparse and (Y/N) was told next to nothing. She had attended the funeral though and noted that it was closed casket. She knew it had been gruesome, that information was not kept a secret. She also knew that the actual cause of death was still up in the air, confusing.

     On the surface it appeared that (Y/N) wasn't upset about her friend's death, there were rumors that she was involved in it in some way. They took her lack of visible emotions as suspicious. They said that she knew what was going to happen. She was upset, just not surprised. Her friend had hinted weeks ahead of the incident that she had "learned too much." (Y/N)'s friend warned her to not look into it if anything were to happen, and (Y/N) promised yet did not know just what she was promising. She had figured her friend was going to be in trouble with the police or something along those lines. Death was a little much.

     After the funeral had happened, the dreams started. Every night (Y/N) saw the same violent death of her friend. Every night she saw that horrible monster. She had wanted to tell other people, but knew they'd push it aside and call her crazy. She wanted the investigators to know as they still hadn't solved the case, but rather pushed it aside as a random killing. (Y/N) knew it wasn't random, (F/N) was targeted for knowing more than she should have. Whatever they knew, (Y/N) decided, must have been important. That bit of information had to have been life changing if it was enough to kill/die for.

     (Y/N) was reminded of her friend's death everyday for two years. Even today, high school graduation, her mind is focused on her lost friend. She thinks on what information was known, on what had really happened in that forest, on what the truth behind all this is. Three months. She has three months of thinking, of tourturing herself with these thoughts. Three months before college starts. No! She was not going to waste that time being sad! In those three months (Y/N) was going to do what the investigators couldn't. (Y/N) was going to find (F/N)'s killer, no matter the cost.