Chapter 24

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The cold hard surface you were laying on woke you from your slumber. It wasn't the soft bed you had fallen asleep on. You opened your eyes and panic was the first thing that ran through your mind. You looked around and you were completely surrounded by forest, shaking trees, cold winds and howling crows in the distance. As you shifted to get a better look around you could hear the endless crunching of leaves with every movement you made. You were by yourself in the forest, no sign of Jack anywhere. You began to stand up when you heard a crunching sound, you looked down to see and piece of paper under your hand. The paper had a yellow tint and was course, almost like papyrus. You began to examine the paper further and read the words written on it out loud. "Glad to see you're awake gumdrop, this is round one, I call it hunting. I would start running".

You didn't need to confirm if this was a bluff, you didn't want to risk it. You stood up without even thinking twice and quickly ran through the trees and shrubs without any hesitation. Hopping over logs and ducking under branches as you heard the clowns laugh echoing in the horizon. You knew that if you wanted to  be free you would not only need to play his game but you would need to win it. You would need to win your freedom.
His laughter was endless, you could practically hear the smirk on his face, where ever he was that is. Heavy footsteps echoed behind you. You didn't want to look to see who it was but whatever it was it was big and you knew it wasn't the clown. The ground practically shook with each one of its steps, heavy and harsh. You knew it wasn't smart to stop and hide that would just make you a sitting duck, but you knew that it would be smart to throw it off. As you continued to run with your lungs burning, you looked around for some sort escape. Alas, nothing but trees, shrubs and leaves were around you. If you were gonna stop your only option was to climb one of the giant oak trees that were near you and pray that whatever was chasing you couldn't climb as well. You ran faster to give yourself a little more time and quickly looked for a tree that you could climb quickly. Seeing a big pine tree in the distance, you sprinted to it and grabbed the two lowest branches pulling yourself up as fast as you could. Grabbing one branch after the next being careful not to grab any weak ones. As the strong smell of oak reached your nose you looked down and decided you were at a decent height. You were about 15 feet above the ground, you sighed catching your breath, taking in slow and deep breaths, then you listened. You listened of any indication of the clowns laughter or the thing that was following you. Your hand was covering you month in order to control and slow down your breathing.  The only thing you could hear was the wind shaking the trees and very faintly your own breath. You began to think about your situation. How did you get here? Where exactly are you?
You were taken out of your thoughts when the tree violently began to shake causing you to almost fall off of the branch you were sitting on. Then it went silent again. You sturdily held yourself in between the two branches preparing for another shake. You looked done and your eyes widened in fear. Below you was a giant beast. It walked on all fours and had a black main kind of like a lion. But it's face was what horrified you, its face was just a skull no muscle nor skin. You did not want that thing to catch you. You leaned your back into the tree trunk to make it harder for the being to see you. Another violent shake but this time you looked down and the beast was looking directly at you, it's feet on the base of the trunk. It knew you were there and it was trying to knock you out of the tree. The tree shook again and again eat time the shake getting more and more violent, getting harder and harder to hold on. The tree was giant but so was that thing. You didn't know how much more the tree could take. Another push. As the beasts nails scraped the tree bark you could hear the trunk start to give out. You looked down and it was staring at you as if it knew you were afraid and it was feeding off of it.
Suddenly it backed away from the tree out of your sight. Did it give up? Was it waiting you out? Unlikely, it seemed very determined. You didn't know what to do. If you climbed down it would surely be waiting for you. You were a sitting duck, you had to come down eventually, and it probably knew that.
BANG!
You were nearly knock out of the tree. You quickly looked down, that thing had rammed the tree. It wasn't waiting for you, it was getting a running start.
BANG!
This bang was followed by cracking. The tree was splitting.
BANG!
You could feel the tree starting to shift and lean. The tree was gonna fall with you in it. You didn't know what to do. If you jumped you would die. No other trees were close enough to you. The only thing you could do was brace yourself for a rough landing. You held on as tight as you could when the beast landed the final blow. As the tree began to fall you closed your eyes and hoped for the best, as a terrifying scream left your lips.
The tree hit the ground with a large bang that echoed throughout the Forrest. Then silence, no sound showing evidence that the beast was there but you knew that was to good to be true. You opened your eyes. Pine needles everywhere, in your hair in your mouth, and your hands were covered in sap and dirt. You've never wanted to shower so much in your entire life. You couldn't  see very well. You looked around you couldn't see through the broken branches and pine needles. You were surround by the remains of the pine tree. This could help you though. If you couldn't see the beast then maybe it couldn't see you. You very quietly started to army crawl through the tree, being very careful not to make any noise. Crawling under and over any branches that were in your way. Then you froze. You heard footsteps. Very large ones, as well as heavy breathing. You slowly turned your head to look behind you and there it was. The beast was 4 feet away from you staring at you directly into your (e/c) eyes. You let out a petrified scream and turned to get up and start running. But it was too late. The beast grabbed hold of your left leg with right claw, its talons digging into the delicate skin of your calf. You kicked and screamed with all your might but that thing did not let go. The beast then began to drag you out of the body of the tree. You tried to grab onto branches and you dug your fingers into the dirt desperately trying to grab anything that could help you. Once it dragged you out of the tree it stood on its high legs and began to drag you behind it. You were screaming for someone to help you, kicking and trying to fight it, digging your nails into the ground to try and make it stop. But it continued to drag you like you were laying limp. Nothing seemed to bother it. No matter how much you kicked and screamed it just didn't seem to care. You began to cry. You were tired, no scratch that you were exhausted. You never thought that this is where you would end up. You didn't want to die like this you weren't gonna give up just yet.
You continued to kick and scream. "LET GO OF ME YOU UGLY SON OF A BITCH!!!" You screamed.
It suddenly stopped, that seemed to get its attention. Before you could even understand what was happening the beast dig deeper into your calf and threw your body into a tree making your spine and head come into hard contact with the trunk. You hit the dirt with a loud thud and your sight suddenly turned to black.

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