Ash was supposed to be on guard, but his eyes were heavy. He kept drifting off. His head would dip, then he'd jerk back awake. Over and over again. It had been like that for the last ten minutes. Maybe more.
Ash rubbed his face with both hands, trying to wake himself up. His fingers were cold. His breath came out in a small cloud. His stomach hurt, but he was used to it now.
And then, just for a second, he closed his eyes again. Just a blink or maybe a little more. When he opened them, the night looked the same. The sky was dark.
He looked back down at the horde below and froze.
One of them was staring at him. It was far. Deep in the middle of the horde. Standing still. It had six glowing eyes. And all of them… all of them were looking only at him.
Ash squinted, trying to understand what he was looking at.
The creature looked like it was walking on two legs at first, but then he noticed carefully and realized he was wrong. It stood on four.
Its back looked broken. Six long arms sprouted out of its back like spider legs. Each one thin and twitching. At the end of each arm, on the wrists, were eyes. Big, yellow eyes.
It didn't have a face. No nose. No eyes on the head. No ears. Just a wide, long, lipless mouth where the face should be. Stretched and full of crooked teeth.
And then... the grin.
It ran across its face like melting rubber, wide and jagged, as if it wasn't supposed to be smiling but did it anyway. And when it smiled, Ash felt his breath get stuck in his throat. There was no sound. But something inside him screamed.
Fear. Raw, wild, animal fear.
Ash clutched the branch under him. His fingers trembled. His chest felt tight. He wanted to scream for Reaper or Ken, but no words came out.
And just like that, the feeling suddenly vanished. Gone. As if someone flipped a switch in his head.
Ash blinked. The grin on the creature's face faded. Its eyes narrowed. All of them. Like it was… disappointed. Confused.
And then, without warning, it stepped forward.
Ash's heart dropped.
He didn't know what it was doing. Maybe it was going to climb the tree. Maybe it would fly. Maybe it would scream and rip the air apart. He didn't know. He didn't want to know.
He reached for the sword. His fingers wrapped around the hilt. It pulsed under his grip as he felt something stirring in the air. Like heat rising from cold ground.
The creature twitched, and then it ran.
Ash shut his eyes. He didn't mean to, but it just happened. Like his body gave up for a second.
He waited.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three...
When he opened his eyes, everything was gone. The clearing was empty. There were no monsters, no movement, no sound. Ash blinked hard and looked again, but nothing changed; it was still... empty.
His head turned sharply to where Ken had been sleeping. To his horror, Ken was gone, and Reaper too. The branches were empty. The leaves didn't even look disturbed. As if no one had ever been there.
Ash stood up slowly, almost slipping on the bark. He looked all around, heart racing. "Ken?" he whispered.
No answer.
"Reaper...?"
Nothing.
He tried climbing down, but the moment his feet touched the ground, it felt colder than before. The trees weren't the same. They looked familiar but… not right.
He turned in circles. Walked a few steps. There were no tracks. No broken leaves. No signs of the horde. It was as if everything from before had been erased.
Ash clutched the sword tightly. He could feel sweat on his palms now. "Ken," he said again, louder this time. Still no answer. And then a weird thought crawled up to his mind.
What if they were never there at all?
His mind tried to fight it. No. He remembered them. He remembered Reaper watching with cold eyes, and Ken being quiet and distant. He remembered the climb, the hunger, the cold nights.
But now… all of a sudden, it all felt like a dream.
He kept running. Roots nearly tripped him but he kept shouting their names.
"KENNNNN!"
"Reaper!"
The forest didn't feel like a forest anymore. The trees looked tall and lifeless.
He wiped the sweat from his face, but it didn't help. His skin was ice cold.
He turned again, looking around, spinning in circles. And then he saw something in the distance, far ahead, a tree. But not like the others. This one was dead and burnt.
Ash slowed down, and as he got closer, he saw a shape. A shadow. Hanging down from one of the highest branches.
'NO'
There were two shapes.
Two bodies.
Swinging gently in the cold wind.
His mouth dropped open as he took one shaky step forward.
And then he saw their faces.
His knees buckled.
He almost fell.
It was Ken.
And Reaper.
Hanging.
Dead.
Their heads tilted down, their bodies pale and lifeless. The rope around their necks wasn't rope; it looked like black vines, twisting tightly, digging into their skin. Their arms hung limp. Their clothes were torn. Blood ran down their legs.
Ash took a step back. "No," he whispered. "No no no no no..."