1: Impending Doom

...Darkness...

...Pant...Pant...Pant...Pant...

The rhythmic stomping of a young woman's dash along the forest floor SNAPS irrelevant twigs.

A full moon beams through thousands of empty eyes between overhead leaves, showing her the way.

Fast approaching branches grasp desperately at brown fabric, tearing open cotton and sweaty, tan flesh.

"Dead. All. Dead. Can't... Stop. Keep... Running," the exerted, vomit-covered girl forces her eighteen year old body to power through mind-numbing events replaying in her head; the same ones that led to her current sprint through the Forbidden Forest.

Weaving between trunks, the loose bun in her hair is snatched by a branch. Shrieking in terror, searching for the villain that has ensnared her, she finds herself alone.

Looking up with an embarrassed grunt of relief, she grabs her hair and the branch, rips herself free, then continues her escape.

Matted, raven strands bounce off the back of a knee-length, wrap-tie dress while grungy cheeks taste an endless stream of grief and panic until dirty knuckles swipe away blurred vision.

The space inside her chest surrounding a rapid beating heart burns with the humid weight of every RAGGED inhale; refusing the moment of instant gratification by taking a break in hopes of catching her breath, she thinks of what a mistake like that could cost her.

Sobbing harder, she stumbles, losing the woven sandal previously clutching her right foot. Though it fought valiantly, it proved no match for the vacuum of a deep, mud puddle.

Metal collides with wood in a menacing ECHO, casting an unearthly chill down her damp, goose-pimple spine at the reminder of their close proximity.

Three sets of footsteps torment her, haunt her, motivate her to move faster at jerking her foot free and booking it.

A dry gulp brings painful dissatisfaction to a sore throat, the discomfort tolerable enough to keep pushing to make it out the other side alive.

~ Don't... Look back. One foot... In front... The other. ~

Repeating her father's words for when things get tough, it becomes a mantra to keep her focused on the highest priority– safety.

Slowing to a stop, she reaches a wall of darkness under green canopies and endless vines as far as the eye can see in both directions.

Trying her hardest not to scream in agonizing frustration, she grabs a hold of the vines and shakes, looking up and around to see she is working beyond the moon's light.

Refusing to let the pursuit end here and be forced into a humiliating existence until death, she bites back fear that challenges the very darkness hiding her to clear her mind and focus.

Heaving breaths are left in the dust by a heart that bangs like a war drum when she relentlessly rips, snatches, and claws at the unusual topiary.

~ EEEEK! ~

She jumps back, a -slither- rustling through the vines near where her hand was.

~ Are these things moving?! I can't see! Was it an animal? (T_T) I can't scream or they'll find me and if I stop they'll find me.. Nooo! Go! Go! GOOO! ~

Returning to animalistic digging for the sake of survival, she triumphs over the abyss looming at the foot of the 'off limits', volcanic mountain.

Tripping into a clearing under the face of a round, blue moon, she collapses when the thong sandal on her left foot breaks off.

Using her forearms and knees as a brace, she hits the ground with a thud and echoing 'ouch'.

Turning to peer along an endless, pebble-soil path separating mountainous stone walls and the forest, she blinks away tears.

~ Everything hurts so bad, I–! ~

Retching, cinnamon eyes widen before she rolls on her side and bends until she can inspect the sound of rustling leaves at the forestline.

Strained eyes burn as she stares into the black void, anticipating the moment their bodies fill the opening. Terrified and relieved, vines wriggle to creep around one another, leaving no trace of her destructive presence.

~ How the–! I'll take the blessing because that helps but…if I got through it… I -know- three men can. ~

Groaning, she retraces a visually infinite path on both sides and notices a boulder shrine ten yards (thirty feet) away on the other side of the road.

Adorned with colorful, weathered fabrics, its solid body rests with pieces of rusted metal, painted clay, and bone fragments at its feet.

Growling away the tremble trying to paralyze her legs, she crawls a short distance to the memorial. Rapidly losing power, she drags herself before giving up while tiredly surveying the area for oncoming danger.

Too stubborn to give in to the blistering muscles spasming under dry, dusty skin, rock dust and gravel dig into exposed flesh and fill the crevices of her dress marking the final straw of pain that sends her over the edge into a blissful numbness.

~ Nowhere…to hide... Can't believe...they chased… So far... ~

On the brink of following the ringing in her ears to a deafening emptiness of unfulfilled rest, she heaves herself up with a straining grunt with pebbled dirt dribbling from pits in her ash-covered skin.

Using the shrine as a brace to stay off the ground, she hunches against the solid foundation and buries her face into torn and dusty, sleeve-covered arms.

Wailing with a mournful echo loud enough to make the heavens weep with her, the first moment of peace since the sun kissed her skin is filled with exhaling breaths of unrestrained emotion.

A cold splash hits the top of her ear that peaks through a black sea, pulling the girl from dismal thoughts in time to sense a presence nearby.

Drying tears on her sleeve with a disturbed, shallow breath, she is encompassed by a shadowy silhouette.

"Why?"

The sound and close proximity of a man's voice startles her lungs into her throat, silencing her screech as his question fails to register.

~ (O_O') They got me?! ~

Taking a steadying breath, she cautiously presses her palms together against the rock and bows her head.

~ I tried so hard, mom. I'm so sorry! I'll see y'all soo--! ~

His voice carries no discernible plan when he interrupts her internal lament, "Human, why do you cry on my mountain?"

~ …human?... ~

Throwing herself to the ground, groveling with eyes shut, she stifles suffering behind hoarse words, "I'm sorry... For crying. Please," she swallows and gasps, her nose filling with sticky snot.

~ "My" mountain? Whatever he is… ~

Clutching the gray, rocky dust with a prayer, "Please don't hurt me," she finds herself desperate for a solution over the baffling new threat that has risen.

Cringing at the inaudible silence between them following the muffle plea of her soul, she wonders if her barely audible beg reached the stranger's ears.

~ I've never heard a yokai story about the human being let go. (>_<') If I knew he was here, I wouldn't have ran so long– I would've gave up! *cries harder* Which is the lesser of two evils?! ~

Too fearsome to raise her head and meet the face of her present dilemma, yearning for a divine gift that will remove her from this entire situation and put everything back to normal, branches SNAP a short distance away.

Blood heats her ears and hysteria tunnels her vision amidst every standing hair follicle needling glistening skin when a man enters the clearing.

Wearing dark-blue trousers tied at the waist and cinched around his ankles above thong shoes, his dark breastplate weakly reflects the moonlight.

Recognizing him through watery eyes as the man that boasted taking advantage of her until he grew bored, dark eyes glinted with sadistic joy. Pink lips surrounded by dark hair curl into a menacing grin that screams bad intentions.

Clouds shift above, imposing upon the moon's incandescence and briefly reminding her of the rain as its scent overpowers the aroma of vomit in her nostrils.

Stepping onto the path with a long sword drawn, his scratched, metal blade comes into the light.

Grabbing the fabric at her chest, scuttling backward on her butt on jelly limbs until the touch of frigid stone jolts through her like a fatal blow, a second silhouette emerges.

Airways constrict as she watches the man who killed her mother enter the clearing behind his comrade, the sight of his dubious, arrogant smile pushing the mountain stranger to the farthest side of her mind when a third, tall and lanky man wielding a bow and arrows completes the trio.

Flinching at every step they take in slow motion, she sits in defeat with her young life flashing before her.

Disappointed by the missed opportunities that could have prevented this very moment, she mutters under her breath, "I was wrong..."

~ …I wasn't meant for more… It's all pointless… ~

Closing her eyes and slumping into the ground, awaiting a painfully unknown future, she rests her forehead on folded hands.

Shaking her head, relying on the muscle memory of a lifetime of prayer for help, she goes out on a limb to ask the gods of this land for help.