Endless Darkness

Asher woke up on the ground. He was dazed and had trouble processing his senses.

<What am I feeling? It's so cold>

Asher was overwhelmed with a cold chill permeating through his body. He was still warm from the sun a few minutes ago but his warmth was quickly fading. Then he focused on that cold feeling. The texture and feeling of the surface he laid upon. He reached out onto the ground's surface. It was wet and slippery like ice but crunched and squished. It was also undeniably cold. It was snow.

Asher sat up and rubbed his eyes. For some reason he couldn't see. Was there something covering his eyes or was it just that dark?

Getting up, the young man felt his belongings. He still had his clothes. He had a white t-shirt, sweat pants, and sneakers. Asher reached into his pockets to pull out his keys but they were gone.

<So I have my clothes but none of items caried. Well, i guess only had keys and a few dollars.>

He reached his arms out in the darkness to try to feel his surroundings but as far as he could tell, the area he was in was quite spacious. As his head slowly regained his thoughts, he noticed that the air was shockingly thin and crisp. The wind was strong and cold, brushing against his skin stealing his warmth. It felt like each breath cut his lungs. He felt his arms going numb. He looked around instinctively tring to observe his surroundings even though he couldn't see. Knowing that he wouldn't see anything in the darkness, he simply scanned the emptyness but suprisingly, he did indeed see something. He saw a hazy, dim light behind him, atop a slight hill casting a shadow over him.

Making the light his goal, he stumbled and treaded slowly across the snow up the hill. He was walking for quite a while and he still hadn't reached the top. Was this all an illusion?

<Damn it, it's so cold!>

Asher walked for atleast ten minutes but he had still not reached the top of this damn hill. Suddenly Asher decided to look behind him towards the empty darkness. He thought he saw something move.

"W-w-who's there? Come out, I know I saw you!"

Asher was sure he saw something but he didn't hear anything. His shoes crunching in the snow was quite easy to hear. If someone was following in the snow, they would make noise too.

No matter how he rationalized it, he could feel a tingle down his back, like he was being watched. Turning back, he continued treading up the snow. He was now very alert. He over thought every sound every feeling and focused on moving to the light. The rhythmic crunching of the snow distracted him from the fact he could no longer feel his arms. The tingling sensation suddenly spiked, as if someone was right behind him.

"Who's there!"

Spinning his head around as fast as he could, he peered into the darkness. He couldn't see anything just like before but this time he couldn't help but feel like something was off. He was sure that something was there this time, it wasn't just a feeling. It was fear. The kind of fear like your life was about to end and your body instinctively reacts to save itself. This time he definitely felt something. He just couldn't shake it off.

He paused and quickly began thinking, every sense he had was on overdrive and that was when he realized what was wrong.

He didn't realize it because he had already gone numb from the cold but somewhere along the way, the wind had almost completely stopped. The unrelenting force that pushed against his body was gone. He could still hear the wind whistling around him so why couldn't he feel the wind? It was as if something had moved in its way blocking the cold from him.

He just now realized the situation he was in. He was being followed by something that he not only couldn't see, but also couldn't hear. It was terrifying.

Asher's face paled and he ran as fast as he could away from the pursuer. The air was parting in front of him as he broke through the cold air. Asher ran when his lungs began to burn and kept running when his legs began to falter. Asher ran with everything he had, his life depended on it. After running for what felt like an eternity. He stopped.

Huffing, he felt the air around him. The steam from his breath was barely visible as it whisked across his face. It was windy again. He had never been so happy to feel so cold in his life. He looked behind him, and saw the saw empty darkness from before.

Asher decided not to wait too long to catch his breath because he knew he was still being followed.

Hiking up towards the light he could see the shining brightness of the haze. He was undoubtably closer. He was almost there. The light had shone light into his surroundings just enough to see. Using the light he looked down at the ground. The pristine white snow was covering the ground all around him. Or almost pristine. There seemed to be a strange dark dot on it underneath him.

<huh, what's that?>

Then there was another, then another. The dots slowly seeped into the snow. Now that he was looking closer he could see something was dripping. From him, onto the ground. Asher looked at his once pristine white t-shirt and then understood.

He was bleeding. His shirt was wet with his blood.