Because of the heavy rain earlier, the ground had turned soft and mushy, each step sinking slightly beneath my weight. Walking in shoes only made it worse, so I abandoned them near the slope, telling myself I'd retrieve them on the way back.
Still… something about it unsettled me.
In my dream, I hadn't been wearing shoes either.
Barefoot, I moved through the damp grass, the cold earth pressing against my skin as I slowly made my way toward the lone tree. My focus was absolute—every thought, every sense fixed on the space around it, searching for the slightest movement.
That was why I noticed it too late.
A silhouette lingered at the edge of my vision.
It was distant, vaguely human in shape, but its features were impossible to make out. I might have missed it entirely… if not for the certainty—the unmistakable feeling—that it was staring directly at me.
It had been heading toward the tree as well.
Then it stopped.
And turned.
Toward me.
At first, it began to walk, its pace slow and deliberate. Then, step by step, it quickened—its movements growing sharper, more urgent—until suddenly, it broke into a full sprint.
'Ah… damn'.
It ran like a starving beast set loose, and fear surged through me just as violently. For a second—two, maybe—I froze, my body refusing to respond.
Then instinct took over.
I ran.
But not away this time.
I ran toward the tree.
Its pull was stronger now—no longer a faint whisper, but something insistent, almost commanding.
Behind me, the silhouette closed in at an inhuman speed. Faster than anyone I had ever seen. The distance between us vanished in seconds.
Just under a hundred meters from the tree—
Impact.
It hit me like a truck.
The force lifted me clean off my feet, sending me crashing into the ground. Pain exploded through my body as I bounced and rolled across the wet grass before finally coming to a stop, flat on my back.
For a moment, I couldn't breathe.
Everything hurt.
My left shoulder—where it had struck—felt wrong, slightly out of place. Not broken… not yet. But close.
Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to move, twisting my neck despite the pain.
The silhouette was already getting up.
No… not a silhouette anymore.
A man.
Human.
And familiar.
I didn't know his name, but I had seen him around town—a man in his forties, with a receding hairline, a mustache, and a rough beard. Completely ordinary.
Except for one thing.
One of his eyes burned a vivid, unnatural red—like a fragment of hellfire trapped within him.
And the moment our gazes met—
I felt it again.
That same eerie presence.
The same suffocating wrongness.
Just like the beings from the darkness in my dream.