Chương 50: Chapter 50
Maggie sat in the mud, her clothes soaked, the cold biting into her skin. The trees around her were twisted things, blackened and broken, their branches clawing at the sky. The forest was dead. Everything about it felt wrong.
She didn't know how she'd gotten there. She didn't remember anything before waking up under the twisted trees, alone.
She hadn't seen another person for days. Her stomach growled, but there was nothing to eat. No sign of anyone who could help. Only the twisted shapes of the trees, the hollow silence of the forest, and the distant caws of something far too large to be a crow. Maggie shivered and pulled her knees to her chest, wishing she could sleep, but the cold wouldn't let her.
A branch cracked behind her, and she stiffened. Her heart slammed against her ribs. She turned her head slowly, hoping to see someone—maybe a rescue team, maybe just a person who could lead her out.
Nothing. Just the trees. But the caws came again, closer this time.
Then, she heard it—the shuffle of feet on the wet ground. Soft at first, but getting louder. She felt something in the pit of her stomach, the wrongness of it. The noise stopped. Then the smell hit her—a sickly-sweet, rotting odor.
A low growl reached her ears. Maggie's breath caught. She dared not turn her head.
Something was moving just out of sight. Something large.
A snout emerged from the dark. Its teeth were yellow, sharp, and covered in something slick. Maggie froze, her body refusing to move. The thing dragged itself closer, its body twisting like it was used to crawling, its long claws scraping against the ground. It was covered in matted fur, the skin underneath too thin and raw.
Maggie could hear its breath now, wet and heavy. It was close. So close. She wanted to scream, but no sound came. Her throat closed. Her chest felt like it was caving in.
The thing let out another growl, but it wasn't a warning this time. It was a promise.
Without warning, it lunged. Maggie's heart stopped as its jaws closed around her arm. She screamed, her voice harsh and thin. The thing dragged her across the ground, its claws tearing at her skin, the dirt sticking to the blood as it pooled around her. Maggie kicked, but it only made the thing pull harder. She couldn't breathe. It was too much. Too much.
Her body jerked. Her mind cracked as the thing's teeth sank into her chest. It didn't stop. She could hear its teeth ripping through flesh, the sound of muscle tearing, the wet tearing, the sickening, crunching sound.
Then, as her world dissolved into the pain, something changed. The other shapes in the dark stepped forward. More of them. Their eyes were cold, their bodies twisted, their teeth glinting in the faint light that barely cut through the trees. They didn't look like animals. They were something worse. Maggie tried to scream again, but the words wouldn't form.
They all came for her, mouths wide.
It didn't matter that she was small, or that she was alone. It didn't matter that she had once been a child, lost and terrified. They tore her apart.
The last thing she felt was the bite of cold against her skin, and then—nothing.
Tình trạng nguồn điện hàng tuần
-- Xếp hạng
Quyền lực 
-- Đá
Quyền lực