HOME | DD

Description
Sunlight danced across Y/n’s face. It felt like five seconds ago she had slipped into bed and shut her eyes. How could it possibly be morning already? Barely conscious, Y/n took a deep breath and tried to ease her mind back into sleep. The air didn’t smell like her room. It smelled fresh, like summer, with just a hint of something rotten. Y/n opened her eyes but snapped them shut immediately. The light was blinding. She peeled them open again and let her eyes adjust to the sun.

Tree branches rich with leaves swayed above her, creating swirling patterns on the forest floor. Y/n sat up as she suddenly became very awake. This wasn’t her room. She whirled her head around. Gigantic trees with snaking vines clinging to them surrounded her. Y/n’s breath caught in her throat and it became very difficult to breath. She felt the urge to move or to run as her heart picked up. She scuttled backwards as if the entire forest in front of her looming down over her. ‘This can’t be real’ She thought, ‘I have to be hallucinating. This isn’t real.’ She squeezed her hands into fists, silently praying she would wake up in her bed safe and sound. Y/n looked down at her hands; they were clutching leaves. She felt very small as she sat on the forest floor looking up at the trees.

Y/n exhaled shakily and stood up. The forest floor scratched her feet and she looked down. No shoes. Y/n let out a noise that was somewhere in between a laugh and a sob. She was still in those long cotton pants and over sized t-shirt she went to bed in. Y/n laughed again. She was in her pajamas, with no shoes, hyperventilating in the middle of a forest.

Had she been kidnapped? Had she been abducted from her home and dumped in a forest? Was there a serial killer behind a tree waiting to murder her? Was it aliens? Did she sleep walk here? Y/n’s head was reeled as she sorted through all the possibilities. However she came to be here, Y/n knew she had to get out. She had to get back to her house, to her room, to her life.

Y/n shuddered and began to walk forward. She didn’t know which way to go, there was no path that she could see, so the girl headed towards the sun.

The forest was silent expect for the slight rustling of leaves in the breeze. Y/n was very aware of every breath she took and every twig that snapped under her step. It felt like she was making a deafening amount of noise. The sunlight, that had been so blinding earlier, seemed to have dimmed. The lack of light made every shadow foreboding and threatening. Tears welled up in Y/n’s eyes; she was so scared. Her hands tingled and every step she took felt like one step closer to a heart attack. But that didn’t stop her. She continued to walk with little to no sense of how much time was passing. The forest never changed; for all Y/n new she could have been walking in circles.

A twig snapped behind her. Y/n stopped in her tracks and she whipped her head around to look behind her. There was nothing, no one was behind her. She was looking at the same bushes and vines she’d been looking at since she woke up. Y/n stood perfectly still for a moment; waiting for another noise but nothing met her ears. She turned and continued walking. The hairs stood up on her neck and the back of her arms. Y/n glanced behind her again and then swiveled her head to look all around. Thought she couldn’t see anything her gut told her she was being watched. The rotting smell was getting worse. Something deep inside of her told her to run.
There was another crunch but it was closer this time. Y/n picked up her pace. The sound of limbs scuttling over leaves greeted her ears. Y/n’s walk turned into a run. She glanced behind her and she screamed.

A huge, man-sized spider was giving chase. Multiple eyes followed her every move. From what Y/n could see it was just shy of her height. It had long eerie legs that stretched out across the leaves as it moved towards her.

Y/n snapped her head back and sprinted as fast as she could through the forest. Adrenaline rushed through her body and she could feel her heart rate spike painfully. Y/n had never felt this kind of fear before. Her guts were churning as if she was going to throw up. She didn’t know what to do. There was a giant spider chasing her and she didn’t know what to do. The words ‘don’t look back don’t look back,’ ran around Y/n’s head in an endless cycle. Sticks, rocks, and underbrush scraped her feet as they pounded the ground. Y/n zigzagged through the trees and brush as she tried to shake the monster following her. To her credit, Y/n managed to gain some distance on the creature. The girl ran into a clearing and looked around as she tried to catch her breath. She looked behind her; she couldn’t see the spider but it was close. Y/n could hear it clicking, panting, and muttering to itself. Y/n was surprised she could hear anything over the blood pumping through her own ears. She darted behind a thick tree truck and squeezed her eyes shut. Y/n silently prayed that this was all a nightmare. The spider entered the clearing at a slow deliberate pace. It was hunting her. Y/n clasped her hand over her mouth and tried to silence her rapid breathing. Y/n opened her eyes and desperately scanned her surroundings. ‘What do I do? What do I do?’ Her eyes fell on a rock the size of a human head two inches from her foot. She knew what do to.

The clicking drew closer to her tree. Y/n heaved the rock up with both hands and pressed her back against the tree. Her hands were shaking and two stray tears slid down her cheeks. It was right on top of her now; she could feel it on the back of her neck. All she could hear was clicking, muttering, and crunching.

With a cry Y/n stepped out from behind the trunk, raised the rock above her head, and brought it down as hard as she physically could. The rock collided with the spider’s head. Two of its many legs reached out to grab her but Y/n didn’t hesitate. She brought the rock down again and again. The spider’s head collapsed in on itself. Y/n was splattered with the monster’s blue blood. She shrieked and spat it out of her mouth. The spider’s legs twitched and flailed as it died but Y/n kept hitting. She had to be sure.

Finally, she stopped to gasped for breath. The rock, now coated in blood, fell from her trembling hands onto the beaten pulp that barely resembled a spider. She hadn’t realized how heavy the stone was until she dropped it. Y/n raised a hand to her forehead and let out a sob. The world was spinning, her stomach was churning and she couldn’t think straight. Her heart was racing so fast it felt like it would give out at any moment.

“I have to get out of here,” She gasped. “I have to get out of here.”

Y/n stumbled out of the clearing. She’d lost what tiny sense of direction she had. The forest spun around her. Every shadow was a threat and every sound a spider. Y/n began to run again. She ran as fast as her exhausted body could take her. Every few seconds she’d turn her head to check behind her. The forest looked the same; everything looked the same.

Y/n ran into yet another clearing and suddenly she was greeted with fourteen unfriendly bearded faces. Y/n shrieked and slid to a stop of the leafy floor. A sharp pain stabbed her foot and she winced. The men, if that’s what they were, seemed startled by the interruption. They also seemed extremely hostile. All of them drew some kind of weapon: a knife, a sword, an axe, a bow. A gasp escaped her lips and Y/n pitched backwards. She turned on her heel and tried to run again but someone gripped her arm. She screamed. Y/n was thrown against a tree and knife was press against her throat. She looked down at the men that held her there. He was short and squat and distinctly inhuman. In fact all of these men didn’t look human: the tallest man in the group only came to about the height of her shoulder. The sharp edge of the knife broke the tender skin of her neck and a line of blood appeared. Y/n squeezed her eyes shut and burst into tears.