Breaking the Curse

Chapter 3

Then, his body shook uncontrollably before Sebastian regained consciousness. As he lay there on the ground, gasping for air, he heard: A strange guttural sound coming from behind him. He pushed his feet and turned to the sound. Foliage shuddered. The sounds grew louder. Something was coming closer. Sebastian abandoned his bike – and ran for his life into –

THE FORBIDDEN FOREST.

A dark, deep forest that had a lot of dark history in it, and the locals feared it to this day.

He ran as fast as he could and tried to find something big enough to hide from the mystery figure that kept following him behind.

He spotted a shaggy mutt hiding behind a tree trunk. He thought it might be friendly or at least scared like him. He ran towards it, hoping it would help him or at least not bite him.

But before he could reach it, a big lightning bolt suddenly struck the tree that Sebastian was hiding next to, causing the tree nearby to catch fire.

"MOM?! DAD?! MOM?" he shouted in panic in the middle of the forest, where the nearest place that people lived was 1km away.

Sebastian continued to run and suddenly stumbled upon a tall ancient stone wall. He looked up and realized it was an ancient temple ruin,

He walked slowly inside the temple, pulling his flashlight out and trying to explore the ruin.

"HELLO!!! HELLO!!! IS ANYBODY HERE?" He shouted in terror as both his legs began to shake.

He hoped someone would hear him and come to his rescue.

He hoped someone would save him from this nightmare.

He heard a low rumble on the other side of the wall. But not a voice – it was that GUTTURAL SOUND as he heard back in the forest. The pitch rose and fell, making a series of strange sounds. Words? It was as if the figure — whoever – whatever it was... was somehow speaking to him.

Behind him, a red-flying creature began to growl. Sebastian lowered the flashlight and looked back. A shadow filled the crack at the base of the front entrance of the temple. And then somehow, impossibly, the chain bolt began to slide open, as if drawn by an invisible hand. The metal shrieked. Sebastian dropped the flashlight and –

Whom! Sebastian rushed down into the basement of the temple and it led to some kind of a cave entrance with a closed wooden door. He sprinted into it without hesitation, not noticing the old wooden table covered with strange symbols and candles. He bumped into it and sent it crashing to the floor, along with a loud clatter and –

Wham! He slammed the door behind him. Breathing loudly. His eyes darted. Searching for something. The cave was a cluttered and dark mess, with only a naked red candle hanging from the ceiling to provide some light. The candle sputtered and dimmed, creating spooky shapes on the walls. His eyes searched the room, looking for something to protect himself with. Finally, he saw it:

An old sword. Dusty. Hanging on a stonewall mount. Sebastian yanked it down and held it very tight in his shaky hand. He was so scared his hands sweat and shake. THUD. THUD. THUD.

Heavy footsteps echo across the small space. Then guttural noises.

Sebastian looked back at the door and slowly-- ever slowly – the wooden door began to yawn open.

Sebastian quickly reached up to take the axe in front of him, which seemed to be his only defensive weapon to defend himself from this mysterious figure.

Both of his hands grip hard on the axe's wooden handle as he aims it at the door. The axe trembles in his hands. The black wooden doors slowly yawned open the rest of the way. Strangely, there was nothing coming out from behind it but a cloud of black smoke.