Mr. Misty-Eyed | Josh Dun

dream sequence | fourteen

Tick. Tick. Tick.

My heart kept in beat with the sound of the racing clock. I stayed in the spot I was in, crumpled on the dirty floor of the dark forest. My senses were on high alert as the ticking continued and I feared what would happen once the time was up.

A soft breeze moved through the forest and dying leaves began to fall from the treetops to replace the ones that had already discomposed into the dirt below me. My breath hitched as the forest fell silent. No ticking time bomb. No cool breeze. Nothing.

I refused to look up as a branch snapped, the sound echoing through my head and I shut my eyes tightly already knowing who was here with me. His presence was something I should have been used to after dreaming of him every night for as long as I have and yet here I was still shaking uncontrollably.

"Please, please," I whispered to myself as I wrapped my arms around my body to comfort myself. I prayed in hopes anyone would come and save me. "Please."

But I knew better. No one was coming. All that was left was my shadow and me.

I let out the breath I had been holding, my eyes opening at the same time. My jaw clenched and the sound of crunching leaves caused me to look up.

My lips parted it awe, my eyes growing wide with fear as I stared at the scene in front of me. I had been wrong. We were not alone.

The blackness of my shadow filtered out at the edges as though he could dissipate into a smoky cloud at any second. Though when he moved the leaves under him crunched, but his feet never touched the ground. The surrounding trees stood tall and in focus as the darkness from the canopy above engulfed everything else around them.

There in that darkness, just behind where my shadow hovered were a set of eyes. They were enough to make me scramble backward and away from them and as I did so yet another pair of eyes opened, shining brightly through the black.

I tried to keep my breath even, but as another set of eyes appeared, I knew I had to escape. I had to run. It took only a few second for me to stand and turn away from the glowing eyes. I couldn't let them catch me.

It was then that I took off in a full sprint. I didn't care where I ended up, I just knew that where I was, was not where I wanted to be. My feet carried me as quickly as they could and I tried my hardest to dodge the tree branches that seemed to appear in my way as I continued through the forest.

I skidded to a halt, my hands resting on my knees for support as I caught my breath.

"There's nowhere to turn." His breath wafted against my cheeks and I jumped back in surprise.

It was then I realized that I had ended up right back in the same clearing I had started in. I shook my head, my hands rising up in defense as I backed away. I turned again, about to make my getaway when those same eyes appeared right where I had planned to run.

I let out a huff as I turned yet again in a different direction to see more eyes appearing until the entirety of the forest was ablaze with so many bright eyes. I dropped to the floor speeches as for the first time I saw what the dark forest truly looked like.

The trees that had stood so tall at first now looked as though they were rotting from the inside out. The knots in the wood created gruesome faces that seemed to cry out in pain.

I shut my eyes feeling a pressure on my shoulders as I returned to the huddled position I had been in when I woke up in this hellhole. There was a burning sensation all over from the hundreds of eyes that stayed to watch me drown in my own terror.

And there I stayed, too petrified to even try to make another escape.

.