Short Stories (trigger warning. Depression, suicide, and eating disorders)

The Unfair Game

I know that she is coming for me, but there isn't anything I can do about it. As I am drifting out of consciousness, I see her. Her brown, lifeless eyes lock into my blue ones. Her black hair flows through the wind as she points at me with long, sharpened black nails.
That's the last thing I see before I am in a different world, a world unlike any other. The night sky fills with clouds and an oblique full moon. I look around, but only see the endless woods, the trees seemingly outstretched towards me. I cry out.
"Hello? Can someone help me? Where am I?! Hello?!"
A low deep growl starts behind me. I turn in fright and a giant black wolf with white eyes is growling ferociously. I freeze for a minute before running in the opposite direction as fast as I can.
I stumble a few times, but am somehow lucky enough to escape. That's what I believe anyway. I bend over, trying to catch my breath and I look around. Where the heck am I and what was that monster?
I look around, trying to figure out a direction I could go to. In every direction there are trees and grass. Maybe I can find someone, if anyone is in this strange world. I walk in what I believe to be north as I look around. It was dark in this part of the woods. The crunching of autumn leaves under my feet with every step would likely draw attention.
I try to step quieter to not attract a monster's attention, but the more quiet I tried to be, the louder I really became. It reminds me of a horror movie, but I don't think I'll like the ending. Unlike a horror movie, I can't just switch this off.
I continue walking for what feels like days until I make it to the end of the woods. Though, there was a small problem. When the trees stopped, so did the ground. It was like in a video game, when you reach the end of the map and there's nothing but space. I put my hand out, touching something my eyes couldn't see.
I frown and look around, what is this place? I sigh, running my hand over the invisible barrier. I decided to follow it, wanting to know if it went all of the way around the woods. This world can't only be woods, can it?
After hours of walking, apparently the answer was yes, woods can be the only thing in this world. Woods and monsters. I could hear them, I don't know how I'm still alive. They're watching me, their prey, as I follow a pointless path in a void of woods. They knew I can't escape my fate here and they will wait to take me.
This is all her fault. The goddess of darkness and the void, that's what she went by. I know her by only one other title: mother. She is the woman who birthed me, I was immortal at one point. All of her children were, but then she thought up a 'game' as she says.
The idea she came up with was that she would turn her children mortal at birth, then they would have until they turned 16 to become immortal again. They had to figure out one of the many different ways to do so; however, if they failed to before midnight of their 16th birthday, she would kill them herself.
She is a heartless monster looking for cheap entertainment and that's what she's found. My sixteenth birthday had come and gone about a month ago. She hadn't come for me right away. On my birthday, I ran away. I packed up everything from my foster care and got out of there. I was on the run from her, even though it had been pointless.
Now I am stuck running away, in this world. Stuck by the void and not able to escape. She was likely the monster that attacked me earlier. Part of the 'game' is that she kills me herself and shape shifting is one of her many specialities.
She is probably watching me right now. I had stopped moving and I was standing still as thoughts consumed me. I bet she is thinking about how much I could entertain her while she watches me run around here. There'd be no where to go, is it even worth delaying the inevitable? She'll kill me either way and I know if I run, it will just cause her more joy. She is twisted like that.
I decide, in the end, I'm going to die. I wasn't able to become immortal again. Few were, sadly. I know that no one will worry about me in my world. I had made sure everyone hated me. I kept everyone at arm's length from me. My whole life, I knew this was a possibility.
I didn't want anyone sad that one day, I would be gone. If I had been able to become immortal, I would have had to leave as well.
When I didn't become immortal, I knew I would die. It wasn't a possibility in my mind that I could outrun her. She is a goddess, no matter how insane. She is more powerful than I can comprehend. She could have killed me anytime she wanted. The only reason it was being delayed so long was because she found me amusing.
She always had found me amusing. She used to come to me in my dreams and tell me this. When I was young, I thought it was a compliment. A goddess found me amusing. My mother found me amusing, wasn't that fantastic? Then as I grew, I began to understand what she meant. It wasn't a compliment, she doesn't see me anymore than a pawn.
I didn't know the first thing on becoming immortal and my efforts and motivation had amused her. Having hope amused her.
Twisted. That's the word I always use to describe my mother. People never understand why. This is why. This world is why.
Therefore, I decide to sit down and wait. I wait for her to come out and kill me. I would no longer entertain her, I would no longer do anything. I wouldn't fight it anymore. You can't escape your fate. It's engraved in stone, everpresent.
I lean against the invisible wall and wonder what it would have been like to live normally. To get to truly feel alive.
My thoughts are interrupted by a twig snapping. The monster from earlier is watching me from between a few trees. I frown, having made up my mind, "Go ahead, kill me. End my life, I'm done running from you. I'm no longer going to be your pawn. I have accepted the fact that I will die at your hands."
The monster grins wolfishly at me, "Out of motivation? I thought it would last longer. Maybe I don't know my kids as well as I'd like to believe." She sighs and walks to me, her form towering over me. I gaze up at her, wondering how she planned to kill me.
I shrug as I stare at her, "Guess not." This was all I said. I didn't have anything to really say to her. She is a monster, inside and out. Nothing I said would do anything more than make her laugh. It was a pity, I wanted to tell her off. I wouldn't give her that satisfaction though. I didn't want her to know how much she was affecting me. How much I really wanted to continue living. How much I wished I could escape.
She sighs, "Alright, I believe you have run out of use. I'll kill you and move onto another child. The cycle will repeat, as it always does." With that, she lifts up her monster paw and hovers it over my head. I wasn't expecting her to crush me with her paw. What an interesting way to die. Time seems to slow down as her paw gets closer. I see my life in someone else's point of view and really see how she'd controlled me. I really was her pawn, I never played any other role. That put out the last of my hope and I close my eyes.
The last thing I remember is quiet, then the indescribable pain as I am crushed under a monster's paw. The pain was there, then it wasn't. It ceased to exist like I did, leaving nothing behind but the cold darkness.