Ren had been wandering for hours, his body tired but driven by some unrelenting need to keep moving forward. But in a moment, he noticed something was off. Something had changed in the air. The oppressive weight of the darkened forest lifted just slightly. Once dark with crimson embers, the sky above turned lighter with a soft, grey tone. A fog curled low around his feet and crept through his cloak, shifting the world around him into an eerie dreamlike haze.
That's when he saw it: jagged rooftops that peeked just above the treeline.
"Buildings?" His voice cracked. "People? It-it can't be..."
His pace quickened.
Breaking out of the never-ending trees, his eyes widened.
A village, half swallowed by the mist.
The buildings sagged under the weight of time, roofs caved inward like collapsed lungs. Doors dangled on their rusted hinges, and walls wept of mildew and black vines.
Ren stepped cautiously into the silence.
And that's when he saw it.
Figures standing motionless in the mist—too still to be natural.
They were pale white, skin stretched tightly around brittle bones. But they weren't like the corpses he had seen before. No, these were different. There was still some humanity left in their milky eyes, some remnant of life clinging to them. But Ren noticed something strange.
"Can they see me?"
He was thrown off at the reaction of these villagers, not a single one turning to see him.
Until one of them—a woman with wisps of gray hair clinging to her scalp—stepped forward from the crooked porch of a collapsed house.
"You..." The woman stated, her voice thin, like it was a struggle to even speak. "You shouldn't be here..."
There was panic in her eyes. She stepped closer with her hands outstretched, as if trying to push him away without touching him.
Ren wanted to question her, but the look in her eyes silenced him.
"Please, you need to leave...It's not safe for you here." Her voice trembled with urgency.
Her face spasmed, something in her expression seeming to shift.
And then—a smile.
But it wasn't comforting, not reassuring. No, there was something wrong.
Her mouth stretched too wide, the corners ripping with a wet snap.
"You don't belong here...You need to go! Please...it's dangerous for you here." Her words tumbled out, still pleading for Ren to leave.
The corners of her mouth were now stretched up to her eyes, blood gushing from the rips.
Ren took a step back, his eyes widened at the sight.
"Please! Run before—"
Her body convulsed where it stood, and then her voice changed.
"Mother sees you..." The woman spoke through her uncanny smile, cold and flat.
Ren stumbled back.
The villagers that once didn't acknowledge Ren's presence now stared blankly at him.
They were all smiling. No, their faces were ripping, contorted in ways not humanly possible, like something was forcing their flesh into place. Unblinking eyes leaked with blood.
In the same unnatural tone, flat and eerie, the villagers said in unison.
"Mother sees you..."
"Mother sees you..."
"Mother sees you..."
"Mother sees you..."
"Mother sees you..."
Panic surged through Ren's spine.
He darted through the narrow streets, hurdling broken fences, weaving through splintered carts, curving around building walls. He ran with all he had, his breath coming in short gasps.
Ren could hear them—hundreds of feet, the unison of the words they spoke.
"Mother sees you..."
"Mother sees you..."
"Mother sees you..."
Then, turning another corner blindly, something snatched him.
Ren's heart dropped, his eyes wide in horror. A gaunt man, his face twisted with that same uncanny smile, slammed him into the side of a building, knocking the wind out of him.
The villager's hands shot forward, clamping over his face with unnerving strength.
Without hesitation, Ren pulled out his dagger, forcing it deep into the man's side.
Over and over and over again.
But the man wasn't fazed.
One hand pried his mouth open.
The other went for his left eye.
"No—No, please—!"
The fingers dug at his eye, pressing deep into the socket.
"No—"
Pop
Ren screamed, raw and high, as his world turned red.
He couldn't see. Couldn't think.
But instinct—raw, primal—took over.
Ren yanked the dagger out from the man's side, sending it into the side of his skull, repeating the stabbing process multiple times.
The villager seized—shuddered—and collapsed, eyes still wide and staring.
Ren stumbled back onto the wall, one hand clutching the weeping hole where his eye had been. Blood poured through his fingers, warm and real. He blinked—his remaining eye wide, twitching wildly.
He looked down at the body beneath him.
Still twitching
Still smiling
"Mother sees you..."
"Mother sees you..."
Ren looked to his side; a woman with the same smile was charging around the corner. He swung out of pure instinct, the dagger carving into her throat.
Warm blood splattered across his cheek as the body collapsed.
Ren backed away, horror clawing up his throat.
"Oh God...I—I didn't—"
Ren's hands shook violently when he noticed.
It was red.
The blood was red.
The blood was real.
"Mother sees you..."
"Mother sees you..."
"Mother sees you..."
More came around the corner, all blank eyes locked on Ren.
Over and over, Ren brutally stabbed the oncoming villagers.
Blood soaked him. It covered his face, leaked off his dagger.
It poured into his mouth, into his nose.
The ground beneath him began to slicken with it.
They kept screaming.
They kept bleeding.
They were human.
Yet, they still smiled.
He staggered back, his breath coming in ragged sobs.
"I—I didn't want this!" Ren choked from the lack of air. "You made me—why did you make me?!"
The villagers continued to move in.
"Why won't they stop?!"
Ren raised the dagger to strike, his entire body shaking.
And then—a sound cut through the madness.
A low, hollow cry—like wind rushing passed his ears.
Then—hooves.
Soft. Glowing. Deliberate.
Out of this mist, it came.
A horse, tall and decaying, yet impossibly majestic. Elegant in a way that defied death. Its pitch white man flowed unnaturally, as if caught in a wind that touched nothing else. Its eyes gleamed like molten silver, and with every step, it left behind faint, glowing hoofprints.
It looked directly at Ren, charging right in his direction. In an instant, it was upon Ren. The horse's jaws clamped down tight on his left arm—and pulled, galloping into the mist.
Ren looked back.
The villagers stood at the edge of the village. Mutilated and bloodied, they still smiled.
"Mother sees you..."
The chant echoed long after the village had vanished behind the trees.