The forest was silent.
Too silent.
Elias kept walking through the mud, his breath sharp and uneven. Every sound — every rustle of branches — made his nerves tighten.
The air itself felt wrong, heavy, like it didn't belong to a world where humans could breathe.
The iron bar in his hand had begun to rust further under the red rain. He wiped it with his sleeve, even though he knew it was useless. He needed to keep moving — if he stopped, he'd start thinking. And if he started thinking, he'd remember the faces of the corpses lying behind him.
Then, a sound — wet and fast.
Splat. Splat.
Elias froze. Slowly, he turned his head.
Something was there.
It crawled from behind the twisted trees, tall and sinewy, its body stretched like it had been pulled apart too many times. Its bones jutted under thin gray skin, and its mouth was too wide — filled with teeth that didn't fit.
Elias' heartbeat roared in his ears.
He gripped the bar tighter, ready to swing if it came closer.
But the thing didn't wait.
It leapt.
The impact threw Elias into the mud. His weapon flew out of reach. Before he could scream, claws pierced his shoulder and tore through flesh.
He pushed, kicked, fought — but it was too strong. The creature's mouth opened wide above him, drool dripping onto his face.
"Get—off—me!"
He slammed his fist into its jaw. It barely flinched. The teeth came down — and bit deep into his side.
Elias screamed.
He felt something snap inside, hot pain flooding every nerve. The world turned white from agony.
He clawed at the ground, dragging himself away, leaving a trail of blood.
But the pain didn't stop. It grew.
Something inside him was… moving.
His veins burned as if liquid fire ran through them. He could feel his own bones shifting, cracking, like they were being pulled apart from the inside.
Elias collapsed, gasping, eyes wide with terror.
His skin rippled — and then split.
Black, jagged spikes burst from his back, shredding through muscle and skin. He screamed again, choking on blood. The spikes twisted like living things, tearing him open from the inside out.
"Stop—! Make it stop—!"
His voice broke into sobs, but no one answered. The creature watched him writhe for a moment — then turned and vanished into the trees.
Elias lay there, his body breaking apart. He could feel his heartbeat slowing… his vision fading.
And then — silence.
A breath.
A drop of rain.
A smell of rust and blood.
Elias' eyes opened.
He was lying on the same patch of mud, beneath the same black sky.
His body — whole again.
His clothes — dry, unstained.
The iron bar lay beside him, just where it had been before.
He didn't move. Couldn't.
His mind was blank — his thoughts shattered.
"No," he whispered. "No… this isn't real."
But it was.
He could already hear it — the faint, wet crawl of the creature in the distance. The same as before.
Everything had reset.
He gripped his head, shaking violently. "Why me?! What is this place?!"
No answer came. Only the endless, red rain.
He fell to his knees, trembling.
His voice cracked between sobs and laughter.
> "I died… and I came back.
I die again… and it resets.
What kind of hell— is this?"
The wind blew cold through the dead forest.
Elias clenched his jaw, picked up the iron bar once more, and stared into the dark.