UNITY

Blaze turned towards the boy with a look of shock.

The skin on the man's chest had already begun to burn away from the orange dagger.

Chase gripped the blade tighter as his own tears turned to steam below his eyes.

"Damned brat..."

The man hissed as he began to shrivel up, his own flesh turning green and moldy.

Chase quickly let go of the burning dagger and backed away.

He wiped his face with his tattered sleeve as he watched the body of his father shapeshift into a terrible monster that resembled a convulsing plant.

The creature's arms slowly turned to long and twisted vines. Its skin turned to clusters of green berries, and its face imploded on itself as the creature had already begun to shrivel up and burn.

There was nothing but silence for what felt like an eternity—realistically, however, it had only been about a minute of Chase standing alone in a small clearing, looking down upon the shriveled beast.

Eventually, the boy hunched over and vomited from the sight. The natural sounds of the forest had returned as he leaned over a small bush, struggling to regain himself.

...

It had been a couple of days since that incident, as the sun lowered itself ever so slowly in the sky, and soon Chase would have to climb up another tree and begin his nightly watch once again.

However, instead of walking like previous days, he was sitting on top of a four-meter-tall root, his stomach growling violently.

Chase had covered himself in a layer of dense, dry leaves from the dead trees that could be found partially buried under the ground of The Dark Forest.

He watched, without making even the slightest noise.

The topaz dagger pulsed faintly in his right hand, as if alive, resonating with the lingering heat of his emotions."

Just as Chase was going to give up for the night, a small rabbit-like creature with two long, azure horns walked below the silent boy.

His grip on the blade tightened as the rabbit got closer to his root.

The rabbit stopped when it spotted a small green berry, only a few inches in front of the small beast.

It slowly trotted over to the berry and lowered its head to sniff the green berry.

Just as it flinched from instant realization, Chase had already been upon the creature.

He pinned the rabbit's neck to the ground with his left hand and lifted the small topaz dagger; however, just as Chase was about to deliver a deadly thrust to the head, he hesitated, causing the rabbit to lash out with its head.

Chase quickly dropped his knee on the rabbit's lower leg—stopping the beast from getting away—as it swung one of its gnarled horns at the boy.

The horn tore away the flesh on Chase's left hand as the boy quickly counter-attacked with the beautiful dagger, ripping into the flesh on the rabbit's neck.

He spat onto the ground as he lowered himself into a resting position. The poor creature was indeed dead, its lifeless and bloody body lying against the cold evening ground.

Chase stood up, reminding himself that dusk was near, as he grabbed the beast and threw it over his shoulder, beginning to walk in the direction of the northeast.

...

The exhausted boy now found himself atop one of the lower branches of the towering trees as he sat in front of a small fire.

He bit into the chewy flesh of the overcooked rabbit.

"This tastes terrible," Chase thought to himself as he finished the closest thing to a real meal he had had in almost a week.

Somewhere in the distance, a faint howl cut through the trees, reminding Chase he was never truly alone in this cursed forest.

He sat quietly, thinking of the things he had lost in such a short amount of time. The realization was truly sickening: losing your friends and only family, just to spend the short rest of your life in a place that might as well be hell itself.

Chase made a short and silent prayer for his father and friends as he closed his eyes. He listened to the stifled chirps of birds, as well as the crickets hidden inside the trunks of the trees.

He opened his eyes tiredly to see thousands of small white dots falling gently from the sky.

It had begun to snow...

Which was not necessarily a good thing—in fact, it was a terrible thing. There was no way Chase would even have a chance at surviving The Dark Forest in the winter.

That was even if Chase had a chance to begin with, which he didn't.

He silently cursed as he steadily rested the back of his head against the tree.

Another memory revealed itself that was hidden in the depths of his mind...

As the snow continued to fall, the cold seeped into his bones, and for the first time, Chase felt the weight of his own mortality pressing down on him.

He had also remembered that his birthday had recently passed, making him thirteen now.