Eyes the color of white jade, the world seemingly bent its knee to his deceit. A flip of a coin from him could change day and night and have none the wiser.
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The sun had long set over the distant hills and fields. A deep bronze moon began climbing its way towards the apex of the sky, watching over the world's inhabitants like a guardian. The glow of the bronze moon seemed to bring an entirely different eco system to life, the chirping of the birds was replaced by that of crickets. An occasional howl would cut through the peaceful silence of the night.
Laying in his bed that lay next to his parents, Oscar struggled to fall asleep. Turning from side to side with a frown on his face, eyes still closed. Finally accepting his fate, Oscar opened his eyes and flopped onto his back. Oscar stared at the thatch roof that sat above him, a smirk came to Oscar's face as he had a mischievous thought. Kicking the blanket off him, Oscar sat up.
Glancing over to his parent's bed, he saw the slow rhythmic rising and falling of their chest's, signaling to him that they were still asleep. Slowly and as silent as possible Oscar swung his legs off the bed, planting his feet on the floor. Then with patience beyond his years Oscar slowly stood up, and moved with utmost precision, placing one careful step after another attempting to eliminate any noise that his escape might generate.
Finally, after what could only be described as a hellishly long time for a young child, Oscar reached the door. Slowly undoing the latch that kept the door shut, Oscar began to slowly push the door open.
Creak
Oscar nearly jumped in fright, slowly turning his head in fear of what he might see. Oscar glanced back at his parents. Their breathing still slow and rhythmic Oscar let out a sigh of relief before finally pushing the door all the way open and taking a step out into the night.
Oscar closed the door silently—but missed the sudden tension in his father's breath, his muscles no longer as relaxed as they previously were, like a tightly compressed spring ready to unleash at any moment. Of course, Oscar wouldn't notice, not him at least, not Kellian.
Oscar, who had now escaped the confines of his prison cell took a deep breath, feeling the fresh, clean air fill every part of his lungs. The smell of petrichor invigorated the young boy as he began to look around suspiciously, making sure none of the other villagers were awake to see him engage in mischief.
Walking briskly down the path that he had taken to enter the village earlier that day, Oscar took in his surroundings. The night a deep blue reminiscent of what one would see at untold depths of the ocean, white stars dotted the backdrop, and all of it seemed to be centered around the massive bronze moon, it hung at the apex of the night, ruling all the other components around it. It was beautiful.
'Perfect. As always.' Oscar thought, as he continued his stroll down the dark road. Pillars of light would occasionally break through the branches of the trees that wove themselves above parts of the path. The bronze glow ensured that Oscar wasn't completely blind on his journey, using the light as a compass onwards.
Eventually, Oscar came upon a fork in the road. One path, made up of the same gravel as the rest, continued down the same direction he was currently walking, and would eventually lead him back to where he had been earlier that day. The second path, splitting off from the one he walked on currently and heading towards his left, was only made up of gravel for the first few paces, after which it quickly turned into dirt before sparse grass began to grow.
'The road less traveled then.' Oscar smiled, feeling his adventurous spirit kick in to over drive. Oscar quickly took the divergent path, and after a few paces he felt the gravel disappear from under his feet. Soon, Oscar found himself in the woods, the canopy of trees had grown so thick that it seemed as if light was refused the right to even enter the woods. The roots of the trees were thick and intertwined with each other like the appendages of a giant squid, the discoloration and holes in the trees would occasionally make some yell in fear, thinking they had seen the disfigured face of a man in the bark of the trees.
Without even noticing, Oscar's breath became shallower, his palms began to become slick with sweat as he balled his fists. Oscar looked back, the path he had entered seemingly having long been eaten up by the maw of the encroaching darkness.
Turning back, Oscar closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The air no longer felt as clean as when he had just stepped out of the house, the air felt heavy, as if he was breathing in water. He felt suffocated. The smell of petrichor still lingered in the air, but so did something more rustic, something that would make someone's nostrils sting and have them gagging for air.
'It's just nature, Oscar.'
Oscar made up his mind, before continuing down his original path. The mischievous grin that was plastered on his face had long since been replaced by a more serious expression, as his eyes darted back and forth between shadows that seemed to cast scenes of horrifying monsters and terrifying visions over the path.
A few short moments soon turned into what felt like days, the darkness hadn't receded a single bit as Oscar continued walking. He felt as if he had already walked the distance from the Village to the Imperial capital numerous times over, finally Oscar grew tired. He stopped his march forward before coming to rest on a tree that grew just a few paces away from the path. Resting his head on the trunk of the tree Oscar sighed, his original goal of walking till he got tired had been completed, but now… he was completely lost.
'Damned, how am I getting out of here?' Oscar thought, picking up a stone and tossing it mindlessly onto the path.
'Do I just turn back? I can't be far' now.' Oscar began to argue between himself, pulled to either try his best at retracing his steps, or continuing down the seemingly endless overgrown trail.
'100 paces, if I don't find nothin' then' I'll leave.'
Oscar sat up from his resting spot and walked back to the path, stepping over the rock he had previously thrown he continued.
'1, 2, 3…' Oscar counted the steps in his head.
'…15, 16, 17…'
'…41, 42, 43…'
'95, 96, 97'
"Ah-!" Oscar let out a small yell as he tripped, landing headfirst onto the path.
"Damn!" Oscar almost began to cry as he rubbed the bump that was already starting to form on his forehead. Biting his lip, Oscar ignored the pain in his knee and forehead before pushing himself up to sit on his butt. Suddenly, Oscar stopped moving, even his breath halted. For three or so paces behind him, there was a rock, but not just any rock. It was the exact same one that he had thrown onto the path just a hundred or so paces before.
Looking around, Oscar's pupils grew as small as needles, his eyes locked onto a tree that lay just a few paces off the path. The exact same tree that he had been resting at just moments before.
'What the… I've gon' inna' circle?' Oscar's breath began to quicken, becoming faster by the second. A curtain of black began to fall over his vision.
'Calm down Oscar!'
Oscar screamed internally, his breath began to return to regular intervals, taking a few deep breaths, Oscar began to think about his situation.
'It took less than' a hundred paces to get back to where I was. So, I shouldn't be far from the entrance.' Oscar's heart grew calmer at that realization, he quickly sat up and glanced around, finding a branch that had fallen from a tree. He quickly dug a small hole next to the path before burying the bottom of the branch in the ground. Covering it in a mound of dirt for support, Oscar angled the branch so that it stood vertically, clearly visible from the path.
Once he had finished setting up the branch Oscar once more returned to the path. But instead of continuing in his original direction he quickly did a 180, facing the way he had come from. Once more, Oscar began to walk and count in his head.
'1, 2, 3…'
'…21, 22, 23…'
'… 95, 96, 97- '
At the 97th step, Oscar glanced off to the side, there, in the exact same position he had set it up in, the branch remained standing. Oscar, crouched down putting his hands on his temple as he closed his eyes.
'I can't go back, and I can't go forward.' Oscar looked to the side. There like an army of shadows was the expanse of woods, the illusion of the faces on the bark seemingly laughing at him, telling him to come in. Taking a deep breath, Oscar calmed himself. He knew he had no choice.
Taking one hesitant step after another Oscar neared the tree line. His eyes darted around the forest so much that anyone else would have gotten dizzy and fainted. Taking one more moment to gather himself, Oscar took a deep breath before raising his leg, his other shaking beneath his weight, and took a step.
After a second, noticing that nothing had bitten off his ankle, Oscar fully stepped past the tree line and entered the woods. Suddenly, the air seemed to become heavier, like a weight pressing down on the shoulders of whoever entered.
The wind whistled through the branches, sounding almost like the whispers of ghosts long forgotten. The whole forest seemed to come alive, the trees watched, the wind spoke, and the shadows listened. Oscar, having already prepared himself, continued to adventure deeper and deeper into the woods. Every branch that creaked and broke under his foot would cause his shoulders to tense up as he scanned his environment constantly.
Suddenly, Oscar heard it,
Oscar…
The sound tickled his ear like warm breath. Oscar spun around, heart hammering, certain someone was behind him. But there was only fog, trees—and the feeling that something had just leaned in to speak.
Like a masterfully done statue by an expert stone mason, Oscar stood, petrified under the gaze of the woods that now seemed to haunt him.
'Fuck!' Oscar realized he was in over his head, but at this point there was no turning back. He braced himself and kept walking.
After what felt like days Oscar came through the trees into a small clearing. The grass seemingly regularly tended to, only grew to the size of someone's fingernail, the soft bronze glow of the moon finally seemed to part the trees basking the clearing in its loving embrace. Oscar almost broke into tears at the sight of the moonlight, he had thought for a while there he might forever have been lost to the darkness that surrounded him.
Taking in the scene, Oscar finally looked to what lay in the middle of the clearing, there standing perfectly in the center of the circular clearing was a small statue, no taller than the average man, depicting a man in a long coat, gloves seemingly on his hands as there were no imprints of fingernails. He held a coin between his index finger and thumb of his left hand. Held in his right hand was a mask, but the mask wasn't a part of the rest of the statue, it was clearly made of a different material; painted white, and with a wide smile that reached almost to either side of the mask, it unsettled all who looked at it.
The weirdest part, however, was the fact that the face of the statue was entirely featureless, as if all that mattered was the mask that it held. Raising his brow Oscar, inspected the rest of the statue.
Finally, his sense of fear was eased as he brought his hand to touch the hand holding the mask of the statue.
Clack
As soon as Oscar touched it, its fingers opened dropping the mask to the ground, and making Oscar almost have an early bowl movement. Sighing, Oscar picked up the mask and inspected it. There was no strap on the back, and the eye sockets seemingly weren't even hollowed out correctly, as they just looked black, no way to see through. Oscar, letting his curiosity get the best of him, but the mask in front of his face.
Crack
"Aghh!"
A bolt of heat raced down his spine, and the world split sideways—