I lay on my back. The sun poured through the green canopy above, painting uneven shapes across the forest floor, bright slashes of gold cut between long fingers of shadow. My body felt like stone, heavy, groggy, and useless. My mouth was dry, as if I had just swallowed a mouthful of sand. Breathing was a painfully slow and deliberate process. Still sprawled on the ground, I glanced at my arm, and it looked like the ants had their way with me; it was red and covered in bumps.
Deciding to get up, I barely managed to push myself to my hands and knees. My head hung low, and even that position was a struggle. Sweat dripped from my forehead, trickling down to the mottled soil beneath me. Just moving off my back set my lungs on fire.
Still on shaking legs, I stood. My knees refused to lock completely, so I hovered somewhere between standing and collapsing. Impossibly tall trees towered around me, swaying gently in the wind. Their trunks were wide enough to house a dozen people inside. Roots tangled across the forest floor in thick, uneven webs that stretched out for miles. The roots rose like mountains and fell like valleys.
I took one step. Then another. Each step felt slightly easier than the last, but I still moved like a broken marionette. Despite the massive trees overhead, I felt exposed, like something was watching me. My skin crawled with the feeling of eyes pressing against my back, even though I saw no one.
Still, I couldn't let that distract me. My head was spinning, and if I fell, I don't think I'd be able to get back up. Every step took effort, and every moment felt like it might be the one where I collapsed. I just needed a moment to stop and take a rest before I ended up on my ass.
I decided to take a break and took a seat at the base of a tree, resting my back against the bark. My breathing slowed, though it still felt wrong. I didn't remember how I got here, nor did I know what had brought me into this forest, or what had stripped the energy from my body. Quite frankly, I didn't know anything. The more I thought about it, the less I actually knew. I didn't know my name, where I am, or where I'm from.
The only thing I actually knew was what soil was, and I knew what the sun looked like. It seems as if I can only name the world around me, nothing else. But it was weird, though, because words didn't really come on their own. They only appeared when I saw the thing they were attached to, like that bush over there. Oh, and there are some berries in that bush. I knew it was a berry because I looked at it. Had it not been there, I don't think I would have remembered the word.
Maybe if I find some more familiar items around me, some thread that might be able to pull the rest of my memories back. I don't know what happened before I lost my memories, but right now, one thing is certain. Whoever I was before this is not lost; they simply needed to be found. Perhaps this is just the start. I will stay alive no matter what happens to me, and I will remember who I once was.
SCREEECH!
A piercing sound ripped through the trees. It wasn't just loud, but also sharp. It tore across the forest like claws through bark. The scream was raw, desperate, and something I wasn't familiar with. It filled the space like water, drowning every other sound. I stood to my feet without thinking.
My legs didn't want to move, but whatever creature was out there forced them to. I walked quickly at first. Then faster. The scream still reverberated behind me, bouncing off the trees in fragments. I'd hate to meet the thing that made it.
Wind rushed through the forest, howling between branches. It whipped through my hair and stirred the leaves above. My walk became a jog. My legs tingled from the sudden movement after lying still for so long, but pain didn't matter right now. The air around me was becoming denser. It swirled with dust, kicked up from the trembling roots and spinning topsoil.
Another scream followed, louder than the first. It seemed to shake the trees themselves, and I nearly lost my footing. My vision blurred from the vibration alone. I pushed forward, faster, but something was coming; I could hear footsteps.
The footsteps were not quiet ones. Not from anything small. Each step boomed through the ground, echoing through the environment. I turned to look, just for a second, and saw the creature that was capable of making such chaos.
It stood at least twenty feet tall. Maybe more. Its skin was as dark as midnight, darker even, like the absence of light itself. The creature's proportions were monstrous, with thick arms and long hands. It looked vaguely human, but only in silhouette.
I could just sense that it had been standing there the whole time, half a mile away, barely visible in the deep shadows of the forest. Watching. Rocking side to side in a slow rhythm.
Yeah, fuck that. There's absolutely no damn way I am just going to stand there and stare at such a monster. I turned and ran as fast as I could. My feet dug into the earth, launching me forward with everything I had left. Behind me, the creature moved. I heard the thunder of its steps.
I looked back once more. It had closed half the distance already, covering ground at an impossible pace. I couldn't outrun it. I couldn't even hope to. That thing had caught up to me in a matter of seconds and cornered me. It raised its hands… slowly… deliberately.
As it separated its hands, the wind roared through the trees, whipping debris into the air. The pressure around me dropped so fast I felt my ears pop. Breathing became hard again, and my lungs refused to expand fully. The creature paused, then, in the blink of an eye, it brought its massive hands together.