Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Dead

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Perplexed by the sight in front of her, Annalise also figured how hesitant her horse was in taking a step further into this dark forest as it neighed while moving back, unwilling to go in.

If she wasn't mistaken, there was a time when the people of Euphrasia told scary tales of the dark woods, using it to frighten their children and make them do their bidding, but she never expected that such tale would turn out to be true.

Struck by the curiosity of it, she dismounted from her horse and gave it a gentle pat on it's side, if the horse is frightened by the mystery of the dark woods, then she'll have to hide it somewhere and quick too before those guards make it here.

.....

Pinning her lips together, she glanced at the forest while thinking of a better route to keep her horse, leaving it out here would only make those guards seize it, which is something she can't risk letting it happen.

Mustering enough courage, she directed her horse to the bushy path of the forest, entering through the bushes and going deeper. Once she was sure she had gone deep enough, she tied the horse to a tree and gave it one more pat before hurrying out of the bush while lifting her dress up.

There were many twigs and weeds which were threatening to make her lose her balance so she had to be extra careful on her step.

Successfully making her way out of the bush, she found herself standing in front of the dark woods once again and that alone made her heart speed up in response the more she stared at it. As eerie and forbidden as it might look, it had all the cheerless comfort of a dying flame. There was this unknown sadness she felt lingering deep inside, a sadness that wasn't very different from hers to the point she couldn't help but feel like there was something calling out to her.

"The dark woods." She whispered, reaching to touch the tree when another unexpected intent struck through her system, causing her to spun around quickly and not so much to her surprise, the royal guards were right before her as they dismounted from their horses, including Sir Arlow whose expression had turned triumphant as a cunning smile formed at the corner of his lips.

How she wished to be the one to wipe that ugly smile off his pathetic face!

"Nowhere to run?" He asked in a mocking tone, wanting to intimidate the girl he felt assured was helpless at the moment, but Anna's glare still remained locked on him as she stood firm in her position.

He knew no one in their right minds would actually think of running into the dark woods and expect to come out alive, that thought was just too silly and impossible, so she's left with no choice but to kneel in defeat.

"Surrender yourself and come back to the palace to face your execution, or you leave me with no choice but to execute you myself!" He ordered loudly, causing Anna's hands to ball into a tight fist as many ideas went rampant in her head, she'd rather die in the hands of wild animals than to die in the hands of people like him.

"Watch me." There was this unusual glow in her eyes the moment she uttered that word, so she did the unthinkable and turned around once more, running into the dark woods which many have feared to this day and that left a look of disbelief crossing Sir Arlow's face as he watched her go.

"Annalise!"

She didn't turn around and just kept running like her heart told her to until she was finally encompassed by the sunless curtains of chaos-black. She could still hear the voice of sir Arlow but that wasn't the issue anymore as she had escaped dying in the hands of him, she doubts they'd actually enter the dark forest since they were so frightened by it, but after entering it herself, she finally understood why.

The floor of the forest spewed with a mixture of putrid odor that smells like sickly excrement the moment it made its way to her nostril. It felt like a constipated beam of hopelessness as she wandered aimlessly through the unknown woods. The more she walked, the more deformed the trees were starting to become.

The sight was too much for Annalise as she hadn't expected it to look this.... dead.

She was even afraid to make even the tiniest bit of noise, as though they were creatures hiding in the corner of these deformed trees, waiting for their victims to take just one wrong step before jumping out to devour what was left of them.

Shivering at the thought of it, she continued to make her way forward, hoping there was another exit that would lead her out of this place but that thought of escaping quickly was short-lived when something pulled at her dress, causing the already terrified Anna to fall face first on the ground, accidentally hitting her right knee on a branch.

"Ahh!!_" She covered her mouth almost immediately as the pain circulated around her right leg, making it grow weak at that instant, she found it difficult to get up to her two feet.

Struck by the intensity of the pain, she helped herself into a sitting position after that awful fall, pulling her dress up to examine the knee she had hit hard on the huge branch on the ground. Staring at her red knee, she realized it was the same knee she had hit on the stairs and it wasn't fully healed yet.

"Are my days really cursed?" She thought aloud in frustration while holding her tears in, could this day really get any worse??

"I heard her voice coming from that direction!"

"Hurry before she escapes!"

A quick horrifying gasp escaped from Anna's lips as those familiar voices were starting to become clearer, they're really heading towards her direction which means...

She shook her head in disbelief, unwilling to agree with the terms her mind had concluded on, it can't be!

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