In the heart of the boundless void, I found myself suspended, neither here nor there, drowned by an abyss that swallowed every shred of light. It was a darkness so thick, so suffocating, it clawed at the edges of my sanity, threatening to pull me into its insatiable maw.

Suddenly, a chill wind whispered through the emptiness, carrying with it echoes of distant sorrows. Closer they crept those spectral whispers, their lamentations a haunting refrain that reverberated through the void. Yet, despite my desperate search, the origin remained untouchable, hidden within the shadows that danced around me.

With each tentative step forward, the weight of the darkness pressed down upon me, a palpable force that seeped into my very soul. It draped over me like a funeral shroud, suffusing me with a sense of dread and despair that gnawed at the edges of my consciousness.

Amidst the dark expanse, a scent, foul and coppery, assailed my senses.

With the blink of an eye, I found myself standing in the middle of the Southern forest, its wintry embrace casting the world in shades of desolation. Snow-covered branches reached out like skeletal fingers, while an odd silence hung heavy in the air, broken only by the rustling of the winds. In my trembling hand, I clutched a heart, its crimson hue stood in stark contrast to the monochrome tableau of winter.

As panic seized me, my pupils quivered in their sockets, darting frantically in search of any semblance of light or escape amidst the suffocating darkness. Each breath grew heavier, laden with the weight of dread and uncertainty as if the very air conspired to smother me in its embrace. With each inhalation, the tendrils of fear wound tighter around my chest, constricting my lungs and hastening the rhythm of my heartbeat.

A primal terror threatened to consume me whole as I beheld the grotesque tableau before me-a slain deer, its lifeblood pooling beneath it in a grotesque tableau of violence and despair. I stumbled backwards and tripped. I fell backwards, yet instead of dirt and snow, the void swallowed me whole once more, its depths echoing with the echoes of my terror.

And then, with a gasp, I awoke, my body slick with sweat, the soft glow of moonlight casting odd shadows across the room.

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17.02.2024