Levi didn't know how long he'd been holding his breath. He had a bright idea to count, to distract his thoughts and body from the pain and the suffocating tension, but he lost it after three seconds as that thing underneath him moved, crushing leaves underneath its weight. The sound almost made him whimper out loud.
He regretted staying out. He hated himself for it. What could he have figured out that others hadn't? For all he knew, they could be just playing around with their prey. Like cats to mice. To make them fear everything, to make them hopeless. To feel only despair.
And when it happened, when they reached that bottomless bit of despair, then they would tear them apart. Because where would the fun be if your prey just existed? Maybe this was everything the smiling creatures were doing.
Minutes or hours, Levi didn't know how long had passed. Maybe it was simply a few seconds. He couldn't keep track of time at all in this airless darkness. Levi could feel his sanity splitting away, his vision swimming as he didn't dare to look anywhere else but at the base of the tree. He couldn't hear anything. Not even the screeches of the creatures in the town. All due to his own rapid heartbeat.
His mind didn't have the luxury to wonder as another loud crunch shattered the silence, and Levi's shallow breathing hitched. And that broke whatever it was holding the pain back. His legs screamed as they cramped.
The muscles twisted like cords pulled too tight, trembling beneath his weight. He bit his tongue to stop the groan that climbed his throat, copper flooding his mouth. His hands were slick with sweat and blood, the bandages Ariana had wrapped around his palms now darkened and sticking to the bark.
A dry leaf fell past his face, brushing his cheek before tumbling toward the forest floor. The sound it made when it hit was nothing. It didn't make any sound. But to Levi, it felt like a grenade had gone off. He wasn't sure what was real and fake anymore; sounds started to make no sense.
He could swear that he could hear the tree humming mockingly at him. The thing below shifted again. Leaves rustled. Then the faintest sniffing sound.
Levi pressed his chest against the trunk, forcing his lungs to move even slower, even more silent. His heartbeat hammered against the wood, so loud it felt impossible that the creature couldn't hear it.
The world below him froze once more. Not a twig creaked.
Levi risked a look.
Through the thick weave of branches, he caught a glimpse of pale movement, an arm, smooth and long, sliding across the trunk of the tree, as if comforting an animal. The figure was crouched now, head tilted up and at him as if listening mockingly as the tree gave all its secrets away.
Even from this height, Levi saw the smile, the way it stretched too far, thin and perfect, and unnatural. His stomach lurched. Every instinct begged him to close his eyes, to vanish into the tree like bark.
But the creature only stayed there a moment longer before it straightened, its head twitching once toward the town. Slowly, it walked back the way it had come, movements fluid, almost elegant, like it had never been hunting at all.
Levi didn't breathe until the shape disappeared between the trees. Even then, his chest stayed locked. His muscles were numb now, every part of him on the edge of collapse.
He wasn't sure anymore if he'd been hunted by the creatures or by the dark inside his own head.
He couldn't tell when the trembling in his legs had started, only that it had spread everywhere now, a dull tremor running through his whole body like a disease. His arms burned from holding himself still, each muscle like a string, barely holding back from snapping.
Sweat crawled down his temples, stinging his eyes, and the cold had set into his fingers so completely that he wasn't sure he could even unclench them from the bark. His breathing came shallow, almost mechanical, the kind of breath a dying animal takes when it's too scared to make a sound.
Somewhere in the distance, the forest sighed, branches groaning as if the trees themselves were tired of standing. Levi didn't move. He couldn't. Time had dissolved, hours or minutes, he couldn't tell, and in that endless stillness, it felt as if the world had narrowed down to one truth: if he twitched, if he even dared to exist too loudly, the thing would come back.
He didn't notice the sky changing colors at first, slowly paling over minutes. His only concern at the moment was not to move.
To not breathe loudly or do anything that might lead to his death. When black turned even pale, to gray, that's when Levi noticed and came back from the darkness that had consumed him. The sunlight hit his face, almost like someone tracing a finger on him. It was the kind of light that didn't chase shadows but softened them. It touched his face like something remembering how to be kind.
Levi realized he was still alive.
His thighs burned so deeply that it felt like the pain had reached the bone. His arms hung dead at his sides, the skin on his palms fused to the bark where blood and sap had dried together. When he tried to move his hand, the skin tore. But he didn't feel the pain.
He blinked against the blur of the morning sun just once as it crept between the branches from beyond the horizon, and for the first time since he'd climbed, he dared to breathe fully. The air was cold and sharp, and it hurt his lungs for some reason, almost like swallowing needles. But it was one filled with life.
For the first time since he had been in this town, the air wasn't suffocating or heavy or sticky or humid. It was free and cold and dry and alive.
He leaned his forehead against the trunk and closed his eyes for half a second. His entire body shuddered, and his legs almost gave up, leading to him falling to his death, not from fear this time, but from the shock of being allowed to exist. His mace fell from the tree and hit the ground hard, crushing leaves and earth, and twigs.
The sound attracted the one exiting from the mansion as a woman slowly and carefully entered the forest. "Hello?" Her sound echoed, but Levi didn't have the strength to answer. He tried moving his legs once, and his body gave up.
It took him a second to realize why the scenery was shifting so fast, and when he did, a scream escaped him as his body slammed into the branch just underneath him. Adrenaline shot forward as he hit another branch. His body flipped once, twice, before he attempted to grab onto another branch.
But his momentum was too great, his grip failing as he crashed into another one, and then he hit the ground with a loud thud, unmoving. But breathing.
Alive but unconscious.
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This chapter was draining to me. I had promised myself that I wouldn't go too dark. But guess that promise is broken. I really had to put myself into Levi's situation and go full extreme SHOW don't TELL. I need to smile and laugh to change my mood. Cause I'm just... so drained. This took a lot from me.
But I hope you guys enjoy.
I'm going to really try to make sure the following chapters are more slice of life and comedy, cause I can feel some of you being in the same boat as me.
Next time, I might just tell instead of show lol.