Its dark and there's pain. So much pain it makes my stomach churn violently. I'm tripping and stumbling through a forest that is both familiar and unfamiliar. There are scents that I can somewhat recognize, but they're nearly impossible to pinpoint and identify under the heavy scent of blood. My blood. Panic squeezes my chest because I know that there are plenty of things that could and probably were tracking me. The only thing I can do is keep moving. Keep tripping over tree roots and branches that i cannot see. I'll never make it out. I'll never make it out.

Another branch trips me up and I fall to my knees, the rest of my body following shortly after. There was a layer of leaves to cushion my fall, but still my breath is forced from my lungs and I wince. That simple motion pulls at the deep cuts across my face, opening the ones that had barely begun to close. More blood oozes from them and drips into the leaves. I know I should get up, but I'm tired. I'm almost ready to resign to my fate. I always knew that I would die alone, I just always thought it would be on a mountain top in Janat, not laying in the leaves in the middle of some forest. I'd always held some hope that someone might care when I died, but there's no one. They don't care if I die. They want me to die.

The stubborn part of me revolts against the idea of going along with their wishes and I force myself to stand, swaying on shaking legs. I groan and let my head drop until my nose is brushing against the leaves. Its quiet in this forest. So quiet I can hear the heavy beat of my heart and the rustling of the leaves as my blood runs down my face and drips onto them. I can feel the warmth of the sun on my back and I know that the sun has risen, though I see only darkness. Darkness and their faces.

Their faces mock me. Its like they're burned into the back of my mind and no matter how I want to forget what they look like I can't. Just like I can't forget the first bite of pain when they made my eyes completely useless. For the first time I found myself longing for Muriel's company because I know she would give me some sort of comfort that I don't even deserve after the way I've treated her. "Muriel." Her name, barely a whisper, sounds loud in this forest.

ooc://
@[Muriel] and open to anyone else :D