It didn't move at first.
It just stood there in an odd way.
Like a person stitched together with thorns and filled with things no human should carry.
Its neck twitched, hands cracking.
Crrk. Crrk.
I tried to run! But my body refused to obey. My lungs froze like stone. Everything inside me screamed not to let it reach me.
It tilted its head-
then it moved.
Not walking. Not crawling.
Dragged forward like a puppet being pulled by invisible strings.
The mud beneath my feet shuddered.
I tried to step back but I slipped.
Cold marsh swallowed my palms as I fell into it. The earth felt alive like it was breathing against my skin.
The sky dimmed, the trees bent inward, the forest folded around the creature as its limbs jerked towards me.
Crrk-
CRrk-
CRRK-
It was close enough that I could hear its breathe, slow and damp like air forced through damp cloth.
I tried to scream.
Nothing came out right...
"Stay-stay away-"
The creature raised its arm but it never touched me.
Suddenly, I felt a familiar warmth into my side - fingers gripping my arm and dragging me away with terrifying strength.
"Move!" a voice hissed.
Mira!
Her face, glowing half-red under the bleeding sky, looked too real to be a dream!
She pulled me behind a twisted root as the creature twitched, searching.
Glitching all over.
"Don't look at it." she whispered. "Never meet its full structure."
I pressed my chest, gasping. "what-what the hell is that?"
She didn't answer immediately.
She watched the creature like she already knew how it moved, how it breathed, how close was too close.
Then quietly, she said-
"Some dreams protect you."
" Some dreams warn you."
"And some dreams...correet you."
My head throbbed.
"What does that even mean?"
Silence..
"She always spoke like that.
Like speaking itself was unsafe.
Like the truth was biting her tongue."
The creature screeched suddenly, a sound like wet branches snapping inside a body.
I flinched.
But it didn't find us.
It drifted back into the fog.
Mira finally let go of my wrist. "Her hand was warm. Too warm."
"What do you mean by correct?" I asked, still shocked.
"How do you even know about all this?"
Her expression shifted-
not fear, not guilt but something worse..
Understanding.
She opened her mouth.
She finally whispered-
"Because you're not the first one it tried to fix."