HIRAETH - Eyeless Jack x Reader

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Chapter contains: depressive language towards MC and slight gore. please be warned.
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You tried your best to dodge the upcoming trees, making the path you were on become even more narrow as you ran. You didn't know where you were exactly, but you knew you had to get out of these cursed woods.

The darkness of the night didn't help. Your flashlight long gone, left behind at the scene you had just encountered. You rely on the light the moon gave off and the sound of cars passing in the distance. The other senses really helped at this time, especially when your vision was being impaired immensely. Figures, one of the most important ones gone.

Your legs were burning from how much you've been running. The strain was agonizing, everything in your body telling you to take a break and gain your breath back. You knew you couldn't, you had to keep pushing. The flashes of that body in your mind replay. That creature above it. How much blood was around it, spilling from its gaping hole in the middle of its abdomen. It urged you to keep running.

Why hadn't it followed you? You saw everything. How it ate at the body, tearing through the inner parts and causing that horrible squelching sound. Yet it only snapped its head towards you when you made the mistake of letting a gasp escape you.

The eyes of the mask are stuck in your head. Whatever was dripping from those empty sockets was staining everything that it touched. It seemed never ending, constantly running down the front of it in heavy and light streaks. How it was possible, you didn't want to know. You just needed out.

Oh, but how it only looked at you. That almost made it worse how it didn't begin to run after you. It raised a bloodied, dark finger to its mask in a hushed manner before darting off in the opposite direction of you. Now you didn't know where it was as you ran. The fact that you wanted it behind you, hot on your trail, makes yourself think you're losing it even more. It's the fear of not knowing, you guessed. But yet again, some things are best left unknown, no?

If only you had thought of that earlier.

You felt a harsh tug on your body before collapsing. Your front side smashing against the hard surface of the ground, nearly knocking the air out of your lungs. Your hands gripped whatever the ground offered, trying to push yourself up on them to get aware of your surroundings the best you could. Gasping for air while doing so, you look for what made you trip. Your heart dropped.

A body. No, the same body. The same fucking body you saw earlier.

You scrambled yourself away from it the best you could while still on the ground. Your eyes locked on to the mangled corpse in front of you, once again. Your stomach churned, intense nausea taking over. You wanted to empty everything out of your system. Completely purge your mind of the smell and sight.

Your back found a tree. Tearing your eyes off the body, you tilted your head back and leaned it against the trunk. The bark ragged against the back of your head and making your hair get caught. You took a deep breath in, closing your eyes in the process. This isn't fair. What did you do to deserve this. Why were you back at this same body. You ran the opposite direction. You don't remember taking any turns that possibly made your path change. You nearly laugh at the thought of you getting lost in these woods. How pathetic. Maybe you did deserve this for seeing that disgusting creat-

"Ma'am? Are you alright?" 

A voice.

Your eyes shot open, looking in front of you. Nothing was there, only the darkness and the awful unmoving body. The soft rustling of the leaves was only heard as you stared ahead. You didn't even hear the cars you heard earlier.

What happened? Where did that voice come from?

You look around more, leaning yourself to peer around the other side of the tree that you were against. From what you could see, there were just trees. Not a live human in sight.

So now your mind is playing tricks on you. Great. That's just what you need. To hear voices that aren't there after seeing a dead body being eaten.

You looked down slightly, releasing a breath you didn't know you were holding. You twisted your body back towards your original position. You stared at your legs. The burning was still slightly there but your body was practically sighing in relief since you've stopped running. It felt nice. Calm.

Too calm.

The body.

You whipped your head up, expecting to see it still lying there in front of you with its mangled self. Your mouth went dry.

Its gone.

You began to turn your head in every direction known and you don't spot it anywhere. You swear to everything you owned that it was right in front of you. It was the reason why you were here on the ground in the first place.. Right?

Something isn't right. It's too quiet. The body is gone. You're all the way back to where you began. Or so you thought, at least. The now missing corpse is making you question things yet again, just like you have been all night. You laughed.

"I'm going fucking insane, aren't I?" you muttered to yourself.

You look back down to your lap, not even caring about where you are currently. You were too tired. Too lost. Your mind is fucked. You don't have any motivation left to get out. You knew you were stuck. This is your fault. You got yourself into this. You shouldn't have turned towards the forest in the first place when you heard that scream. You should've known what happened with all the murders you've been hearing on the news. You pat yourself on the back mentally, even though you don't deserve it.

You blink rapidly and try to distract yourself from those thoughts. Moving your hands up to your tired eyes, you rub them a bit before sighing out. Even though your mind is racing with thoughts, it almost feels empty at the same time.

Nearly unaware, you position yourself into a fetal position, holding yourself as close as you could to your body. You move your head to now lean against your knees, tiredness taking over your body completely. Maybe, just maybe, if you wait long enough, the sun will shine once again and you could then find yourself a way out of these woods.

You let your eyes close, your body falling into a blissful slumber. You don't care about any sounds that happen to be around you, or those black eyes that haunt your mind. You'll just wait it out, you thought, before your mind goes completely blank and your world falls into darkness.