Tessy’s breath caught in her throat as she slowly raised her gaze, her body going rigid at the impossible sight before her.
The headless figure lood re inches away, his tattered garnts whispering with each slight movent - the heavy woolen fabric frayed at the edges, the once-rich embroidery now faded to ghostly threads. The archaic cut of his clothing marked it as centuries old, yet the way the fabric hung from his shoulders suggested it had been worn until yesterday, the elbows worn thin and the cuffs stained with what might have been ancient blood or dirt.
A strangled whimper escaped Tessy’s lips as she took in the full horror of his appearance. The empty space where his head should have been seed to pulse with dark energy, while the rest of his form stood unnaturally still.
Every detail of his appearance made it look as if he had indeed stepped straight from so forgotten portrait in a haunted gallery. The stench of grave soil and old sweat clung to him, making the nightmare all too real.
He stretched his hand in silent demand for his head, his fingers long and skeletal, trembling with impatience.
Tessy’s entire body trembled with primal fear, her pulse roaring in her ears like a trapped animal. Terror didn’t begin to describe the icy dread that seeped into her bones, turning her limbs to lead while her heart pounded against her ribs with such force she feared they might crack. Each thunderous heartbeat sent fresh waves of panic through her system, her mind spinning with unanswered questions as she fought to comprehend the sight unfolding before her.
With great effort, she forced her quaking arms forward, the severed head feeling impossibly heavy in her unsteady grasp. Her fingers convulsed around the cold flesh, every tremble threatening to send the grueso object tumbling to the ground.
The head felt heavy and unnaturally warm against her palms. As she held it out, she felt a strange compulsion to look at it, as if drawn by an unseen force. Against her better judgnt, she turned the head around, and a gasp escaped her lips.
It was alive. The bright green eyes were open, staring at her with an intensity that cut through her soul.
Tessy frowned. Those eyes... they looked so familiar, it felt as if she was staring into her very own eyes. Only, the face was obviously a man’s.
The eyes held a depth of hostility, and the area between the brows held a deep frown that made her knees weak. Tessy’s breath caught in her throat, a scream trapped in her chest. She didn’t know how she was still holding on to the head because, in her mind, she had dropped it already.
The headless man snatched the head from her hand with a swiftness that left Tessy breathless.
She watched in horrified fascination as he placed it on his neck, and the two separate entities fused together right before her eyes. It was as if ti itself rewound, stitching the man back together with an eerie precision.
Soon, a complete man stood before her, his presence more imposing and chilling than before. He opened his lips to say sothing, and Tessy braced herself for the sound of his voice, anticipating what he had to say to her.
But before he could get a word out, an inexplicable force yanked her away, tearing her from the scene with unimaginable speed. The ground beneath her feet opened up, and she was plunged into an abyss.
Tessy’s scream was swallowed by the darkness as she fell at an unbelievable speed. She shut her eyes tightly, the wind whipping past her in a frenzied howl.
When her back hit a solid, hard surface, the impact knocked the breath out of her. Pain radiated through her body, and she lay there, stunned and disoriented. She opened her eyes to find herself enveloped in complete darkness. The air was thick and oppressive, and she could hear incoherent chantings from whispering voices surrounding her. The whispers were sinister, crawling under her skin and filling her with dread. The fact that she could not see anything added to her anxiety.
She tried to push herself up from the ground, but before she could succeed, she felt sothing cold and slimy wrap around her ankles. Vines began to crawl around her body, their grip tightening with each passing second.
Panic surged through her as the vines pinned her to the ground, their rough texture scraping against her skin. They coiled around her arms, her legs, her torso, constricting her movents and threatening to snuff the life out of her.
Tessy struggled desperately, her heart pounding in her chest. The vines seed to have a will of their own, tightening their grip whenever she tried to resist. She could feel them squeezing the breath from her lungs.
Tears stread down her face as she fought against the suffocating tendrils, the whispers growing louder and more chaotic, drowning out her thoughts. Her vision blurred, the edges of her consciousness darkening as the vines continued their assault.
At the edge of giving up, Tessy knew she needed to fight. The vines had tightened their grip, one of them already snaked its way around her neck, constricting her breath. Panic surged through her, but so did a fierce determination. The strange chantings grew louder, but amidst the chaos, a sudden, desperate will to live and escape ignited within her.
With every ounce of strength she had left, Tessy gathered her resolve. Sothing deep within her, sothing primal and powerful, stirred to life. She opened her mouth and let out a loud, guttural scream, the sound echoing through the darkness. At the sa ti, she straightened all her ten fingers, as if channeling the raw energy coursing through her body into the very tips of her hands.
In that mont, the chantings ceased abruptly, as if they were silenced by an unseen force. The vines that had been strangling her released their grip instantly, retracting and falling away like lifeless ropes. A blinding, bright light enveloped her, flooding her senses and washing away the darkness. Tessy felt herself being lifted off the ground, her body floating in the radiant glow.
With a sudden jolt, she sat up with force, her eyes snapping open. She was back in her bedroom, sitting on her bed, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. The familiar surroundings of the room were a stark contrast to the nightmarish abyss she had just escaped. She blinked, disoriented, her heart still racing.
But the fact that she was only dreaming was not all she woke up to discover. The mont she opened her eyes, she caught sight of sothing impossible.
Items in her room—books, a lamp, even her slippers—were hanging in the air, suspended as if by invisible strings. They hovered there for a mont, defying gravity, before crashing to the ground with a loud thud the mont she realized what was happening. The sound startled her, but also confird they were not her imagination.
Tessy’s mind raced, trying to make sense of it all. At that mont, a knock echoed, startling her yet again. She climbed off the bed and moved to open the door, only to find a bloodied Roman standing by the door.
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