She screamed in pain as the light figure screeched and burst into small particles, dissipating into the air and her head turned towards the direction the sword had come flying from.
"How dare you!!! I will kill you!!" She screamed in pain as she believed whoever was the wielder of the sword had just killed her husband a second time. ""I will kill you! I swear it!""
With those words of anger, she lifted her hands, ready to send all the trees in that forest to attack whoever had dared to kill her husband a second time. But then she felt something behind her and her heart leaped, "Barak? You came back?" She asked, again with that smile of a bewitched woman.
""Yes, yes, yes. I came back."" The voice says, leaning close to her back and Neriah slowly turns around to see what she believed was the spirit of her dead husband, ""I came back for your soul!"" The scraping and gravelly noise no longer sounded anything like her husband’s voice.
The scream built up inside her instantly as her eyes fell on the creature behind her, it was not her husband. Far from it... It was a creature of heads, lots and lots of heads as every part of its body.
"AH_Ahh_AhhhHHHH!" She screamed, and the energy she had gathered to destroy whoever was out there, she sent it to the creature in front of her and it screeched, letting out a disturbing sorrowful cry. Quickly, she began to run.
At that moment, her feet became heavy, it was as though she was being pulled back to the creature she was running from. "Ah_ Ahhhh!" She screamed as she tried to carry her legs faster, but they refused to move. Something invisible was pulling her back and all she could do was scream and use her powers to create vines to hold onto, to stop her from being dragged back.
Now she could hear the voice clearly... It wasn’t even just a voice. It was voices... croaky ear-piercing voices, mocking her. Telling her to come back to them.
""I thought you loved us, come and stay with us forever. We will eat away your sorrow."" The voices were saying.
The more her vines pulled her forward, the more that heavy force was pressing her down and pushing her back!
"Dear goddess, help me!!" She cried out, trying to pull herself forward, "Ah_ahhh! Goddess, ahhh, give me strength! Just this once!!" She cried even harder. "Just this once, give me strength to get out of here and get my revenge!"
All she wanted was to avenge her husband, but at every turn, things weren’t going her way. "HELP ME!!!" And with that scream, as if the goddess had finally heard her pleas, fire erupted behind her, and the creature behind her was set ablaze, the weight on her instantly lifted and her legs moved. But the sudden freedom coupled with the force at which she had been trying to push herself forward causes her to stagger forward.
And just when she thought she would fall to the ground, just when she was still trying to instruct the trees and vines to stop her from hitting the ground, her body landed on something.
At first, it felt as sturdy as a tree. So she thought it was one, but she was not controlling this tree, so how was it bringing her to stand up straight?
"How come you are still so foolish?" The voice, dear goddess, the creatures of this forest were cruel. They were too cruel. This time they really got the voice to sound exactly like her husband. Even the hint of disdain in his voice was perfectly copied. It sounded so much like him that it almost made Neriah cry.
"You still run from me, and run into cursed forests, you still call out to the goddess for help and she always sends me. And I still come running to your rescue."
Dear goddess, Neriah could not bring herself to look up at the new entity holding onto her, but it was a wicked entity. How could it say things that sounded very much like what her husband would say?
Cursed be this damn forest! Why were they messing with her head? "Ahhhh!! Get away from me! And stop tainting the memory of my husband!!!" She screamed and using her powers, she caused vines to wrap around the figure and pull it away from her.
It scoffed, "Even now, you wish to kill me again." Those words hit her so hard and she shook her head vehemently, fearful of lifting her head to stare at the creature posing to be her husband. This one was so good at saying things that hurt her, unlike the other one that was trying to sooth her.
This one was wicked and full of spite. It sounded so much like when her husband had found out she was actually the princess of Avelah and not just a maid.
"No!!! Go away from me!" She screamed. "Ahhhh!! Leave me be! What do you want with me?!!"
"NERIAH!" His voice echoed throughout the forest. It echoed so loud that she flinched and her head lifted instinctively out of fear and the fire behind her blazed brightly, and his face was not hidden, he had set the vines holding him ablaze too.
And even that fire burned brightly, and yes, she could see clearly. Very clearly. If this was another illusion by the forest then cursed be all the evil residing in this forest because this wasn’t just a figure standing in front of her. This illusion had to be the most perfect, even more perfect than the images she had conjured in her own personal time, in her own head whenever she missed him.
"Aye, it is I. Not the trick of the forest." He took a step closer to her again and Neriah’s breath had ceased, her eyes just stared wide open, "It indeed is I, Barak, the very same man you stabbed in the heart."
It couldn’t be...