Shocked and scared, jeong stood up carefully not to hit his head again, now facing the tree.
This peculiar tree was weird and started to abstract as soon as the boy's gaze focused on it.
Not surprised but uneasy jeong mumbled "must be another of those stupid dreams" as he tried to ignore it.
Shifting his gaze from the tree now looking into the darkness of the forest, jeong saw a small light, probably a house or another person lost?
Unsure, jeong slowly walked towards it, being careful to not step on anything although the wet grass made enough noise for this being to notice.
The light flickered, no wanting to lose it jeong ran towards it, but it was gone, the light faded like it was never there.
Jeong cursed himself under his breath
"What the hell..? Shit.."
Now frustrated realizing something that must've not been a human was aware of him, the weight of feeling like a hundred eyes on him but being completely alone was enough to knock him down.
Jeong shifted his head and returned to the tree now looking at it from a distance it seemed to have a face, "creepy…" he thought
Everytime he was distracted by noises the tree seemed to get closer until he really saw it move once, he didn't want to believe that it was craziness that was driving him to think this.
Comparing both distances from the tree from memory, he confirmed he wasn't really crazy, he was scared though.
Starting to take steps backward keeping his gaze locked on the tree, tripped over because of a branch and full concentration lost on the tree.
His gazed turned black unable to see anything and feeling ache all over his body, he knew the tree got to him.
Suddenly opening his eyes shocked and confused.
"HUH..!?"
"Must've been a dream…" Jeong said before standing up again, he was under the same tree, same night, or at least he though so, well he never saw the sunrise.
Jeong holding his umbrella again, using it like some kind of shield if he ever encounters anything, he saw a light flicker, stopped moving, the light flashing on his face.
He couldn't see anything,covered the light with his umbrella, he took off his shoes to not make an off putting sound, and began walking towards it, flickering faster now this light seemed to not fade, almost reaching it.
He streached his arm to feel where this light was coming from until.
"Have you forgotten something..?"
A strange voice whispered in his ear, a loud ringing sound wouldn't stop, and he tripped on a branch again, looking back
"Of course…!" He said passing out on the cold wet grass,
"The tree..!" He yelled jumping off hitting his head on the branch of a tree
"Again..?" Now exhausted, but knew he couldn't sleep, not without having nightmares over and over again, standing up.
Rubbing his head, he knew what was going to happen, he needed to get to the light without the tree reaching him.
Looking to the tree and walking backwards. Not forgetting about the branch either. Walking slowly backwards not making a sound but also focusing on the tree was a hard task.
Bumped onto something, he felt a burn on his back, the tree disappeared, a silhouette appeared in front of him, almost invisible.
"Pathetic." This so called being said "utterly pathetic."
"What..? Hey you're the pathetic one, show yourself! where have you dragged me now..!?" The burning on his back was intense as he tried to move forward
"Calm down human I'm here to help you." The voice of this being was full of emptiness and coldness it was surely not a human.
A strange gravity pull was leaving him stucked in this boiling hot surface, groaning in pain feeling like about to pass out. "Ugh..?!" He said as he coughed blood.
It stopped, the surface was gone and he just stared at the silhouette again, "you did this..! Just what are you..?!" He demanded an answer, wiping off the blood staining his sweater.
"I'm afraid I can't tell, you see, your feeble human mind wouldn't be capable of understanding what this situation is so I might have to dumb it down for you, why yes?"
"Weird way to call someone stupid.." he rolled his eyes. "Just explain what is all this shit…"
"If you hadn't notice is a loop!" Said jokingly but surprisingly sounded washed off.
"No.. really?!" Jeong sarcastic reply wasn't exactly pleasant for this being.
Brushing off the comment the being quickly stated "This loop consists on facing challenges without dying in any way, it will repeat itself over and over until you can make it out of here, only a few people have made it out.."
"A.. few people..?" He asked curious about this person "how many exactly?"
"Hmm.. let me think" not wanting to respond this being changed the conversation. "Arent you asking what burned you."
"Oh yeah.. what did?"
"Its a fire barrier it'll normally attracts victims with a beautiful blue flame sometimes with strange sound or forms"
"And.. what about the tree?" Jeong pointed to the place the tree, now disappeared, was at.
"Oh that's a presence, when a being is watching you, some things you touched move to let you know someone is there, I think I should've just told you that instead of moving the tree."
"Right…? You still haven't answered, how many people?" Jeong demanded an answer, feeling unsteady and unfamiliar with the setting and awkward towards this creature.
"How many people huh" this creature repeated the question "I'm afraid I can't answer that" now annoyed this being dissapeared
"Hey what..?! Come back!" He raised his voice. "You know maybe don't…" feeling uncomfortable with the creature around jeong changed his mind, he did not wanted to be with a stranger, most importantly an unknown being.