Jeongguk ran, ran and ran.

It was dark, it was cold, and definitely scary. The branches of the trees around him were rustling as the howling of the wind continued by, dried up leaves crusting harshly underneath his shaky feet.

From time to time, he seemed to look back to where he came from, from the path that might have just brought him to safety. But Jeongguk has already decided, he wouldn't go back now. He wanted to help the stranger in the woods, and risk his own life for that.

Jeongguk knew that, if he chose to just walk away, he surely wouldn't fall asleep that night, and the nights afterwards. Questions about the woman would keep running around in circles in his mind. Is she okay? Did she survive? Did she die? Because I couldn't help? Would she have survived then? Is it my fault?

He could have never answered this guilty-filled questions, if he didn't go inside there. Thus, After he slowed down into a normal tempo, with each step, he seemed to try to fight against his fear, and become- feel brave. It was hard, but he was managing.

Like that, Jeongguk walked inside the gloomy forest, but soon realized he won't be able to go in any further without any source of light. Thus, he picked out a tiny flashlight he brought with him out of his pocket, and turned it on. Now, a round flash of a light was appearing in every direction he chose.

Silence.

Anxiety.

Insecureness.

Rustling of leaves, and bushes. Dry, rough cracking sounds every time Jeongguk stepped on a small branch, the sound echoing through the deep, unknown woods, with nobody knowing what exactly was lurking inside it.

Jeongguk was quietly panting as he felt as if he was becoming crazy— no wait, he probably already was. He didn't know what was going on, nor what could happen any moment.

What was unsettling him even more was the fact that, since he has entered the forest, he didn't hear the woman scream. Not even once. It made his stomach twist in fear. Was she okay? He thought, trying to walk where he thought the pained screams from before came from.

Yet nothing.

He kept walking and walking through trees, and there was nothing more besides of three things. Darkness, coldness, and anxiety blooming in Jeongguk's chest.

After some more minutes, Jeongguk froze.

He hoped his ears just wanted to trick him in believing that he just heard leaves crusting from afar too, signalizing obvious steps of a human. Or perhaps of an animal. He hoped it came from an animal.

But as Jeongguk kept progressing the sound of the rhythmic and monotone crushing of leaves under someone's feet, he felt his heart squeeze. And it got worse when he realized, no matter where he lightened up his surroundings with his light, he couldn't see anything, or anyone. Nothing.
Yet the steps were somewhere around him, definitely.

He wanted to run as panic got him, but then he thought of something. What if it's that woman?

That thought made Jeongguk's eyes widen. He didn't hesitate when he inhaled, and finally spoke out some words into that terrifying emptiness surrounded by nothing but trees.

"H..... Hello?" his rather squeaky, sweet but insecure voice ringed out loudly, echoing a little. Then, only one more step was heard, before the sounds of steps stopped. Momentarily.

Silence.

Jeongguk started sweating as his heart hammered really loudly against his chest. Why didn't he get any response?

Long seconds passed after that. The tension was rising in a quickened pace. Jeongguk felt as if he was about to explode and cry, just run away from there. But his mind was way too clouded with fear, feet bound to the barely snowy ground.

"Wh-" he let out, barely coherent, lips damp after he licked them quickly. Yet he bravely continued, a little louder.

"W-Who's there?"

And finally, as the round flashlight stayed still into one direction, finally, someone showed themselves. When that happened, Jeongguk's insides twisted, he himself froze.

A tall man- no, this couldn't be defined as just tall. A gigantic man- having two meters for sure, wide shoulders and muscular, heavy body being covered by the little pieces of clothes he had on him. He was bald, probably around 40, having bright, blue eyes. Face covered in longish, terrifying scars.

Jeongguk would have spoken up to him despite his terrific expression of widened, yet not fearful eyes staring at him,  would have asked him if he wasn't freezing with the mere cover he had. But then, Jeongguk looked down.

He was carrying a chainsaw in his right hand. Heavily covered in blood. Jeongguk screamed.

He screamed this loudly that the older man got startled by that, blinking once. And suddenly- he seemed enraged by that. Jeongguk lost his shit seeing him furrowing his eyebrows in annoyance, grumbling something in dissatisfaction, glaring.

Without thinking twice, Jeongguk turned- no, threw himself back, his flashlight automatically falling down since his hands have been shaking too much, and ran, just ran into the opposite direction.

Heavy panting was accompanying him all the time, mind going crazy. Now, there was no denying to the explanation of why the woman stopped screaming. The image of the bloody chainsaw popped into his memory again. Jeongguk felt tears reach his eyes as he sprinted off, off into a direction he hoped was the right one for his escape.

He ran and ran and ran, looked back once to check if he was being followed — when his face and body met with a harsh slap against a hard material, making him fall backwards and down onto his bottom.

He squeaked, and feeling pressured of time, he looked up in fear- only to see a house. Yes, he bumped against a wooden, big, at least two-floored old house.

Rather quickly was it when he got up onto his feet again, frowning at the building. The lights through the windows were turned on everywhere. He would have passed the house to continue running, to get out of that forest as fast as possible-
if he only didn't hear heavy, quickened steps from afar, getting louder and louder.

Jeongguk's lips went dry, heart hammering uncontrollably. His survival instincts kicked in due to his frustration. Hide.

And so he did. Quickly, he speed-walked around the house, and when his cautious eyes found a door, he didn't think twice when dashing to it. He opened it -and was also thankful it wasn't locked- and ended up inside, slamming the door shut behind him.

He sighed heavily but shakily, examined the locking system of the door- it had four. No coding-stuff, just locks. Without hesitating, he quickly made sure they're all locked, checking in a rush if he's safe.

After realizing the door won't open anymore, he sighed heavily to himself, falling down onto his knees, panting very shakily, lips shaking uncontrollably. His mind turned fuzzy, desperately thinking of what to do next.

"Fuck", he breathed out, trying to calm down, panting. "What d-do I do n-now?"

After some minor time, he stood up again reluctantly, slowly letting his eyes shift around the living room, racing heart not really calming down.

It was rather... gloomy, the darkish-yellow, old-fashioned lamps weakly lightning up the room with their whole strength which was filled with also old-fashioned furniture, wooden walls having suspicious, long scratches, yet the place itself roughly seemed tidy enough.

He walked in more, and called out. "H-Hello?" his shaking voice stuttered, letting his eyes roam around for a presence. "Is someone here??"

He waited some more, wanted to call out again, when his eyes caught something interesting, making them glitter shortly. A nice source of warmth caught his attention.

Sighing in relief at what he saw, the trembling figure went to the fireplace, got down on his knees in front of it and started warming himself up more by rubbing his own arms quickly, sighing out yet again, in pleasure to it.

"That feels good..." he murmured to himself, enjoying how what felt like icy frosting around his body breaking like a shell due to nice wave of heat hitting him. He truly needed it. It was relaxing and made him forget that he was chased for a moment, feeling safe.

That feeling didn't last quite long, maybe two or three minutes, before his shoulder felt a small pressure on it, something being placed on it quite roughly. Then, despite the warmth he was feeling, he froze in place yet again after his body twitched, hearing a deep, whispering voice rasping right into his ear, a presence standing right to his side. His heart tightened.

"Who allowed you to enter my home?" a somewhat angered voice mumbled, not a hint of any sympathy in it, voice rather dripping with venom.

Jeongguk's breath hitched.

***

Hello!!

Sorry for the long wait, but I hope I can make up for it by regularly updating again! Thanks for reading uwu hope you don't mind my ... decent writing style. I'm not really satisfied with it but imma do my best.

Enjoy!