The Raven Eye

Eternal darkness infested the forest, inking the very heart of the once green woodland. Nothing but the glacial echo of a missing soul crept between the deceased trees. Compressed black bodies, their  limbs stretching towards my icy body. A sharp sensation slitting through my skin, splitting my existence from creation. Nothing here is real. I kept repeating it in my head, this must be a nightmare. Nothing could be factual here, this is all my imagination. But why would I do this to myself? As a punishment? From what? My naked feet thinly tiptoed through the canopied forest floor, the occasional dead plant or twig scratching my extremely cold feet. A tear of sweat just curving around the edge of my face, revealing a sensation warmth. A plain rarity in this decaying paradise of vegetation, I dare think of what happened here. A forest fire?That would explain the blackened bark on the trees, carbonation of burning.


Snap! My head sharply turned, whipping both my hair and my neck. Nothing. My ears twitched, listening intensively. Over thinking every little sound and sign of movement. My eyelashes fluttering constantly, tearing up my dry, sandpaper like eyes. The cold breeze pushing at me directly, chilling me to the bone. My feet died in their tracks. A sound. Behind me. Lashing around, I collided into a tree, instantly knocking out my legs and clouting me in the face. Crashing down on the dead leaf canopy, I dispersed deceased tree fingers around me like a touch down in drenched mud. Why am I so weak? I cried through the stinging tears that moistened me, but it wasn't what to expect. My middle finger wiping the tear away from my eye, but a transparent liquid wasn't on the fingertip. But a droplet of my own blood. Not knowing what to do, I dug at my eye with my thumb. Attempting maybe to stop the bleeding. I am not one to be afraid of blood, but when it's coming from my eyes, that's when I should be worried.


Frustrated and exhausted, more blood expelled pass my squinted eyes. I couldn't wipe away the never ending stream of blood trickling down my cheeks. Cradling myself now, my hands digging and pulling at the roots of my hair. Maybe giving myself a sense of comfort or soothing nature. But I couldn't trick my own mind, not surprising at all. I screamed. My bloody, horrific cry swept through the forest, carried by the wind.


Caw Caw! I instantly knew what that was, eyes open, paranoid, I looked around for it. The Raven. Clutching to the tree, I laboured myself to my quaking, shaking feet, but in spite of this, I moved. Running. But running for a bird, stupid? Not a Raven, they are something not to take lightly. I swished my hair to the side looking to the sky. Against the colourless, grey sky flew a single Raven. It's jet black feathers quivering barely against the air current. Nothing else but a wash of black paint tainted any Raven. But this Raven didn't have anything else of it that was different, not even where the harsh light hit it. I stopped looking at the inkiness of the Raven. And ran. Feet pounding, heart pumping, head throbbing, all of them factors of pain.


Four sharp dagger like objects pierced my back, shocking the bone. Shattering my skin, like a glass.  Red lines speared my skin, like veins. The Raven didn't loosen it's grip on my blood soaked tissue, just tore up more flesh, like digging up my grave. Another four claws hooked my back, I could feel the blood leaking from the wound, dripping down my spine. I fell, knees first, then face. Groaning, and crying filled my ears, this all built up to nothing but a high pitched, almost extraterrestrial shriek.


Laying, back bleeding into the ground, gazing into the Raven's eyes, I saw nothing. No pupil, no iris, just a black eye of an empty void. But I did see colour amongst this. The first and last colour I would see in this Nightmare. Red. The redness of the blood almost dry around my eyes. But not only that, but also the blueness of the ocean had gone from my eyes. Now tainted. Maybe from the pain of dying here, or from the blood that I have cried because I might not ever return to something I know that exists. That scares me more than everything. No longer of a Human, now having the eyes of a Raven.