I felt a burning sensation in my lungs as I gasped for the freezing air. Looking wildly about me, I couldn't recall where I was going or how I had gotten here, but I knew there was something pursuing me. I stumbled along the narrow path ahead of me, footprints in the slush appearing to be travelling in the opposite direction from where I was currently going. As my memories became less fogged, I recalled grey stone walls and the sound of inhuman breathing. However, one image remained prominent in my mind: a small patch of ground in which the snow had refused to fall, and on it, a dead, flattened blue flower.

For unknown reasons this sparked in my mind a terrible fear, and as I broke into a run, it was unknown whether imagination or reality brought the faint sound of snow crunching behind me to my ears. Too frightened to look, all I could do was continue on this path which seemed to stretch forever.

As I approached a stone well where the path forked, the sound of steps was most definitely real, and the breathing was back. By this time my pace had slowed, and I struggled to drag my feet along as fast as they would take me. As I stumbled on a branch, the realization hit me: I wouldn't be able to outrun this thing. At that point I resolved that if I was going to die, I wasn't going to be killed by some unknown creature that I couldn't even turn around and face.

Without second thought, I catapulted myself over the edge of the well, the grey stones of which it was built bringing my mind back to the place wherein I had first encountered this beast. As I plunged into darkness, all the fear strangely evaporated. The only thought dwelling in my mind was that for whatever reason I was forced to escape this forest, the being chasing me would not have the satisfaction of ripping me to shreds.