Chapter 3: Lorebark Woods
Feeling something prickling his toe, he couldn't help but issue a yelp of surprise and a bit of pain. In his shock he jump up and look down on the object he had initially kicked.
Seeing the ordinary looking ring silently lying on the ground he couldn't help but doubt himself and suspect he was having an illusion. He shook his head to remove the bizarre feeling and decided to check his foot for any object that might have cause the sudden pain he felt.
He lifted his foot and check the sole of his shoe but he failed to see any object lodge at his shoe so he checked the front part of the shoe. He initially failed to see anything suspicious but after careful scrutiny he found a tiny hole on the shoe.
It was as small as a grain of sand that without a good eyesight and careful observation most would have failed to even see it. Jin removed his shoe to confirm whether it was indeed the cause of the prick he felt.
After all, when the ordinary looking ring altered its form and grow the incredibly sharp needle, it immediately retracted the needle along with the tiny amount of blood without giving Jin any chance to even discover that it had done anything.
Jin inspected his shoe and the tiny hole but failed to see anything of suspicions, and instead of giving him conclusion it had further confused him, if something had pricked him then the said object should be lodge on the shoe but he failed to see anything even remotely sharp on his shoe.
He scratch his head with a bewildered look on his face but before he could think of something to explain his confusion the candle lights flickered causing momentary loss of light before coming back up again.
Startled he looked around the room to see what had caused the sudden loss of light but didn't see anything suspicious. Having failed to see the cause of the sudden black out, his mind started to think up of various reason for the black out.
The first thing that comes to his mind was that something was toying with him and enjoying his suffering but he immediately banish such thought and force himself to think it was the studio that was messing with him while trying to keep a calm composure despite the fact he was panicking inside.
He tried to control his breathing so that he wouldn't fall in another panic attack like he did earlier. No one could really blame Jin for panicking because any person in the same situation would have already broke down. That was why even knowing that the situation he was in was probably not a staged performance he still forced himself to believe it was one because he really didn't know what he would do.
While Jin was psyching himself, he accidently glanced at the direction of the ordinary looking ring before his eyes suddenly constricted and caused every hair on his body to stand on end, he took a step back while sweat oozed out from his palms.
The ordinary looking ring that should be resting on the ground was nowhere to be found.
At first he thought that the ring just coincidently rolled in his direction and didn't put a lot of thought on it despite feeling a bit apprehensive but based on the current development it definitely isn't ordinary. Suddenly the pain he felt earlier surfaced on his mind…
While Jin was starting to feel an enormous amount of fear something suddenly sounded within the room. It sounded like someone was tapping a finger on wood producing a series of clicking sound, the sound would not have been heard normally but in the current silence the sound was very prominent.
The series of sounds continued for minutes allowing Jin to quickly point in on where the sound was coming from but he didn't dare to look at the source of the sound. He stood there frozen on the spot, focusing all his willpower on not turning his head due his fear but as the sound continues to resound and it seems it didn't plan to stop.
He turned his head to look at the source of the eerie sound, because there were very few furniture to the point that the entire room only has a bookshelf, table and chair it wasn't that hard to determine where the sound was coming from.
When he caught a glimpse of what was producing that sound every fiber of his being screamed at him to run but like a deer being pointed at by headlights he stood frozen on the spot, not daring to move a single muscle, it's not that he didn't want to run but he couldn't.
Not because of some mysterious power restricting but because of what was staring at him, it wearing a double breasted frock coat, on its head was a top hat and a monocle was in its right eye. In its empty pair of eye socket were two wispy green flames floating on where the eyeballs were supposed to be.
The thing that made him froze on the spot was the supposedly dead skeleton!
It was slouching on the chair with one of its hand was hanging on the side and the other is what made those creepy noises. It was staring straight at him while tapping its finger on the table without breaking the rhythm.
Jin stared at it with extreme horror, he urge himself to run away but both his feet feels like it was cemented on the floor due to the intense fear he was feeling. His eyes darted around trying his best not to make an eye contact with the skeleton. He had watch enough horror movie to know that it's very bad to make any eye contact with any demonic being.
As if it was amused by his attempts to break out of his situation, the skeleton stop tapping the table and issued a laugh, it was pleasant to the ears but at the same time contained a feeling of mystery and fear.
His body trembled and all his hairs stand on end when he heard the seemingly harmless laugh, he couldn't help but plead to the skeleton.
"Please don't take my soul!! I still have a lot of dream to achieve!"
As if it had heard the funniest thing in its life not that it had any life. It lifted its head and roared in laughter in response to his pleading, when it was finally satisfied it wiped one of its eye as if performing an action of wiping tears on it, after regaining its bearing it looked at him and said.
"I'm not taking your soul, you had already arrived at your destination."
Jin was stunned when he heard that, he knelt on the ground in despair and said.
"I knew it, I'm already dead, right?"
This time it was the skeleton's turn to be stunned, before laughing at him while slapping the table and producing the smacking sound.
Jin didn't understand what was funny about what he said, after performing a process of elimination it was the most viable answer to all his question and the weird things that had happened. After all everything could be explained if he was indeed dead.
After laughing for some time the skeleton looked at him and said.
"I can tell you are completely alive and breathing. What I meant when I said that you've arrive at your destination is that you're in a parallel universe." The skeleton paused to let his words register.
Jin heaved a sigh of relief before turning to the skeleton and asking. "Where exactly am I?"
He had been worrying about his location ever since he woke, after all it was really uncomfortable knowing that you were in the middle of nowhere without any way of going back, whether you were in a safe environment. As for why he immediately believe he was in a parallel universe, there's nothing more convincing than a talking skeleton.
As if not expecting his composure, the skeleton said in surprise. "You're not scared?"
Jin was surprise but he didn't have much of a reaction to its words, he had already considered that scenario before and frankly it was quite exciting just thinking about it so he was quite glad that it was the conclusion and not the scenario where he was dead.
"Of course not, the reason why I was panicking earlier was because I don't know what the hell was happening but now that you clarified some of my doubts I'm able to compose myself for now."
The Skelton nod its head before sitting straight and adopting a serious expression. Jin couldn't really tell if it was serious or not based on its expression since it was a skeleton and skeletons don't have facial muscle to form expression.
"The place you're currently at was called… Lorebark Woods."
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