“I have this reoccurring nightmare.”
Gravediggers voice echoes softly over a dimly lit scene inside a forest. The trees go for as far as the eye can see and the brush is thick and overwhelming. Gravedigger appears in the middle of it and begins running.
“I’m lost in a dense forest and I’m running for my life. Something is chasing me, its breath having a dalliance with the back of my neck.”
His heart pounds and his own breath skips a beat as he runs, pushing past branches and bushes, slamming into trees and bouncing away.
“I run as fast as I can, jumping and leaping over fallen trees and thick logs. What’s chasing me never catches up. It isn’t that I awaken before it does. It’s that no matter how far or how fast I run, the forest never ends.”
Gravedigger stops running, doubling over to catch his breath. He looks at a tree, in which a white line is drawn, and begins running once more.
“And neither do I stop trying to escape.”
He runs and runs and runs, passing the white marker on the tree repeatedly.
“I’ve tried climbing trees, walking and even burrowing into the ground. It doesn’t matter what I do, how high I climb or how low I burrow, I find myself stood in the exact same spot, looking back at the fucking forest.”
Gravedigger laughs.
“I couldn’t escape it. Even waking meant that the very next time I closed my eyes, I’d end up back here. However, the more often I had the nightmare, the less terrifying it became. The forest in its never-ending mass became less daunting with every passing moment I was stuck in it.
Until I realized… I wasn’t stuck in it, after all.”
As the night closes in, Gravedigger sits in the forest against a tree, his eyes closed.
“Because here in this dense wood of horror and terror is home. This forest is my playground and for as long as I’m in it, the only place it becomes a nightmare for is those I bring with me.”
His eyes open, revealing visages of Gemini and Hatchet. Apparitions that seem hollow, and terrified.
“I’ve lived a nightmare of an existence in Arcadia. I’ve ran through a forest of torture for most of my life. It didn’t matter what I did, I couldn’t escape it. It wasn’t until I realized that this place, my home, is only a nightmare if I allow it to be. Every moment I survived; I was less daunted by existing.
But now you’re here to join me, Hatchet.
Now, you’re in my forest, Gemini.”
He smiles.
“And in my forest, this is where your nightmare begins.
Welcome to my playground. The trees run for miles, the ground is treacherous, and terror lurks around every corner with a side of danger for good measure. It’s my breath on the back of your neck.
There’s no escape. There’s no way out.
And only I can see the forest for the trees.”