Instead of walking along the forest path, Sophia decided to walk just outside of it. She did this to avoid being ambushed by big birds. She also constantly stayed alert, looking at every tree to make sure there wasn’t an enormous spider hiding there. There were the ants as well, but those were lower on Sophia’s scale of scary things she met.


    She didn’t need to worry about the anteater though, since she could hear them from a mile away even if she wasn’t paying attention.


    This went on for several minutes. Occasionally meeting a lone ant, which seemed to always notice her, forcing her to fight it. This was when Sophia felt the difference when she put in the stat points. Although it was slight, she was faster than she was before when dodging. She also tested her dexterity by throwing rocks at trees, and once did it on an ant, which was strangely effective. Finding a weapon other than her body, Sophia picked up as much rocks as she could, which wasn’t a lot. She realized there weren’t a lot of rocks in the forest… She thought about using a strong branch aswell to use as a weapon, but all of the ones she found were too brittle.


    After killing one more red ant, she leveled up again, receiving another three stat points. She decided to put it in agility, perception and strength this time. Sophia picked agility for the same reason as before. Strength was because she decided she might need it. And perception was, again, she might need it. No point in neglecting one thing now, when she might need it in the future.


    Yes, Sophia decided to raise everything, so it stayed relatively the same until she was sure what everything did. This was to avoid doing something stupid. Although Sophia didn’t yet know what intelligence did, if it was something important and she neglected it, she was definitely going to regret doing that.


    Aside from leveling up, Sophia met two ant groups of ten once, the red ones and the black ones. They were in the middle of the path, fighting fiercely against each other. Luckily, they were too busy doing what they did to bother with Sophia, which made her very happy. She didn’t test her luck and made a wide berth around the chaotic battlefield.


    It was probably another five or ten minutes untill she would get out of this damned forest and reach the parking lot. She could use her bike to quickly go back to town. That is, unless someone stole it, she forgot to lock her it...


    Sophia stopped when she heard a grunting noise further down the forest, veering away from the path. It sounded vaguely human. She widened her eyes, but still stayed cautious. It sounded like he was struggling with something. Was he fighting? Should she go and help?


    Sophia decided to check things out for now. If she could help, she would. But she highly doubted that. She hoped he wouldn’t die or something. It was kinda scary being alone. Sophia wouldn’t mind depending on someone to get her out of here.


    She crept closer to the sound were the grunting came from. She chose a random tree to hide behind. Once there, Sophia looked at the culprit making the noise. She widened her eyes and clamped her hand against her mouth. She gasped when she saw something she never would’ve expected.


    It was a man. He was about 1,80 meters in height. His short, black hair was stained with dirt and blood. The black tank top and grey trainers he wearing were dirtied the same way. The hand that was holding a kitchen knife was repeatedly stabbing an already mangled corpse of what once must’ve been a living, breathing human.


    It looked like the man was torturing- no, the other person was already dead. Sophia couldn’t tell if it were a he or she. She couldn’t quite see what the man did, as he was in front of the corpse with his back to her, but Sophia didn’t want to see what things he must’ve done to him/her.


    This was bad. Really bad. Sophia slowly sneaked backwards, trying to avoid having the man spot her-


    *Snap*


    The man''s head whipped around to face Sophia. The bloodied grin he was wearing became even wider when he saw the frightened girl standing there.


    “Well, hello there.” He spoke in casual tone, like he wasn’t just enjoying himself torturing the unknown person. And although he spoke in a foreign language, Sophia clearly understood everything he said. Was it because of the system? She didn’t dwell on those thoughts as she was frozen in fear. She cursed her luck once again. Why did she had to step on a branch now of all times?


    The man, Sophia deduced he was someone from Eastern Europe, swept his gaze over Sophia’s body.


    Sophia didn’t know how a person, from a country where the Soviet Union held power, was doing here. The relations between West and East kept most from traveling over here or there. That and the wall separating the communists and the capitalists from each other. It’s not like there weren’t any Eastern Europeans here, it was just really rare.


    “Hmm” He appeared to be thinking about something, when his gaze turned from maddened to lustful as he decided. “You look pretty nice. Care to have some fun?”


    Sophia already bolted when she heard ‘pretty’. Her sneakers crunched the dead leaves that she stepped on. She dodged trees left and right and jumped over suspicious branches that may have had her trip. With her luck it probably would have...


    She quickly reached the forest path. Not pausing or even looking back if the man was chasing her, Sophia crossed it and continued sprinting into the forest. Her lungs burned as they begged for fresh air as she ran and ran.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Until something lodged itself on her back.


    With a shriek of pain, Sophia fell. The rocks that were in her hands fell all around her. She used her hand to feel what hit her. She grimaced when she felt the handle. It seemed like the man had thrown the knife he was carrying with him.


    Sophia looked behind her and saw the man walking towards her, slightly out of breath.


    “Please… Please don’t!” She begged she crawled away, her hope dwaning. Sophia remembered what the man had said and started crying when he crouched right in front of her.


    He kept smiling as he grabbed the knife handle and yanked it out. Sophia screamed in pain. “Someone please help! Please please please!” She cried out, hoping the noise would attract something.


    “Quiet” the man growled as he grabbed the struggling Sophia’s pants and ripped it off.


    “Nooooooo!” She tried pushing and flailing, but the man was too strong.


    “Oooooh! Those are some nice tattoo’s!” The man praised as he saw the two pictures on her thigh and leg.


    Sophia didn’t want to hear the man’s disgusting praise. She grabbed a close-by rock, that previously fell from her hands, and used it to slam it onto his head.


    The man stumbled as it successfully connected with his jaw.


    Sophia tried to get up and run, but the pain in her back kept her from completely standing. She ended up half running half crawling to try to get away.


    She barely ran five meters before being tackled to the ground. Sophia cried out in pain and desperation as the man turned her around to face him. Instead of the maddened grin he was wearing before, the man’s facial expression was distorted in rage. She opened her mouth to beg, but was interrupted by his fist.


    “You. Fucking. Bitch. That. Hurt.” Each word he said was accompanied by a fist directed at Sophia’s face and body. She didn’t know how long she lay there, but after tens of punches the man finally stopped.


    Her vision was blurry. Her beaten face drooped to the side. She saw the bloodied knife close to where her hand was and tried to grab it. But she couldn’t. Her hand wouldn’t move. She tried and tried. Even when the man ripped up her shirt and took of her panties, she was unresponsive. Her eyes were slowly closing. Sophia felt that if she closed them now, she would wake up from this nightmare. Yes, if she just closed her eyes, everything... would end.


    A sudden spike in pain in her lower body woke Sophia from her stupor. She screamed, grabbed the knife and swung it above her. She felt slight a resistance when swinging. Something warm and sticky sprayed on her face shortly after.


    A weight was released from Sophia’s body as the man fell on the ground. She immediately sprang up and lunged at him. Her half naked body straddled the man. She looked at the cause of her recent misery.


    His eyes were widened with horror as he held his slit throat with both of his hands. His mouth opened and closed, but Sophia didn’t care. She hadn’t stopped screaming since her lower body started bleeding. She raised her hand that heldthe kitchen knife and swung down.


    She raised it and swung down.


    Over and over again.


    Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.


    After the man was completely unrecognizable by the many stab wounds and Sophia’s voice was hoarse from screaming, she finally stopped.


    Tears were streaming down her face as she silently raised her bloodied body and walked away, dropping the knife in the process.


    The only thing she was wearing was her loosened bra, a ripped up T-shirt and her dirty, bloodied sneakers.


    Her body was bruised, she was raped and her face was beaten unrecognizable.


    She could only see through one eye and her vision was blurry and swimming.


    She didn’t know where she was going.


    Sophia wanted everything to end. Living was only accompanied by pain. She would never forget what happened recently and she didn’t want that. She’d rather die. She hoped a monster would come and eat her or something.


    Yes, this was what she wanted. So why was it that since she encountered that asshole, not a single spider, ant, anteater or whatever the fuck was in this forest came when she wanted it?! When she was screaming! When she was not trying to avoid their presence! This was complete and utter bullshit!


    She stopped ranting inside of her mind and squinted her eye, trying to see where she was.


    Sophia didn’t know how to explain it, but something was wrong? The air here seemed thinner, like she was high up in a mountain. Through her limited vision, she saw dead trees and the dirt seemed to be cracked.


    Everything around her was dead. Not a single trace of life except for Sophia was here.


    But, even though there was something that was screaming for her to get away, she didn’t. After all, didn’t she just decide to die? Who cared if there was danger over there...


    So she continued walking. Passed the dead trees. On the cracked earth. It became harder to breathe with every step she took. Her laboured breathing slowed her even more. Her limited clothing withered away into dust. Her skin dried up and her shoulder length, chestnut colored hair started withering away. Her eyes and ears started bleeding as a certain pressure overcame her.


    Her hearing became bad and her already bad eyesight became even worse.


    She dropped to her knees. It was to the point where she was desperately gasping for air, but finding none. The pressure made impossible to stand up.


    Sophia accepted her fate and dropped to the ground.


    While taking her last short breaths, Sophia’s sight became slightly clearer again. How, she didn’t know. She saw a sickly green horse with a hooded figure on top. The horse seemed to be sick as foam came out its mouth and pieces of its flesh were rotting, showing maggots and other disgusting creatures wriggling around. The horse didn’t seem to mind while it was standing on a field of bones. The bones didn’t just lay there. They moved and formed a gigantic humanoid, standing behind the hooded figure.


    “Well well well. What do we have here?” She heard a melodic feminine voice, as Sophia closed her eyes and sighed out her last breath.