0|Shadows

Charred remains tumbled from the rafters in incessant heaps. Thick swaths of soot mingled with the smoke that churned in the halls, flickers of flame shooting out as burning wood crackled and spat. Heat prickled on skin, and eyes were dyed with a sickly orange that lit up the world.

Arrow after arrow continued to barrage the castle. With the front gate collapsed, men charged in, and the ring of clashing metal and the screams of the dead were barely audible over the endless torrent of fire. Slabs of slate crashed through jagged holes in the floor and roofs, pelting heads before any blade could stab them.

The flames grew taller, more vicious, until it swallowed almost everything in sight. Their bright eminence cast enormous shadows up the crumbling walls. Shadows of men, shadows of women, shadows of corpses, they all became one, until they were nothing but weeping, marionette-like figures, and the bodies that were casting them could no longer be seen.

The central keep fell silent, except for the mild crackle of burning. The shadows spread wide until there was no spot to stand that was out of their reach.

"Why did you run?" they whispered.

"Why did you run?" they asked.

"Why did you run?" they demanded.

The vision is replaced with a pair of bloodied hands, before soon the burning remains of the castle fade into the background, and a single man escapes into the forest, but he is followed by the shadows, multiplying and deepening in the shade of the ancient firs. He is always followed by them