Hey guys! This one-shot is an entry for @WillowThunder and her Weekly Wattpad Writing Contests. Which I will try to do to at least keep writing. Even if it's not for a story, always keep writing! It keeps your skills sharp and also its super fun!

Without further ado, I ask you to lower your lights, wait with bated breath, and enjoy!

~Blaze

Scream

She darted forward, nimbly jumping over a branch that blocked her path. A few feet later had her ducking desperately under a thick, inconvenient log that blocked the other side of the path.

Her heart thudded wildly in her chest, every movement becoming slow and tiring. She had been running from this... thing for a long time now, and it was taking its toll on her.

Of course, he didn't seem to be slowing down at all. She could still hear its footsteps behind her. Or were they fading away? She couldn't tell any more. All she could hear was the blood rushing through her veins at double time and her thick, heaving pants.

Against her better judgement she decided to take a peek behind her. It would be better to slow down to conserve strength, right? If he wasn't behind her then she could do just that. She slowed ever so slightly as she turned to take a careful peek behind her.

Nothing.

The forest behind her was empty, leaves still rustling from her passing moments ago. She could still hear footsteps, but they were faint, unintelligible things long behind her. Had she really outrun him?

She turned to face forward once more, a small unbidden ray of hope filling her soul. As she did, she was barely able to fling herself out of the way of something that wasn't in front of her a few seconds before. In the process she tripped, tumbling head first onto the ground.

It was lucky that she fell down. The blade that had swung towards her face missed by inches. She could feel the air being displaced as the chilled metal swung right past her and into the tree trunk beside her.

She collapsed heavily on the ground, falling awkwardly on her arm. A piercing pain shot through the bone followed by a white hot flame that licked at her forearm. She heard a loud growl emanate from the humanoid creature in front of her, a displeased sound that sent shivers down her spine. She heard a swish of metal, the creature recovering his blade for another swing.

Her instincts screamed for her to flee and she obeyed, hands scrambling to find a purchase on the forest floor. The leaves that had acted as such a good cushion before now betrayed her, slipping and sliding beneath her hands and feet to cause her to fall once more.

She tried frantically to stand, pushing forcefully against the leaves and praying for her hands to catch. Just as she was getting a grip, he shifted behind her again. She heard the ringing sound of steel and threw herself to the side, rolling out from another fateful blow. The growl turned into a displeased hiss. He moved even closer to her, naught but a whisper on the leaves.

Now that she had turned to face him she was able to get a head on view of her attacker. It was a tall, slender thing shrouded in a black cloak. He was massive and imposing, and from her spot far beneath him his every move became intimidating and scary. His mere presence spoke of death, and she averted her eyes from his hood, unwilling to see into it's dark, gloomy depths. The blade he had been swinging towards her wasn't a sword or knife like she had assumed, but rather a large, bloody scythe almost twice the size of her head. She gasped, chest heaving in that one frozen moment of time.

It lifted one hand from the end of the scythe, a large, gleaming skeletal hand of bones, and she felt her body seize up. The thumping in her head turned into a full on pound and the ringing picked up, filling her mind with the sound of a tolling bell. The pain in her arm intensified, becoming thicker and thicker until she felt as if her arm would explode.

He brought his hand back down, wrapping it around the staff of the scythe for a better grip. Then, taking another step towards her, he lifted his hood for the first time that night. The moonlight still obscured her vision but she could just barely make out his lack of a nose and his serious yet twisted smile.

Her eyes locked onto the black, endless sockets where his eyes should have been. He had nothing to see with and yet she felt his stare on her like a heavy, immobile weight. It was the final judgement.

As she stared, his skull moved, frowning down at her in a way that no skull ever should. Her mind was dragged to him and she caught a glimpse of what lied beneath his seemingly empty stare.

Her mouth opened in a blood curdling scream.

"Time's up." He told her with his thick, gravelly voice. She couldn't even close her eyes to shield herself in her final moments as he adjusted his grip for the last time on his scythe.

On this swing his aim was true.