[b]DAY 11: WINGS – FLY ONE MORE TIME[/b]

She was the sunken one. A queen of the pit of her own misery. She had fallen so deep down she couldn't see light anymore. But did she even want that? She wasn't sure. Most of the times she wanted to just stay in her dream world. Reality had become so unbearable, though, sometimes she couldn't tell what was real and what was not. Occasionally, she could hear strange, unclear noises when she was dreaming. Even though she couldn't understand what they were saying, she knew what they meant. They filled her head with worries, anxiety and sadness. They told her that no one cared about her and the world was a better place without her. So she fell deeper and deeper down the pit, to a place where nobody could see her. Being sad all the time drained her energy and she had no strength to get out of the depths.

She had no tears left to shed. She didn't feel like a person anymore. Nothing but a chunk filled with sorrow.  But she still had her dreams. In these visions, she could be able to smile. She could feel loved. There was no smothering darkness or noises telling her horrible things. Everything was colorful and she could do things and enjoy them. Such place was like heaven.

If only those dreams would become reality… But she was too far down and couldn't be reached.

Or so she thought.

One day she heard a new voice. It was different; it had no ill intentions. It made her cold heart feel a bit warmer and gave her strength to look up. Still no light. But what was this sensation? It felt like she had met an old friend. Who could it be? She had though that everyone had abandoned her already. Perhaps out there was still someone who cared.

But then came the awful noises, reminding her that her place was here where no one could ever see her. That friendly voice just wanted to deceive her and hurt her. It was hard to not listen these terrible ones. She was once again staring at the bottom of her pit. Yes… this was where she belonged.

However, the heartfelt voice came back and it was more powerful and determined than before. She bathed in its warmness, once again gaining strength to lift her head up. And what was that? Was that a tiny ray of light? Suddenly, she felt mighty and could even stand up. She walked a couple of steps and placed her both hands to the walls, still looking up. Oh, that light… it felt like it had healing properties. She really wanted to reach that.

She needed wings.

She started to feel pain in her back. It felt like there was something crawling under her skin. That was very unpleasant feeling. Then, abruptly, some bones pierced through her skin. More and more of them were tearing her back's flesh, blood dripping to the bottom of the pit. She was willing to suffer this pain if it meant that she could finally get out of there.

In no time, she had the wings of bones ready to fly. Growing them hurt like hell, but it was nothing compared to the agony she had suffered while she had been trapped in the pit. She spread her wings and was ready to fly. They got ignited, flames now licking the bones and they were scorching her back. But she was flying.

It hurt to escape from the pit. And it had been a bit terrifying as well. She hoped that a better life was waiting for her.

She flew to the unknown. But was this her last flight, she didn't know.



[b]DAY 12: ARROWS – DEAR HUNT[/b]

He had been just a modest son of a blacksmith. Not even daring to dream about finding a love of his life, something unexpected still happened to him. One day, a lady visited the workshop, wanting the blacksmith to forge a certain type of knife for her. And being a typical young man, he got interested in this lady in no time. She was very sweet and they spend the whole day with each other. They decided to meet again tomorrow. And the day after that. And after that. Soon weeks had passed and they had fallen in love. And for a little while, their life had been perfect. They had been deeply in love with each other and it had almost felt like a fairy tale. They were even planning their wedding and how many kids they wanted and stuff like that.

But then something occurred that shattered everything.

One day, she had been away just few moments and left him to rest in her little cabin that was located in a nearby forest, just stone throw away from the village. And when she came back… her heart broke. She found her lover from a bed with another woman. And if that wasn't bad enough, that particular woman was her sister. That damn vixen had always been wanting to hurt her, but this was the worst thing she had ever done to her. The sister laughed at her, mockingly, and in a blink of an eye, she had disappeared. The young man was in a complete daze, not really being able to register what was happening. It was all her sister's fault, but she couldn't bring herself to look at her lover. She was angry and sad and just wanted him to disappear as well.

There was this one thing he had never known about her: she was a witch. And so was her sister. She began to chant a spell. A stream of blue tiny lights got born from her hands and they headed to the young man like shooting stars. He was still naked in the bed, bewildered. And next, the blue lights danced around him, then dashing right at him, closing him into a blue cocoon. The show of lights prepared for a grand finale, and exploded, revealing the young man once again.

However, he had no human form anymore.

He was now a deer.

Stumbling around with his new slim legs, he managed to get out of the bed, but was still having trouble to stand up. His going was quite wonky.

The witch looked at the deer. She was disgusted by it. So she tried to drive it away, shooing it and waving her arms. The deer was swaying a bit, but succeeded in heading to the door and galloping away through it. For a moment, the witch just stood in her place, trying to banish the sorrow from her broken heart. But then, her gaze wandered at the direction of her bow. It made her find a smile.

Actually, she was in the mood for some hunting.

So she grabbed her weapon and went after the deer.

With her powers she was better at hunting and rushing through the forest than common folk. She was almost gliding as she tried to catch up to the deer. It didn't take long for her to find that animal; it had stopped to drink from the creek. She shot one arrow next to the deer, not aiming at it, she just wanted to scare it off – and she was successful. After all, there was no fun in hunting without proper pursuit.

The animal dashed away. And she followed.

She chased her target to the deepest of parts of the forest where no ordinary people dared to tread. At this point she started to feel that it was right time to catch her prey.

She shot her first arrow, filled with hatred, at the deer. It pierced its left hind leg.

Then she shot her second arrow, filled with sadness. This one hit the left side.

The final arrow, filled with need for revenge, got shot through the deer's head, causing it to fall down.

She walked to the corpse of the creature that had been her lover. The parts where the arrows had hit were bleeding heavily and the hide looked like it was being burned by something, turning it to scorched and black. The witch caressed the deer's head a little.

“Goodbye, my love.”



[b]DAY 13: NEEDLES – AM I PRETTY YET?[/b]

She had always been quite shy. That's why it was hard for her to make friends. Because no one wanted her company, she was an easy target for bullies. This made her also very insecure. She didn't really dare to tell anyone that she was being bullied, because she was afraid that it would only get worse. So she kept it to herself. She was actually pretty strong person; she just didn't realize it. Day after day she would face hardships and still having strength to stand. They couldn't break her will, for she was a fighter. She just wasn't aware of that.

But at home she could find peace. It really helped her that she had such a loving family. She could gain strength from them and be able to face the bullies with that vigor. Sometimes, though, she dreamed of better times; that the bullies would stop and probably even be friendly to her. That wasn't too much to ask, right?

And one day, something weird happened.

A new boy came to school. And he had been placed to her class. Just like everyone else, she was curious about this new teen. He seemed to be quite nice and he had such a charming smile. He had even flashed one of those smiles right at her. No other boy had ever done that to her, so she felt really flattered. A new feeling made its way to her chest: she felt warm and like her heart was melting. Was this love?

She couldn't help but admire him every day when she saw him. Of course, she was too shy to approach him, but that was okay. Sometimes he would share a word and another with her, which made her feel really thrilled. He was always nice to her, and it's easy to fall for those who accept you as who you are.

But how she could tell him how she felt? How to make him notice her as a potential girlfriend?

One day, she stumbled upon something called charm needles. They could enhance different attributes of those who use them. That's when she got an idea: maybe she could use those needles to make herself more attractive. Then the boy of her dreams would notice just how beautiful and lovable she was.

She then executed this plan and got some needles inserted in her by a professional.

When she came to school next day, she got hit by confusion. No one was bullying her; everyone just minded their own business. Was this the magic of the needles? She wanted to find the boy she liked to see if anything had changed. He was still his charming self, but didn't seem to be interested in her that much.

She decided that she needed more charm needles.

On the following day, she noticed some changes again. People were actually smiling at her and greeted her. That made her feel really good about herself, giving her more confidence. She was grinning happily as she walked through the halls. But where was the boy she yearned for? When she finally found him, they had a conversation which lasted longer than ever before. It made her feel happy, but still, he didn't show any sign of interest. 

Few next days were rather pleasant. She enjoyed the positive attention she had now gotten. Some of the bullies had even come to her and apologized their behavior. Suddenly, she had become more popular and she was loving it. Everything would have been perfect, if only that certain boy liked her… Since she had gained a lot more confidence, she then decided to ask about it directly from him.

But this event only broke her heart. 

The boy had told that he indeed thought that she was pretty, attractive and kind girl, but he was only interested in boys. There was no chance they could date.

This made her extremely sad. For the following evening, she had shut herself in her room and just cried in her bed. She had inserted these needles in her body just for him… just for him…

Suddenly, she got an idea. Maybe if she had more needles, the boy would start to like him.

She skipped school that day, only to get charm needles. She stole a good bunch of them, then carrying her plunder to her room where she locked herself in. Staring at the mirror for a little while, thinking about how she was going to get more beautiful than anyone else and how no boy wouldn't be able to resist her beauty, she smiled at her reflection. Tomorrow, she would finally get her loved one to like her.

She then started to poke needles into her skin. One after another, the metal pieces were sticking out all over her arms, shoulders, body and face. Smirking at her image on the mirror, she knew she was beautiful. She didn't see a hideous monster that was covered in needles.

In her eyes, she was now perfect.



[b]DAY 14: PARASITE – HOTEL OF TORMENT[/b]

Crekimen was probably one of the most beautiful places in existence. There were lots of blue mountains guarding the area like ancient gods and from their hillsides started lush forests. A couple of small lakes could also be found from the area, surrounded by the mighty trees, and their pristine waters were said to cure diseases. A distinctive village rested at the valley and this was also where the Crekimen hotel was offering accommodation to the tourists. And finally, it was worth to mention that just outside the village, a stunning sight of sea of flowers could be admired. These flowers were the crown jewel of Crekimen. All in all, the whole region felt like a paradise.

Or at least, that's what they were promising in their leaflets. But they were working; thanks to them, Drake had got interested in Crekimen, wanting to visit that place. And so he decided to do.

After a long train trip, Drake set his foot on that beautiful land. He inhaled this fresh and pure air and stretched his stiff limbs. So far, this place had been just like they had promised; the village felt nice and lively and somewhere in the distance he could see the flower fields. But before doing anything else, Drake made a decision that he should book in to hotel.

Crekimen hotel was pretty small, but cozy. It was a bit rustic, but this look suited the place. Drake walked to the counter, booked in, and went to check his room. It was on the second floor, therefore, he climbed the set of stairs. After finding the right door, he unlocked it and stepped inside. It was quite small, but that was okay: he didn't need much space anyway. There was only one bed, a nice table with a chair, a TV hanging on the wall and a rather big window that allowed some light to get in. There was also some other door and Drake checked out what it was: it led to the bathroom. Sweet. Actually, he was feeling a little thirsty, so he left his luggage stuff in the room and then marched to bathroom to take some water from the tap. After quenching his thirst, he decided that he wanted to go to take a look around the village. With that, he left the room and headed outside.

The day passed by pretty fast. Drake had been strolling in the village, sharing a few words with the cheery locals and admiring their gorgeous handcrafts. He even bought one pendant. He had also tested some of the delicious foods which the locals had cooked. Then he had hopped in a helicopter and took a tour through the air. The beautiful landscape of Crekimen was really impressive: it was summer time so the place was at its finest this time of the year and Drake was happy he could witness this beauty of the nature. It looked even better than in leaflets.

And then, abruptly, it was evening already. Drake had returned to the hotel and retired to his room. He watched a bit TV before going to bed and rest.

He wasn't aware that such an amazing day was going to end in nightmare.

Drake woke up to a scream. He was drowsy so he was a bit slow to react to anything. He heard more screaming and stomping from the halls. Drake got up from his bed and wondered what was going on. But then he noticed something weird. There was a rotten smell lingering in the air and what was even more creepy: some black goo was oozing from the walls. The room's TV was shattered and now that he took a closer look, the whole place looked like as if no one had visited it in years, it was in such a bad shape.

But how was that possible? What was going on?

Suddenly, he felt sharp pain in his stomach. But it wasn't that bad – yet – so he ignored it and just wanted to get away from that place. Drake opened the door and entered the hall. The black goo was a problem in here as well. The lights were flickering ominously, and he could see blood stains smeared to the wall. But the worst thing he saw was a decapitated corpse on the floor – a horror was still visible in her eyes and fresh tears were rolling down her face. The sight made Drake absolutely sickened and he dashed to the stairs, wanting to get away from there.

His stomach pain was growing and growing, but Drake didn't stop – even though he found two more bodies from the stairs, he just didn't stop to investigate them. He wondered could he find any help from the receptionist and headed to the counter, only to find another dead body. The receptionist woman had got hanged. Drake didn't want to be the next victim, so he rushed out of the doors.

He fell on his knees, partly because of shock and exhaustion, partly because his pain in the stomach was increasing rapidly.

What the hell was happening in there?

And what was happening to him?

Drake groaned for he was suffering. Was it because of something he had consumed? The food he had eaten in the village? Or the water he had drank from the hotel's bathroom?

He felt another sharp sting. This agony was almost… like something was gnawing him from the inside. Tears started to form in Drake's eyes because of the pain.

Then a sharp object pierced through his stomach. Shocked, Drake looked at his abdomen, only to witness other sharp thing bursting through his skin. And few more. He was losing blood fast as the creature inside his stomach ripped his skin apart – but why it did so, he couldn't understand since it never came out through that hole it had made. Drake wanted to vomit as he felt that little critter climb from his abdomen to his throat, then burrowing to his head. At this point he lost his consciousness due to blood loss and fell to the ground. Soon he had lost too much of it and his heart stopped beating. But the little parasite continued its work. It invaded his brain, did its little tricks, and somehow was able to reanimate Drake's body and control it like a puppet.

He was now zombified.



[b]DAY 15: TRANSFORMATION – TIME'S UP, FOOL[/b]

He was wandering around some place that might happened to be a castle. And somehow, Finn knew it was just a dream, but he was stuck in it. It felt so real in some strange way. It wasn't just a film he could see in his head like you usually do when you're dreaming. He was actually in control of himself and could have an effect on things. And he had his senses. He could smell the heavy air that seemed oppressive somehow. In fact, it felt like shadows were watching him, and that anything could ambush him at any minute. Somewhere in the distance he could hear some muffled moaning. Everything in this place felt scary and Finn just wanted to wake up already and get away from there. But he couldn't do that – he just had to accept that he was a prisoner here, for now.

For some reason, Finn had this odd and perplexing feeling that he had to find something from the castle. Otherwise, something bad would happen. He couldn't explain this sensation, but maybe that just was the many mysteries of a dream. He had to hurry. He didn't know why, but decided trust his instincts. What else would he do? Just sit in a corner, waiting for some nightmare creature to eat him? Yeah, he would rather avoid that.

It appeared to be nighttime. Finn did find some windows and he wondered, could he escape through them, but then he noticed that they had bars in them. Then he also discovered something ominous: there was almost nothing outside. Finn could see a part of a sky, a bit of woods and little land with a road slithering in it… but they all got cut into nothingness. It seemed like that this castle and a patch of its land were resting in the middle of a void. This discovery creeped Finn out quite a lot. There was no point in trying to find an entrance, since it would only lead to nothing. But then, he got an idea: perhaps the thing he had to find was a method to get away from here. And with that, he rushed through the hall, starting his mission.

He still didn't know exactly what he was looking for, but still, he hadn't found anything useful. Finn had gone through a lot of rooms – there was an insane amount of them – and wandered in the halls, but wasn't any closer to finding an escape route. With increasing panic, he desperately continued his task.

On one of the corridors he almost got into encounter nobody would like to end up in. Finn was hearing some moaning again, but this time, closer to him. He hid himself behind the corner and peeked a little. It was dark so he couldn't distinguish all the details, but there appeared to be some kind of monster. It was slow and looked like a mass of different limbs put together. It had not noticed Finn and was just minding its own business, heading to one of the doors on that corridor. Finn decided that he didn't want to get acquainted with this monstrosity and headed back to where he had come from, hoping that he wasn't leaving behind something important.

Finn had got deeper and deeper into the castle and was increasingly becoming anxious. He felt like that the whole place was against him and wanted to hurt him. But only if he could tell this castle that he would gladly exit it and never return, that would be great. Though, nothing was ever going to be easy in this place. Finn had seen at least two more of those weird monstrosities patrolling the area and he felt like that they were searching for him. This made him even more frightened than what he already was. He had to find that thing, whatever it was, and get out of here.

But he wasn't destined to win.

He was currently checking out some room that had stacks of books stored in there, when he heard laughter. It sounded like a little girl and there was something eerie in its tone.

“Time's up, fool!”

This caused Finn to panic. What was going to happen now?

He got his answer immediately.

First, he felt some strange tingling across his whole body. He looked at his hands and noticed that his fur had started to become black. Next, he felt pain in his fingertips and suddenly, his nails became ridiculously long, this sudden change causing tips to bleed. But that was probably easiest part of his transformation. He could feel unreasonable amount of pain in his sides and soon, two extra limbs did burst through his hide, splattering blood as they came into existence. Finn fell on his knees due to suffering pain in every part of his body. Then he felt that his back skin was being torn apart and at that moment, a part of his spine emerged and grow some spikes to stick out from it. His tail rotted away, leaving only a pathetic stump. Wings were melting, exposing bones from few parts and shredded the skin.

Little tweaks from here and there and then Finn's transformation was complete. He was a monster now. An abomination, ready to roam in the halls of this castle. 

Then he woke up.

Finn was feeling a bit shocked and for a little while he was just sitting and catching his breath. But soon he started to register that he was safe. He was exactly where he had fallen asleep. There was no castle. He wasn't a monster. Everything was fine. But the dream had felt so incredibly vivid… As if he had got sucked into another dimension or something like that.

Then a thought came to his mind.

Had he just died?