Jessica held herself a short distance away from the group, not far, perhaps two yards or so, she didn't want to die anytime soon after all.

Jessica felt a bug land on her skin, it bit her blood and she watched it drop lifelessly, she'd realized a while back that had happened each time, she'd left a trail of dead insects where she passed.

The typical sting of their bites was also missing the intensity she remembered, it felt as though they were only standing on her skin before they fell, but she'd noticed they did bite.

Jessica blinked and also realized the surge of energy which accompanied her after she woke from that horrible dream was missing.

'You're going to die. Will you scream for me as you do? Panic, do it!' The voice spoke to her and she closed her eyes, a while back the voice begun diversifying it's words.

Jessica tried to focus on something else, but a quick look only deepened her dread, her tattoo's were glowing, again.

They marked Body:2, Mind:10, Spirit:2, she instantly felt a bolt of cold dread engulfed her and she stayed still for second.

'No! Nonononononononono.' Jessica's eyes grew wild as she looked at the group.

Good, they hadn't noticed anything, if she pretended everything was fine, they wouldn't act or demand, or say anything.

Her hand hovered over Body as she prepared to choose it over spirit, she wasn't going to select spirit again, she'd rather die.

Then half an inch over the selection she stopped herself, cold reason led her to an obvious truth, if she selected Body the others would notice, still she wasn't going to select spirit again, never.

A distant part, a habit mostly, within herself rebelled at the mere thought of not doing what she promised, she could imagine her father's disapproving face, but she was his little girl, she knew he'd forgive her, he couldn't blame her for this.

'Please. I'm sorry.' Jessica squeezed her eyes and wiped her tears away,

'Failure, you're a coward and a failure. You're parents are better off without you.' The voice sounded extremely smug as it droned on an on endlessly.

Jessica opened her mouth to scream at it, but remembered herself.

'Shut up!' She kept it inside, it wouldn't do for the others to bother her.

That psychopathic guide had done something else to her mind, he was always talking to her, invading her thoughts.

He was constantly telling her what to do and how worthless she was, couldn't the psycho just shut up?

Did the others have their guides talk to them? They didn't mention anything so it might just be hers, either that or they didn't say anything and were lying, by now she could believe that, they were all liars.

The psycho was a monster, a sadistic ruthless beast with no morals nor virtue, damn him a thousand, no countless times.

Blinking Jessica noticed the group had stalled, she worried they noticed something and were going to ask more questions.

She didn't want them to know he spoke to her, Sarah would want him to answer questions and demand Jessica ask them for her.

A moment later she noticed why they'd stopped, the ground rocked very lightly with the occasional tremor, almost indiscernible but still strange, how hadn't she noticed that before?

The current tremor ceased, or so she thought, it might have even been her imagination, it was that light.

'Do you think if the earth eats you it'll spit you out? You likely taste horrible.' The psycho pondered, Jessica internally cursed him.

Something caught her eye soon, alluring fireflies lit the near-by area, they populated the dark space with colorful rainbow lights.

The insects were dispersed here, but there was an area up ahead where they seemed to thicken, so much that it looked as if night and day held an accord and yet vied to outdo each other.

Instinctively, or curiously they followed the light and soon they'd entered a clearing, the rest of the trees made way, yet a thick gnarly tree rested at the center of a field of low grass.

The twisted tree looked almost decorated for Christmas, filled with vibrant luminescent colors and mentally she understood the insects swarmed it to create this image, still a dead part of her would have smiled at the pretty sight.

It's branched twisted and Jessica herself caught sight of a branch which ended in what she could imagine as wooden fingers.

The breeze blew heavily as the entered the clearing swaying the grass, but Eian grabbed Alex before he could lead them further in.

"Really suspicious. I don't like this place, let's leave guys." Eian looked grim, he scanned the illuminated area with narrowed eyes.

"It's just a tree man. Nothings around." Alex peered at the tree with suspicion, but heeded Eian's warning.

"Yeah and I got into a fight because of a stupid flower." Eian rubbed his chest area.

"Really man?" Alex had a wary look about him now, but he sounded a bit skeptical at Eian's claims.

"Yeah, well. I think it was the flower." Eian's face twisted and he shrugged.

"That sounds interesting, can you describe what you're talking about?" Sarah fixed her gaze on Eian.

"Well~" Eian opened his mouth to respond when the ground shook again.

Jessica balanced herself, she'd almost fallen on her face from the tremor.

The wind had also picked up, but her sight glued unto the twisted tree, it was moving far too much for it to be the wind.

The gnarled tree uprooted itself, pulling two legs from the ground slowly, it's many branches swung ferociously as it pried itself free.

Several limbs steadied it on the ground and Jessica took a step back, she didn't know what to do against that.

A heavy flash of white fire flew forward then impacted the uprooting tree.

"GROOOOO!!!" Gnarled Bark at the middle of the trunk let loose a ear splitting scream.

Another flash of fire hit the beast as several limbs caught fire, but it had emerged from the earth.

"Move back! Hide!" Sarah yelled.

"Fuck!" Eian stood his ground as he stared at the monster.

Jessica ran away from the group, she wasn't going to be crushed by an overgrown tree, the Asshole in her head would never stop bothering her then.

She took cover behind a tree, though she could still hear the vibrations the moving-tree left as it moved.

'Try screaming! HAHAHAHA!' The psycho sounded delighted.

Jessica heard another ear-splitting howl and she turned to look at the monster, it was fully aflame now.

Eian was near a normal tree taunting the monster towards himself and Jessica got a clear look as the next fire-ball impacted the monster.

The beast roared again and turned its back on Eian, it hobbled quickly over to Sarah.

Jessica sighed as long as it wasn't coming for her she was al right, a small cracking noise originated behind her and Jessica's eyes widened in fright.

She whirled around and spotted a lizard man, it held a bow aiming for her, Jessica threw herself to the floor, activating her sight as she did so.

The lizards notched arrow breezed past and didn't hit her, she scrambled away from it and took cover behind the tree.

'Opps. So, so, close.' The voice whispered near her ear.

She heard another arrow impact the back of the tree and though her breathing sped up, her fear didn't rear up and she tightened her grip on her spear.

Concentrating she moved out of cover quickly, she saw three trajectories of an arrow and easily evade them, only to realized there were more lizard-men than she'd expected.

Three bow wielding lizard people were close by and she raced forward, she saw all the arrows before they even notched and flew past.

One, two, three arrows and they were drawing again, she raced forward and stabbed where at the first throat, it tried to dodge but the spear hit it's actual intended target, it's eye, the tip parted the eye and punched straight through the bone behind into the brain.

One, two arrows and she was safe, she slashed her spear wildly as it caught the second lizard man's leg, it hissed revealing its sharp deformed teeth.

Thud.

"Ugh." Jessica grunted as she hadn't dodged the next arrow.

The arrow caught her abdomen, sinking deeply into meat flesh, the expected pain never came.

She wildly swiped her spear at the assailant, catching it's bow and cutting through the string, the beast hissed and attacked with it's claws, it was too slow.

Jess received it's impacted with her spear, the beast ran straight into it and she held it at bay, out the corner of her eye she caught the other lizard man notching an arrow.

She quickly pushed all her weight forward, getting out of the way of the arrow then threw most of her weight to her right, the lizard man in-front of her hissed and went careening slightly to the left, off balance.

She saw the next arrow and tried to dodge, it missed by a foot and she ran towards the lizard.

Dodge, the arrow flew past her, but she her a hiss behind her.

Swiping she caught it's face, it hissed clutching its face and then she stabbed at the bare chest.

Withdrawing she stabbed again, and again and again, until something tackled her.

Elbowing backwards wildly she caught something eliciting a hiss, she shoved the monster away but lost hold of her spear.

No matter she drew the other, but now her final assailant held a spear as well.

It stabbed at her, but she swiped the blade away easily, it went wide and Jessica took advantage.

Stabbing it's torso she pushed forward, then jumped back, it hissed, the same happened two times more.

It was struggling to hold unto the spear, it looked woozy, she stabbed, its retaliation missed and it dropped from blood loss to a knee.

She stabbed it relentlessly till it died, its skull held many puncture wound and she felt oddly satisfied.

'Whew.' Jessica wiped her forehead, she felt exhilarated, was this how Eian felt after a fight?

Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, she heard it clear as day and it didn't cease.

Turning she saw solely the wind, then the arrow lodged in her abdomen made itself known, it stung but no where near what it should have.

She grit her teeth, grabbed it and pulled it free, it felt like pulling out a bad tooth.

Blood oozed slowly out of her wound, she frowned at the sight, blood didn't usually act like that.

The annoying clapping continued.

'Maybe a magic trick now?' The psycho spoke and the clapping ceased.

Jessica blinked, that sparked an idea in her, Sarah could use a ball of fire, why not her?

She concentrated on the image of Sarah's fireball....and nothing.

She growled and thought of Alex's one, it also failed, she clentched her teeth.

'Hahahahahha! Waste of time waste of space, that's what you are. Hahahaha.' The voice was relentlessly driving her insane.

Fueled by hate she thought of how much she hated him, she concentrated on how much she wanted to butcher him and drive a spear between it's eyes and cut out his tongue.

Something moved, she couldn't describe it, it was a part of her yet not, close yet alien.

A bolt of darkness manifested in her hands and she smiled vindictively.

'Hmmm...Good show. Encore?' The asshole started clapping again.