"You Should Have Never Come Here"

"You Should Have Never Come Here"

    

 

[GAME OVER]

 

    The large text glitched in front of me, disorienting me. I pinched myself, this had to be some kind of awful lucid dream. Another piece of text glitched into existence.

 

    [RETRY]

 

    My heart thumped in my chest. I did what was the only choice I had. I rested my hand on the large text

 

    [RETRY]^

 

    My whole world went black.

 

    When I woke up, it wasn’t what I had expected. The feeling of brooding filled me whole.  I could hear my muffled breaths, and felt restricted. I instinctively raised my hand around me … the rough texture of wood. It was pitch black, which didn’t help matters, and extremely claustrophobic. I did nothing for a while, wondering what is going to happen seconds, hours, days, weeks, months, years from now. But there's the award winning question. Where am I?!

 

    Fear gripped my erratic heart. Frantically trying to find a way to escape like a caged animal, I gave a harsh kick to the ceiling of my prison. Dust fell from the roof of my cage and made me hack my lungs out. There was a glimmer of light. The wood I was trapped in wasn’t so strong after all.

 

    THUMP!

 

    THUMP!

 

    I kicked the roof to my prison once again, and I was finally free. The sound of the roof coming off made my ears throb in pain, but I didn’t care. All my mind could think about was getting out. I scrambled out swiftly and felt cool air bite my pale skin. I immediately wrapped my arms around me to warm my small frame. I turned around cautiously to see what had trapped me…

 

    It was a coffin. A fairly simple coffin at that. Dull brown wood made it up, along with small carvings in it. It had overgrown vines surrounding the forest starting to inhabit it. The smell was horrid, like a corpse long gone from planet Earth. Dead leaves filled the coffin, leaving an indent of where I was once laying. The lid of the coffin was broken off of it’s hinges from me wildly kicking at it.

 

    I blinked hard and started to hyperventilate. Why was I in a coffin? I pinched myself, I was surely alive. I pinched myself harder, fresh crimson blood leaks out of the crescents in my skin. The pain was surely there.  Where was I, in the first place, alone in a forest? Why would someone just shove me in a coffin like I’ve already died? What would have happened if I couldn’t get out? The answer to that is obvious, I would have died. Alone.

 

    I, I, I. I keep on saying that. But who exactly was “I”? Why can’t “I” remember my own name? Surely I would. I pulled on my dry black hair in intense thought. I tried to recall everyone I’ve ever met, I looked around and that would give me a slight clue. In the end, no matter how much I racked my brain for an answer, the outcome was the same. Nothing.

 

    Standing up, with shaky breaths,  I observed my surroundings. The air was fairly chilly, the hospital gown I was for some reason wearing instead of real clothes didn’t give much protection. The trees still had life, the variety colors indicated that fall was in its awakening. Tall grass reached to my hips, tickling my bare legs. Chirping of birds filled my ears and squirrels jumped from tree to tree getting ready for the upcoming winter. Trees seemed to cover every square inch of the area. If I wasn’t currently fearing for my life, I would probably have stood here and admired the view, soaking in all of the stories inside of my mind I could create.

 

    My entire body felt stiff and sore. Pressing a hand against my racing heart, I mustered up the courage to find a way out of the dense forest. My stomach grumbled, and my throat was parched. It felt like all of the heat in my body left. I knew I had to keep going, but my self doubt haunted me. There is no way there will be a convenient town waiting for me with open arms. Even if there was, talking to people wasn’t a strength of mine. As much as I knew about myself, I was sure that I haven’t talked to a living human being in a long, long time.

 

    I pushed my ever growing fear away to the back of my mind. If I don’t find something to help me, I’ll be dead. I’m not sure how long I even have. That single thought motivated me enough to focus on putting one foot in front of the other. One step at a time, no pun intended.

 

    I started my journey. I winced at every step I took, my muscles screamed at me to stop, but I ignored it. I would occasionally step on a stray twig from time to time, making me hiss in pain. I jumped at every noise, and even my own breathing made me on edge. I was seconds away from having an emotional breakdown, but I put the thought of getting out of here first in my mind. To my surprise, after a while of walking I found a very convenient dirt path going forward. A part of me felt relieved for some sense of control on my life so far, but the other thought how easy I found the path.  Still very much on edge, I tried to find it in myself to try my best and relax a bit. Have a clear mind. Practically impossible, but I guess it’s the thought that counts.

 

    After an uncounted amount of walking, I came across a crossroad. I sighed, more walking. My feet felt like someone was hammering needles into my foot. The path I was now on branched out to the left and to the right. The difference between right or wrong. Great. Just dandy. My sense of direction is God awful, and on top of that, if my head wasn’t attached to my head, I would have lost it by now. I think.

 

    I am really hating my indecisiveness right about now. I could just pick a random direction, but I felt like something would go bad if I picked the wrong one. I wanted to cry, why is this happening to me?

 

Not really paying attention to the real world, I felt soft fur brush against my leg. I only thought of looking down when a loud meow startled me and made me jump from my detached attention. I saw a cat. The thing that surprised me wasn’t the fact that there was a cat, it was the fact there was a cat not feral in the forest. Their fur shone beautifully, with it’s strange black fur with white swirl pattern etched in its fur.

 

It took me a good minute for my enital shock to recede. I was glad to have some other creature with me, other than the wild animals that wanted nothing to do with me. Something to comfort me. The cat walked up to me again and rubbed against my leg and started to pur. I knelt down and gently petted the cat. Their fur was soft, and they looked like they were well fed. That has to mean there’s somewhere I can get food from. I stretched my arms out to see if they would let me pick them up, but they had a mind of their own. They jogged away and waited for me at the edge of the eastern path. Maybe they wanted me to follow them?

 

I did as they pleased and trailed after them. They jogged in front of me not going too far away, but not staying too close. The only sound was my footsteps for the entire walk. After a while of following them, the forest started to thin out and we entered a clearing. Farther ahead was a small town. My stress level shot to the roof of the thought of speaking to someone. As much as I despised the thought of socializing, I convinced myself it was for the best and I needed it or else I wouldn’t make it.  I looked down at the cat and spoke with a patchy and dry voice,

 

“Thank you”.

 

The cat nodded their head, like to say “Your welcome”.

 

They then disappeared into mist, leaving me alone with my own thoughts. I took a step back, but then dismissed it. I had a bad feeling that it wasn’t going to be the most bizzare thing I’ll encounter on my journey. You can call me crazy, but I felt a sense of hope, like everything was going to be okay. Just by an interaction with a cat. I wished they would’ve stayed...

 

I walked alone to the town. My shivering had gotten more violent, and my stomach felt sick of hunger. The atmosphere from the forest and here had drastically changed. Back at the forest, it was beautiful, full of colors and life. But outside of the forest was another story. It was like the whole world had died. All the colors had faded to black, grey, and white. The sun was nonexistent and the sky looked like it was about to rain. I had to convince myself that I didn’t go colorblind. I stopped right in my tracks and hid behind a tree once I got to the front of the town. My heart thumped out of my chest. I thought everything couldn’t get any worse. It did.

 

They wore no colors, just shades of gray and black. Not that they would show if they did.  Everyone was different in clothing, but they wore these revolting masks. They were a deadly black, with white smiling faces stitched into them. I unfortunately got close enough to notice that they all had black tears coming out of their masks. How does that even work? This told me that these folk weren’t kind  neighbors that go door to door to give out chocolate chip cookies and provide sugar when you need it. Against my better judgement, I slowly walked away from the safety of the dead tree in front of me, and quietly tried to get into the town without being detected.

 

My ears burned as I felt like I was being watched. Whelp, plan A failed. Now plan B. I kept my head down, maneuvering my way through the crowds of people. This was an absolute nightmare. My heartbeat was hammered in my ears, I had to get out of here as soon as possible and find answers some other time.

 

I glanced up and made sure I wasn’t running into anyone, which would make my life ten times worse than it already is. I was approaching several food stands, full with fresh food, or at least I hope it was. My stomach roared at me louder. I was about to approach to the food I very much needed, but I heard a chilling giggle behind me making me jump out of my skin. I paused, sweat dripping down my face. Slowly, I turned around.

 

It was a girl, eerily familiar. She then took off her mask, and my skin turned cold. It was me. There’s no doubt about it. Every detail about her head to toe was absolutely me. I was hallucinating, I had to be. The cold must be getting to me. I took a step back. She took a step forward.

 

I froze in my place, I couldn’t move. My feet were glued to the ground. One the other me saw I wasn’t going to go anywhere, she finally spoke. I really wish she didn’t

 

“You have no idea don’t you, you pathetic mongrel?”

 

I had no way of responding to that. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. Other me watched me gape, and smiled. It started as a quiet giggle, but it then morphed into boisterous, insane laughter. A nimble finger pointed at me accusingly. I looked at her horrified, and everyone in the area turned around. They all followed suit, pointing at me while laughing at me. I was the clown of the circus. Tears filled in my eyes and my chin shook. That only made them laugh even louder. My cheeks burned, and I felt like curling up in a ball while hyperventilating.

 

Before anything could get worse and caught the attention of the other townsfolk, a hand suddenly grabbed my arm and started to gently drag me away. I snapped my head toward them, but they didn’t spare me a glance. They tugged at my hand, but not hard enough for it to seem aggressive. I stumbled after them not having the time to process what had just happened and who had saved me from an even bigger disaster in the making.  They led me to one of the houses in the town and pushed me in one of them, shutting the door behind them

They turned around to study my panicked figure. They wore a foreboding black hoodie and gray sweats. They also had the signature mask, but it wasn’t shedding black tears. Sighing, they put down their hood and took off their mask. They then interjected before I could comment on anything,

“You should have never come here”