CHAPTER ONE

I crept into the woods on tiptoe one wonderful night, when the captive birds sang for their liberation. Their cries sounded like a dejected lament about self-satisfaction and the cage they’d never called home.

The gypsy wind rocked the trees, and I undoubtedly took the step to provide them with their desired salvation, the ability to breathe and fly freely. They took off, finally returning home. Then I returned to my own cage, which was less filthy but still chained..

My body began to twitch, eventually waking me up from a dull sleep. Around me, the air was cold and humid, and it suddenly filled my lungs with what felt like burning ice crystals that extended from my ribs to my limbs. I was dragged out of my final dreaming thoughts and into a more alert state by a few forceful gasps for air. Was I, however, truly awake?

Because of the recent dry period, the grasses I tread on were crackly beneath my feet in this oak-brown and rustic forest. Its woody odor came from years of cracking limbs crashing to the forest floor and slowly decomposing. Like a miasma, the decomposing, organic odor came up in waves. Every arching tree I walked beneath reminded me of a vigilant guardian, a silent sentinel of the groves that I’d never seen before but know there. I made the decision to go deeper into the tangled heart of this ancient woodland. I hoped it wouldn’t divulge its dark secrets to me, or I’d be forced to flee. I was also taken aback by the magnitude and grandeur of the trees. Their tangled arms grew higher and higher till they reached the top of my skull. They were boldly standing hoary fortifications.

The forest’s sap delicious scent rushed over me, and I was lured by its soothing goodness. I added stinging nettle leaves to the soup I was making, which gave it a tingly, chlorophyll flavor. I took a risky glimpse behind me as I walked away. In the heightened light of the full morning, I’m sure these forest glades looked freeze frame beautiful, it’s lovely.

I am fully naked and I saw only a length of a cloth that only fits my body, it doesn’t matter but it has only to cover my temple. As I propped myself up on my elbows, I winced in pain. Aside from the fact that the darkness had my pupils dilated to the point of pain, my head felt like it had cracked open. And I raised my hand to examine my head with my fingertips. A few leaves had become entangled in my hair, and I felt something sticky against my hands as I tried to untangle them. I tried to see the color of my hand by bringing it in front of my eyes, but I couldn’t tell. My sole memory of it was how it turned my hair into a cold, sticky knot filled with what appeared to be ancient, coagulated blood. That, combined with the excruciating agony, indicated that I had had a brain injury. Another tremor of cold caused me to curl my legs up towards my chest and wrap my arms around them, realizing that they worked normally despite being extremely uncomfortable and stiff. That had to be significant, didn’t it? While squinting out into my black surrounds, I swayed back and forth and mentally went over each bodily component one by one.

Following a cursory assessment, my shoulder ached, and I knew it was bothering me. The ankle was a little swollen but it’s nothing to worry about, it just appeared to be broken. My hand reached towards the back of my neck. I felt the curves of my head once more the injury, my eyes were drawn to a flare.

I was surprised to see my skin pop out in a small bump. It’s almost certain that it should be sewn and I moaned in agony when my nail broke. I got a tangle in my hair near the edge by accident and my gaze flitted aimlessly from one thing to another.

Where am I? I can’t remember anything only my name. Nothing is equal to nothing. If only I had the ability to see what was going on around me. I’d never really thought about it before. I’ve always been afraid of the dark, but right now, I’m not.

After all, I wasn’t so sure about it.

“Hello?” I called halfway, my feeble voice cracking and breaking. So I took a deep breath and tried again.

“𝐻𝑒𝑦? 𝐼𝑓 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑖𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝 𝑚𝑒, 𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝐼 𝑎𝑚.”

“𝐴-𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒.. 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒?”

Nothing. Only the silence of the wind sweeping over the treetops was audible to my ears, and I felt loneliness creep about me like a growling beast. But, in order to avoid being overcome by terror, I cautiously rose to my feet and took a few shaky steps before regaining my balance. After resting on the ground, I dusted off my white ragged clothe wrapped around my body and felt the dampness on the cloth on my behind, cool against my flesh.

What’s happening, what brought me here?

I took a couple of steps forward, stretching my hands out in front of me, to keep myself from crashing into things.

And I immediately panicked when I felt the silky threads of a large cobweb wrapping itself around my face. And I screamed when I felt something at the size of a little mouse on the stone I’ve been leaning on.

When I take a look what’s beside me, a fear was crept into my face, I was screaming loudly.

“ 𝐴ℎℎℎ!!! What are youuu? 𝐺𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑚𝑒.!” It is a creature that has a smooth skin that is grey, olive green, yellow, and brown in color. It has dark blotches on its face, a dark stripe around its eyes, and dark bars on its legs. There are four toes on each of the front legs, and five toes on each of the back legs. Its legs are likely to be long and strong, with webbed back feet. I started to run out of fear and I stumbled around, frantically trying tob rush off whatever it was. And because I was so terrified, I forgot to feel where I was going, and crashed into a sharp branch that pierced into my eyebrow so hard that I lost balance and fell backwards. I sat on a little rock surrounded by big foliage and I group of beetle came. I screamed again running down the bushes not caring where track I’m already going and I stopped. But even though I hit my elbow on a stone, and the sudden warm sensation under my eyebrow told me that I was probably bleeding, I jolted back up, still focusing on getting that terrifying creature off me. And since I couldn’t see, it took quite a lot of time until I felt sure enough that it was gone.

“𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ!”

With my heartbeat pounding loudly in my ears. I quickly tried to get rid of the sticky cobweb that now covered my upper body, and I shuddered when I pulled pieces of what probably was dead, half digested insects out of my hair. And it didn’t help that my imagination was running completely wild about what those pieces actually looked like.

A warm, sticky trickle of blood flowed from the wound. Ahh, it really hurts. It’s like burning, I can’t take it anymore.

Through my lashes, and frightened me. I’m trying to keep my eye closed so I don’t get anything in it. It has blood in it. However, it was too late. Moreover, despite the fact that I first tried to dry my eye with my hand, then with the sleeve of my crocheted cardigan. When it got in, the cardigan started to burn. My eyeball came into contact with something.

That’s what you get for worrying out about a bug, I reprimanded myself. But I knew I couldn’t help myself. Because one thing was certain is that I had phobias, I don’t know why but I’m really scared and every others that's about awful things like that in a wonderful combo that flowered madly just thinking about it.

I was lying just here, suffocated by stillness. The wind mothering my scars as it travels through me, gypsying across the world grow to be.

My earthbound ideas are aligned with my cosmic thoughts, and I’m the pilgrim, traveling the longing that is born within the intensity of my lifestyles.

Today, I’m able to depart the sector that strikes a chord in my reminiscence of no lifestyles, and I will by no means return; and tomorrow, I’m able to stroll and stroll and stroll till my ft call for to cease, for they are weary of blanketing my life with nothing but riddles that only I may unravel. My motivation, which expanded to turn me wicked unknown me trample down the bridge that connects to me I ripple with the sea and the gentle waves will take me a long way a long way away to the land undisturbed by all of us only me I can no longer sink, and I may now flow till the waves take me away, I hope so.

Mesmerizing, as the feeble half moon emerged from behind a cloud, the woodland gradually became more visible around me.

The moon was the cause of my fall. I’d come out of nowhere, scratched and bloodied on my feet and arms, my scalp slippery with sweat, and my back slick with sweat. My scarf was long gone, and my hair, a smattering of gold and dark tones, trailed behind me like a sail.

As I ran down the tiny slope to the valley’s bottom, the trees stood guard, the sky clear and sharp. Sheep hurried across the other side, banking up and down like flightless birds. It was a slight comfort to have my feet splashed into the small brook. As I dug for breath, my hands wavered and my chest plummeted.

However, it only made things scarier because the heavy trunks and strangely angled branches made everything look like a swarm of misshapen individuals.

When I gazed up, beseeching the heavens to save me, my gaze was drawn to the moon, which was so huge it might be picked like an apple from a tree. I collapsed in an instant, and the familiar odor of animal feces filled my nostrils. Something was behind me coming closer to mine. I turned fast and opened her mouth to scream, but my lungs were unable to deliver. Something smashed my chest and cracked my ribs a bit. And it ran away again like it’s playing with me. What the in the world is that? I can’t see what surrounds me.

And, as if the wind had been knocked out of me, I sank to my knees, as an alien howl of overpowering worry filled the air around me and broke my mind apart. Even though I couldn’t breathe, I cried my lonely heart out. And as I put my arms over my knees again and let myself slump over to the side on the ground, my tears began to flow uncontrollably, and with an increasing number the deeper I allowed myself to sink into my depth of horror. I’m in agony, I’m dying, screaming for someone to see me.

I began to hyperventilate, feeling as if all of my muscles were flexed to their maximum potential, and I began to shake as if I were having an epileptic seizure. I hadn’t done so. I was just more terrified than I’d ever been. This must have been a nightmare. There was no reason for me to find myself in this kind of woodland, especially without knowing why.

And, as all of the most horrific thoughts flashed through my mind in a frenzied state, I felt myself becoming numb. I was numbed by the panic and physical discomfort I was experiencing at the time, as well as the paralyzing helplessness that was coursing through my veins.

Then I slowly drifted off into the same empty catatonia that I had been in before. It was nothing short of a nightmare.