Amethyst: A Collection Of Short Stories

Nerida [part 2]

*unedited
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She needed help. I looked around but there was no one who could help her. Only me.

I shook the fence and searched for any opening. A couple steps away, I found a small enough hole at the bottom of the fence and I squeezed through it, my heart beat accelerating.

"Daia." She looked back at the forest and gasped.

The voice sounded less urgent and more tired. The girl was no longer on the ground but she was still calling to me.

"Daia..."

"Where are you?" I called out. I squinted my eyes and held on to a tree bark, searching for her. Then she reappeared further into the forest.

She stood still, her hands by her sides and her head cocked. I ran towards her but somehow the faster I went, the farther she seemed from me. I continued running towards her, panting and pushing thorny branches out of my face.

"Daia..." she sang.

Then she started running away from me.

I stood planted to the ground. I shouldn't be here. The forest could be the reason why I die. I could end up like her.

"This is absolutely ridiculous! Come back!" I yelled.

Maybe I was dreaming. I didn't just follow a shadow into the Death forest, did I? Impossible. I'm smarter than that. I wouldn't possibly go into the death forest because I saw a shadow. I scoffed.

Maybe the lack of food was giving me hallucinations. I'm leaving.

I turned around, ready to forget all about this bizarre event only to find out that I had run crazily through an unknown forest. I looked around me, my head swiftly turning from side to side. I didn't know which direction I came from. There was no pathway, I couldn't see the streets or the street lights. I couldn't hear anything indicating that the population was nearby, no laughter, no yelling. Nothing. Just the noise of the forest.

I was lost in the forest. Not any forest...the Death forest.

I heard a twig snap from behind me and that's when I was hit with reality. I was actually going to die. Fear gripped my hands and guided my feet as I ran in the opposite direction of the twig-snap. My heart was pumping, my arms were starting to bleed because I'd been cut multiple times by branches. My legs were tired, my breaths were short and I was becoming paranoid.

Everything was dark now. I didn't have a lighter, a flashlight. Nothing.

I stood in the middle of the forest, constantly turning in a circle at every leaf rustle. This was torture. Waiting for your death was torture. It was like feeling the sneeze about to come but never coming or like waiting for the beat to drop but it never does.

I couldn't hear myself breathing. Just my heart pumping in my ears.

"Nerida Nerida..."

I screamed and started to run again. A voice came from somewhere, I don't know where but I continued to run, my limbs getting weaker by the second.

"Nerida..." The voice called out. I slowed down and looked around. The voice was coming from nowhere but everywhere.

"min trécheis prinkípissa.
Parakaló éla.
yposchethíkate, Nerída.
kánate mia ypóschesi Nerida, Nerida ...
prinkípissa...
éla éla ..."

It sang so beautifully, I began to sway. The voice wasn't just a voice, it was voices that harmonized beautifully. I felt like I was dipping my head in the fluff of a cloud. My worries were gone. The only thing I wanted right now was to listen to this voice forever.