Heart of Demise.

I stand here... Wherever that is.

"...P-Pua!"

I woke up to the sensation of dirt and wood in my mouth, making me instinctively spit it out. I tried to get up, but my muscles were still half-asleep, and couldn't move. After a second or so of struggling, I jolted up with rapid breaths.

"H-Holy crap. I'm okay, I'm okay."

I placed a hand on my chest and tried to draw my breaths out as long as possible. Once a proper oxygen supply reached my brain, I opened my eyes and took in my surroundings.

"...A tree?"

Why was there a tree here? It wasn't an ordinary tree, either. It was crooked and the wood looked damp. I took a whiff of the air around me and immediately pinched my nose, then I looked around.

Glowing lakes with branches protruding from them were surrounding me, and I was in the middle of an island.

"...Am I in a swamp?"

I tried to stand so I could get a better view, but I felt a very sudden weight on my back.

"Gah! What in the world?"

I looked at my back and saw a parachute attached to extended strings, which were attached to a backpack I was wearing.

"Why am I wearing a parachute? Actually, where the hell even am I!?"

Pautila wasn't a place that had any swamps around it, meaning that I was very far away from home.

"...Oh god."

I'm far away from home, in the middle of a swamp, with a parachute attached to my back.

"This-- This isn't good. This is bad. This is bad this is bad this is bad--"

The panic quickly surged through me, making me repeat the same phew phrases over and over again. I could hardly calm myself down, even with the ridiculous amount of air I was putting into my system. 

The only thing that could help me were words.

"O-Okay, crap, this is bad. But! You're still alive, Lewis. You're still in one piece. So just figure out how to leave, and you'll be fine..."

...

They didn't help.

"F-Fuck! Relax!"

I pushed my protected back against the first tree I laid eyes on, placing a hand over my chest, and telling myself that I was fine.

I. Was. Fine.

"...Haaaa, Jesus Christ. You idiot, don't you know that overreacting never leads to good places?"

My muscles finally stopped jittering, and I could properly view the surrounding environment.

The swamp had a distant thick fog that obscured my view a couple of dozen feet away. While I could see perfectly fine here on the ground, the sky which I couldn't even see was probably black, meaning that it was nighttime.

"Nighttime, right. And of course I didn't bring my watch with me this... one... time..."

....

What was I even doing before this again?

"I was... walking somewhere."

I tapped my finger on my chin to get my brain wracking.

"Walking... to a place I visited frequently, right? So where was I even--

The realization struck me quite suddenly, leading me to slam a fist onto my palm.

"Ah-ha!"

I was going to Mom's house. So much for that idea. But, now I had to know, why was I going there again?

"...Oh crap."

Another realization struck me.

"Her birthday! How the hell did I forget? Gah-- Why am I even worrying about her birthday now?"

My situation was on a severely higher magnitude than my mom's birthday, but I still felt horrible for missing it. I promised her that I would come, and I even had a present packed.

"A present that's missing now...Haaaaa."

I sighed and placed a hand over my head. This circumstance was too much to take for me at once, so I sat down and gave it some thought.

It's too late to attend my mom's birthday, but I, at the very least, want to go see her again. I didn't really know how to do that, though. I'm in the middle of an unknown swamp for an unknown reason, and I have a parachute on my back as well.

"Now that I think about it, I should probably get rid of this."

I took off the bag and plopped it on the floor. I stared at it for a few seconds, considering taking it with me, but I realized that I had no idea how to detach a parachute, and I didn't have any sort of tool I could use to do so.

So, now that I properly identified my situation, though there are still plenty of questions, what's my next course of action?

"...Well, existential dread aside, I think it's best if I start getting out of here."

I looked around the area, scouted the most traversable route, and tightened my windbreaker, which was the exact windbreaker I was wearing while going to my mom's place.

"Wait a minute, why am I still wearing this?"

I took a good look at my windbreaker, then realized it was a lot more than just my windbreaker that was still on me. My jeans, plain shirt, white socks, black shoes-- everything. It was still on me, but... something was a little off about them.

There was dirt on them. Of course, it could be because I woke up in the middle of a swamp. Probably was, actually, but there could be other reasons. And even then, the fact that I did wake up in a swamp was scary in and of itself.

My hands started to shiver, and I quickly realized that no progress was being made.

"This is-- I need to go. I'll think about this later."

I carefully tread down the convenient trail, trying not to cave the ground in and trip. I still had questions, but now wasn't a good time to answer them.

Now was the time to put my legs to work. I had a birthday to attend, after all.