v i s c e r a l s t o r i e s

d e c a y

"L....T....Q....A....Y....Q....Y....Q...."

"Do you remember?"

The world is spinning.

A man woke up in the front seat of a wretched car. In shock and panic, he couldn't remember why is he in such a state. He was soused in fresh and dried blood that glued the fabric of his shirt to his skin.

He gritted his teeth from the burning lacerations and wounds but it didn't matter to him. Automatic resuscitation and adrenaline kicks in while curiosity tickled in a very painful way.

He wants to know why is he here and who he is. Every possibility that enthralls this story. But his current incomprehensible state has shaken his rationalization and coherent thinking, he couldn't grasp the plot. Perplexed and disorganized, anxiety creeps in the back of his head where it lingers, caving in the ceilings of his psyche, he felt the rising vomit in his throat.

"Whe....Where am I? Who am I?" he asked, looking around the car he's in. "Why am I in here?" he asked, looking in the broken mirror that's hanging in front of him, looking at the fractured reflection of the person he's trying to remember.

Looking through the cracks of the broken tinted glass, he realized that he was in a forest, the time could be afternoon, his poor judgment just by looking at the surrounding tall trees, floras, the scattered rays of the sun and the dancing shadows of the branches in a haunting way. Still, he couldn't understand what's happening. He was compelled to put the structures together so that he could create something logical as a valid explanation.

"Where am I? Who am I? What's happening?" he asked no one in particular, then he saw a phone placed on the passenger's seat on his right.

While trembling, he picked it up to check its content, with a desperate hope to find some information that could help him. The screen was broken and frozen in a glitch. He puts it down when he heard a distant buzzing before then it dissipated. He felt dread. Feeling his painful and stiffened body for any serious injuries, he tried to move his arms out of the non-existenting constraints, escaping damper, unlocking the inexplicable impediment.

"Ouch! Ah, come on!" he said with a hint of annoyance, pulling an embedded glass shard out of his elbow. "Ah! Fuck it, why can't I remember anything?"

A thick thread of wet crimson flows freely down his limb, he pressed his hand to the wound though he removed it quick because he wasn't able to stop the bleeding. Instead, he grabbed the phone instinctively with his bloodied hands and put it inside his pocket before he went outside.

Observing the car, it was in a complete wreckage. Its front smoking with a noticeable damage that's like it directly slammed into a wall, though the car was in the middle of this forest. There's nothing in the car's vicinity that could be the reason why it's in a decimated form.

He then noticed the fresh blood on the hood of the car and from a distance, in the midst of the palpable silence, he heard a cry of someone — from a woman — in great pain. The static sound came back but the cry overwhelmed it.

"Help me!" cried the voice of a woman. "Please, help me!"

"H-Hello? Where are you?" he called.

Ivory lights passed through the leaves of the trees, creating a luminescent atmosphere, and the place was filled with fogs and cold breeze, fitting the icy muteness but it was inappropriate for all these events. The forest is void, like everything around him seems….unreal. He saw a writhing figure on the ground — a woman in a bloodstained white dress, letting out a dry scream for help, in complete agony.

"Someone….please help me!"

"Miss," he said as he approached but as he limply walks towards her, it seems like he's also getting away — he's not reaching her like with his every steps, the forest's landscape unnoticeably extends, restricting him from reaching her. He tried faster, but their distance didn't change. Frustration and confusion sets in. Suddenly, the woman went quiet, as if abruptly, she became lifeless.