How The Dark Attacks

The Forest Path is a Dark Way to Travel

The first thing she noticed was that it was cold. The second thing was that she was not in her car. And the last thing was that it was dark.

The day had given away to night, the sun gone and the rain that had been pouring being a simple, far away memory. The only sign that it had rained at all was the slight moistness of the ground on her legs, and the fact her hair was wet and matted to her head. Kim glanced around at the scenery that was barely visible in the deep dusk. She sat, her legs crossed in a similar fashion of that of a child in a Kindergarten classroom during story time. Water licked at her knees, a lake spanning out to the not so far away distance. There was a fog that had settled over the water, leaving it looking like a black hole with mist floating gently around in empty space. It was near impossible to be able to see the horizon, the only thing distinctly differing in the sky versus the water being the moon that was brokenly reflected against the lake. She turned to observe the surroundings behind her, and was horrified to just see trees. Nothing but trees. Tall, slender trunks reaching up into the night sky and blocking out the stars, taking away the only part of light that could ever shine through the leaves crevices. Faint and gentle outlines of shapes of plants were wiggled and weaved between each tree, making it impossible to see anything that might be lurking within the depths of the darkness. She felt horrified.

How had she gotten here? Where even was 'here'? She couldn't remember. The last thing she remembered was the sound of static that had settled in her car and made her ears ring. She turned from the darkness and curled into a ball, holding her knees close to her chest as she stared out at the dark lake. She felt paranoia creep into her thoughts as she sat, glancing around every once in awhile, afraid that she had not got here herself. She buried her face into her knees and winced, a pain erupting in her eye and cheek as it brushed her knees. Kim brought a shaky hand up to her face and winced once more, bringing back a hand that had blood covering it. She gulped. However that had got there, she wasn't going to be able to fix it anyways nor see it where she was at the moment. She felt tears brim in her eyes. First her grandmother was gone, then the love of her life died, and now she wakes up in a forest with no recollection of where she is or how she got there with some form of injury that now is throbbing. She let the tears drip down her face, hugging her legs closer to herself. She smelled like gasoline and smoke and blood, and it made her want to gag.

She couldn't stop the tears as they flooded down her face, hiccuping and shaking.

"Is this my life?" She questioned quietly, starting to sob harshly, the salty tears that flooded her vision and her wound stinging but she couldnt stop.

"I'm so alone... so scared.. why? why?!"

She yelled out into the distance, asking whatever was around her. she felt hopeless, the deep craving for contact, for love filling her gut. it choked her, feeling as though she was coughing up her own heart. She gripped her pant legs as the internal pain lit a fire in her chest that spread throughout all of her until the urge to scream ripped from her throat. She let out the loudest and most high pitched scream she had ever heard. It held pain, fear, and sadness. Like the scream of a murdered maiden.

She felt her head get fuzzy, her ears ringing as she kept screaming. Her gaze started to drift in and out, her screaming slowly dying down to silence. She tried to force her eyes to stay open, and yet she couldnt.

The last thing she remembered was a warm hand on her shoulder as she stood and started walking into the woods. The feeling of being out of control, being on autopilot. Then she lost all conciousness, falling into that familiar, comfortable black.