2 The Scented Candle

THAT WAS THE fifth time Alice had to decline the call.

After she had found her way out of the treacherous forest with the help of the old lady, Alice realized that she had received numerous phone calls from her ex-boyfriend. She hadn't called back, obviously, but he had been relentless and it was starting to get on Alice's nerves.

"Who was it again, sweetie?" Her mother asked from the kitchen over the sound of sizzling grease.

The hike home had taken more time than Alice expected. Perhaps it was the toll of sleeping on the hard, cold floor the night before or perhaps it was from walking through the rain and trudging through the mud but the journey home took much longer than the journey to the campsite. She had barely made it in time for dinner and to top it all off, it had to be a night where the menu was light on the stomach when all she wanted was to stuff herself silly.

It was near supper time and Alice's family always had the tradition of eating together once more after dinner and before bed. On a usual day, supper would've been something light on the stomach like sandwiches or soups but Alice had specifically requested a hearty slab of steak this time. Dinner hadn't been enough to fill her vengeful belly.

"No one, mom. Just ignore it!"

Switching her phone off, Alice tossed her handphone onto her bed before she followed suit. After a warm bath to wash all the dirt off her body, there was nothing she wanted more than to sink into her mattress, wrapped around layers of duvet, and surrounded by mountains of pillows.

The second she made contact with the soft mattress, she felt the muscles in her body practically melt off her bones and into a puddle on the bed. She closed her eyes for a quick second, deeply breathing in through her nose before exhaling through her mouth, washing all the pent up frustration from her body. When she finally cracked her eyelids open again, she felt much more soothed than before, even when compared to the warm water of her bath.

Sitting just mere centimeters away from her face was the candle that the old woman had gifted her. In the dim yellow light that her bedside lamp provided, the purple wax took on an ominous gray tint to it. Reaching out, Alice brought the glass jar closer to her face, cautiously sniffing at its contents before pulling it away with a satisfied grin. It had a mild lavender scent, the flowery tones accompanied by a hint of honey in them. The result was a faintly sweet aroma that seemed to have the power of making even the tensest person relax.

Shrugging, Alice hulled herself upright before fumbling through the drawers of her bedside table. Pulling out a small lighter she had stowed away among other trinkets, she sent the wick of the candle in flames, watching as the fire danced.

It was rather entrancing, swaying back and forth like an exotic dancer with the mission to seduce. The amber flame flickered whenever the wind blew a little too strongly, threatening to die down before glowing brightly again. Alice watched, completely bespelled, her eyes never leaving the small light. Slowly, she reached towards the fire, her finger barely grazing the flame but hardly feeling the heat. It merely kissed her fingertip, dainty like a fairy's kiss, gentle like a drizzle in spring.

The smell of lavender was getting stronger by the second. In the beginning, the scent was a faint, sweet buzz that was barely there. However, within moments, the smell had spread across the entirety of Alice's bedroom, flooding it with the floral fragrance. Lavender was known for its soothing properties, that was something Alice knew even before she was gifted the scented candle. Charmed by the hypnotic dance of the fire and bewitched by the soporific perfume, Alice felt her eyelids grow heavier and heavier.

She laid her heavy head onto her pillows, all of which felt like fluffy white clouds in the middle of a bright summer day. The feeling was simply sublime, so heavenly that it felt like a sin. In the end, she couldn't fight the drowsiness that fought hard to overtake her senses. Surrendered to her fatigue, Alice yawned before sighing heavily, her eyelashes fanning down against her cheekbones.

It took seven minutes for the average human to fall asleep. That night, it took Alice a mere second after she closed her eyes.

☆ ☆ ☆

Alice fell asleep to the smell of flowers. The floral scent was soothing, feminine, a delicate aroma that made her head feel light on her shoulders. There was a faint hint of sweetness that resembled honey, a delightful scent that she could practically taste on the tip of her tongue.

However, she woke up to the smell of the woods. There was the distinct smell of pine trees, evergreen forests, freshly mowed grass, and even the first dew that lingered on the leaves after a night's worth of rain. The smell was so distinct, so vivid that she could almost feel the blades of grass just beneath her fingertips. As the wind blew, the smell grew stronger, accompanied by a ticklish sensation right by her ear.

'Five more minutes.'

The complaint was right there in her mind, ready to spill out. However, speech failed her. Her voice did not come as commanded. At the back of her mind, there was a nagging sensation that practically itched, a discomforting feeling that couldn't be scratched. And that was when she realized.

Her house had never smelled like that.

It was never so woodsy. The smell of mornings in her home had always been of breakfast; The sugary smell of syrup-drenched waffles or buttery pancakes; The smell of sizzling, greasy bacon that made her mouth water; The smell of freshly-squeezed tart orange juice. That was how her mornings had always smelled like at home. There was sunshine beyond her eyelids. She could see that thin stretch of skin colored tangerine. It was, without a doubt, already morning. However, she was surely not in her own bed.

The realization sent Alice shooting up, jolting upright immediately as her eyes cracked open. Once she got over the blinding sunlight, the view that greeted her made her jaw drop and her throat dry.

She was sure that she had gone home that evening. Alice could swear that she had fallen asleep in the comforts of her own bedroom, surrounded by her favorite cushions. Her mother's voice was still in the back of her mind, asking who she had been on the phone with. She could confidently say that she had escaped that hell of a forest camping trip.

However, she wasn't at home. In fact, she wasn't even anywhere near where the road where her house was situated.

The harsh sunlight wasn't the soft gold that Alice was used to. Instead, it was a barbarous, glaring light that singed at her eyes. There wasn't a roof to shield her head, much less curtains that she could use to shut herself in. She sat in an open field that ran for as far as her eyes could see, a flat emerald green laced with hints of white, pink, and yellow in the form of wildflowers. To her left, there was a forest in a distance, flooded with more trees than she could count.

Alice raised a hand to her other forearm, pinching at her own skin hard. When a shot of pain tore through the nerves on her arms, she flinched. She couldn't tell if the cold beads of sweat that ran down her back were from sleeping under the sun, from the pain, or if it was from the realization that she was most likely not dreaming.