ㅤ

My mind gently expands like foam along with the rest of my body. It feels as if I'm experiencing a high: I feel open, calm, relaxed, and. . . just at peace.

I open my eyes to find myself levitating. I look below me and greenery spreads as far as my vision can allow. The greenery seems to only consist of trees from up here.

Above me is a clear blue sky, no clouds to be seen. I return my focus on the trees below, which I notice I can't see underneath all the foliage, and that I can't see the ground.

Suddenly, a stream of subconscious thoughts begins to flood into me. 'How high am I... Wait, where am I? How did I get here? That looks like a long drop. . . I-I don't think I could.. survive that drop. Shit, how do I get down?!'

My breath becomes unsteady- my chest feeling like it's going to explode. I frantically look around, trying to figure out what's going on.

I start to questionably flail my arms and legs, trying to at least do something. I begin to rotate backward with my head pointing to the spiked tops of the trees, which doesn't help. "Fuck, man!"

After a few moments of freaking out, I realize that I'm not falling, 'just levitating'. 'Yep, I'm completely fine. . .'

I try to calm down, despite the blood rushing down into my head, despite me being possibly extremely far from the ground, and despite this situation.

I close my eyes and try to take control of my breathing. 'In. . . Out. . .' I slowly begin to regain my breath. I reopen my eyes to which my body suddenly drops.

I'm resisted by the air as I plummet down towards the trees. I try to scream, but not a wail comes out. I crash through the needles and get pricked as I continue to violently descend through the branches.

For a split second, I burst through the evergreens and see the ground. Strangely, my movement slows down, but I'm still accelerating downwards. I close my eyes and anticipate the collision.

Seconds have passed. With my eyes squinted, I slowly open them and. . . grass? I'm inches away from it that I can see the individual blades.

My body seems to be floating above the ground. I move my hand to touch the grass, but with what feels like something letting me go, I fall onto the ground, and luckily, was able to catch myself from faceplanting against the ground.

I get on my knees and check myself, but I'm clean and miraculously unhurt. I push my body upwards and stood up.

I pace my eyes through the surroundings, which nothing else but trees and wild grass surrounded me. Noticeably, there were two odd things that stood out from the ubiquitous landscape: there seem to be a pattern that the grass followed (which could be my imagination), and the trees looked completely identical (which is not my imagination). The same configuration was present in all of the trees: a burl in between the main body of the tree and a branch.

Another odd thing I just realize is there isn't any movement from the trees and grass. Since this seems to be a forest, you expect to hear bir- 'What the. . .' Instantaneously, a flock of birds noisily draws by and tries to land on one of the trees, but a gust of wind sways the trees and prevents them from landing. They cycle from tree to tree, seemingly to never find a resting branch.

While my attention is on the birds, I hear a stick snap behind me. I quickly turn my head and an open birdcage is resting on a patch of dirt.

I took a step forward, but paused when I saw a hand move behind the tree the birdcage is in front of. I tried to retrace my foot behind me, but my movement stiffens and my joints lock. A feeling of dread and numbness follows. It worsens as the hand I saw starts to extend from the tree and reach for me.

The person starts to reveal the rest of their body which was dark, not even black. Everything around them seemed to warp. My ears begin to ring. The intenseness of. . . Whatever this feeling is, starts to make me lose consciousness and control over my limbs, but they remain locked.

The person stands in front of me with their hand continuing to reach for me. I look at their face, which I could see blood-shot eyes and a barely visible twisted grin. I close my eyes, once again.

Expecting to feel it touch my face, I feel a warmth surround my hands, a warmth so tender, so. . . Weirdly loving, so. . . Familiar.

I open my eyes and instead of the dark figure, a woman with flowing golden hair that covers her eyes, stands in front of me. I look at her lips, which were moving- she was trying to talk to me, but the ringing in my ears was only audible.

My joints unlock and I fall onto my back. The Earth below begins to swallow me while the woman stands over me, with her hair still covering her face, continuing to try to speak, but her voice remained silent. The dirt covers me, my vision darkens, the ringing dies down, and I'm sucked below to find myself in my crappy spring-bed.

"Who. . . is she?"