Groggy sun rays punctured a barricade of lethargic clouds to renounce ravenous silence. I strolled on and on over a rugged terrain with foggy mist girdling the greyer sky above me. Pine trees irrevocably mimicked secret phantom parodies to each others; all just some broad leaves bouncing along a shy breeze, to the human eye.

As dawn widened the ghastly mist above dispersed into shreds of ivy tears loosened by some far away freckled ballerina. My pace was grotesque. It wasn't I who was curious about this foreign land or the ultimate destination of this venture. It was as if self consciousness had been looted from my system and a spell of the unknown beheld me on my familiar limbs. 

Morning now full fledgedly brushed my chestnut hair with it's wintry winds; still remnants of the former fog retained like unpleasant residue of some desired chemical reaction. Hazel iris rummaged warmth amidst rare sun rays, bashfully peeking behind the goddamn canopy. The ground seemed wet after reaching downhill, forbidding to perfume petrichor on the pompous pines. The side bushes looked dull here, as if burnt to nothingness still experiencing the burn before a fire. A dead wild cat was entangled inside one of those thorny peculiar bushes. Shreds of auburn hair lay just beside it, drifting away irregularly along a purposeless zephyr. I could hear sounds of munching from a distance; a vague picture of some troll fulfilling his gluttony flashed in my inner eye, but I readily dismissed the probability of the existence of any creature from folklore. Human bones were scattered here and there; some dry and old while others still coated with specks of rotting flesh. The distinct as well as innumerable human skulls assured me the bones were of no unusual species'. My hardly taciturn gut couldn't hold back the temptation to puke anymore, tightening the already tight knots of anything but fear in my stomach. My throat felt terribly arid and a sense of suffocation wrapped my body and soul. Atoms of sweat fortified my forehead overshadowing consciousness. This feeling of petrification had never grasped me this much before, but whatever this was, I begged it to better cease lest I should faint in this unknown wonderland of a wild hilly forest.

                     My steps hadn't ceased even with all this horror revolving around me. I could see the outline of a blond girl with bloodshot eyes curled up under a tree, leaning on the bottom of the trunk exhaustedly. Raw blood dripped from her tongue, which resembled the same hue and it wasn't some popsicle red that was inhabiting her tongue for blood encircled her whole disposition. She seemed weak and frail with a tattered skirt and blood drenched blouse; but I felt whimsically far more weaker. She was approaching me ever so slowly as if she were a sloth, but I stood affixed on my tracks not moving a muscle of my body, or maybe not able to. My nerves were beseeching me to run for the sake of dear life, my freaking job, my pet dog Lizzie yet some invincible force held me back. I was nothing but a paralyzed body with a panicked soul begging redemption from nothingness.

                      I felt a flap of something solid coating my face, shaking me. I woke up in a bed, with clothes drenched in an ocean of sweat. It was Lizzie, with a concerned and dumbfounded face beaming at me. I hugged her, and kissed her with all my heart. Just then I noticed a wig of red hair hanging over my bedside calender...