Another World

Everything was supposed to go smoothly, without any issue. Things were supposed to be under control. At the moment nothing was.

For starters she had been wandering - alone, lost and desperate for a moment’s rest - for a long time. When they had arrived at this scenic forest, the task of filing a promotional video looked promising and extremely easy. For professional documentary crew, this was after all a piece of cake. 

But who knew this easy piece of cake rendered them completely lost, in more than one way. 

She didn’t know when everything went off track. One moment she was filming the snow covered hill, refracting light resulting in an out-of-world ethereal shot anticipating how to utilize the shot in her head, and the next moment she was alone. No matter how much she called she could not find anyone. 

Her immediate thought was a bad prank. The thought did not even stick for more than a second. Although her crew members loved to pull pranks this surely was not one. They were so cruel to manifest one of her fears, of being left alone, just for some cheap laughs. She trusted them with her life and her vulnerabilities. 

The silence of the forest, a welcoming feature at the beginning, was unnerving. Each passing minute on the place, with the equipment still in her hands, was unbearable. Not able to withstand the silence and stillness, she moved away from the place. 

At first it was slow walking along with calling her crew members names. As time went by, she was not sure how long it had been since she got separated, she gradually yet steadily increased the speed of her movement and loudness of her calls. 

Even at this very moment, her legs did not stop, carrying her more than five and half foot body through the forest, navigating a path between trees. It took another two hours, two long hours, where the thought of being lost, and the fear at that thought intensifying to its max, after which she stopped. Only now she realised her equipment that she carried earlier was not in her hands.

For the first time after the entire situation unfolded she stopped. Stopped to take a moment of rest, a moment to breathe. Sitting down on the huge boulder that lay near, she took time to carefully observe her surroundings. In her haste and panic, and her extreme focus on finding her crew members or any human being to be specific, she forgot to take a look around. 

The magnificent and soul pleasing scenery of mother nature that she loved earlier had turned eerie. Leaves and flowers on tall trees that swayed gracefully with the melody of wind were unnaturally stiff. Silhouette of tall trees that reflected on plain lifeless ground spooked her to the core. Chirps of birds had ceased to exist. Even the sound made by animals when they roamed that she hated and complained would be a great thing compared to this gut wrenching silence. However, to her dismay her wishes didn't come true. 

Silence prevailed. It was as if the entire forest had lost its soul, dead inside. 

Within moments, darkness engulfed her completely, not even leaving a small gap for stars to shine or moonlight to lead her way. 

Unlike the raw hot fear that she felt the moment she realised she was alone and lost in this forest, this was different. A new kind of fear that she had no idea until this moment. Fear that gripped her, froze her to the bone and rendered her entire being cold. The initial fear had evolved pushing them on the door of despair.

With trembling legs, she stood up from her temporary seat and moved around. Sitting still in this surrounding proved more tiring and hard than wandering without any aim or goal in sight. 

No matter how hard she tried to search for a way out, to find any clue in this darkness, to even find her own hands, she couldn’t. With the goal now being getting out of this weird and dead forest, she could try to find her crew members once she gets out of this hell hole, she hastened her already fast pace. 

After wandering, aimlessly for who knows how long, she still continued. She recognized the boulder on which she had rested earlier. Knowing she was moving in a circular path, stuck in a loop, she took a different path at each intersection, at each point where trees forked to lead away. 

No matter how long it took, or how intense fear clung to her skin and bones, she could not afford to stop. Stopping meant losing hope, falling to despair that was on the edge of her consciousness. And hope was the only thing that was fueling her. The fact that she had yet to feel tired or feel the pangs of hunger attack her stomach, or feel unquenchable thirst was all thanks to adrenaline that was running through her body. Once she stops she would lose both her will and physical advantage. If she lost that, then she was sure she would never get away from this place alive.

Hope was the one thing she could never lose. 

---

However, if she could hear the boisterous loud cackles that surrounded her, hope was not the only thing she would lose. 

“How long do you think this one will last?”, one of the creatures floating above the place that the lady had just passed through asked its fellow being. The huge smile that was plastered on its face distinguished it from its fellow creature. 

“Don't care,” the other creature replied. Unlike the first one, this creature looked uninterested in the events that took place in front of it, almost bored. 

“You are no fun,” the first creature reprimanded its companion. However within seconds it inquired, “Now that we have added energy source, how about we expand the field of the realm?” 

“Whatever” was the only reply that it got, even after pestering its companion for several days, until they saw the lady finally break down. 

Now that their source of power was confirmed, the only thing left was to convince its companion to agree to this last second master plan. Expanding the field of the realm meant more people they could trap and more energy to feed. Maybe one day they could fill the entire locality with their kind. 

Who knew what the infinite time held in store for them.