the evening after

how it started

For several minutes, I had an unsettling feeling like when you feel you're being watched. Making my way down the overgrown walkway, further into the darkest part of the woods, my head shot around at the sudden sound of a twig snapping. I'd been crying a lot and my eyes were all puffy and I felt overly flustered. A faint sound of crows screeching sounded a short distance away. Underfoot, I felt squelching on the soles of my high heels as I stepped in a puddle, causing a splash sound. I winced, knowing my $1,000 Jimmy Choos would be ruined at this point, along with my ripped, muddied and spoilt wedding dress. Mist clouded my surroundings leaving me feeling stuffy, alone and lost, not for the first time that evening. Eventually, I realised that I had been going down a slope, and looking back, I could barely see uphill. Approaching what seemed to be a fork in the path, I headed down to the right, not knowing where to go next.
As I stumbled along, I could feel my heart pounding inside of my chest, the silence around me, deafening. In that moment, my heart dropped due to a sudden movement in the corner of my eye. To figure out what it was, I spun around, just to see the same endless array of spindly trees, whose arms seemed to be reaching out to me, luring me off the path. Ignoring that, I strode forwards, eager to end, what started out to be a joyous night, but had now led me downhill, and quite literally. From the foot of the path now, one of the crows from earlier, caught my attention and as I turned to watch it, a silhouetted figure stood tall, directly ahead of me. With shock, I fainted.
"Hey? Hello.. How many fingers am I holding up?" I slowly opened my eyes to see a woman. "Uh um... Three?" I mumbled, pulling myself up.
"No, I was holding up six." she chuckled and helped me sit myself up, "Gina, you ok?"
"I'm fine- oh my goodness it's you, hey Rosa?." An awkward silence hung momentarily in the air.
"Are you going to tell me what happened? Or am I waiting for some sobbing bridesmaids?" "Can I just get somewhere where I can change out of this?" I gestured to my wedding attire, "Somewhere warm and dry."
The next hour was a blur, we both seemed to enjoy the silence journeying home and once I realised we were at what I assumed was her front done, I let out a deep sigh of relief. After changing into a set of pajamas, I let a white sofa engulf me as Rosa handed a steaming hot chocolate. "So..."