M. I.N.D

Prologue

It was raining on a very windy day. I'm sitting in my car in my driveway with my hands on the wheel. Ready to drive but with hesitance. It took some mental strength to start pushing on the pedals to go forward. As I start going on the road, my heartbeat increases, and I can feel the anxiety slowly creeping up on my body with goosebumps appearing on my skin. I originally thought the goosebumps appeared because it was a chiller day than usual, but it became clear to me that it was more than that. I'm nervous. Wait, no. I'm scared. The place I'm going to is a place where once I walk in, I'm gonna walk out as a different girl. I like to see myself as stronger than that, but I'm not a fool. I did my research.

The place I'm going to is called M.I.ND. It's clearly an acronym for something, but they rather keep it a secret for some reason? Talk about a shady business practice...

I opened the window in the hopes the cool wind would calm my anxiety. As I keep driving, thoughts begin to constantly pop up in my head. The place I'm going to is also somewhat remote. It's in the middle of the woods. I mean, the advertising on it looks official, but you never can be sure, so I decided to bring a pocket knife with me and a flashlight. Not the best equipment to bring for the worst case scenario, but it's enough to be prepared. I also brought my phone with me, but I doubt there's gonna be any signal. I also brought my pocket watch. There's no real need to have it, but I want to keep it so I can know what time it is. I know the experience is gonna be grueling, so I'd rather have this to keep my sense of reality intact. It's gonna be a long drive, so I decided to turn on the radio in the hopes time will pass by.

The news on the radio was about a talk show with the lead host Rosita and how she's bringing in a special guest later tonight. I put on a passing smile until the next radio news was about a car crash caused by drunk driving. I began to scoff and decided to switch the radio to music instead In the hopes that will be enough to pass the time.

After focusing on the road and tuning into the music, my anxiety begins to die down, and time passes by.

...

...

I think I made it. After a couple hour drive, I finally reached the apparent location. I'm apparently supposed to park at an abandoned convenience store nearby and follow a stone trail that leads to the forest. This whole thing just screams shady... As I was going to park at the store, I noticed something. There were about over 5 cars in the parking lot with no one in it. Maybe they're in the same place I'm trying to go to? But as I think of the worst, my stomach begins to sink. I still decided that this journey can't be for nothing so might as well go all in. I parked at the store, and as I opened the car door and stepped out, my anxiety began to spike. My paranoia rose.

I looked around, and when I did, I heard growling. My first instinct was to completely dash away from the car, and towards the middle of the parking lot, but when I turned around, I didn't see anything. My body started to sweat and I started panting. But when I heard the growling again, I looked around again just found out it was just a stray dog chasing another dog. I would take that as a sigh of relief if I didn't know there was more to come.

I decided to keep going forward and looked for the stone path. As I keep observing my surroundings, I can see that behind the convenience store was a stone trail. The stone trail looks mossy and wet. It's clear that no one really attempted to clean it up or take care of it because there's still dirt all over it, and as I started to walk on it, I could even see dead branches in the way of the path.

The more I keep going forward in the path, the deeper in the forest I go until eventually, there's no sign of civilization left and I'm just engulfed and overwhelmed by trees, rocks, and even some animals. I can see a bunch of bugs inhabiting some of the path. I even saw a tarantula which caused me to shiver, and I even try to leap over it. Of course, since it was dark, I decided to bring out my flashlight to shed some light on this dark area. I even held my pocket knife in my left hand. I'm ambidextrous, so I think I can handle wielding both. As I keep stomping on the mushy stone path, I can feel the rain just beating on me like Mother Nature herself was crying on top of me. All I can think now is, "Why didn't I bring an umbrella?" But I was wearing a hoodie with jeans, so I might be able to manage through the rain.