Hysteria

Chapter 3 : Shrine in the Forest

Chiyo woke up, her head hurt. The feeling of a migraine plagued her, going to the kitchen she looked at the oven for the time 3:00 in the morning! She thought to herself, it was early and she was extremely tired. The thought that it was witching hour didn't even phase her, magic was just a hoax, a big lie.

She grabbed a cup and filled it with water. When she was done she went back to her room, but the closer she got the more painful her head got. She touched her handle to go to her room, only to fall to the floor. She delicately touched her pounding head, sucking it a breath as she, again, touched the handle to her door. Her room looked like it always did, the handmade tapestry that hung over her bed. Her desk was under the window. Her bed was always messy and never made.

She saw nothing out of the ordinary, until she walked to her bed and saw one of her notebooks laid open. Inside, written in beautiful gold cursive was, Follow me. She looked up and saw a small glowing orb in front of her, it glowed a warm yellow orange. She looked as it moved toward her window, she watched in awe as the orb phased through her window.

Quickly Chiyo walked through to her front door, quickly making it to the area the orb was once. "Where did it go?" she said to herself. Almost as if it had heard her question, the orb appeared out of nowhere in front of her face. As soon as she saw it, it darted quickly to the forest that was by her house. Chiyo ran after it.

After a while of running, the orb had disappeared at a shrine that Chiyo had never seen. It was odd just in the open, and Chiyo had run around the forest as a child since they moved here. Never once had she seen the wooden shrine in these woods. She looked at the area around the shrine, trees had been cut down to create it. But they were cut down a while ago, as there was an abundance of moss growing on the stumps.

She looked at the shrine that stood in front of her, there were rumors that she had heard that you can pass through, and it brings you to the spirit world. Chiyo's eyes went to the carving on the top piece, it appeared to be a carving of a stag. The carving seemed to be masterfully done by a person who had done carving for a long time. The details in the face showed the emotion of it, the fear in its eyes told her it was looking at an enemy, a predator. She cautiously looked behind her, seeing nothing.

She looked back seeing the stag's face, it was at ease. She stepped back, the change of emotion in the carving startled her. She looked at the shrine once again, taking a deep breath in, she closed her eyes and stepped through the shrine.

. . .

She opened her eyes, Chiyo was in awe. The area in front of her was amazing, the hills had beautiful green grass with small colorful flowers dotting the hills. She looked in wonder, this place was different from her home, it was bright and people happily ran around the hills. They all wore what seemed like fantasy clothes, leather boots and tunics, it almost felt like Chiyo was in a Renaissance Faire, feeling out of place with her plain t-shirt, anime hoodie, and sweatpants.

Chiyo looked behind her and saw the shrine gate behind her. The carving on the top piece, was a bear. The emotion in its face was, almost seemed to be looking for something, could it be the stag, in the forest?