Beyond the Veil

Chapter 6

The days following the camping trip were a blur for Sera. She had trouble focusing on anything, her mind constantly drifting back to the strange events that had occurred in the woods. She couldn't shake the feeling that something had changed within her, as if she had been awakened to a new reality.

The days following felt cold, barren, and empty. Sera was living the same life she had lived before this mystery, but it felt much more lonely, much more monotonous and unfulfilling.

Right when Sera least expects it, she gets that familiar brush of coldness, that alerts her to the presence of something amiss. It isn't as disturbing as it was the first few times, but it was so close to driving her to madness that she couldn't figure out its source. Something in her was changing. She could feel it.

Over the course of these days, Sera attempted to confide in Quinn, trying to tell her that something happened over that trip, and she hasn't been the same since, but Quinn is quick to dismiss her concerns as nerves. Sera didn't want to admit it, but it hurt her a lot.

Sera always preferred to be alone, but not like this. She was alone in a pursuit for answers, a mystery in which no one would believe her if she breathed a word of it to anyone, not even her best friend. The only person who might know what is going on, is as tight lipped as they come.

She wasn't even sure where to find him. She hasn't seen Saul since the camping trip, she never saw him before the trip, and she wondered if she would ever see him again. The thought struck a chord within her, and she couldn't identify why. Despite herself, and despite the waves of trepidation he released within her, she silently hoped that she could see him again.

He had the answers to the unknown parade of darkness that has been unveiled within the world she once thought she knew. This entire time this breaking point had been set off, she had never been closer to finding the answers than when she was around him.

Wherever he goes, chaos seems to follow.

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Sera decided that she needed some time alone to clear her head and process everything that had happened. She spent the day wandering around campus, lost in her own thoughts. She tried not to think about Saul and the mysterious events that had occurred on the camping trip, maybe this would be a good opportunity to take a fresh look at her situation with a new perspective. The reality is, she didn't know where Saul was, and she didn't know her next move.

As she walked, she couldn't help but notice that the campus seemed different to her. It was as if she was seeing it through new eyes. She noticed small details that she had never paid attention to before, like the unhappy expressions on the people around her, or the way darkness seemed to linger around certain places. It was almost as if she was seeing the world in a new light, she hadn't before known this "modern paradise" to be the dark and grim place that she now suspected it was all along.

Sera found herself at the edge of campus, near the east entrance to the woods. She hesitated for a moment, unsure if she should go in, especially after this weekend, but her curiosity got the better of her. She stepped into the woods, and almost immediately, the quiet, wistful tranquility brought a sense of calm over her. It was as if she was exactly where she was meant to be. The energy that she felt within the town seemed to swell here, but it was far more welcoming, the forest was a hearth of this energy, radiating opportunity, past lost, and new beginnings.

It was a strange feeling for Sera, because not very long ago she didn't experience anything this poetically. She was very willing to believe this area was just a 'patch of trees' and never explored within it, nor would she have explored within herself. She wasn't sure what to make of it, now that she had.