Of Glens and Ghosts

Of Glens and Ghosts - Chapter Four

Chapter Four

"Hey-Ho, Into the Woods We Go!"

(Ivy & Mirai's POV)

Do you experience those dreams that sometimes cause you to jump right out of a peaceful sleep in a cold sweat, because your brain causes the make-believe scenario of plunging to your death a little bit too realistic for comfort? Unfortunately, this was neither a dream, nor was it any fantasy of mine. I "awoke" to the very real sound of pure adrenalin flowing through my brain as I fell through a flurry of blinding rain as the feeling of cold wind cut into my skin, like a multitude of tiny daggers that violently pushed me towards the earth. Every few seconds, a great boom of thunder rang out through the skies—which somehow caused my body to jump out of fear even though the entire sky was falling around me. Then, all of a sudden, I heard a faint voice cry out in the distance.

"Who's there!" I shrieked, hoping they would hear me and stop this crazy train from reaching the station. There was no response. 'Please be a dream, this has to be a dream—why can't I just wake up from this nightmare!' I thought, or most likely screamed while pinching my wrists. At that moment, I heard another cry, concluding that I was not delusional yet. I looked all around me but did not see anyone. The cries got louder. Opening my mouth, I began to yell back. "Where are you coming fro—" I asked, before getting cut off by the crier who immediately crashed on top of me. It was Mirai, who looked flustered in her own rights, just like me. But thank goodness, it was a familiar face.

She began to shout rapid-fire questions at me. "Is that you Ivy? Where are we? What is happening?" I nodded and then shivered from the cold air that numbed my skin. "Yeah, it's me, Ivy! I don't know where we are but we're falling fast! All I know is that we are plummeting towards the earth and will crash any minute!" I shouted. Those minutes soon became seconds as we both glanced at the ground, hanging to each other for dear life. 'Please wake up, please wake up!' I thought to myself—before plunging into an abysmal canopy of a world—where my understanding of reality would become nothing more than a faded memory lost to the winds.

Minutes felt like hours before I began to feel the familiarity of life breathing its way into my lungs, rejuvenating my consciousness once again. The air felt sticky and humid to the touch as it always does after a rainstorm, but there was no rain to be found, aside from the feeling of the soft, dewy raindrops that slid from the leaves and onto my cheekbone—slicing into a gash I had not yet realized existed. As I squinted and glanced upwards, my eyes focused on the array of odd, and yet enormous plant life displayed itself all around me in shades of mossy green and auburn colors. The oak and birch trees stood as tall as skyscrapers, and their branches stuck out like leafy arms that pointed towards me as if I were being pushed away. The storm must have passed while I was unconscious in this new and unknown world.

"I need to go find Mirai—there's no use in me lying about in the dirt like a dead animal," I whispered to myself, wincing in pain as I staggered to my feet, clutching at the stinging gash which left blood on my palm. My head spun around as I trudged forward through the undergrowth, making the earth feel as if it were pulsing beneath my feet with every crooked step I took. 'Even if I feel like the equivalent of a dead animal right now.' The woods began to chitter and creak all around me, but it was not in a cute or endearing way like in Disney's adaptation of Snow White, but more like the darker, eerie version of Little Red Riding Hood by the Brothers Grimm. I had this gut feeling deep in my core that I was being watched by someone, or something, that was waiting to pounce upon that which is vulnerable. Though, just like everything else about the state of my current situation, I wished it was only an afterthought rather than my reality.

Just behind me, I heard a loud groan that nearly caused me to jump out of my skin and shook the forest floor. "Mirai?" I whispered, while grabbing a large stick and pointed it at a shaking bush. "Was that you making that noise?" Then came a large crash with an even larger shadow. Frozen to the spot, I stood there helplessly staring in fear at the monstrous being about to appear—just before two hands reached forward, yanked me out of sight, and pulled me under a giant log. It was Mirai. Before I could breathe a sigh of relief and ask her why we were hiding, she covered my mouth and pointed a finger towards her lips and then outside of our hiding spot. Quietly, I poked my head out from the hiding place and nearly gasped at the nightmare right in front of us. Just ten feet away, there stood a ginormous 'thing'—with pale, white-colored skin and a shock of long, black hair that almost covered its entire face. It stamped about the glen sniffing the air and hissing, while crushing the vegetation as it used one, out of at least six, long and skinny arms to pull the hair from its face to reveal four sets of piercing, all-black eyes, and a slit nose. Another huge arm dragged a spear-like finger along the ground, leaving a V-shaped dent in the dirt as it began to mockingly recite a poem: