Condensation

Sing Hallelujah

I'm walking through the deepest part of the woods to a destination I don't know. I don't even know how I got here, or why. I continue walking deeper into the woods, it gets colder the farther I go. I start to shiver as I walk. I feel as if I'm freezing, turning into a block of ice.
" I wish I had brought a jacket with me."
I whisper to myself in the cold, seeing my breath white as snow. I keep walking and is see something hanging from a tree, a jacket! I don't think I just put it on and keep walking. I stop at the edge of a misty part of the woods, looking into it. I see a figure of someone walking toward me. I reach my hand into the mist but draw it back out quickly. The mist is so cold it burns like fire.
" Get out of there you're going to die!"
I scream into the mist but I no longer see them. After some time the mist seems to clear away and that's when I see the person. He sits by the waters edge, his back to me. His pale blue skin matches the frost crawling up all the plants.
" Who are you stranger?"
I speak softly without meaning to.
" Come visit me sometime, Jamie. You'll know where to find me."
As he speaks everything around me falls apart into a world of darkness. I know this place, this place from the closet, this place after all those nightmares.

When I wake up I realize that I fell asleep on top of the map. I get up and stretch. My body aches from being in a bad position on the desk. I walk downstairs, taking the map with me. Kelly is already sitting at the table eating some cereal I didn't even know I had. I sit down across from her and lay the map on the table in front of me.
" Sorry I didn't come see you last night. I was really into this map."
" Yeah it's fine. I was thinking of going home today because I don't want to like take over your house and your moms clothes."
I snicker.
" Kelly I'm inviting you to live with my family. You can just stay here. By the way my mom loves you and she won't care about the clothes."
Kelly smiles happily.
" Okay let me text my mom about it."
While she texts I tell her about my theories I have about the map. I let her look at it and eventually she actually finds something.
" Jamie this sign looks get like your birthmark." She shows me the back of the map. " What does it mean?"
She passes me the map and I examine the sign. I put the map on the table and put my arm next to the sign to compare it. Just as I do that the symbol on the map starts to glow, then my birthmark does the same thing. We both watch in silent amazement as a whole other map rises up a few inches above the actual map. I move my left arm away from the map and it still glows.
" This is amazing Jamie!"
We both are simply amazed at this. I put my other hand through the new map and it just goes through it.
" It seems to be like a hologram or something like that."
I say to Kelly and she nods looking at me.
" Your extra eyes are glowing also."
I don't respond. I am simply mesmerized by this map, but mostly confused. In the middle of the map seems to be my house, on the original map it was just a square so I couldn't tell. My house is labeled base. A base for what? I shake my head, that doesn't matter. In the woods I see different things. Most of them are labeled base with a number and some symbols. I see Kelly point at something on her side.
" A portal? "
She looks at my confused but I shrug my shoulders because I don't even know. I look at the woods area of the map. The woods seem to be very deep, deeper than I've ever been.
" I've never seen that thing in the woods. And I should know I've been pretty deep into the woods."
Kelly says to me and I agree.
" Yeah I know what you mean."
Kelly excuses herself to the bathroom and comes back shortly.
" Did you do your pees and poops?"
She looks at me and smiles, but in her eyes I see something else. Is it fear? I don't dawdle on the thought for very long.