Downhill

Chapter 7

It was dark, and I had left the city. I was now walking along an abandoned road. There were no cars driving, no people walking, no one. To be fair, it was probably around four in the morning; a few hours had passed but the sun hadn't risen yet.

I might have found a place to rest, had I been tired. But I wasn't, not in the least. So I kept walking. I didn't know exactly where I was aiming to go, but I just knew I wanted to find an opportunity. Some place to work. It might have been a lost cause, but I, like many people at this point, was desperate.

I wished I'd brought something to do, other than write in my journal, or some music to listen to.

Soon, my legs started hurting. Every step I took felt like rusty nails shooting into my feet. That was when I decided to stop. I sat down under a big tree and leaned against its trunk. Despite the fact that I thought I wasn't tired, I fell asleep almost immediately.

I had a dream. It didn't make any sense. I was four years old again and Mom sent me to the woods alone, saying "It's time". I was in the middle of the woods when I heard leaves crunching behind me. I turned around to see a dark, unrecognizable figure. Even though it had just been day in the dream, it was night when I saw the figure.

It spoke to me with a surprisingly childish voice. It was...making fun of my hair? My messy braids. Wait, when did those braids get in my hair? I didn't like what it was saying about me, so I started crying. Then the figure disappeared and I heard my mother's voice. I couldn't tell what she was saying, but it sounded nice so I stopped crying.

Her voice faded away, and a silent moment passed. But then I saw a streak of darkness falling from the very top of a tree that seemed to stretch all the way into space. I heard the crash of crunching leaves, and I saw another dark figure, the thing that had fallen from the tree, standing up.

It had a little girl's voice, and it said things that terrified me, like "Why did you let me fall?". I didn't understand. Then it dissolved like dust into the wind. It was a very strong wind, and it blew me into the stream. I sat there in the water as I heard a baby crying. I turned and saw a smaller dark figure, like a baby, sitting on the rock next to me.

Then everything around me dissolved like the dark girl-voice thing did. I was sitting in a world of blank white. It was so bright, my eyes had to adjust for a second. As they adjusted, an image appeared before me. It was...my family. At first I thought it was just what they looked like now, but then I saw that they were wearing rags and they all looked dirty. They were emaciated, like they hadn't eaten in weeks. Their unblinking eyes bored into me...

I woke up gasping for air. I didn't know what the dream meant. The sun was high in the sky, and I set out walking again.