strangers

prolouge

I was feeling cold. I opened my eyes after an uncomfortable sleep. I looked around. There were stones around me forming a circle, as if I was in the middle of a non-lit campfire. I pushed myself off the dirt and leaves. I was surrounded by enormous trees. But they were not regular trees; they were hollow, fragile, and black. I touched a branch, and it snapped as soon as I layed my finger on it. The trees seemed dead. In a weird way. Was it winter?

Where was I?

I could hear distant cars driving fast, as if on a highway. I followed the sound. I felt light headed, and I have no idea how I got here and what's going on. I also felt terrible. I felt like I regretted something. But I didn't...

I reached the highway. It looked so long, it looked never-ending. It was pretty empty. I wanted to ask for directions, but where would I go? I guess if I don't know, it doesn't matter.

I stood on the edge of the highway, waiting for cars to stop, to ask; To ask where I was, and why. As if they would know why. I thought sarcastically.

A silver minivan approached me. It looked oddly familiar. I felt scared, as if was going to hit me. I hated that feeling.

The minivan pulled over in front of me safely, and the driver rolled down the window.

"Can I help you?" said the old-looking driver in a it's-tree-in-the-morning-what-do-you-want voice. I didn't understand why he pulled over anyway. Didn't he have better things to do?

"Um..." I tried to find my consciousness. "What is this place? I woke up here, and...I don't know how I got here."

"you have much to learn, child." he said calmly, and drove away.

well that helped a lot. I thought sarcastically.

I kept walking. I was still feeling cold, lonely and scared. step step step. I tried to find a place to stay overnight or at least call my family. Or... is it night right now? I couldn't tell.

I found a tiny neighborhood in the end of the highway. The streets were empty and gray. There were barely any people, and the ones there looked sad. There was a little girl with a long, lifeless white dress and long, gray tangled hair. it seemed as if she's been here forever. And I mean forever. Everybody looked depressed and trapped.

********

I was walking for a really long time in the never ending neighborhood, when i saw a building that read "hotel home". I limped towards it, but my legs were so tired, they felt numb and I was so hungry I felt dead. I was so out of breath, I wasn't even breathing anymore- I collapsed on the hard, dirty pavement and I fainted. All I thought of before I went unconscious was how everything here was so different and strange. They were all strangers...