Once Upon A Time

X

"Agggh!"

The girl was suddenly awoken by the ghastly scream she heard echoing throughout the woods. It was one that continues to send shivers and chills down her spine. What was that? she asked herself. The screech was shrilly and vile to the point that her ears continue to ring a sharp pitch sound. But it wasn't just the demonic scream that continued to bother her. It was the voice. It reminded her of something although she doesn't know why. Maybe she'd heard of it before.

Scanning her surroundings, her eyes gloomed as she tried arduously to recall what brought her to a place like this. Tall, slender trees rose from the hard, cold earth blocking her vision from seeing the night sky. Its foliage so thick that only enough moonlight was able to trickle its way through it. To make it worse, she's freezing. Chill wind was blowing in all directions. And from afar, she saw gigantic ambiguous figures. Mountains, maybe? she thought. The place was so silent and creepy that it seemed to come out from a horror show.

What the hell am I doing here? She can't seem to remember the reason why she's here now.

"Think, ---" She tried to say out loud but her thoughts cut off midway. Oh no. This is bad. Despair consumed her as she tried to stifle her fears. The girl seems to have trouble remembering her own name.

Repressing back her negative thoughts, she tried once again to remember anything to no avail. She's forgotten.

"Please help me."

She thought those words came out from her own mouth but it wasn't hers. It was from the same demonic voice she heard earlier. It's here. She can feel its presence dwelling near her. Out of fear, she closed her eyes and ran. She knew how stupid the idea of running closed eyes was but it was the only sane thing she could do. She couldn't seem to bear the thought of a demonic figure looming and instantly appearing in front of her. No, she thought. It was the only thing she could do stay conscious.

The sense of familiarity struck her once again. She was running for minutes and yet she didn't bump once into a single tree. She once thought it was luck or maybe, instincts but she quickly brushed it off. It was something else. Somehow, her feet just know which way to go. One foot over the other. But how?

Just as soon as she felt the presence no more, she stopped. It was tiring. Deep, heavy breaths escaped her. She didn't know how long she ran, but it felt like forever. Opening her eyes, she scanned her surroundings once again. Like before, there are trees emerging from the ground, blocking most of the moonlit rays. But what she didn't expect was this cave. There before her stood a large mass of land bulging from the earth's surface. It was a thousand feet tall and gigantic with a hollow opening in front of her. She was right! The gigantic ambiguous figures she saw before were in fact, mountains. It seemed that she ran a quarter of a league to reach this far. That's why she was this tired.

She was about to find another way to get across or maybe around these mountains but she just immediately stood there, frozen. What just happened?

Inhale. Exhale.

Calming herself down, she convinced herself that she was just too tired and felt paralyzed. That maybe this is nothing. But she wasn't fooling anybody. She knew.

Acting on impulse, she tried to head towards the cave and yet somehow, she was able to take one small step at a time. Something wants me to go in there. Stubborn as she was, she stopped and took a stand. She doesn't know what grim things that await inside the cave but she knows for a fact that it's bad news.

"If I'll wait for a while maybe I'll regenerate enough strength to go around this."

Just like she planned, she just stood there waiting for her strength to come back. It took her a few moments to take notice that her plan wasn't working quite well. She knew that in order to get out of here, she must muster enough courage to walk forward towards the grotto. It was the only way.