Reformity

9- Justin

I ran and ran and ran, not stopping to see where I was going, not caring what was going around me, I forgot the world and just ran. Everything was a blur around me, I could vaguely tell that I was now surrounded by trees but I had no idea where I was. I'd just ran away from home and been rejected by my best friend, maybe he was right, maybe I should just go home and forget about about it. Of course I can't do that, she has been the thing I have dreaded, she has been the stuff of nightmares for so long now I can't go back to her, I'll never be able to live it down and she will spend the rest of my time with her telling me how terrible I am. This isn't what home is supposed to be like and it's not normal for parents to treat you like that, I made the best decision, yes, I did. NO going back on it, I did the best thing I possible could, and if James can't see that, too bad.

I started to realise that I was actually getting really tired out so I slowed down and actually took a second to see where I was. I appeared to be in a forest, trees and bushes were surrounding me alive with the sound of animals, I appeared to have just run straight in here not following a path or anything. There was only one forest where I live, we call it the outerlands because it's a border of sorts that surrounds our cities, there was no way to get through the outerlands other than walking so no one ever did. Now that I think about it, no one ever leaves- Suddenly there was a pain in my head, oh yeah I remember, the Summertons that used to live next door they moved to Bagan the next town over, people move towns all the time. I snapped back to reality remembering where I was, I'd never been past the border before, this could be pretty fun to explore...

I began to walk, not knowing where I was going, not knowing what I was looking for, just heading forwards, as far away from town as I could get. The trees were real funny here, back in the city there were a light green colour and quite thin and short, out here though they were the darkest shade of green I'd ever seen with trunks thicker than what I could wrap my arms around and they seemed to be tall enough to touch the sky, going on forever and ever...

Crickets appeared to be chirping all around the place and it hit me that I was walking around the woods, alone, at night, with no way of knowing where I was going. I began to remember all the old horror stories we used to tell each other and I remembered a particular one about the mythical 'snakes'. The story goes that a man was swimming in a river when suddenly his shoe got stuck under a rock in the water, he was the only one there so no one could come and help. He began to yell and yell and yell, but no one could hear him, he realised that he would have to try and force his foot out by getting rid of the rock. He looked around him and notice a smaller rock, so he picked it up and began to use it as leverage to push the rock of but it was no use, he was stuck for good. He threw the smaller rock on top of the large one in frustration and sighed accepting his fate, what he didn't realise was that two eyes had suddenly appeared on top of the rock, bright yellow and staring at him, the rock moved off his foot and he turned around shocked only to see a giant worm like creature at least twenty meters long open a mouth full of fangs. It ate him in one gulp and slivered off into the forest never to be seen again.

It was just a story of course, based on some fact but just a story nonetheless, there used to be snakes, back in the old days, but not anymore. I kept walking along suddenly becoming very cautious of all the stones when I noticed a path, well, it wasn't a "path" really but more or less a break in the bushes that appeared to have some sort of trail to follow. Was someone else out here?

I walked over to the path, following it along and quickly began to notice changes. The trees were thinning out and becoming a more brownish colour, bushes were slowly but surely disappearing and I could see the night sky again. It wasn't long before everything just stopped. All the trees just stopped at one exact point and there was only sand from then on. I looked around and saw that all the trees had stopped as far as I could see, but they were stopping in what appeared to be a circular shape, I couldn't see far enough to know for sure but they were clearly curving away on both sides. I began to walk forwards but I only got a few steps forward before I ran into a wall. I quickly jumped back, looking in front of me, but there was nothing there, I began to wonder if I just imagined it so I stuck my hand out, and there it was again, some sort of invisible wall standing in front of me. How was that possible?

I stood there, staring at what seemed to be nothing, but there had to be something there, didn't there? Was I crazy? Was I finally losing it? With all that had happened I wouldn't be surprised, maybe I'd just lost it over a temporary moment of insanity. I sighed and sat down bringing my knees to my chest and rubbing my temples. Oh god I'm losing it. Invisible walls, really. I looked in front of me and stood back up brushing myself off and became determined to keep going. I stuck my hand out to feel for this 'wall' and there it was again. I placed my hand against it and tried to push but had no luck. I frowned and decided to walk sideways, the tree appeared to curve, maybe this 'wall' did too and I would be able to get out. I walked along keeping my hand tracing along the wall as I went, attempting to keep track of where I'd come from.

10 minutes passed, then 15, then 30, and before I knew it I'd been walking for 50 minutes, but the wall just kept going, it never seemed to end. I stopped so frustrated with what was going on and kicked the 'wall'.

"Ahh damn it." I exclaimed grabbing my foot and hopping around like a madman. I hopped my way into the shade of the trees nearby and took a seat, rubbing my throbbing foot. I think it's official; I'm insane, I'm even making myself FEEL the pain now. I was sitting there rubbing my foot when suddenly I heard a twig snap behind me. I froze, my heart racing in my chest as I contemplated whether to turn around or not. I took a deep breath and turned around as fast as I could, only in time to see the bag going over my head.