DIFFERENT-WINGED ANGEL

FEATHER #2

Deep down, fear of the darkness lies within every single person. Fear doesn't stem from the absence of visibility, but from the unknown that dwells within it. There is never a way to guess who or what is waiting for the right moment to reveal itself. And it gets even more daunting when any sounds begin to echo the darkness. After all, the imagination quickly creates disturbing images, often far from reality. But what if the reality is even bleaker than what the mind thought up?

The cracking of burning wood slowly seeped into Olivia's head, and the pungent odor of smoke made it challenging to breathe. Amidst the encompassing darkness, the sounds grew increasingly louder until they seemed to be emanating from all directions, as if bouncing off unseen walls.

Olivia could feel the sweat beading on her cold forehead. She was horrified. There was a sense that something was about to happen that would divide her life into before and after.

The life-changing moment began with Olivia simply fluttering open her eyelids. Her gray-blue eyes widened in shock as she surveyed the spellbinding woodland, perplexed by how she had inexplicably ended up in its midst.

So what makes it so spellbinding? This forest is divided into two boundless halves. The left side is veiled in darkness, the sky's an inky void, and the trees on the scorched ground are blazing in a dazzling array of flames. The right one is the polar opposite, a perfect embodiment of paradise and goodness—a tranquil stillness enveloped the area, as the landscape was adorned with a blanket of pure-white snow, shimmering gently in the sun's rays, and not a hint of heavy smoke columns.

As if good and evil came face-to-face. Or is it a rope acting as a barrier between two parallel words?

With a hazy expression, Olivia's eyes drifted downward, her shock returning. She stood with her bare feet submerged in the maroon liquid which separated two halves of the forest. It can be likened to some kind of river, except instead of water, there was a substance similar to blood. And the girl was right in the center, as if walking on this rope that separates the two worlds.

"What the hell?"

Peering ahead, she couldn't pinpoint the starting point of this border. She looked back, but couldn't see the end either.

"Where am I?" Olivia mumbled under her breath.

With a deep breath, she hesitantly moved forward, trying to ignore the unpleasant squelch beneath her feet. A brief moment passed and she thought she heard a groan or a sob coming from the dark side of the forest. Her body stiffened immediately and she stood still, attentively listening for several minutes, shifting from foot to foot in confusion.

"Olivia," a soft, melodic voice reached the girl.

She frowned in puzzlement and turned her attention back to the sounds around her. But nothing strange could be heard again. She shrugged her shoulders, throwing off the hallucination.

"I'm losing my sanity."

Exhaling audibly, Olivia continued her way into the unknown. She followed the blood river, keeping to the center and not stepping on either side of the forest. But the distant whispers, as if carried by the wind, made her come to a stop once more. Her eyes darted around, inspecting every inch of this odd place, yet she remained clueless as to where the sounds were coming from. It was as if there was no external source for the sounds, and they were solely produced within the depths of her brain.

The voice either rose, highlighting some slurred words, then dropped to a whisper, but never breaking its flow. Initially, she struggled to identify the familiar words. It was a mishmash of meaningless and disconnected sounds. But the longer she listened, the more the sounds began to make sense.