Playing The Dreams // a Dreamcatcher story

Chapter 18

❝ 𝐌𝐀𝐙𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐀; 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐭. ❞

~

The girl's shadow stretched to the entrance of this dark abyss. Her legs were frozen in place and she could not respond to the situation like her body wanted her to. She let out one cold breathe and relaxed her shoulders. Then she heard a whisper run through her ears. "Yoohyeon unnie.."

"Gahyeon," she immediately recognized, forgetting the fact she was with her other member a moment ago. The cold wind flew in again, fazing her. She took a gasp for air, only to realize she was almost suffocating out of air if she did not move. Her legs involuntarily made her move into the dark void, unknowing of what lies in there. Her arms stroked the rough walls, managing to get some paint and dust on his fingertips.

"Gahyeonie?" she called out in a soft manner in which no one replied. Did Yoohyeon just mishear? There was no sign of Gahyeon but she heard someone similar, no, exactly the same as her. Her body leaned in and kept walking through the tunnel. Then another gush of wind attacked her, fazing her yet again. Her hair slapped her across the face and her body nearly toppled over. It only grew stronger, stronger and stronger, shoving Yoohyeon off her feet and crashing on the new ground.

Her arms dug deep into the surface, getting some dirt in her nails and scratches on her palm. Her knees were half into the wet soil and her face was inches away from face planting. Her nose caught the sense of plants, fertilizer, smoke? She sensed no fire but the air was full of haze and grey, thick fog. She could not see clearly, but she knew she was not in the place she was familiar with. She turned around and observed that she was now provided with four paths to go through, all walled with a tall corn maze wall; classic. 

"Yoohyeon!" another call came, but from which direction?

"Gahyeonie, where are you?" she replied with a shout, amplifying her voice, but it was no use. Where did it come from? Her brain puzzled, trying to pick one path to go to. One of them should lead her out. It was like a Halloween afternoon, going through the maze with your friends, but this is much worse. She was alone and she was microscopic compared to the mountainous walls. 

Her lungs inflated, her shoulders tensed, her veins tightened. She knew she was going to have to pass through one of them, at least one. What could lie in them? Yoohyeon could not guess until she walked through.

She was now a step into the one directly in front of her. The soil made a few crunching sound; she coughed at the thicker smoke. It was a choice out of four, but it led to more choices. She was now in the center of another cross section, providing two paths, her mind throbbed. "Where to go? One of them is the right one, wait, how if this path wasn't the right one? Was it one of the three?" She gritted her teeth and scratched her head.

The wind rustled the leaves surrounding her. A scaredy cat she was, she could confront a crowd cheering her on stage, going through many trainee evaluations, but she usually did that altogether. She knew her members would be behind her, but there was no one now, who could she depend on?

There was no wind, but her spine felt frozen, the cold crawling up to her shoulders. Goosebumps fell upon her skin. Fear.

Her shadow sprawled over the soil as if it was surrendering to the pitch darkness through the next trail Yoohyeon had chosen. There was nothing there, but her mind played tricks. Nightmares could often become too unreal, but you would believe it anyways. The path looked like some sort of beast in her eyes, a beast that would swallow you up and devour you in terror as you get lost in whichever twist and turn you end up going through.

She could not move, her feet were planted right there and right at that moment, but there was nothing in her path.

"Once you go in, there is little to no chance I'm coming back out," she thought inside, but something suddenly disturbed that thought. Gahyeon. She heard nothing, not another whisper, but she saw her, a glimpse of her through the dimness of the trail, standing deep inside there, but soon walked backwards, disappearing and becoming one with the shadows. Yoohyeon gasped and tried to reach out, but no one was there anymore.

Although she knew there was no catching up to Gahyeon, it was like a lure, a fish and it's bait just getting hooked by the fisherman, and she could not help but follow.

The leaves in this path were fully grown and uncut, making it flap around and make contact with her face and body, but it did not stop her from getting to the other side. Carrying on with the hunt, thinking Gahyeon was still around somewhere, she had to bear a few scratches and stings on her skin. 

Another branch sliced through Yoohyeon's cheeks but she barely felt anything. By the time she felt some pain, it was already bleeding down, but there was more to care about. More paths were before her, this time it had multiplied into six. Which one should she take? Her mind started to feel dizzy, she wanted to just pick the right one. Then she just went for it, taking the one on her most left.

Fog started to gather around in her eyes, she drew her hands out to feel what she was going through since now it had grown to seem opaque.

As she ambled through the fog, her hands ruffled through some leaves, small branches, and no opening. A dead end. She rapidly turned her head and ran back hurriedly. At this point she could not control her breathe since she was bolting from one end to another, finding herself in multiple dead ends and deep black voids. She finally took the most reasonable one, the one with shadows and whatever lies behind them waiting for her. She gripped her hair roots and fell on her knees, smearing wet dirt on her knees.

"W..Which way?" she mumbled, starting to drive herself crazy with all the hallucinations of fear her mind was conjuring. It was like each of the paths had some sort of danger even though it was just a dark alleyway. She could not take it and began to tear up, lips quivering. Her pupils wavered left and right, up and down, she did not know where to go.

Her eyes looked upwards and dilated. Red veins had appeared on the edges and her mouth let out a scream; she was growing madder and madder.