Anxiety | ʸᵉˡˡᵒʷʲᵃᶜᵏᵉᵗˢ

Why did he say yes? Elijah could have been at home with his little sister, and his father. But when his father's friend, Ben Scott, asked if he'd come along to help out with the girls' soccer team he coached, Elijah felt like he had no choice.

It was the worst decision of his life.

The plane went down somewhere in the middle of nowhere. One second, there was laughter, music, the hum of the engine. The next, screaming. Metal ripping apart. The sharp, gut-wrenching realization that they were falling.

Then-darkness.

Elijah woke up to fire and blood, the smell of burning fuel thick in his throat. Bodies, some moving, some not. The distant sound of someone crying. And beyond the wreckage, a wall of endless trees.

They were stranded. No rescue in sight.

He should have been at home. But now, home was gone. All that was left was survival. And Elijah wasn't sure who he'd have to become to make it out alive.

Now, he works odd jobs and lives off motel coffee and cheap food. The life isn't luxury like he once had, but it keeps him going. He owns a car, a suit, and enough clothes to get by.

What else could a man want?

Most nights, he tells himself he's fine. That he made it out. That surviving was enough.

But deep down, he knows the truth-he never really left the woods.

None of them did.