Keep Moving

I wake up in a daze with the sun beaming down my face. I don’t know where I am or even how I got here. It looks like I’m in a field of marigold flowers. It’s beautiful. Beyond my field of vision is a dark forest that surrounds the field as much as the field surrounds me. Bloodshot eyes are staring at me inside the forest. However, they all blink at the same time and when they do, there is an opening path that looks like a way out of here. There is also a strange essence that is radiating off of the flowers. Some of the flowers closest to me have the essence coming toward me. They flow their way to the bottom of my feet. I raise a leg to see if it’s doing anything to me. The essence that has touched me is just making my foot glow. I don’t feel anything from it. Okay, maybe it stings a little, but I don’t think it’s gonna bother me.

However, it looks like the glow looks like it’s slowly moving up my foot. The pain becomes more apparent each time the glow goes up. Although, right now it just feels like bugs crawling on the bottom of my feet. Annoying but not painful. I hear a rustling in the flowers to my left. It looks like a glowing hare is running down the field as fast as it can. I can hear it squealing in pain as it tries desperately to reach the forest. Some of the eyes in the forest look at the hare, waiting for it to come closer. The hare leaps towards the forest but goes limp in the air as the glowing essence from the flowers has consumed it. The hare crash lands into the forest but the darkness in the forest causes the essence to fade away. The eyes that have been staring down the hare converge on it, and for a split second they move over it, then move away, and not a trace of the hare was left behind.

I look down at the essence at my feet and it’s risen to my lower calf now. My legs are beginning to hurt now. Am I going to die if I stay in this field? Is that what killed the hare? Am I going to die if I go into the forest? I look around and the open path out of here is now behind me. However, the eyes blink and now the path has moved to my right. This entire situation is overwhelming so I crouch down and try and calm down. My knees touch one of the flowers and the essence radiating from the flower appears on my knees causing more pain. I jerk back causing me to fall. I catch myself but my hands are now catching the essence of the flower. I’m in a tremendous amount of pain now.

I have to get out of here but the pain is making it hard to move now. I have no idea how that hare was able to run. I try to walk but every new step is agony. The essence is now up to my waist and a bit up to my elbow. This is a nightmare. The forest is terrifying but I can’t stay out here. I could die no matter what direction I take. If I don’t take the right path in time I’m going to die. I can’t just stand here. I wait for the eyes to blink again. Once they do, the path appears behind me again. I turn around and move as fast as I can towards it. As I approach the path the eyes blink again and the path moves across the field from me.

The essence has moved up to my chest now. I almost want to just give up and lay completely in the flowers. I don’t think I’m ready to die just yet. I bend down and pick up a flower. I’m getting out of here with a souvenir. Clutching it tightly, I move as quickly as I can towards the open path. Limping is all I can do now. Coming closer to the path, I can feel the eyes in the forest staring daggers at me. I don’t know if they can sweat excitedly but it almost feels like they are. The essence is now up to my neck but when I put one foot on the path and the essence starts to fade away from it. I fall onto my knees on the path and feel an amazing amount of relief. It’s like all the pain I was feeling just suddenly went away. I’m still not in the clear yet though. I get up and run down the path as fast as I can. The path is long but the light on the other side is bright. The eyes are close but they can’t seem to go onto the path. As long as I stay here, they can’t hurt me. I can hear them growling at me, just waiting to tear me apart. The light is getting closer so I leap into it and out the other side into desert terrain. I recover and turn around to look at the eyes. They blink once more and everything disappears. The eyes, the path, the forest, everything is gone.

I look down at the marigold in my hand and the glowing essence is gone. It’s simply a flower now. I stand proudly on top of the sand dune and see a small village on the horizon. It’s time to go home.