Aftermath by UmbralRequiem on DeviantArt
I opened my eyes, and the world was a blur of emerald and grey. My head throbbed with a rhythmic, heavy pulse that felt like a hammer striking an anvil behind my temples. I tried to move, but my limbs felt heavy. It took a several seconds for my vision to settle, and when it did, I realized I was staring up through a canopy of ancient, towering pines. The sky above was a bruised purple, the sun either just rising or just setting. I couldn’t tell which.The cold hit me next. A sharp, biting autumn wind swept over the forest floor, and I shivered so violently that my teeth clattered together. That was when I tried to push myself up.My hands pressed into the dirt, not just dirt, but a crater. I was lying in a shallow depression in the earth, as if something heavy had been dropped from a great height. My skin was stained with streaks of mud and faint bruises that seemed to be fading even as I looked at it.Then, I looked down at myself.A gasp caught in my throat, hitching into a sob. My clothes were gone. All that remained of my clothes were the jagged remnants of my denim shorts, the waistband digging painfully into my hips. My chest was completely bare. I was exposed, my breasts white and shivering against the dark soil, my skin mapped with scratches and dirt.I scrambled to cover myself, crossing my arms tightly over my chest, my fingers digging into my shoulders. I was alone in the middle of a wilderness I didn't recognize.I tried speaking but my voice was hoarse, sounding like I had spent hours screaming. Nothing came in my mind, nothing at all no matter how much I tried to remember... the last thing I remembered... was the clubhouse.It had been so small in there. Cramped. I don’t go out very often since I don’t have any friends so I forced myself to go, but I knew that place wasn’t for me the moment I stepped in, the loud music and random people pushing me around had started to make me panic. I felt the heat rising under my skin, a fever that felt like boiling oil in my veins. I retreated to the tiny, cramped bathroom to splash cold water on my face hoping it woudn’t happen.I closed my eyes, and the image burned into my lids, the cracked mirror above the sink. I had looked at myself, intending to take a deep breath, but the girl who looked back wasn't me. Her skin was flushing a sickly, bruised hue. But it was the eyes that had stopped my heart. My brown eyes had disappeared, replaced by a searing, toxic neon green. Something I always dread of happening.I remembered the panic, the sound of the mirror shattering, the pain, the fear quickly turning into anger. And then...nothing.Now, I was here.I forced myself to stand, my legs shaking. As I rose, I saw the path of destruction. This wasn't a natural clearing. Trees had been snapped like toothpicks, their trunks splintered and white. Large boulders had been tossed aside, leaving deep furrows in the ground. It looked like a cyclone had touched down, but the path was linear. It was a trail.I followed the trail with my eyes and realized I had traveled miles. The clubhouse was nowhere in sight. I was deep in the heart of the woods, miles from the outskirts of town.A terrifying thought gripped me. Did I hurt anyone? If I had done this to the trees, what could I have done to them?I hugged myself tighter, the denim of my ruined shorts rough against my thighs. I felt like a wounded animal, alone and frightened. The silence of the forest was deafening. No birds chirped, no squirrels scurried.I began to walk, my bare feet treading carefully over the sharp rocks and fallen branches. Every snap of a twig made me jump, my heart hammering against my ribs. I needed to find a road. I needed to find help. But at the same time, I wanted to disappear. Why me? I never asked for any of this...I’m just trying to survive...I stopped by a small, stagnant pool of water gathered in the hollow of a stump. I hesitated, then leaned over, forcing myself to look at the reflection.My eyes were back, brown and filled with tears. I looked like me again. Small, fragile, and lost.I turned away from the water and started walking, my shadows stretching long and distorted behind me in the dying light. I was cold, I was naked, and I was terrified. But mostly, I was afraid of the sun going down, and what might happen if the anger found its way back to me in the dark.Trying something different this time, this post will be divided in 2 parts, this one that’s after and one that will be a prequel to this one
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