Awakening

Chapter 2:

Awakening

 

“I wanna wake up kicking and screaming,

I wanna know if my life has meaning”

- Jon Foreman

 

 

The trees here were withered and old, the bark chips that once caressed their beautiful bodies had fallen much like the leaves in autumn to pile and heaps, scattered across the ground. The ground that had once been covered in luscious grass but was now brown and three parts dirt. The flowers were not much better with stems cut, and much like the tree, were for the most part wither. Not one flower sprouted here. There were no shades of colour, no ravenous reds or bodacious blues, only black. The earth was black. The woods were not lovely, but they were definitely dark and deep. And the path that lay in front of the eyes of the beholder did not fork of into two separate directions, and therefore whoever awoke to find them selves stuck amongst the darkness of these woods would find that they had been forced to travel a path they may not have taken if given the opportunity to. Today, that person was Tyler Maverick.

Tyler, who found himself laying on a jagged rock, jolted up right, confusion stricken across his face, eyes wide in both astonishment and fear for one minute he had been laying in a snow covered sidewalk of a busy street and the next he had woken up atop a jagged rock in the middle of a clearing with woods which appeared to have no beginning or end, but just a middle. As he sat their, soothing the area of his back which had been indented by the jagged rock, with his left arm, he began to tilt his head in every direction, staring out into the abyss that was the woods that now surrounded him like a group of predators would surround their prey. He also noticed, that nothing grew here, and although there was an abundance of trees, they were all withered, much like the grass and flowers that lined the surface in which he was perched on. He looked down at himself, noticing he was still wearing what he believed he was wearing before he had woken up here, an expensive suit and jacket with expensive shoes and took comfort in the fact that he appeared to still be himself.

He positioned his one hand to either side of his body, and with one movement of urgency, pushed himself up of the dirt covered floor until he was standing upright. He then proceeded to wipe the dirt that had collected on his hands whilst pushing himself up on his clothes, and for the second time that day, began to stare in the different directions that these woods had to offer. He made several observations as he did so. But the main one to play on his mind was that although he could apparently see everything surrounding him, their appeared to be no sun in the sky, and in fact when he finally tilted his head upwards, there was nothing but darkness and the flicker of several golden coated stars up in the sky that he could see. This place was strange, but still there was something magical the filled up in the air, that swelled up within Tyler’s heart and made it burst. Like for the first time in a very long time, Tyler did not feel like the Tyler everyone had come to know and hate. But still, there were so many questions that came into fruition with a feeling as strong as Tyler’s such as, “How did I get here” and mainly, “Where is here?”

He also noticed, that whilst he had been standing, pondering, staring, musing, he had not heard a single silence. This place was consumed by silence. Its much like that riddle where if a tree falls in the wood and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Well if a tree was to fall in these woods, which many seemed like they might, and Tyler was around, would her hear it? Silence can be both a mans worst enemy and best friend, but to what point does silence switch from one to the other, and how long would that transition take to occur. Years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes. Tyler mind was so consumed with the different thoughts and feelings rebounding of each other and reverberating of the walls of his brain that he began to develop a headache, and decided to sit back down in his original position in the middle of the clearing, and take stock of what was going on.

The trees, grass, flowers, and pretty much everything that may have once been alive, seemed to of died long ago with nothing being able to grow here. There was no light bar that of the several stars that were scattered up amongst the darkness of the night sky and finally silence seemed to consume everything apart from what was going on inside of his head. He could sum up his feelings as of this moment in three words; he was scared.

Tyler was scared of the unknown. Of what this place was and what it had to offer. He was scared that what seemed like only minutes ago he was lying in a snow covered street of a busy town but had suddenly awoken in a clearing were solitude seemed to be the only thing able to grow. He was scared that he did not know how he got there or in fact where there was. He was scared that he did not know what to do or how to do what ever it was there was for him to do. In plain and simple terms, he was just plain scared. And in reality, he had never been this scared in his life, although his facial expressions and body movements were yet to show it.

He arose for the second time in a matter of minutes, as he had decided to further explore this strange place, so foreign to him. Much like he had the first time, he positioned a hand on either side of his body and used each one to elevate himself into and upright, standing position. From here he began to walk in a straight line down the path the was set out in front of him, encompassed by the overgrown withered trees that hung over the path as if it were an archway, painted black with the bristles of darkness that were surrounding each molecule of air from the sky down to the ground.

Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. He walked in this manner as he started to move in what seemed like a descending fashion, down into the inner depths of the woods, where not even the few scattered stars that hung in the night sky could provide any light.

****

 

Tyler had been walking for what he believed to be hours but in reality had only been forty minutes when up ahead he saw the slightest glimpse of a light flickering in and out, heading straight towards him. If he had in anyway been scared before, whatever he felt then had now increased dramatically as he started to shake nervously, tasting the sweat that was dripping down from his forehead, past his lips and finally falling to the ground once it had surpassed his chin. However scared he was, he still managed to bring himself to continue walking forwards, and with both the light and himself moving towards the same general location, they were each closing in on each other in double the time. Every step that Tyler took resulted in a new wave of fear rushing over him, overpowering his senses. The light was either drawing closer and closer to him or he was drawing closer and closer towards it but soon enough they were within mere footsteps of each other. Yet, when Tyler had reached the light, their was no source or being to be seen, and instead the light which appeared to be floating in mid air without any aid, merely continued forward. Although the fear of the moment had passed, and relief had replaced it, as the light moved further and further away from behind him, Tyler swore that the trees that overhung the path were reaching out towards it, clambering to touch it, to feel its warm embrace as he had when it had swept pass him. This brought upon an all new fear, as up until then, the woods he believed to be lifeless, dead if you will. But something about the light, something about the trees which appeared to move by themselves, not by some distant force of nature or gush of wind, stirred a sudden unbreakable non-understandable fear within him. It ran through his veins, filled up his lungs and his heart until finally his body couldn’t take the harshness of this alternate reality and he fell to a heap on the floor were he lay motionless for several hours.

In these several hours, several things happened to both Tyler and his surroundings. Firstly, while he lay asleep, his mind had converged into yet another alternative reality where both his past and present intertwined into one, and like he had that morning, he was walking down that snow covered street, just looking for a place where he could drown away his sorrows. Unlike that morning however, the fast paced climate of the street with cars driving past in second intervals and homeless beggars packing the already crowded sidewalks had evaporated and instead, there was only silence. Silence and Tyler who was cutting through it like a knife would to butter. The airwaves where only silence played where split to either side of Tyler, and Tyler could not help but be weary of being in yet again another place where silence was all that could be heard.

He found himself standing under that same sign reading bar, however this time each letter was fully illuminated in a bright red, and the buildings were no longer buildings but trees, and the trees were not dead but alive, not withered but beautiful, and the sign was no sign but a branch with the letters B.A.R carved into them. This made him shiver slightly as he decided against entering the door, or in reality the two trees with a parting that led to a clearing in the town, and instead continued walking forward. As he continued to walk, the light continued to dim and the streetlight that were there this morning were non existent. Every step equalled a little less light, and although it continued to grow darker with every movement, every time he turned back to the sidewalks he had already conquered, there was still the exact same amount of light that was there beforehand. Although this would scare most people it intrigued Tyler, which he knew to be weird as he had been scared by that same darkness when he had awoken in the first set of woods. Finally, after he had taken a set amount of steps, the town turned black, and once again the only light that could be seen was coming from the several stars scattered in amongst the darkness. Now Tyler intriguiment had been replaced by fear, and when he turned around this feeling was only further enforced as the light that had once been there was now gone and instead their was only darkness. The trees, the trees were arced over the side walk and their branches were reaching out towards Tyler. Tyler didn’t notice it at first but once the light had been replaced by darkness, and life had stirred amongst the trees, the silence had been broken by the almost silent whispers of the trees talking amongst one another. These trees were unlike ordinary trees, they had faces, their faces were long with age, sadness, regret, disappointment, disbelief and finally depression. Their eyes were set on Tyler, their tears hitting the ground and melting away tiny patches of snow as they did so. It was astonishing, amazing. The trees continued to reach out towards Tyler, grasping at him as he began to walk faster, at more of a slow jogging pace than a walking pace. Until finally he broke out into larger strides and a fast paced sprint, running away from the whispers that were growing louder and louder with every stride, with the grasping branches reaching out further and further with every breath, until bang. Tyler ran straight into a large tree that was positioned in the middle of the road, blocking the entire exit as if it had been a no through road all along. He lay dazed and confused until he managed to pick himself back up to the image that managed to wake him up from this bad dream. He was laying in a hospital gurney which was positioned right beside the tree. And instead of wires and tubes being connected to hospital machines and devices like you would expect to see in this kind of situation, he was hooked up to the tree, whose life force seemed to be expiring at an alarming rate, with leaves falling from its branches into heaps around where Tyler was standing, staring up at the image of himself.

****

 

Tyler’s eyes opened to the darkness that was the woods he had fainted in and any recollection of the dream he had just had was hazy at best, with any fear he had ascertained throughout it washing away. He stood himself up and browsed around. He had gathered that there was no way to tell the time here so he had no way of knowing how long he had been out cold for. Instead he placed all this in the back of his mind, and carried on as he had before the light and the trees had injected their fear, their own brand of heroin, into his veins.

He continued down the dark and dusty path which was growing every darker and drawing ever deeper into the woods. Although it was almost pitch black, Tyler was still having no trouble finding his way in the dark, and although he could only see straight ahead of him and not either side of him, it was comforting to not be able to see the trees that had shaken such fear into him earlier. Yet, although the fear had rushed from his body, a different sensation had no stricken him as he realised how badly he needed to go to the toilet and urinate. He swung around facing the darkness where he new the trees were settled and unzipped his suit pants and proceeded to release his bodily fluids, cutting a yellow line through the black abyss. Before he could finish however, a hand, or more likely a branch reached out and pushed Tyler back. He was lucky enough to not get any of his disbanded bodily fluids on himself, but once again was stricken by fear as the silence was broken by the sounds of whispers, escaping from the darkness into the hollows of his own ears. However, he did not run as he had in his dreams and instead began to return the whispers, wishing to extract whatever information or whatever answers he could from the whispers.

“How is it that you can talk,?”

“Where am I?”

“What must I do to retrieve the answers that I am looking for?”

“How did I get here?”

“What is my purpose here,?”

With each question came no response, and when he had finally finished listing every possible question he could think of, the whispers stopped and silence once again settled in. Tyler was angry at both the trees who had given him no insight into any of his question and himself for believing that a tree was actually capable of providing insight. He decided to shake the entire event of and continue walking.

As he descended deeper and deeper into the woods, he could not help but think that someone was following him, a feeling that had begin to grow after his encounter with the trees, and then was enforced when the silence was being broken by an echo of his footsteps that were getting eerily heavier and heavier than he knew his shoes were capable of. Every now and again, when he believed that the echoes were drawing closer and closer he would turn around, but every time he turned around he was greeted only by darkness, a darkness that was undisputed and definitely not being invaded by some foreign entity stalking him. After a while however, the echoes disappeared and once again silence set in, a silence that was making him sleepier and sleepier. After he decided he had been walking for long enough, he pondered wether or not to keep going until he found some answers or stop and set up camp for the night. After several minutes of intense musing he decided against the first option and somewhere in the darkness, laid his head down to sleep. The last things he witnessed that day were the sunken yellow eyes of the trees that surrounded him, the sadness off their faces sinking into his own as his eyes sunk into a deep, but this time, undisrupted sleep.

****

 

When Tyler awoke, after what he sensed to be an extremely refreshing sleep, uninterrupted by the burden of dreams, or nightmares as you will, it was still dark out. However, the weather had changed from that of yesterdays as the darkness was now interrupted by the essence of pure white fog clouding around the tree lines on either side of the path. Furthermore, with the fog, came the cold, and although Tyler was wearing a rather warming jacket, it was not enough to completely protect him for its chill. Before rising to his feet he stretched out his body, extended both his arms and legs to their designated sides. After he had stretched he rolled over from his back to his front and repeated the previous stretches until he felt completely at ease with the tension in his joints. He then arose again stretching, but this time standing on his tippy toes and extending his neck and arms as if he were reaching for some distant object high up in the sky. He now stood still, normally without the need of anymore stretching, however he did rub his eyes and scrape his hands along his face as if to try and wake himself up further. Once he had done so, he noticed that his eyes had adjusted even better to the darkness than they were yesterday, and the scope of his vision, however still blurry, was increased by a substantial amount. He could see the trees on either side of the road and their sunken solemn faces, eyes etched deep into the grain, staring down at the ground as sadness swept over them like a gush of wind would have done in Tyler’s world. He could see the path further ahead then before, although it held no secrets or surprises of any great significance, and unlike yesterday he could also see further behind him. The road he had already travelled, his footsteps. Yet to his initial horror, a second set of footprints accompanied his own. They were close enough to be his shadows if it wasn’t dark out and a shadow could wear shoes.

He knew it, knew that he sensed someone following him yesterday. That in mind however, the footsteps appeared to be far to small to be a human, not even big enough to fit a human child. He walked over to inspect the footprints closer and noticed nothing special about them accept for the fact that were merely flat, with no indents or grooves like one would expect to see in a shoeprint. This led Tyler to believe that his follower was in fact walking barefoot. Although most people would have been scared at the assumption that someone was following them, the fear that had continually overpowered Tyler yesterday was fleeting at best, as if he had become immune to its power like one will become immune to a disease by injecting him or herself with the tiniest amount of it.

The footprints bore no special significance and could not help Tyler answer any of his questions, and so he decided to leave it and continue down his path. And if the footprints were to appear again, well then he would investigate it more thoroughly the second time around.

He seemed to have forgotten all of yesterdays feelings and a strength rose within that left him not feeling entirely like himself. To be frankly honest, he did not feel like himself at all. This may be because out here in the foreign, but magical land, his mind wasn’t solely centred on profit margins, economical growth and self sabotage (aka his ex - family and friends) but instead was concentrated upon the reasons why and how he was here, and what lay at the end of this ever darkening path. Unlike in real life it seemed, instead of the black and white spectrum he lived in, the woods he walked through now were the colour grey. The colour in which he had abandoned so long ago, leaving said friends and family to fester amongst its darkness. Nothing grew in and amongst the woods, but on the contrary it diminished much like his relationships. The woods, much like himself, appeared broken, as if they were missing the vital ingredient to make them both whole again. And this comparison that festered inside Tyler’s head, playing on his mind, haunted him as he continued walking down into the depths of darkness, towards the centre of the woods.

As he continued walking however, he found that the rejuvenation process of last nights sleep had left him refreshed for not even an hour, and the constant travelling was beginning to catch up to him as he began to feel tired and weak. As a result he developed a stammer in his stride and found himself leaning his hand on the very same trees that had frightened him half to death only yesterday, for support. It came to his attention, that he hadn’t had a single drop of water to drink or food to eat since he had entered this strange but magical place. Although it had only been a day, who knows how time worked here. Maybe it had been a week, maybe it had been two. Turn off the light its all the same darkness, and all this place was similarly was darkness. The darkness withheld information such as time or day from Tyler, and apparently the woods withheld a healthy supply of food and water from him also. However weak he was, he couldn’t just stop and rest after only an hour of walking so against his own will, and the will of the woods, he managed to keep upright with the support of the trees and travel on. With each step the stammer grew slightly bigger and more noticeable but it didn’t stop him. He had a goal in mind and if their was one thing Tyler was good at, it was keeping to goals. Wether it be set targets at work, or a set amount of drinks he wished to devour at a bar, he would never fail himself, and if that meant walking for another several hours before stopping, then he would not fail here either.

The next couple of hours were slow at best, and the path seemed to go on forever without a definitive end in sight. There was little in the way of occurrences of interest in the several hours he remained walking. No sudden bouts of whispering coming out at him from behind and within the trees, no echoes of footprints tailing his every move and definitely no extraordinary lights floating out at him from the darkness, scaring him out of his wits. In laments terms, the walk so far that day had been fairly boring and tedious. And this remained the case for the next couple of days until he had spent exactly a week within the depths of the woods without any food or water, and never seeming to move anywhere but in circles amongst the midst of darkness. This was however, until, Tyler finally received the answers to one or two of his questions. The very same questions that had been the only thing keeping him going, his substitute for food and water if you will.

****

 

It happened on the seventh day, after he was shaken awake by the first gush of wind the woods had seen since he had been there. He was lying in the darkness like he had been doing for the past seven days in a routinely manner, making sure he had just enough energy for the day ahead. His clothes now tattered and torn, his shoes wearing with every day that passed and his hair and body odour nowhere near the levels of perfection he had so prided himself on back at Gambit and Matthews. It was then, as the gush of wind surpassed Tyler’s body waking him up abruptly from his sleep, that Tyler would finally receive answers to some of his most prominent questions.

He sat upright, dazed by the gush of wind which also left him hugging himself for warmth, and stared about, wondering why all of a sudden the wind could reach its hand all the way down into the depths of the woods and shake his body into a state of awareness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[Casper Cross]

Great opening paragraph grabs the reader right away and pulls them right into the story. Creates the mood and the setting for the story right off the bat...

Great writing, great story... enjoyed it.