Chapter 9: Where am I?

'Ow.. my head is killing me." I groaned and kept my eyes closed, bringing my hands up to cover my face. A few more moments pass before I push myself up in a sitting position using my elbows while using my mystical powers of self-healing, I will the pounding in my head away.

My powers fail me, yet again.

A cool breeze nips at my skin, causing goosebumps to appear all over my body. 'Just great, Ivy forgot to turn the air conditioner off again.' Sighing, I take a deep breath before pushing myself off the floor and stretching, I let out a loud yawn. That nap was much needed.

"Ivy, get up. We fell asleep in the living room. Again." I called out to Ivy as another wave of goosebumps appeared on my skin. "Vee come on wake up." I turn to face my best friend and freeze. My brain finally caught on to my surroundings.

I was not home. I was, most certainly not in my house anymore.

Trees. In every direction, I turn there are just trees.

'Where am I? How did I get here? Where's Ivy..' With each question, I thought to myself the more panic I felt. This was not normal, it had to be a dream. It had to be.

Closing my eyes, I counted to three then pinched myself. Hard.

Nothing happened. I was still surrounded by trees. This was real. I don't know how but this was real. 'How do I get home...how do I get anywhere else..' Memories from the nightmare I had in school were coming back to me. I needed to get away from here.

Slowly I began making my way in one direction, anything was better than just standing in the middle of a clearing. Maneuvering between the trees was difficult. Each tree was so close to the other and was of different sizes.

----

Hours later and I was still stuck in the midst of trees.

At least it felt like hours. I couldn't be sure of anything anymore. It wasn't daytime but it wasn't night either. No sun. No stars. Just the moon, and the sky, which was eerie and grey.

Leaning against a tree, dread and helplessness washed over me. I didn't know where I was, how I got here, or how to return home.

I was scared. Closing my eyes, I tried to envision Ivy. What would she do right now? She was braver than I was. She was able to think on her feet. She wouldn't give up.

Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes and pushed forward. I wouldn't give up. I will make it out of here. I know it.

----

I'm going to die here. I've been walking forever, nothing has changed. Just trees, trees and you guessed it, more trees. I didn't know what else to do.

Sighing deeply I stared up to the sky, the moon seemed extra radiant. I still could not pinpoint what time of day it was, it was neither day nor night. Just an in-between where the moon dominated the skies.

So beautiful. The moon that is. I've always loved the moon, looking at it brought calmness over me. With another sigh, I broke my gaze with the moon, remembering I'm still trapped in this forest or whatever it is.

I was tired and frustrated, and I wanted nothing more than to fall face-first into my bed and sleep for an eternity. "There's no place like home," I whisper to myself. Leaning my head onto a tree I just keep reciting that one line.

"There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place li….what am I doing?!" I stop my Wizard of Oz chant and yell to no one in particular. I was losing my mind. Pushing away from the tree the world around me started to spin. Stumbling back, I grabbed ahold of the tree I steadied myself.

Giving myself a moment I took in a deep breath before turning around to continue my trek through this forest. I froze.

The trees. The trees were gone. All of them.

How...I didn't understand what was happening. Thousands of trees don't just disappear into thin air. But here I was, now standing in the middle of nowhere, while the trees around me disappeared in an instant.

Fear. Panic. Astonishment. Shock. I should be feeling any of those emotions right now. But I feel nothing. I've woken up in the middle of a forest, walked for miles with no idea of where I was headed and now everything around me has vanished in the blink of an eye and I'm not feeling any of that. What's wrong with me?

'Go home.'

What. I froze. "Who's there?"

'Go home.'

I'm going crazy. I broke from my frozen state, frantically searching for the source of the voice. "Where are you?" There was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

'Go home!'

"Please! Tell me who you are. Where you are." Panic was starting to creep inside me. Why was this happening to me? What do I do? Vigorously I tried looking for whoever the voice belonged. No matter what direction I looked no one, nothing. Just vast emptiness

'Go home!'

"I'm trying! Who are you?!" I screamed at the voice. "I want to leave! Let me leave! Please.." My voice cracked at the end. I didn't know what else to do. I'm scared.

'GO HOME!' The voice screamed from right next to me.

"AHHH!!!"