Dream Forest
The forest from your dreams
The thick smell of evergreen trees surrounds you. You find yourself in a dreamy green forest dense with tall trees. Intermittent lampposts glow a dim orange, seeming to guide the way forth. You look down and find that you are on a dirt path, a small ways away from the forest. As you start forward, the smell of the trees intensifies in a thick wave.
The diffused light from the tall lampposts, surrounded by moths, serves as your only light source. The night sky is lit a dark purple, spilling the darkness over the distant horizon. You follow the winding path through the forest, interspersed with small clearings and lonely benches, but find no end.
You begin to realize that the environment's calming demeanor is no more than an illusion. A vast forest at night is never a safe place, no matter how inviting it may seem; you know that. As the lamp posts slowly go out, one after another, you finally realize something is wrong.
The shadows lurking behind the trees appear to warp and form into living creatures, watching you from the darkness. The path no longer seems to be the safe route for travel it once was - the thick evergreen scent no longer so welcoming. The purple sky now appears crimson in color; the grass, once vibrant and full of life, was now dead and wilted.
The lamp posts suddenly flicker back on with a buzz. The creature-shaped shadows retreat into the now-dissolving darkness. The sky is purple once more; you question whether it had always been. You can now see that the meandering path, newly lit, leads to an old shed in the distance. Without other options, you approach the rundown structure. On its side, you find a door, and open it.
Dream Forest was written by
Wat9032 with critique from
Mystery_Machine12, and
Paldhin1016. The images used inside the article are in order: Untitled - Andrés Medina