The first thing you notice is the muffled sounds of the forest. Wind whistling through long, slender trees, shaking even more coloured leaves onto the floor beneath you. You laid there for a while, contemplating. How did you end up here? How did you wake up in this area, a place you’ve never seen before?

Beneath the normal sounds of the wilderness around you, there’s other noises, too. The distinct sound of metal clanging, and another more human-like whistle. It sounds like it’s human, but something about the noise has you questioning the truth. It sounds otherworldly, something that you can’t quite place yet you’re aware there’s something unsettling about it.

Your boots press into the ground when you stand up, sliding around in the slightly damp mud. The cold Autumn air has ensured that the floor isn’t safe to walk on, especially not with the freshly biting essence of ice coating the crunching leaves. You decide you have to walk anyway. How else are you meant to get out?

You felt like you weren’t even sure you wanted to get out. Something about the forest was unsettling, creating a burning pit of anxiety in your tummy yet almost feeling at home. It was like the feeling of being inside your home at night with all of the doors unlocked. The cold nips at your arms, bare apart from a t-shirt. You haven't exactly been planning on going out tonight. What had you been doing, before you woke up here? You couldn’t remember, even upon scratching your temples and closing your eyes, really trying to get just a slight memory of what you’d been up to.

Your foot slips but you manage to catch your ground. You begin to walk, unsure of where exactly you were going, only knowing that you needed to find something. If you were only looking for the source of that jarring whistle, then so be it. It had to be something. There had to be another presence between these trees, be it human or uncanny. It feels like it’s been hours since you awoke on the leaves, and you turn back, looking at the bed of moss that you’d arisen upon. It’s almost arranged to be like a den of sorts, comfortable perhaps for someone a lot smaller than you.

It’s only been minutes. You check your watch, only to find that the time hasn’t changed since 4pm today. It’s dark outside. There’s no way in hell that it’s still 4pm, perhaps closer to midnight - maybe even later, but you walk anyway. You walk and walk, ignoring the way your arms have turned a weird shade due to the cold of the air. It’s too cold.

Eventually, you think you may have found something. The forest forks into three separate routes, one straight ahead of you and one either side. The route ahead of you looks to lead to a more flourishing bank of land, bright crimson and ivory mushrooms alluring you into their domain. Daisies and other fauna lead up the way, dewy with fresh water and well taken care of. The route to your left is haggard, leaves hanging off of trees and branches bending like long, winding fingers against the dark night sky. To your right, you’re alarmed to see the presence of random strips of metal adorning the ground, some with dents and some pristine.

Do you…

Keep going ahead?

Turn to your left?