Five Days in Limbo

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The ground on which the cabin laid was eroded, left with piles of wet ash from which a mystique of misery arose. A flashing white light from the surrounding trees that wore themselves a coat of dense smog drew my attention to those fast-moving unknown creatures running across the woods like winds.

"I can feel the cold creeping up to my neck."

(Some moment earlier)

I, with my family, was returning to our cabin in a van after spending the whole day hanging around on top of a cliff. It was around midnight when we were traveling through the woods on a beaten road on which scattered rocks, dust, and twigs. That night was comfortably cold filled with mild winds that ran through seemingly endless rows of trees lit by the bright sapphire round moon. A deer catching me off guard while suddenly appearing from a bush jump scared me a little, but I turned to my young sister and laughed, and we were all ready for a full night's rest.

• Day 1 - The rise of an unimaginable nightmare

I'd been on my dad's van longer than usual and hadn't heard them speak a word, but I was quickly distracted by an abnormal change of the sky color, as though it was gradually covered by patches of thin, dark clouds with visible blood-red rays that ran through them. As we got deeper into the woods towards the direction where our cabin was, I could see the sky become more and more shadowy, and by the time I saw the wooden sign that indicated that our cabin was nearby, the moon was completely covered by those dark clouds. I was pretty nervous for no direct cause, but seeing the cabin ahead relieved me to some extent.

The path to our cabin was separated by a small river that ran along the road we used to get home, so my dad built a small wooden bridge to make it easier to cross the river. My young sister and I excitedly got off the van and ran toward the cabin, but I stopped suddenly after crossing the bridge just to realize that my parents hadn't gotten out of the van. I tried to squint in the dense fog and saw them sitting completely still: my dad with two hands on the steering wheels and both of them just looking nowhere into the darkness of the woods. I stood there for a while, but seeing my sister running around to the back of the cabin forced me to follow her. I ran and shouted, "Emily, stop!" but she kept and kept running until completely disappeared into the fog behind the cabin. By now the moon bore no more light, so I cautiously took out a hand lamp from my backpack and slowly followed her footprints. When I was there where my sister disappeared, much to my astonishment, she was nowhere to be found. I pointed the hand lamp in random directions but didn't notice the ground I stepped on that was already eroded as if it was burned. Suddenly, someone's back appeared behind the fog which became visible by a mysterious light that was dispersed around the cabin. I immediately recognized that was my sister by her familiar T-shirt and her small body. I tried to reach her, but...

• Day 2 - A Cry in The Wild

Upon seeing my sister, or at least someone with the same T-shirt and small body, I somehow felt a bit relieved and began to walk towards her, saying in a trembling voice, "Emily, is that you?!" while trying to keep a short distance from her, but she started walking away from me. I walked a bit faster and called her name out louder and quicker, but instead of responding, she began walking as fast as my current speed. I tried to run to keep up with her, but an invisible force inside me kept me from getting closer to her. She started outrunning me in a very specific direction through a labyrinth of trees and bushes. My eyes staying focused on her and the place where she was heading got me tripped over something. I could see the debris of traps and ropes scattered on the ground. But I got up and continued following my sister I could barely see until I got to follow her footprints instead.

My feet started to go numb, and when they couldn't hold my body anymore, I noticed another wooden sign pointing in a direction, saying, "OUR HOME". I was convinced to follow it because my sister's footprints stopped where the wooden sign was. I had to cross through even thicker trees and bushes, with their twigs as sharp as a knife that got some scratches on my arms and feet, until a giant glade became visible before my eyes. From a distance, I could see my sister stand still and look at a big old tree. I walked slowly toward her and called out her name until she suddenly turned her head to look at me... with dark eyes.

"Emily...are you...ok?" I said while trying to smile to make her feel that everything was fine.

"I don't care whatever you do, but GET AWAY FROM ME," Emily yelled

"What are you talking about, Emily? It's me, your brother. Let... Let's get home! Our parents are waiting for us. They...they will be angry if they know you're running away like this-"

Emily took steps back slowly. Her face became aware of something and as though about to cry.

"YOU ARE NOT MY BROTHER!" Emily screamed, "MY BROTHER WILL NEVER LEAVE HIS FAMILY IN DANGER, but you, YOU, YOU LET US BE EATEN TO THE EVERY INNOCENT SOUL OF I AND MY PARENTS."

She kneeled with both hands covering her face. My eyes became widen as though about to realize something.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!!" she cried out loud with her head turning to look directly at my eyes as I got closer to her, "THIS IS MY CHANCE TO MEET MY PARENTS AND MY TRUE BROTHER, SO DONT GET IN MY WAY, please..."

I was hopeless when looking at her desperate eyes filled with hostility. I took steps back away from her because I could sense that she would just scream louder and louder if I was to open my mouth and say a word or try to get closer to her. Whenever she screamed, I noticed several cracks on her facial skin widening from her eyes, where dwelled a dark and blank substance. My doubt grew that it was not my real sister, so I left her... the way I left my family that day...

• Day 3 - A wandering soul of a little girl

I ran like the wind back to where my parents were, for I held a sole hope: to meet them and talk to them, despite all the tree thorns and metal debris on the ground that stabbed deep into my flesh. The mystery white light became darker, and a chillingly erratic weep of some sort of creatures kept reverberating right beside my ears so close yet so far. I ran nonstop with my heart beating like crazy and my eyes seemingly burned due to the increasingly dense smog until another glade came visible in front of my eyes. The ground here was also eroded like the one behind my dad's cabin and filled with hot wet ash. I planned to just go around this place until a statue, like a petrified human, appeared behind a big tree. The statue was as tall as my sister, its face was frightened, looking toward the direction where I left the cabin, and its hands were holding a glowing hand lamp that was about to be dropped. Its body was smooth and excessively skinny as though mutilated and left with only bones. I stood there terrified with my eyes that were forced to look at those of the statue. I suddenly remembered what my sister, or at least someone in her body, had said to me...

As I looked away from the statue and decided to continue running, I heard the sound of someone stepping on mud. Becoming fully aware that an invisible soul was touching my back while being anxious that no one was here at this time but myself, I quickly turned my head to the statue again. Now that 'erratic weep' stopped, but its echo kept going to the endless darkness, and a piercing gale pushed through the glade that blew up piles and piles of dry leaves that left surrounding trees withered and barren. I almost fell but was able to balance my body, and I once again heard that same stepping sound, though this time it sounded like mud and dry leaves being trampled together. "Who was there?" I asked in a panic while looking around, but that sound kept getting closer next to my ears, and, at that very moment, I knew something was going on with that petrified creature. Its emotion changed, its feet took small steps toward me, and its body was gradually cracked open. I turned to look at it, and it was still again. Although I knew that I would be fine if I kept staring at it, my legs shook uncontrollably, and my shirt got damp because of the sweat. I began to take steps back towards the direction of the cabin, but deciding that I got enough of this made me want to just run, so I did. I ran like I never did before, and when I bravely looked back, the white light that surrounded the glade disappeared at once and filled the area with darkness. The statue gained its body motion filled with a dreadful aura, and its eyes were glowing white before the dense smog blocked my sight of it. I knew it was looking and chasing me through that familiar stepping sound, but not looking ahead got my head hit by something, and I slowly faint away...

• Day 4 - When All Left is Memories

When I finally opened my eyes, touching my head where it was hit to remember what just happened, a clear path appeared in front of me. Its surrounding was pure darkness, but the path was lit up by some sort of light. I was feeling relieved since there was no more horrifying weeping from unknown creatures and no more dense smog that made the scene less foreboding. I walked ahead for a while confusedly while trying to figure out which way to go when a couple whose bodies were just as dark as my sister came from nowhere looking into the infinite darkness. "Mom! Dad!" I shouted for joy and ran toward them because they looked like my parents, despite knowing that they were just some sort of creatures my brain couldn't comprehend.

"Oh son, what are you doing here?" my dad turned around and looked directly at me with widened eyes and a spooky grin.

"Oh, what a coincidence!" my mom said then turned her head somewhere while waving to someone in the darkness, "Come here, my son! Meet your brother. He used to be our good son before we had you."

A young man as tall as me came from nowhere and began to whisper something to "his parents" while looking at me.

"But, I thought-" I mumbled but then spoke loudly, "I thought we are going home together. We... we have many fun things to do tomorrow."

"Don't you see, son?" My dad said, "We replaced you with this little precious boy."

"He can cook, do housework," my mom added, " and even take good care of his family."

A feeling of being abandoned and anger grew uncontrollably inside me. I started to shed tears with my eyes feeling burned from it. I kneeled with my hands covering my face when tears flew down to my neck and my chest.

"YOU BOTH ARE BEING CONTROLLED BY THAT EVIL CREATURE!" I scowled at them while pointing at that boy, "I am your real son. That monster is just trying to look pitiful before your eyes. Let's just-"

"How dare you call my son a monster!" my mom spoke up feeling insulted

My dad laughed scornfully at me, saying "It looked like you don't understand the situation you are in, my... SON? This is the reason why we left you. Watch out for the monster inside you that will eat up the core values of our souls and leave us alone. We are all set, ok, my savage little devil?

As my dad said this, the ground began to shake violently, and a gale blew up dust and dry leaves that surrounded the area I was standing. Their faces got distorted, two sides of their mouths stretched to their eyes, and three of them were swallowed by invading darkness. The white light started flashing before my eyes at once and left me with complete darkness. The dense smog returned, the erratic weeping resounded in the place, and the gale stopped blowing that caused leaves to pour down like rain. I stood there crying, feeling sad and scared just like when I lost my parents every time we camped in the woods. At that very moment, I could see the petrified creature chasing me far away behind my back.

• Day 5 - "Our Home, not Your Home"

I ran like a wind through the woods that I started to outrun that creature. I, however, was lost and uncoordinated while following a path that was left with no fog and built with classic bricks. This area was surrounded by barren trees and 'guarded' by a strange moon. It was actually a giant closed red eye, and the longer I stared at it, the wider it would open, gradually. I was startled and promised myself to never look at it again. I took a little notebook that I always kept in my bag and wrote unusual things I had seen.

"Day 1 Day I've seen a red giant eye in the sky. It was red and scary. (Never look at it again)"

The path started to curve next to which was a river but of blood-like liquids. Across the river was a cabin that appeared to be abandoned for years. As I went around the river and headed toward the cabin, I saw a candle burned in the window through the dense smog that surrounded it. The ground on which the cabin laid was eroded, left with piles of wet ash from which a mystique of misery arose. A flashing white light from the surrounding trees drew my attention to those fast-moving unknown creatures running randomly across the woods like winds that urged me to go into that cabin. The cabin's walls were macabre with dust and cobwebs in the corner. The floor at the front door was rotting wood on which I saw several flower pots with withered carnations and roses (I recognized this because my mom used to have a little garden with all kinds of flowers she could find). As I got closer to the door, there was a weird low-pitched growl, but I ignored it and tried to ring an iron bell nearby to see if someone would open the door.

"One, two, three,..." I mumbled embracing myself, "I can feel the cold creeping up to my neck."

"Someone's in there!?" I asked loudly, "I'm lost and happy to stay here for just one night."

I spoke the same thing again several times, and still, nothing happened but the cold wind and the growl and the red light from the giant eye that painted the area scarlet.

I tried to reach for the door lock and found that it was open. I took out my hand lamp and went inside. The inside was somehow much colder, and on the floor were remains of dead rats and tiny spiders and furniture that littered disorderedly across the room. Cobwebs everywhere in the wall corner, the smell of rotten woods and spoiled food, and the creaking sound of something walking became too much for me to bear. At the end of the room that was cut by a big wall that led to somewhere, a crimson light flickered that made clear a shadow of someone's head. I felt helpless before this unwelcoming place, but getting outside would get me caught again by those scary creatures, so I made my curiosity an excuse to move on. I followed the hallway next to the big wall that led to another room. The room was familiar to me: a small bed in the corner where I lied down and listened to my mom's night stories before every sleep, a small desk that my dad made for me, and a drawer closet where I would put everything my sister and I found interesting. Everything in here surprised me because of how neat it was. I reached for the closet and found an agate gemstone, some interestingly shaped small rocks, letters my sister left if she left her home early in the morning, and a necklace that I secretly made for my mom. I look at these things passionately filled with sadness and grief, but the crimson light got brighter and more consistent which got my attention to the growl I heard earlier. The light came from the ceiling where hanged, I would say, an upside-down human-like creature. It had long limbs and was faceless but had a giant glowing crimson eye that, like the strange moon I saw, opened gradually as I looked at it. I got frightened more than ever before but tried to keep staring at that eye to see what happened. The creature growled even louder and the rope that tied its feet loosened. I started to sense danger and headed toward the door and planned to get out of this place.

I went to the back of the cabin and ran into the woods when I saw that monster's eye turned into a mouth with hundreds of teeth sharper and a knife. It chased me through another glade then another glade where stood a strange group of petrified humans. Surrounding me behind dense bushes and trees were wandering souls with glowing white eyes and dark bodies ridiculing me with a spooky grin, saying "He can't even save his family! What a shame!" They laughed and repeated the same thing, but I covered my ears and ran faster and faster until a giant hole on the ground emerged that almost got me fell into that deep dark void. Standing in files besides the hole were other souls that, even though with a similar appearance as the ones I saw, looked depressed. I noticed a white ring that circled their faces and something like a coat that they wore, and, one by one, they jumped into that hole for some reason. I tried to stop them but they just passed through me until the last one of them. I turned to look around at other souls that laughed and stared at me. An overwhelming force inside pushed myself to jump into that hole, and, with the thought that I deserved this death, I got closer to the edge of the hole and at once closed my eyes and freed my body to fall into it. I smiled with the hope to see my family again on the other side.

• "We were here"

I opened my eyes slowly and tiredly feeling my body as though being pressed by a giant stone. I lifted up my head and looked around the room I was in: still, the iron bell beside the window next to my bed, the wooden desk my dad built for me on which cluttered paper and all kinds of rocks and flowers I found, and the drawer closet but with nothing inside it. I stood on my feet and looked out at the window: the sun that just passed the horizon whose light dispersed through the window, a giant old tree that my sister and I sat beside every afternoon from afar, the chirps and whirrs of insects, and the comfortable wind that rushed through fields of grass and flowers every morning. I did so for a while feeling relieved because it was just a nightmare, or was it? I got to my desk and began my normal morning routine by writing notes.

"Hope for the forgiveness..."

I stared at the picture I laid down beside the window of my family I took before they all passed away in an accident. Next to it was a little note, saying, "We were here".

" I smile but wanted to cry. I hold hope for your forgiveness and the day we see each other again. There will be no more curses, mockery, or depression. We will just look at each other and laugh like we did before we left each other. Now is the memory by which I live in you, forever..."