The City of Eternal Light

Naraiah had been walking for quite some time, she thought to herself. She vaguely remembered passing that distinctly large patch of moss about 5 minutes ago, but she was surrounded by patches of moss of all sizes, so it was really anyone's guess. She sighed, letting out a small cloud of steam that gently made its way through the crisp October air. She had just moved to Gresham this past summer, and she has been revelling in the beautiful scenery. Her favorite place to hike as of late has been the rainy daydreamers paradise they call Oxbow Park. Before this, she had spent her whole adolescent life nestled in a small suburb in the midwest. Her life began flashing before her eyes slowly, but although slow moving, the emotion was coming at her like a tsunami. She closed her eyes tight and shook her head. She balled up her fists and finally rid herself of her past again. It had a tendency to creep up on the most in opportune moments. But that was then, this year things were different. Naraiah made sure of it.

She continued her hike for just a few more seconds before she realized she had strayed off the path during her brief, un-consented stint with her past life. "Shit. I don't have time for this!" she yelled, as if anyone was around her to listen to her problems. She looked around, she noticed the sun had started setting. She groaned as she tried to notice anything that stood out as trail markings, or recently walked on. The closest thing she found was a recently cleared path, if you can call it that, of mud. Someone had taken the time to remove a small section of the fallen leaves , but why? She reasoned with herself about how strange and sketchy that path seemed. But shortly convinced herself it might be her best shot. She ventured towards the mud, reluctantly of course, all while thinking about how much she isn't looking forward to having to clean herself up when she gets home.

What seemed about an hour, but was only 5 minutes according to her watch, had passed. "I've gotta change the batteries in this thing" she thought as she tapped on its' face. She had stopped to pee, but was too scared of someone noticing to be able to actually go, so she gave up. As she started walking back to the "path" she noticed something. She couldn't quite make out what it was but it was giving off light, and she knew from her dad's tyrrany of "what if" coaching, that light was almost always a good sign. She decided to head towards it, noticing as she got closer that it seemed to be changing its shade. The closer she ventured towards it, the more it seemed to change from yellow to green. Not like your typical green, or forest green, not even olive green, but an eerie green. Eerie like space ships and space men, or creature from the lake eerie.

She paused her walking for a second, a shudder creating goosebumps all down her body, and she began thinking. "Well I've come too far to turn around now..but what if its some psycho in the woods?" She checked her phone, and instantly felt stupid. She knew she doesn't get service out here, why would wherever this is, be any different? She contemplated turning around and facing the darkness of the woods behind her, but she knew there were bears among other animals out here and she wasn't sure she wanted to tussle with anything tonight. She decided to continue onward towards that creepy light, and as she started walking she said a little prayer. She wasn't a religious person, way more spiritual if you asked her. But tonight, she didn't want to take any chances, she felt like she needed all the help she could get.

She had been walking for an actual hour now, and was getting rather annoyed at how long this lights beacon is and how misleading it was. She felt duped and she was pissed about it. "Not only did I get lost, I have to trek through the mud, with no phone, dirty shoes, and for who knows how long because this light never ends!" she screamed as if the light could hear her. "Screw you light, I thought you were a good omen or something, but now I see you're just a troll! Well I am nobody to be messed with!" she yelled once more, and then began to sob. She moved all the way out here with this pipe dream and a life to escape, and what she got was wet shoes and a cold mossy bed. She sat down and continued crying for a few more moments before her senses kicked in and told her to shut the hell up. She was too exhausted to continue anymore, after hiking somewhere between 8 and 10 miles today and then being emotionally hit by a semi-truck. Although she had no physical marks, she felt battered and bruised. She decided to lay down and try to rest. Not for long, just enough to continue on towards the light. "Yeah, not long. Just enough time for a power nap" she thought to herself, as she drifted off, her head resting on a wet log beside her.

When she awoke, she shivered and rubbed her hands together breathing into them with her hot breath. She rubbed her bleary eyes and immediately startled herself up to standing. She had forgotten she had fallen asleep in the woods, "Shit, I hoped it was my dream" she mumbled to herself. She realized it was also morning, she had slept way longer than she wanted. How had she stayed warm? She brushed the thought off. She whipped around in a loose circle looking for that stupid light, but was met by nothing other than the morning sky and the woods around her. She looked down at her feet and noticed there was also no "trail" to be found. She started to panic. "I know I'm not crazy. I know what I saw." she had a flashback of her mom, who had been admitted to a hospice center last year for an early onset of extreme schizophrenia. She shook the thought away and reasoned with herself once more. She looked around a little further this time but was still not finding the trail she saw last night. No leaves looked out of place, no mud patches peaking out either. "WHAT THE HELL?!" she screamed. This time she didn't hold back. She let all of that held in emotion from last night out. She screamed random obscenities, whatever felt good at the moment, for a little longer before she heard something that made her stop. She listened, and cursed every sound that happens in the woods during the day. "Stupid squirrels" she thought. She moved a few feet to her left and tried again, "Hello? Is anyone there?" she yelled. No one answered, and a look of dismay washed over her face until she heard leaves rustling.

They seemed about a campsite away but it was a large rustling. Human or bigger at least, she thought. She yelled again, "Buddy if you're out there trying to kidnap me or prank me, I WILL kick your ass!" and this time she heard someone. Faint and hard to make out, she thinks she heard someone yell "Help!". She ran towards it yelling the whole way "Hello, can you call out again? Marco? Hellllooooo? Do you need help?!" She didn't get a response until the last call. But she heard it again this time too, a little clearer this time, "Help us." She ran as fast as she could, but couldn't yell anymore. She was exerting too much energy to yell, she hadn't run this hard in years. She was a decently healthy woman, she was never upset about her weight, and never felt the need to run if she didn't enjoy it. Which, she didn't. Typically for exercise she preferred to be outdoors, hiking or biking, kayaking or swimming, it didn't really matter as long as it was outdoors and wasn't running.

Naraiah had past a handful of large moss patches, and a few towering trees before she had to stop. She was out of breath and her lungs were burning so friggin bad she couldn't take it. She placed one hand on the closest tree to her, to anchor herself while she kept breathing like a fish out of water. She closed her eyes and remembered her breath trainings and focused on slowing down. When she was finally able to breathe again she opened her eyes and remembered she heard a voice. She let out a croak of a word, "hello?". That was no use, she was going to have to find them on foot. She looked around and noticed she was standing on the park path again. "How the fuck?" she thought. Something here wasn't right. Disappearing paths, creepy friggin green lights, random phantom voices? I think I may need to go see my mom and ask her some questions, Naraiah thought as she began walking towards the park entrance.

When she got home, at the end of her driveway in her white Jetta, she realized she barely remembered her drive. She had been too lost in thoughts of her mom, the park last night, and what this all means for her. She wanted to give her mom a call, when she remembered "Oh my god, my phone!" She scrambled around trying to find it, only to see that it was still zipped in the pocket of her Columbia coat. It had died last night, so she plugged it into the 12v and waited for the power-on screen. She sighed, leaned her seat back a little, closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, perplexed. "I just dont understand" she said to the imaginary passengers. "This is way more than just a crazy dream or phase." Her face showed an easily recognizable sense of overall confusion.

Once her phone was ready, it began chiming incessantly. She almost regretted turning it on. It pinged so much she wasn't able to call until they stopped. She had missed calls from her job asking her to pick up a shift. Lord knows she could've use the money. She missed 5 calls from her mom, which she thought was odd, but the next voicemail was a guy with a raspy voice she didn't recognize. He only spoke 3 words, "Naraiah, find me." She dropped her phone. It fell to the floorboard, still speaking "If you would like to delete.." She tried to calm herself. "Anyone can yellow page my number, don't stress" she told herself. She repeated herself and finally mustered the courage to pick up the phone and call her mom.

It rang twice, and her mom's sweet voice picked up. "Oh baby I've been waiting for you to call. How are you? I had a strange feeling. Are you in trouble? Please say you're okay." Naraiah swallowed, paused and then said "Mom, I'm okay. I want to come visit today, are you free? Or did you get stuck doing bingo clean up again?" Her mother chuckled, and said "Oh, you know you can visit any time, no asking necessary. But I know when something's wrong, Naraiah. If you don't tell me now, you WILL tell me later." Naraiah agreed, and smirked to herself. She had always had a good relationship with her mother, but her grip with reality shook things up. Now, Naraiah questioned everything about her mother, and herself too.