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 Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2024 7:08 pm
Quote: Path to Nowhere (14) : There are many parks in Destiny City, and if you’re willing to venture to the outskirts of the city you can find an incredibly vast forest system. It’s unlikely that anyone has explored every inch of the forest, but it’s still odd when a strange path into the forest suddenly appears in an area that you thought you knew pretty well. Where there was once just a wall of trees, now there is a faded wooden board with an old fashioned, thatched roof with a thick layer of moss. Pinned to the board, behind broken glass, is yellowed paper. The portrait of a woman wearing vintage clothes watches you with an eerie smile. A map used to be here; you can see where the corners are pinned, but someone has torn it out. A few dried flowers are pinned to the board. Someone has pinned a message that says ‘DO NOT ENTER’ and ‘DANGER’. The path is eerie but doesn’t appear dangerous otherwise. Dark shadows fill the space between the trees, and sometimes you can make out mushroom covered logs in the distance. Many flowers grow but they all appear half wilted or dying. The path winds on for what feels like forever once you are on it. If you’re lucky you can turn around and find your way out, but once you start walking, the path seems like it forever winds. You can walk until you collapse, or until you fall asleep. If you make it into the heart of the forest, you will find a giant tree with branches so heavy that they droop towards the ground, and a strange, bright-eyed owl that watches you from the branches. It’s too dark to see beyond that; regardless of the time of day it was when you entered, it always appears to be nighttime here. A slow breeze disrupts a sea of half-dead dandelions, and suddenly white wisps swirl around you and your vision fades. Whether you exhausted yourself trying to get out, or if you made it to the heart of the forest, you cannot escape the wave of sleep that falls upon you. When you wake up, you’ll be in your bed but you won’t remember how you got there. You can find the path again, if luck wills it, but all trips end up the same.
Standing and stretching, her toes and claws extending as her back arched, she frowned and padded up onto Malcolm’s chest. “Hey…hey wake up.”
Using her front paw, she gently batted at the male’s nose, her mind starting to move a mile a minute as she took in the fact that they were home…and not…walking. They were…they had been out. Had gone out last night…had something happened? Had she forgotten going home? Had she been hurt?
The more her mind twisted and turned, the worse she felt, and as she hopped off of Malcolm’s chest, she began to pace slightly. “How…did we get back here? We were…we were…walking? Weren't we walking?”
He might not be fully awake yet, but she was…and the awful feeling of missing something was beginning to make the Mauvian panic.
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Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2024 2:30 pm
Malcolm was half curled on the bed, sunken in a mountain of pillows. He wasn’t tucked in like usual, nor did he awaken hugging a pillow or hiding beneath one. His nose wrinkled and he squinted at Julienne pawing him. She was heavy on his chest but not unbearable. She moved before it could get uncomfortable.
“Julienne? …Why are you pacing?” he yawned, slowly pushing himself upright. He rubbed his face vigorously with both hands. “We were walking, yeah…?”
He was still groggy. He’d been pulling all nighters to meet a deadline and–oh, wait. What? Was that the time?
Malcolm lurched to pick up his phone and stared with horror and confusion. “...Wait, when did we go to sleep? I thought we were just getting some fresh air. Like, a break. I wasn’t supposed to go to bed.”
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Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2024 3:20 pm
“Okay, so you didn’t bring us home…I…was afraid that something had happened to me and I blacked out or something but…”
If Malcolm didn’t remember either that…well. Honestly? She didn’t know what it meant. “You’re not hurt, are you? I haven’t found anything wrong with myself which is a good thing…do you think…”
Julienne shook her head, trying to figure out if she could figure this out, and honestly…she was flustered and confused. A little perturbed. “We had been out, walking through one of the parks, and I have no memory of us coming back home…but. We’re here now…” Saying it out loud like that made it…
Well. Made it seem more real and far more concerning.
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Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2024 4:57 pm
Malcolm looked at the clock again, and then fiddled with his phone as if he thought he could somehow magically discover that this was just some elaborate prank Julienne was playing on him.
She looked too worried for it to be a joke, though.
“I’m not hurt,” he said, but set his phone down to give himself a quick pat over. “I remember the park,” he said after a few seconds. “I remember that we were talking about going to the book store. I remember you were telling me to stop staring at my computer screen. But you know I have to so I can write. I remember–well, didn’t we walk somewhere we don’t usually go? I remember a weird path. We were talking about–did we go down it? I don’t remember if we did that or if we came home…”
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Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2024 12:34 pm
“I’m always telling you to take a break from your computer…” Julienne sighed and wrinkled her nose, before she put up her back left leg and aggressively licked at the fur between her toes. This wasn’t…this wasn’t something she could just figure out. But…he was right. They did take a walk…and it was…there was…something.
“I don’t remember coming home. I don’t remember walking home or…” She looked at him, foot still in the air. “There was a sign that told us not to go down the path we did. But we did anyway. How did we get home?”
Her voice trailed off and she looked alarmed after a moment. “Do you think there has been a gas leak? Carbon monoxide? Do you think we both hallucinated going outside?”
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Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2024 1:03 pm
“Ah–no,” Malcolm said, but he sounded less convinced than he’d meant. With more certainty, he shook his head and continued, “No, I doubt we had a shared hallucination. I do remember the sign. I don’t remember why we went down the path, though.”
Malcolm was usually good and law-abiding, he didn’t go looking for trouble.
He very rarely went into any unmarked path. Sometimes he strayed just a bit but it was when he found compelling inspiration for something he was writing, but–
Brief flashes of a strange path flashed before his eyes. He wasn’t sure if it was a memory or his imagination so he stared blankly at the wall for a few seconds and then shook his head.
“I’m sure it’s nothing, Julienne…maybe we just got really tired? We were out really late. Or maybe there was something in the snacks we got? I distinctly remember getting that sticky bun at the food stall.”
That made more sense than a shared dream, right?
And anyway, his feet were too sore for it to have been a dream. He'd definitely been out walking.
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Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2024 2:11 pm
She remembered the sticky bun too…it had been quite tasty but…”I…don’t like it. I don’t like any of it but. We’re both in one piece…so I guess this will just be one of those times where we don’t figure things out…”
Julienne didn’t like the thought. She didn’t like the thought at all but. “Perhaps…we just won’t…go down paths that we don’t understand…or…well.
She sighed and lowered her leg, resting her head on her front paws and trying to figure it out. “...I’m glad that…with whatever happened, we both made it home and we’re both all right…maybe. Maybe you should just work on your book tonight, and if we decide to go out, we’ll just…sit in the back yard tonight?”
It would be safer, she was sure. And if they could keep their mind and memories…? Well…Eh.
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Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2024 3:15 pm
Malcolm nodded and though his face relaxed it was clear that he was still trying to pick up the missing pieces of his memory. “Well–let’s not limit ourselves from going down every path,” he insisted, flopping back against the pillows. “...I’m fine with staying in tonight. I have a lot of work to make up for. I can’t even tell if I feel refreshed or not.”
He felt like he’d slept too little or too much. He felt–
His stomach growled and he placed a hand over it. Groaning, he rolled onto his side. “I have to get up. I’ll make us something to eat. We don’t even have to go out to pick something up. I think staying at home sounds like a really good idea. But you can’t scold me for being on the computer, I have to be or I can’t work.”
He wasn’t happy that he’d been forced into a break but he couldn’t deny that his back and his eyes already felt better.
Maybe after some food--or coffee--they could figure out whatever had happened last night.
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Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2024 3:39 pm
Julienne nodded and gave a soft laugh, hopping off of the bed and stretching once again. “It’s my job to help you get a break, and my job to tell you to take a break, but I will let you know…I’ve been working on some things to hopefully make your work easier on you…I just have to finish them up, but expect them soon!”
She looked up at Malcolm and felt at peace. Even if something bad had happened…they were both fine, and they could figure out how not to let it happen again. Easy peasy.
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