I sat up, the damp floor touching my dress. Where am I? I looked up. The sky looked odd. The clouds kept moving fast, like a timelapse. I looked back on the ground. I was in a rainforest.
"I-What is this?" I shouted. Silence followed. I stood up, eyeing the rainforest. I looked at the sky again. It was still sky blue with the quick-paced clouds. I felt a raindrop fall down my cheek. It's not real. I realized. I frowned. No. It has to be real. Where am I if they sky isn't real?
Raindrops pattered the forest. I took a walk, careful of any odd bugs or pointy sticks on the ground. I found a few sticks, but no bugs. I continued to wander, carefully measuring every step. It felt like hours. Yet, I still saw the fake sky. It didn't seem to end. I knew it wasn't real-I was sure of it.
Every twist and turn felt new and unique, like a labrynth. Yet, it was all familiar. The trees were the same, with small but normally unnoticable details changing. It was clearly different, yet always the same. A literal nightmare reoccuring over and over again.
Tears started to claw down my cheeks. Today was my wedding day. It was supposed to be-my white dressed was now coated with mud. Now, I would never get a chance to have that one magical day in the bright skyed summers with Rowan, being able to dance in our perfect clothes and have the most epic kiss of the century.
Suddenly, I saw a figure appear behind me. I screamed in fear, preparing to run before the figure went out to stroke my hair. It calmed me down momentarily, but I was still frightened. "I thought you'd be here eventually." The voice was cool, yet slimy. The being was a shadow. I only saw it on the leaves of shrubs or the tree bark as it moved. Then, it materialized into a young man, no older than 23. He had deep brown eyes and extremely pale skin. He wore only dark clothing.
"And who in the hell are you?" I asked, angrily. I looked up to the sky. It had suddenly turned into a cloudy night. I felt like crying again. "Oh, it doesn't matter." He smiled, but I saw in his teeth that he had a piece of gushing red meat in his teeth. "Call me Dath. My real name is very long and boring." I nodded, still terrified. Suddenly, I heard a couple men calling in the distance. I almost screamed of shock. There were people here. Can they watch me? "Where are we?" I asked Dath.
Dath sighed. "We're in the safest part of this place. We can't escape, if your wondering." I started to breathe heavily, each breath I felt tears banging at my eyes, begging to come out. "Why? H-how did this happen?"
"This is a cage, I believe. A monster lurks here. The men that scream don't know how to control it. They just feed it goats." I nodded, blinking several times. "How did you get here?" He shrugged. "I don't know. No one does. I've seen many people come here-none have escaped, and I'm the only one that manages to stay alive. One second, I'm becoming a master assassin. I can blend into shadows, and my father wants me to be the heir of his empire. But the next second-" He looked away, the pattering rain washing away the tears he had.
"I-I was going to get married. That's why I have this dress." I smiled, thinking of Rowan again. "I first met Rowan-well, uh he actually almost ran into me with his car. We talked, he apologized, and it was true love. We had our ups and downs, but he's the only person in my life I would want to spend every next moment with." Silence grew in the atmosphere, with the rain continuing to fall.
Suddenly, a roar rang in the air. I got up, and so did Dath. "Follow me. He's heading our way." My eyes widened and I ran like hell, following Dath. The sky had turned back into daylight, this time without the clouds. Still, the rain persisted. I heard a few of the men shouting in the distance. I wondered if they would hear me if I shouted back. But I realized that was a mistake, since the monster would hear us. We headed into a thick bush. There, Dath found a stone and moved it aside. In there, was a hole that we could both hide in.
"Can the monster smell us?" I asked after a few moments, allowing my body to calm down and my heart to stop pounding. I had to stop myself each time. I couldn't cry, not if I was to survive. "No. I've only seen it once-it didn't look like it had a nose." I nodded. "How have you only seen it once? How come I never saw it, yet I walked so long?"
"This cage is ginourmous. I can never find the edges. Plus, this is no ordinary monster. You can almost never see it unless it's trying to eat you. It has great camoflage. The people who run the cage would have already killed it by now if it was that easy." Dath sighed. I felt his breath on my shoulder. We were so close. "Y'know, sometimes I feel like the only people that come here are the ones with the most potential ahead of them. From all the stories I hear, we go here at the defining moment of our lives."
"But defining moments are the ones we don't realize are the ones. We only learn later. I only tried acting in high school, but I ended up loving it. I didn't think it was defining at the time, but it was a career. If we only put it on moments that are happy, or that feel defining-then we're only caging the perspective on our lives." I didn't know why I cared so much. I just wanted to talk, even about stupid things.
"Great. The only person I can talk to is a stupidass who wants to argue over stupid things." Dath flared. "Why are you so angry?" I demanded.
"I didn't ask to be trapped. I didn't ask for my life to end up this way." Dath declared. "Neither did I!" I insisted. Suddenly, I heard a roar in the air, and my heart skipped a beat.
"It's close!" I hissed. "You act like you deserve everything. You act like an asshole." Dath started to rant. "What the hell is wrong with you? There's a monster outside!" Dath sighed. "I didn't want to do this. But I'm already getting hungry." I heard him whisper to himself.
"Hey, do you wanna know how I've survived for this long in the first place?" My eyes widened as I felt his arms grasp mine. "You must be the monster." My breath left my lungs. "Maybe. It must be fate that that stupid beast won't eat me. Or maybe it's because I'm always willing to share a meal, no matter who I'm sharing it with."
I screamed as I felt sharp teeth dig into my neck. For a second, I realized that all defining moments were only lies. No moments defined a person like their last. We tell ourselves so many lies. I only hope people don't define themselves, or we are already dead.
ns 15.158.61.12da2
