❄️ Chapter Title: “The Forest That Feels Like Me”
910 Words
Everything felt strange...
The air was cold—but it didn’t hurt.
The fog was thick—but it didn’t choke.
The towering trees didn’t shelter her… didn’t scare her either.
They simply watched.
Like ancient beings who had seen too much and decided to stay silent.
Tia stood there, barefoot over a bed of fallen leaves.
The earth beneath her was soft, almost comforting.
And though her skin shivered with the cold, her soul… felt calm.
As if this dream wasn’t just a dream—
It was a memory, a message, a mirror.
Then she felt it—
A presence behind her.
Soft footsteps over the dry leaves.
Not rushed. Not loud.
But every step shook something inside her.
She turned around.
A man stood there.
Tall, partially shadowed by a wide, dark hat.
Wearing a long, ash-colored coat that kissed the earth as he moved.
She couldn’t quite see his eyes…
But somehow, they saw her.
He spoke in a cold, delicate voice laced with irony:
— “You’re late, Tia.”
She froze.
— “Who are you?”
— “I’m what you’ve been running from. And now, you came to me willingly.”
She whispered, almost to herself:
— “This is a dream… right?”
He smirked. It was not a warm smile.
— “Is there even a difference, when the pain feels real in both?”
She wanted to scream.
But something told her to sit.
To listen.
To stop running.
She sat on a fallen log and whispered:
— “I’m just tired.
Tired of thinking…
Tired of sleeping…
Tired of the world…
Tired of myself.”
He asked, sharply:
— “When was the first time you felt... useless?”
And suddenly—
The forest faded into a memory.
She was six years old.
Playing outside with her friend in a public park.
Laughing. Running. Innocent.
But even then, Tia had this strange awareness—
She obeyed the rules.
She sat quietly on a wooden bench, reading the sign that said “No Running.”
Her friend didn’t care.
She kept running.
Then came the guard.
Harsh. Angry. Loud.
He kicked them both out.
But minutes later, he allowed her friend back in.
Only her.
Tia was left outside, alone, in the cold…
Staring at the iron gate.
The man looked down at her with a scowl.
He didn’t see a child.
He saw something to push aside.
Tia, in her dream, whispered:
— “I’ll never forget how he looked at me.
Like I wasn’t supposed to exist.”
The man in the coat chuckled darkly:
— “Stupid girl… you should’ve picked up a rock and hit him with it.”
Tia turned sharply:
— “Why? Because he hurt me, I should hurt him back?
I’m not like him. I feel.
And I know how pain feels—so why would I pass it on?”
He tilted his head. Silence.
— “And yet… the world kept hurting you.
And you kept being ‘human’.”
Tia looked down.
— “Because if I lose my feeling… what do I become?
If I become like them… what’s left of me?”
He didn’t answer.
She sat in the dirt, letting her fingers sink into the cold earth—
And for the first time,
It didn’t feel like she was falling apart.
It felt like she was finding the pieces.
— “I kept waiting for someone to understand me.
But maybe… I was supposed to understand myself first.”
The man nodded.
His edges began to fade into the mist.
Before disappearing completely, he said:
— “The dream is ending.
But the real confrontation is just beginning.”
---
Tia opened her eyes.
The room was still dark.
But something inside her wasn’t.
For the first time,
Her solitude didn’t scare her.
Because she had finally looked at herself—
And didn’t look away.
Tia sat still, trembling—
Yet something inside her was glowing.
A flicker. A truth. A c***k of light in her dark.
But the doctor…
He stepped closer.
His shadow stretched like a stormcloud,
And with one swift motion—
He slapped her.
It wasn’t brutal.
But it was cold.
Intentional. Sharp.
Her head snapped to the side,
Her breath hitched—
And in that exact moment,
The dream shattered.
---
✦ Scene: Awakening
Tia’s eyes flew open.
She was back in her room.
The air was warm. The ceiling familiar.
But she wasn’t.
Her body was awake—
But her soul?
It felt…
empty.
She lay there, motionless.
As if her skin was too heavy to move.
Her mind echoed with silence—
Not peace. Not quiet.
But a silence that screamed.
She tried to cry.
Nothing came out.
She wasn’t sad.
She wasn’t angry.
She wasn’t afraid.
She was nothing.
A hollow echo.
A name without a voice.
She looked around.
Her family’s voices could be heard faintly down the hall—
But they sounded like they were behind glass.
Distant. Foreign.
Not hers.
Tia whispered to herself:
— “Why do I feel like I’m not… here?”
She touched her chest.
No pain. No warmth.
Only lostness.
Not just lost in the world—
But lost inside her own body.
As if she woke up in a place she didn’t belong to.
As if life had started again—
But forgotten to bring her back with it.
- Writer
