Kicking. Screaming. Leah figured she would probably go out of this world the same way she came in. The nightmares, or night terrors, they're a big problem. The familiar feeling of danger, like someone's chasing you with a gun. She wasn't aware of what exactly was happening, but she knew it was dangerous. she wanted to run, she kicked her legs violently to try to escape, to to try to defend herself. Nothing ever worked, sometimes Leah wondered why she even tried.
Screaming, crying, her tears falling down her round face and dripping into her platinum blonde hair, leaving wet patches on her pillow. She felt sorry for her neighbours, must be unsettling to hear your new neighbour screaming at the top of her lungs in the middle of the night, like she was being stabbed in the back 23 times over. Caeser-style.
Her throat ached from the screaming. Her eyes were sore from crying. That didn't stop it from happening though. She flung her body this way and that, trying to dodge potential danger. Not like she knew what that was, anyway.
She shot herself forward, hyperventilating and opening her eyes as fast as she could. She was safe, nothing was there. No men with guns or knives, no feral animals trying to tear her limb from limb. She was in her apartment, on her own.
The silence seemed to wrap itself around her like a comforting parent. The dark, still room was calm, unlike her head. Her heart was racing, though Leah managed to take a couple deep breaths and calm herself down a little. Her breathing was still quite rugged.
Leah wiped her eyes gently; her eyes were still sore. She thought that maybe it would be best to get some fresh air? Yeah, she'd like that a lot.
She climbed out of bed, not bothering to make it afterwards. She moved silently along the wooden floorboards, tracing her hand along the beige wall as a sense of direction. Leah slipped on her puffy, white coat and her shoes, zipped her coat up and stepped outside. Her apartment was on the sixth floor so she had a beautiful view of Andermatt up there. The trees were a brilliant shade of dark green and were speckled with snow; a storm was coming soon. She rested her hands on the freezing cold railing on the balcony she stood at, then took a deep breath and watched as her breath came as a visible cloud.
She decided to take a walk around the town since, at day, it was usually full of tourists. Leah carefully walked down the stairs, cautious not to slip on the ice and fall. A few staircases later, she was on the white frosty grass, listening to it crunch under her navy trainers.
Leah thought this place was absolutely beautiful, especially during winter. It was like a dream, a frosty Christmas dream. As she walked, she wondered if she should invite her parents to stay with her for Christmas; it would be nice to see them again. She hadn't seen her parents (Antony and Barbara) for two months now and she missed them already. If she did invite them, wouldn't she have to plan a party of some sort? Wouldn't she have to buy things to entertain and keep them occupied? Maybe it would be harder than she thought, considering she was struggling to get a job in this new place. She just didn't have the qualifications people around here were looking for.
Leah realized she was lost in thought and snapped out of it immediately. She was in some sort of forest. The once beautiful and elegant trees towered over her, they now seemed intimidating and somewhat aggressive with the stormy wind in their branches. Her heart skipped a beat as she spotted something moving ahead of her. Leah relaxed when a tiny bird hopped out from behind a tree. The bird was small and colourful, she followed it just to get a picture. Deeper and deeper into the forest she and this little bird got.
What was she thinking? Where was her head at? Sane people don't just follow random birds in a forest in the middle of the night. And who was she kidding, the bird probably just flew away because it was scared that a human was following it. Leah stopped dead in her tracks. So she was going mad out here. Just her luck.
Leah rested her hands over her face. She came to Andermatt for a break. She came here for a new start and better opportunities. Now she's the just the weird foreigner who screams in the middle of the night and follows random birds she meets in the local forest. She sighed deeply, before taking her hands away from her face.
Somehow the forest looked different, like it had shifted while she wasn't looking. The forest was more dense and the snow had got thicker than she had noticed before. How long exactly had she been away from her apartment? She checked her phone. It was 4:34 am, she'd been out in the cold for over an hour now. The dense forest looked the same from all angles; Leah had no way of knowing which way she came from. She checked the snow for her footprints but she couldn't tell the difference between hers and... What were those other tracks? Human? Animal? What sort of creature makes such rugged tracks? Leah's head spiralled as she questioned these unfamiliar markings, but what she didn't realize was that more were appearing around her.
The forest had an eerie atmosphere to it now, and it was driving Leah mad. The trees twisted and grinned with a sadistic and nefarious air to them. They knew she was in trouble. She disturbed the peace and she would pay the price for it.
Leah got a sudden shiver down her spine and ran. She chose a random direction and ran faster than she ever had. Maybe it was the adrenaline pumping her with the energy to get out of there, but something was pulling her towards the edge of the forest, and sooner than she realized, she was in a plain and rural field, covered in snow 3ft deep. She finally felt the cold getting to her and looked down at her hands. The tips of her fingers had turned blue and purple from the temperature. She gasped loudly, she needed to get home, now. Leah spun around and tried to work out where she was. She didn't recognize any of it. There weren't any houses or apartments she could see from there, how far exactly did she go?
She didn't want to go back into the forest, but maybe if she travelled back through in a straight line, she would get back home? She was terrified, but she was going to fucking freeze to death of she just stood there. All she had was her puffy jacket, that barely even went past her hips, she was wearing thin silky pajama bottoms and a matching vest. Leah longed to be back at her apartment, where she had heating and blankets. She never meant to go this far, only around the apartment block and back.
Leah started to hyperventilate. She was worried sick. This is it, this is where she dies. She's going to freeze to death. She wiped the sweat forming on her brow and was greeted with snow and frost. "Shit..." She cursed under her breath, watching her breath slowly disappear into the air. Her chest got tighter and tighter as she felt a panic attack rise through her.
A last sudden, sharp breath left her blue lips and a rag was forced over her mouth and she was restrained. She didn't have the energy to react much, the adrenaline from earlier had worn off and all she could feel was her body going stiff from the cold. One attempt at breaking free and she could barely stand. Her body went limp and her eyelids got extremely heavy.
Everything went black.
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