The earthy musk of beginnings and endings. Deep, dark and green. Light filters through the top branches like shiny eyes glimmering from tree hollows. Eyes that seem to mock me. Hidden wonders unfold as the light ebbs and flows through the thick canopy creating new shadows in dark places. I tilt my face up letting the fading light and shadow dance across my hot moist skin. Bees hum in and out of hibiscus flowers feverish in their labor to get home with the day’s bounty before dusk. Or maybe is the buzzing from my fevered brain? I do not know.
I deeply inhale the musty scent and continue on at a faster pace. Twigs crackled underfoot, branches groaned and creaked. Lizards and beetles on tree bark scramble out of sight as I grab the eerily comforting strength of the trees. I steady myself and catch my breath.
The wind wailed between distorted trunks, carrying the sickly stink of wood rot and something else. Something that was neither human nor animal. I move faster still, ignoring the briars that caught at my uniform, the damp leaves that grimed my skin, the hostile screeches from animals, panting, barking and seeming to get ever closer.
I had to get out of here fast. As soon as the sun hits the ground and moon hits the sky this forest will not be a friendly place. That which is disturbingly beautiful in day is just plain disturbing during the night. Trees that seemed soothing and calming in light take on a sinister brooding appeal in darkness. Branches that swayed in the breeze seem to dance with an angry rage of night.
I know the night fog will bring a vision of cataracts to my eyes and every sound made back and forth will make me turn and twist this way and that until I am driven mad with the insanity of my own fears… I have to get out of here fast. Before the attendants at the clinic know that I have escaped.
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