I lost track of how long I’ve been running. The trees look the same as when I started, yet it feels as if I’m miles away. Each step pounding in the final nail of my decision. I can’t turn back now. Not with what I left behind waiting for me. I must continue on. I must not stop.
My thoughts were unfolding as the path in front of me broke free from the wood. Why is it so easy to breathe now that I’m away from the dark lifeless monoliths? The air is light and around me an expanse of waist high grass damp from the morning dew swayed in wind.
Slowing to a walk, cresting a hill, I cut off into field towards a lone tree. The sun is high and I need shade. My body feels light and my mind drifts off swiftly once lay in the shade.
Awake, I arise.
“I hope it was a dream,” I say to myself. Leaning against the tree, I look at the sky through the web of branches. My chest lowers with a sigh. I look back at the direction I came from and see the trodden path I made in the grass. “Maybe it wasn’t,” I whisper as I push off from the tree and take a few steps forwards into the sunlight. “I guess this is what I have now.”
Walking away, I wonder what I really escaped from.