The forest air was already cooling, smelling of pine needles, damp earth, and the smoke from the fire I'd long ago extinguished. I crawled into my sleeping bag, buried my nose in the cool nylon of the tent, and tried to read on my phone. Silence. Only the wind in the pine treetops and some distant, unfamiliar sounds. I felt like such a brave traveler, so independent. Alone in the forest. Independent, no fucking way. The first thing that alerted me was the creak of a branch. Not a natural sound, but a loud, cracking one. I froze and listened. My heart suddenly responded with a dull thump in my temples. "An elk," I immediately reassured myself, "or a boar. They don't attack first." Then I heard voices. Men's. Rough, slightly hoarse, interrupting each other. They were getting closer. And through the thin tent awning, I saw three dark figures, illuminated by the moon. They were walking straight toward me. "Oh God, no. No-no-no..." I pressed myself aga... continue reading

She woke up alone in the forest. There was an unusual silence around and it was warm. Alice lay on the soft grass and looked up at the strange purple sky, covered with white feathers of clouds. She knew for sure that the sky shouldn't be like this, but she couldn't remember why. It was also strange that she was not dressed.

"That's right, everyone has to wear clothes... everyone... who's everyone?" - painfully flashed through my head. Alice sat down on a hillock and began to look around.

She was in a clearing, surrounded by a wall of strange, unfamiliar trees.

Gradually, the memory cleared up, and the most important thing that she realized was that the state of affairs was extremely abnormal. Alice lived in the city, there were a lot of people, she worked in a hotel, a maid... Yes, that's it - it happened while cleaning one of the rooms. Suddenly, the memory abruptly returned everything to its place, but it did not make it any easier. On the contrary, in the light of the epiphany... continue reading