Realistic or Modern A Walk through Limbo

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Alec enjoyed driving at nighttime. It was just him, sitting by himself in the car, listening to no music except for the constant crunch of rubber on asphalt. It was peaceful, and it gave him some time to think. Alec had just left his minimum-wage job where he organized clothing and grappled with obnoxious customers all throughout his shift. Still however, it wasn't bad. He was good friends with several of his coworkers, he was even willing to cover for one of them tonight so they could go hang out with his girlfriend, hence why Alec was driving home so late. Besides, Alec was still only in high school; Minimum wage was more than enough.

His phone buzzzes besides him. Alec quickly glances over before returning his eyes to the road. It was a text from his mom, but Alex hadn't been able to quite see the message. At this point, he had reached a very curvy section of the road, but Alec knew that there was a pretty long section of straight road coming up. Normally, having to drive such long distances between work and home would put people off, but Alec instead viewed it as a way for him to spend some time by himself without someone breathing down his next. Alec had now reached the part of the straight segment of the road, which was located on the slope of a forrested hillside, with the ground sloping down to his right. Alec decided to look at his phone again. He had only just read the first line before a loud boom shook the car. Alec instinctively slammed on the brakes, but the car swerved hard to the left, right onto the path of another car.

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[iLuLuminate]

Mariana was clearly a bit frustrated as she drove, which isn't a smart thing to do. She kept running her fingers through her hair and letting out agitated sighs, the one hand that was gripping the steering wheel had her nails sinking into its leather cover. It was such a petty argument; she finally snapped after her mother brought it up again, clearly tired of having to repeat herself to that insufferable woman. Impatient or not, she still loved her mother dearly and after rolling down the window to let the cool night breeze hit her face, Mari started to realize how awful she was being.

It didn't take long for her to finally calm down though once realizing how wrong she was about the situation. Mari didn't know where she was going either. With her music blaring and the fresh air hitting her face, she felt happy just being away from everything. Her plan was to apologize to her mother once she returned home and even get her life back on track but for now, she just wanted to feel free. Mari was so caught up in that feeling though, so much that her eyes occasionally drifted from the road. Of course, she was able to continue driving correctly but because she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings, she didn't notice the car heading towards her. When she looked back up, it was too late for her to even try to get out of the way. She let out a blood curdling scream as her car collided with the other and her vision went dark.

 

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It was quick. Alec only heard a shattering of glass, felt a burst of pain, and saw the ground fall away only to quickly rush back up to meet him. And then there was nothing.

It was the bitter taste of dirt in his mouth that woke Alec up. He jolted upward, and spat the dirt out. It was then that he remembered what had just happened. With a gasp, he began feeling around his body and face. Strangely enough, he didn't feel any pain anymore, and there didn't seem to be any visible wounds on him. Weird, Alec thought to himself looking around him. He had landed in the middle of a forest. It was now daytime, but a heavy fog had settled. Alec looked up and could barely see the outline of the road through the fog, and then he heard it. The silence. Alec strained his ears, but couldn't hear anything. There was no rustling of leaves, no birds calling out to each other, no bugs buzzing around in the trees. There was simply nothing. It was this kind of silence that unnerved Alec the most. The kind that makes you feel that you're the only thing left alive in the whole world. Shakily, he got to his feet and reached into his pocket to grab his cellphone. He pricked himself on a sharp piece of glass, and then realized that he had crushed it when he collided with the ground. With no way to call for help, Alec deicided that his best bet was to try and find help himself. He looked into the fog in front of him, noting how it seemed to fade in and out and shift around, and with a deep breath, he stepped forward.

Alec walked slowly through the trees pausing frequently to try and hear something besides his own footsteps. And then he heard breathing. Alec froze, unsure at first of whether it was just his own breathing, but confirmed that it wasn't. It seemed to be coming from his right and so he began making his way in that direction. As he went, he felt himself tense up. He didn't like the silence. He didn't like how he woke up from a car accident with no injuries. And he certainly didn't like how to fog seemed to move around him, like there were figures moving around unseen in its midst. It was then that Alec spotted someone lying on the ground in a small clearing. Feeling both relieved and for some reason, apprehensive to have stumbled onto another human, Alec approached cautiously and observed the person on the ground some more. It was a girl, seemingly around his age, with dark brown hair. Like him, she was similarly inexplicably uninjured. As Alec examined her slightly tanned face, he couldn't help but think about how peaceful she looked. He knelt beside her, wondering whether to disturb her slumber by waking her up.

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[iLuLuminate]

The crash seemed almost like a dream to her. That same scene played in her mind and it felt all but real despite remembering it. She remembered the headlights of the other car being almost blinding as it got closer, her grip tightening on the steering wheel and the scream she let out as she felt pain followed by nothing.

When Mari finally became conscious and felt no pain whatsoever, she knew it had to be a dream or perhaps she was still asleep. She didn't open her eyes to look around because the simple fact that she couldn't hear anything although awake seemed to unsettle her. Her hearing was perfect so unless she suddenly went deaf over night, she couldn't seem to understand why there was nothing but eerie silence. Normally her mother was downstairs listening to music as she cleaned or prepared breakfast but there was literally nothing. It wasn't easy scaring her but the fact that she was starting to believe in a possibility of randomly losing her hearing made her nervous so she continued to lay there with her eyes closed. Her breathing would occasionally quicken and her heartbeat would speed up but eventually, she managed to calm herself down as she worked up the confidence to open her eyes. It took a lot longer than expected though.

The sound of distant footsteps that were seemingly getting louder would have startled her if she hadn't felt so relieved. She actually heard them which immediately cleared up any ridiculous thoughts of her being deaf. When she realized they were getting closer though and there seemed to be no other sound except for those steps, she began to feel nervous. Mari still couldn't tell if this was some dream or not but it seemed to be with how strange things were around her. With a bit of hesitance, she slowly opened her eyes a minute or so after the person stopped walking only to realized there was some man looking down at her. As if it was an instinct or even some way to defend herself, she immediately pushed him away from her and scurried onto her feet without saying a word. Only then did she decide to take in her surroundings as she noticed the trees behind him though barely. They seemed to be outside but it was hard to see anything in the distance with the thick layer of fog that hung around. Her eyes widened and she was speechless, her words were caught in her throat mostly due to how confused she was. If they were outside, why couldn't she hear anything and why was she outside in the first place? That car crash was only supposed to be a dream, right?

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[PressureCooker]

Alec's decision was decided for him when the girl awakened and immediately pushed him back. Startled, he fell backwards as the girl quickly rose to her feet. Her eyes were wide as she looked around and her breathing was sharp. She looked scared, and Alec realized that he needed to make sure she knew that he wouldn't hurt her. "Whoa there, sorry for scaring you," He said, slowly getting to his feet, "I, uh, I just woke up here too." It occurred to Alec that this may have been the person who was in the other car that he collided with, although she may not know that about him. "Are you alright? Were you injured in the crash?"

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[iLuLuminate]

Mari wasn't really focusing on the male before her as she continued to look around, her breathing slightly rigid, "What.. What are you talking about? I wasn't in a car crash. That was just, a dream.." She seemed to trail off as her eyes slowly made their way back down to the boy that she had pushed. It was obvious that she was confused and freaked out, maybe even in a bit of denial. After a few seconds of more silence, she seemed to let out a small giggle that soon turned into a laugh, "Oh, this is some kind of prank right? Did a friend of mine set you up to do this? Seriously, I'm not falling for it. Now tell me where we are and where my car is so I can go home please."

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Mari wasn't really focusing on the male before her as she continued to look around, her breathing slightly rigid, "What.. What are you talking about? I wasn't in a car crash. That was just, a dream.." She seemed to trail off as her eyes slowly made their way back down to the boy that she had pushed. It was obvious that she was confused and freaked out, maybe even in a bit of denial. After a few seconds of more silence, she seemed to let out a small giggle that soon turned into a laugh, "Oh, this is some kind of prank right? Did a friend of mine set you up to do this? Seriously, I'm not falling for it. Now tell me where we are and where my car is so I can go home please."

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Alec was taken aback by this statement. "What? No! This isn't a prank!", Alec exclaimed, as the girl let out a noise that seemed like a combination between a laugh and a sob. Now, he was really confused as to what to do. Alec had never had any experience dealing with highly emotional people, preferring to avoid them instead. He decided that the best course of action would be to explain to her what had happened.

"Listen, uh, my name's Alec. I was driving along that road up there" Alec pointed upward to the road, barely visible through the fog, "I think one of my tires blew out and I crashed into you." As he spoke, Alec thought he heard the sound of leaves crunching to his right, as if someone was walking on them, but he was more focused on trying to reason with the girl in front of him.

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[iLuLuminate]

Mari listened to his words, finding them unbelievable that that happened especially when her eyes started to look over and inspect her body for any wounds only to find none. She wasn't buying it. Her entire demeanor seemed to change drastically from a minute ago; instead of being scared and confused, she just had this deadpan look that showed how unamused she was with all of this.While crossing her arms over her chest, she let out a sigh and finally decided to speak up, "Oh, okay. I get it now."

"You're just some asshole who ruined my car! Well, it's nice to meet you Alec, I'm Mariana. Hopefully you'll be paying for the damages you caused when swerving into my lane." The tone of her voice was laced with sarcasm and annoyance, she didn't even want to look in the direction he was pointing towards moments ago. Honestly, she thought it was a miracle that they both came out of the crash uninjured - if there really was one, "Okay Alec, I need you to elaborate a bit more please. If we were supposedly in a car accident, how come we're both fine? I'm not in pain nor do I see any wounds on myself or you for that matter.."

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[PressureCooker]

Alec was afraid she'd ask that. Without any explanation, he doubted that she'd actually believe him. He opened his mouth to speech "Look, I..."
Alec heard the sound of crunching leaves again, and now he knew it wasn't his mind making up noises to fill the void. Maybe it's another person? Alec tried to tell himself, but somehow he knew that this wasn't the case. The crunching had gone silent again, and the unsettling silence had settled back in. Alec glanced around at the treeline, and felt a sudden need to get out of the forest as fast as possible.
Turning back towards Mariana, Alec said "Look, how about we go back up to the road and see what's left of the cars, and then maybe we can go find help." Just to make sure, he quickly asked "Was there anyone else in the car with you?"

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[iLuLuminate]

Mariana was confused once again as he suddenly stopped speaking, this time she actually heard the crunching sound before the eerie silence returned which only made her uncomfortable. It was hard enough to see through the fog and whoever was lurking around gave her that feeling of being watched. With a small shudder, she took a step closer to Alec and instead of freaking out, flashed him a nervous smile.

"Go back up to the road.. I like that idea. Yeah. It'll be easier to tell where we are." Mariana desperately wanted to ignore his question simply because she was in fact alone when she took her drive. Honestly, she was probably thinking too much about this but everything was so weird. The thick layer of fog, no physical injuries after a car accident and the creature or person walking around somewhere.. it was all too strange. She just wanted to believe that this was some kind of lucid dream, "There was no one with me. Let's just hurry and get help then we can sit down to talk about all of this, yeah?"

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"Yeah, that sounds good..." Alec responded. He was somewhat relieved that she seemed to have calmed down and was acting friendly. Still, he wouldn't be completely relaxed until they got out of the forest. "We should stay close, just in case" Alec said to her, starting to walk. In case of what, Alec thought to himself, looking at the trees as he began walking. In the fog, they seemed hostile, with their branches outstretched as if to grab him. One of the trees in the distance seemed particularly strange, with a tall thin hourglass trunk, and limp branches that swung around despite there being no wind. The sight gave him chills. He decided he didn't want to know, and began to walk faster.

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[iLuLuminate]

She simply nodded her head and made sure to stay right by his side. Mariana wasn't concerned with anything ahead of them, it was whatever could be lurking around in the fog behind them that made her feel uneasy. Both of them were walking now so it would be a lot harder for her to distinguish their footsteps from someone else if they weren't moving in unison, "Do you think this is a dream or something? I've been to many creepy places but none of them have made me this uncomfortable before." She mumbled quietly. That itching paranoia kept bothering her, causing her to look over her shoulder multiple times, "I haven't thrown the option of this being a prank out yet either."

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