Ah, morning, the part of the day that I dreaded the most. Especially today, the sun has greeted me with its ever so blinding sunlight. It's brighter than usual. Perhaps I have forgotten to shut off the blinders.

And my body, it's heavier. It is not the same heaviness you would feel upon waking up. It's different. Something was pressing me down, and I could feel it.

I then opened my eyes and saw a lot of leaves, branches, and everything in between resting on the top of my body.

I began to scan my surroundings and gasp. Turns out I was not in my room. I don't even know where I am. With the sudden revelation, I started to panic and asked many questions.

Things like "What had happened?", "How did I get here?" and "Where the hell am I?" were interrogated repeatedly. Then, finally, I could vividly remember,

"Last night, I had been at my usual bar. I was with someone, but who? I can't recall; it's all too blurry."

As I was recollecting my memories, a sudden sound could be heard. The sound of tramped grass and snapped twigs, which, shortly after, a fragile voice ensued.

"U-uh, excuse me, sir. A-are you lost?" spoken by the unknown voice.

I rapidly faced the direction of the voice, and there I saw a delicate young girl wearing an apron and a little chef hat; those apparels are not what you would see in such a place.

I'm shocked. The sudden appearance of a young girl added to my confusion, causing me to pause in my tracks. I mean, who wouldn't be? There is a girl in the middle of a forest wearing an apron, no less?

Maybe I have gone mad. But before I explored that postulation, the girl called out to me once more.

"H-hello, sir?"

I finally understood as she called me for the second time, which brought me to my sense. I immediately regained my bearings and moved mechanically to brush my messy morning hair.

Seeing my awkward gesture, the girl smiled and spoke softly.

"Uhm, if you don't mind, would you like to join me? I'm in the middle of baking a cake, and I just so happened to meet you here as I was searching for ingredients. I don't think this was a coincidence, so I would like you to come and taste this brand new recipe."

She invited me to come with her. It's not common for someone to invite me to things, especially when that someone is a cute girl. It would be a fool effort to reject it.

So I immediately reached out her hand and followed her. 

Some time went by, and we had been walking for so long. Each road passed felt familiar. It's as if I walked this path before but can't make heads or tails of it. Is this what they call Dejavu? Man, I must be mentally exhausted to mull over such ridiculous thoughts. 

We continued on like this for a while until, finally, I could manage to see a silhouette of a structure from afar. It looks like a bakery. 

A bakery in the middle of a forest, huh. What an unusual spot to have. Are there even potential buyers here? 

The more I think, the more it makes less sense. But it is better to not question it as it's not my business.

After walking a bit more, we arrived at the front of the building, and looking at it from this distance, I noticed something. The paint job on the walls looks relatively recent. Had the girl painted it just a week prior? And all the while we were walking, I hadn't seen any roads.

I once heard a story about a witch that lives in the middle of a forest and would often eat lost children. This is not that, right? Heh, who am I kidding? I'm no child. I'm old enough to marry and even have kids of my own. The building is not even made out of candies. But, just to make sure, I placed my hand on the wall and said,

"These are not made of candies, are they?"

The girl replied

"W-what? Of course not! You can't make walls using candies, silly."

Yeah, she's right. Those are just old tale fantasy, and this is reality. But, I still have one more question, so I asked,

"By the way, I've been wondering. How do you get your supplies? There are no roads here, so I'm not sure there'll be any peddlers peddling here."

She tilted her head slightly as if the answer should be obvious, then answered,

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"All of my cakes are homemade, and I procure the ingredients from the forest."

 "Anyway, let's stop dawdling here and come right in."

The girl opened the door and beckoned me to come in. She then brought me to a table and told me to sit down and wait for her.

"You wait here while I'll go get the cake ready. It won't be for long, and don't go anywhere." 

She said before leaving to a different room. 

I waited, waited and waited. 

A long time had passed, yet there was still no sign of her. I became overly worried, afraid something might have happened to her. We are in the middle of the forest, after all. It wouldn't be strange for a bear to waltz in and maul her. Stop. It's better to not entertain such thoughts. I must investigate and find out if she's okay.

I quickly got up from my seat and made a beeline straight to the room she went to. 

Entering the room, I was stunned; it looked out of place, completely detached from the main room, abandoned without care. Each piece of furniture was covered in mould, and the kitchenware rusted so bad it had lost its original gloss. The only saving grace was from that hateful sun, liting the room with its natural light.

In the middle of the room is a table. There lay a torn paper. Then a gush of wind flipped the paper over, revealing a small note on its back. I picked it up and brought it to my face. The words on the paper reads, 

"I'm sorry."

Right at that moment, a surge of memory came flooding in and prompted a flashback of an old dark memory. It was 20 years ago. I used to have a close friend from the same village. She likes to bake cakes and even swore to own a bakery once she hit adulthood. 

We always played and did everything together. We even promised to marry later. That's just how close we were; nothing could separate us ... until that regretful day.

One day, we were at the bar hanging out like we usually do. But today, I had something to tell her, that is, I have a crush on her and always wanted to confess, but I never dared to, so I thought this would be the day, but I was wrong. Before I could say it, she told me that someone had proposed to her out of nowhere.

I was immediately struck by sadness upon hearing it, but I hid it by congratulating her when deep down, I was spiteful.

Three months later, she told me she'll be having a wedding. I asked when, and she replied, "three days from now". I was surprised. This news came out of the blue. She never even consulted me once. In fact, she had been avoiding me these last three months. But still, I concealed my anger, so it didn't show on my face. 

She then asked me to come with her to our usual meeting spot, an old abandoned structure in the middle of the forest. There, she said she'll be leaving for the capital, where her soon to be husband works.

Not wanting to lose her any further, I gave her my confession and begged her to not leave. But she rejected, telling me how late I was, saying she had always liked me and thought I liked her too, so she waited for me to confess, but I never did.

When she got tired of waiting, suddenly, someone proposed to her. Seeing how this would be an opportunity, she used this as an act to make me jealous. She thought if I knew she was being proposed to, I would hasten myself and confess to her. Instead, all she got was me looking happy and supportive, indicating that maybe she was wrong and I never liked her.

All this made her deeply sad, but then, the person who proposed to her came and cheered her up. His kind act made her re-evaluate the proposal and choose to go through with it. And my confession is far too late because she is already in love with him.

"She only told me all these now?" I thought. "Why didn't she just say it from the get-go? Then we could have been together!" Enraged by these polluted thoughts, I became shaky and unstable. My eyes swelled with tears as I begged her once more to not leave, but she was resolute in her decision. 

Seeing it all fall apart triggered something in me, and I grabbed her by the hand and shouted,

"We were meant to be together! Yet you betrayed me like this!"

I moved both of my hands up to her collar. Then with a dark expression and a mad glint, I maniacally said,

"If you have forgotten your promise, then I'll just have to make you remember!"

I clenched my hands tightly, and she struggled as she gasped for air. Moments later, the sound of her windpipe being crushed could be heard. It was so loud it snapped some sanity back to me. Realizing what I had done, I released both my hands. Then the back of her lifeless body hit the corner of the walls, sliding along and collapsing shortly. 

I ran as fast as I could from the scene and swore to never come back to this place.

Back in the village, nobody knew what had transpired. Things just went as usual, and her soon to be husband was nowhere to be seen. And her corpse ... it was never found. Right ... her corpse. 

Slowly, I turned my head towards the corner. There, her remains lay bare. 

Reminded by my past actions, I ran away just like back then. I ran for so long it had gone dark, and I didn't even know where I was; all I had to do was keep running even with minimal to no vision. Minutes later, I tripped on something, falling headfirst, knocking me out.

The night passed, and the sun rose. I woke up once more to be greeted by the hateful sun, which for some reason, was brighter than usual. My body also felt heavy, so I immediately opened my eyes. And there I was, covered with leaves, branches and everything in between. Finally, I checked my surroundings and realized I was not in my room. 

This is where it all began, my inescapable nightmare. The End.