{CATELINE}

The wind howled, rain piercing into my skin like a blade to flesh. It was enough to send me clawing at the ground beneath me, gasping breaths escaping from my lungs.

Each strand of my hair tickled with the wind. Splinters of wood stuck into my fingers from the scattered twigs and pointy leaves. Sitting up, I looked around and saw nothing but fog. The ground beneath me was tainted with crisp autumn leave. As I stood, my feet sunk into the mud and smeared the bottom of my gown, dirtying it further. The air around me was chilled, gusts of wind blowing my hair and dress every which way as thunder clapped above the canopy of trees.

My gown was heavier than stone by the time I found my balance. Lightning flashed across the sky and illuminated the area around me for just a second. It smelled of damp moss and rotten, earthy fungi.

It was cold. So, so cold. Axulran could not have prepared me for this torment.

As I looked down at my dress, I noticed a dried red stain splattered along the hard torso and down the velvet skirt. Every move ached.

I started to tremble uncontrollably, from the storm, from the genuine fear that crawled from my gut and got stuck in my throat, from the hopelessness.

I crossed my arms over my chest and took a few more steps into the fog. I reached out for the trunk of a tree and used it to support myself. It was dark and chaotic, the screaming downpour as the large oaks around me danced. The mist was thick, only revealing what was just an arm’s reach away. Jumping out of my skin, the gods struck their anger onto the ground, a terribly violent tremor roaring beneath my feet.

I nearly collapsed as a scream ripped out of my lungs. I had never experienced such forceful winds before. This was the type of storm that killed sailors and drowned towns.

I sobbed. Why had Roen done this? How had he done this? I had my back against the mirror… it was simply impossible.

Just when the world grew hazy and my balance worsened, I latched my fingers around a chunk of bark and tore it from the tree. The slight pain of splintered wood poking into the pads of my fingers reminded me I was in reality. That this was not a nightmare where I got stuck amid a disaster. The wind whistled again, this time louder. Like a sad, twisted song.

Cateline, that gloomy voice whispered in the wind, a fate of sorrow awaits at the end of your never-ending path.

Twisting to look behind me, I gasped with a heaving chest. The forest was empty. Despite this, I was certain there was somebody near me. The voice was far too close to have been a figment of my imagination. Far too real.

Cateline, the voice boomed again in unison with a thunderclap, accept your fate and travel the never-ending path!

Something yellow and bright emerged from the fog. It was a circular orb, the mist parting as it drew closer. The haze seemed to disappear as the orb traveled through it.

Rays of light danced around and followed it like a tail. I held my hand up as it passed me by, the thing almost mimicking the intensity of the sun before it faded into the distance. Wiping a tear that trickled down my cheek, I made strides forward and cried out when it began to disappear.

I picked up the pace, but my foot caught in the opening of a thick root. I stumbled and reached out to catch myself, my hand smashing into an exploded tree trunk that had splinters of wood sticking out like freshly sharpened spears.

Spears that impaled into the meatiest part of my palm.

Screaming, I crawled closer to the trunk so my arm was not so extended. The charred shard of wood was dark and splintery, sticking out of my skin with this gruesome, vermilion blood beading around the edges. I grabbed my wrist and began to lift my hand from the piece. Like sandpaper gritting on the inside of my bones, fragments poked and ripped at the skin as I howled. The thunder disguised my screams, the rain drowning the salty tears that carved down my face with a churning stomach and spinning head.

I had to stop myself, gagging from the pain and exhilaration. Wiping the spit from the corners of my mouth, I made one final yank and the end of this wooden shard snapped, still lodged in my hand. The wood started swelling from the dampness of the forest and storm, but as I gripped at it to pull it free, my fingers kept slipping. I thought about leaving it there until I found shelter, but my head was already spinning. If I had to climb, if I had to crawl, I’d be rendered useless.

Somehow, a gaping wound was better than an impaled palm.

Or, so I thought, as I pried the wound open enough to grab the splinter.

My eyes rolled into the back of my head, my senses singing in agony. My lungs all but collapsed as the scream tore through me, but as soon as I was able to pinch on the thick shard of wood and pull it out, the whiplash of pain pulsating through me. Blood oozed from the open, agitated wound.

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The tree was taunting me, as was the howling wind.

It was shattered every which way. The longer part of the bole was scattered across the forest floor. The outside of the tree was dark and charred, but the inside was fresh. Light brown and even looked soft to the touch.

I was desperate. The only sounds around me was the terrifying storm and the droplets of rain smashing into the decaying leaves.

The trees groaned with each gust of wind, and when I looked above me, I saw a branch plummeting to the ground. Standing and jumping out of the way, I landed face-first and smashed my nose into the dirt.

Holding onto either side of my forehead to try and alleviate the headache, I trailed my fingers down to touch the skin beneath my nose. When I drew it back, my pale skin was coated with more blood. Balling my unharmed hand into a fist, I punched into the ground and cringed.

“Help!” I cried, my voice croaking as it echoed into the emptiness. “Anybody, please…” I wanted that voice to be real. For it to be my savior.

I sobbed at the end of my words, the metallic taste dripping into the back of my throat with each wail. Carefully lifting myself, the world spun again. I forced myself to move in the direction the orb had flown, the world dimming until I could only see the ground beneath my feet. At the end of this tunnel, just far enough out of reach, was the orb, swaying side to side until it drifted away again. Gasping, I picked up the pace and begged for it to slow down.

“Please,” I croaked.

Eventually, the path ended. The fog was growing thin, dirt and leaves turning to stone and moss. My vision clouded in and out until my focus returned. What surrounded me was breathtaking. The storm had slowed its course, the wind but a gentle breeze now and the rain merely a reminder that I was alive. That this was not a nightmare.

I stood atop a cliff made of rock, a freshwater stream falling down the slant of a hill with grass as green and bright as a summer's day on either side. The gentle sloshing of water could be heard below the cliff overhang, with evergreen mountains surrounding me. The evening sky was full of stars and colorful auroras stretching across the sky like a ribbon across a wall. Turning my focus to the water, I knelt on my knee and cupped the liquid into my good hand, splashing it on my face. What fell back to the stream was red. When I looked down at my wound again, I cringed.

I covered my mouth and submerged the gash in the water, causing my eyes to widen when the freshwater gnawed at my skin like needles. Screaming, I closed my eyes tight and tore my hand from the cold liquid the second I could bear it no more.

I must have looked like a fool. A relatively tiny piece of wood made me succumb to tears and so many screams. The wrinkled skin was raw, blood dispersing into the water in tiny little waves.

Pushing myself up, I paced back and forth and gripped my skirt with a heavy hand. It wasn't often I cursed, but today I was screaming all the obscenities I knew into the open air.

Cateline, I have looked everywhere for you, the voice sang, this time clearer than before. More familiar, too. Turning to look over my shoulder, I caught a glimpse of a figure on the edge of the cliff. The wind picked up and my vision blurred—my heart sank.

A mother would search until the end of time for her daughter, it said.

I gulped, taking a few steps closer. It was a strange thing, but I did not feel like I was the one in control. I felt controlled, and although I wanted to turn and run back into the forest to let the fog consume me, I didn’t. I kept on toward this mysterious figure.

“Mother?” I whispered. I doubted what I was hearing, it felt ethereal and was rooted in something supernatural, but I kept moving like it was a beacon of hope. “Mother!”

It was rare I was relieved to hear from either of my parents but after all the torment I’d endured, I welcomed her like a babe starved of milk.

Mother dearest is here. Take my hand and fall to your fate.

I could not believe my eyes. Just a few feet away was my mother, with her long black hair curled at the ends and eyes as chaotic as the ocean. Seas of blues and greens circled her pupils, her stare growing kinder as I stopped in front of her.

Accepting the hand my mother offered, my mouth parted when I was met with the open air.

The figure was as real as anything else around me. She had to be. She was the last stretch of sanity I had left after everything.

She was my way back home, no matter how wretched the place was. It was better than here, with my bleeding wounds and frigid bones.

Stepping closer, I peered over the edge and saw a ghastly drop. At the end of it was a pool that fed into a larger body of water.

Fall, Cateline, she whispered. Fall into the arms of my truth. Our hands shall be freed, and only then will you be set to flee.

With those final words, I choked out as my mother backed away and into the waters below. Without so much as a second thought, I followed with legs and arms thrashing tirelessly, falling faster, faster, faster—

The wind was deafening as I screamed, crashing into the pond headfirst. I should have died then, every bone in my body shattering at the impact.

But as my ears popped and my airways filled with water, I knew it was not yet my time.

It was dark, but just before I accepted the embrace of the cold river, I caught a glimpse of my mother in the depths, everything else melting into nothingness.

This time, I had no choice but to welcome it. It grabbed me by the soul and dragged me deeper, deeper, deeper, into those waters until all light had dissipated into nothing.