A terrible thirst awoke me, but at least I was somewhat rested. The first thing I noticed was that through the drapes, no clarity came, but rather, it was like moonlight. I had to go outside to fetch more lake water, and the sudden darkness didn't help one bit.

  As I opened the front door, the meadow greeted me, but now plunged into an eerie, dim blue light. What had appeared so welcoming during the "day" was certainly menacing at "night."

  I questioned how the artificial sun might have turned off, considering that any glowing mineral of such magnitude wouldn't be able to simply "turn off."

  Although the possibility that it was a fabrication of one of this realm's residents, if not one of them outright, was still on the table. I pondered whether it was wise to fumble in the tall grass at night, looking for a lake that was obscured and partially taken over by the tall grass.

  I wasn't just talking about the usual reticence to walk in a strange field of unnatural vegetation that grows at a uniform rate, despite being in the wild, onto a suspiciously clear lake of something that I vaguely suspected wasn't entirely water – at least, not of the normal kind.

  Well, perhaps all that came into play, but I meant the reluctance to simply stumble and drown like an idiot because I wasn't able to wait a few more hours until the sun came up. Or turned on.

  I never thought I'd find myself saying this, but what assurances did I have that the "sun" would come up? What if, for the sake of safety, I ended up in a worse state when I was forced out of my indecision by despair? I had already used all the honey (it was a small jar, after all), and there was little of value within the house, aside from my newly acquired lighter. I pondered for a minute the possibility of burning the whole place to see where I was going, but remembered that the house was made of wood, and I'd burn along with the field.

  Well, no options then.

  Out into the dark, possibly haunted, man-eating plant-filled meadow of doom.

  I carefully stepped on the ground, standing alert for any wild creatures. The blue glow reflected on all the grass equally, a triangle barely on the edge of the blade. The dim light could not pierce the obscurity that, like mist, hung upon the place as I made my way through.

  I considered giving up, heading the other way, far from the accursed lake. But my thirst was stronger. When else would I get more water? I tried to guess the position of the lake based on the tips of the grass blades, but to no avail. I just moved one step at a time, slowly, hearing the soft nightly gale and the rustling grass.

  I was cold; I wished I had clothes instead of tatters. As I walked into that abandoned, hostile wild, a sudden memory that had been forgotten until then came to mind.

  I was a little kid, barely able to walk, when my parents lost me in the mall. I stumbled forward, looking for them without knowing how, with thousands of people swaying like grass blades, watching, like grass blades... What? I stopped. I felt one of the blades suddenly twisting around my ankle, and others creeping closer. They thought I didn't know, but I saw them, or rather, I knew the feeling.

  It would be best to pretend, pretend not to know, not to see, get the water, and return home.

  But destiny had different plans in store for me. The grass pulled me and made me fall, and the blades suddenly turned sharp and scratched me all over. I was bleeding from a hundred shallow cuts when I realized that they wanted to drink my blood.

  I was right; it was all a ruse! They lured me into the house and made me suspect the lake when they were the real predators, apex – that's why no other creature was around, turned to bloody ribbons by the blades.

  I ran, what else could I do? And the blades kept gnashing deeper into my skin. I focused and thought I saw something – a deeper shade of green, twisting out of focus right over some patches of grass, like the grass had been filtered with chromatic aberration. As I ran past it again, another ten cuts bit my skin. I was dyed in red, covered in blood. If I kept taking cuts, I'd bleed out!

  I concentrated to avoid the deformed grass, zigzagging, ducking, and skirting – no harm came to me. Occasionally, the path was too narrow, and the aberration-blades nicked me, but I was sure that they were the ones I had to avoid.

  I didn't head towards the house; that was their hunting ground, where they were the most numerous. Instead, I kept dodging in a direct diagonal away from where I came in. I kept focusing on avoiding them, which wasn't easy. Whatever it was, it was possessing the grass, making it move around, trying to reach me.

  One of them took a swipe at me, and I sidestepped, plunging right into the lake. Suddenly, I found myself swimming, trying to stay afloat as I saw the things starting to surround me.

  It was smart; I underestimated it. Or rather, I was improvising, and while I thought they were just trying to get me, I let them guide me straight to the lake. I saw their plan. They were going to circle me and wait for me to either bleed to death in the lake, drown, or come to shore, where they'd get me.

  I knew I was trapped. It had me; I fell right into their home lure. How could I not?

  Their blurry forms got closer as I decided if death by a thousand cuts was better than death by drowning. I thought I remembered a man saying that death by a thousand cuts was a particularly cruel way of execution in China, and I also heard my dad saying that drowning felt like having your lungs on fire. I couldn't think rationally as I saw them get nearer.

  Now, on the lake, their otherworldly shape was clearer. It was something intangible, pure evil, something that fed on pain and fear.

  I began to swim away as I felt the water drag me in circles, slowly at first but faster as the minutes passed by. The entity moved onto the grass that grew inside the lake, waiting for my body to fall there. I tried to remain afloat, but the swirling waters turned into a whirlpool, which soon became a raging maelstrom. There was simply no way to stay on the surface as the waters dragged me down to the bottom, closer to the grass.

  I saw something glimmering at the bottom, something I hadn't seen before, either thanks to my newfound sight or the cave's light dying out, making such small glowing objects more prevalent.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  The water forced itself inside my lungs, and I coughed out what little air I had left. The entity drew nearer, excited at the closer prey. The maelstrom showed me air at its center, tormenting me with the promise of breath, only to take it away moments later. My sight darkened as I quickly lost consciousness while being dragged to the bottom. The last thing I saw was that small pearl at the bottom, glowing like a galaxy of its own, a nebula of ever-borning stars.

  (...)

  I could feel the gritty sand beneath me as I clutched my hands, trying to get my bearings on where I was. The sound of waves clashing against the rocks and the chirping of seagulls made it clear. I had washed up ashore.

  The memory of that light still haunted me. I didn't know what had happened. Had I just crossed a portal? I stood up and observed my surroundings. Behind me, the sea extended to where the eye could reach, reflecting the forecast sky, with soft waves clashing against jagged formations on a beach that I would describe as more typical of a place like England than the Caribbean.

  Ahead of me, a dense forest blocked my view. I didn't know how long I had been out, but long enough that my body felt like it weighed ten tons. I kept saying that this was no place to rest, but where would I find a place to rest?

  Unfortunately, there were no coconuts or bananas in sight, since this clearly wasn't a tropical island. At least the climate was mild, which, to my cloth-less self, felt slightly chilly.

  I moved into the forest and started navigating in search of some vestige of civilization. The greenery grew thick, with shades of dark gray and gritty underbrush. I felt a terrible gale sweep in, and as the minutes went by, the sky darkened. For a moment, I was confused, thinking that maybe it had turned to night, but it was day just a few minutes ago. A thundering noise shook the earth, and the rain started pouring like the skies had opened wide, with jets of water falling from above.

  I looked down and hastened my steps, trying to find refuge beneath a tree, but soon found out that none of these trees could provide any cover. I kept running and stumbled upon a wooden structure, a cabin of sorts, and let myself in. Fortunately, it was open.

  As I went inside, drenched, I looked for something to dry myself with, a towel or something like that. I couldn't find any, and there were no bathrooms either, just a central room with a desk and a few shelves. In the corner, I found a lit woodstove, heating the place. Close enough, I guess.

  I took off my rags, knowing that I wouldn't be able to put them back on, and simply dried myself at the mild heat of the burning coal. I watched with frustration as the rain subsided, just as I was starting to get warm.

  I looked through the cabin, searching, already getting used to the looter routine, and sped up opening drawers and cabinets, promptly tossing useless items like wooden figurines, decorative medals, and trophies onto the ground, as I knew I wouldn't stay here for too long.

  Hanging from a coat stand, I found some ranger's clothes that were at least three sizes bigger than me, but after folding and forcefully drilling new holes in the belt with the buckle... well, I still looked like a toddler trying on his dad's clothes, but at least I wasn't naked anymore.

  On the positive side, burns, dirt, and lacerations aside, I probably looked cute, with the oversized fashion and all. Either that or homeless orphan fashion.

  Other than that, I found some crackers, which, of course, were all mushy but not moldy or expired, a hip flask with some bitter wine, a few matches I wouldn't be using soon, and a couple of books about flowers and wild fauna that I couldn't carry with me.

  I enjoyed my soggy crackers while dipping them in the vinegary wine (champion's breakfast), while entertaining myself with "The Wild and You: How to Stay Alive." Despite the eye-catching title, the book went on about fun animal facts, so other than having learned about the "brown/polar hybrid" they called a "grolar" or a "pizzly bear," I didn't find anything I could use.

  I didn't have any rope, flares, knives, or those survival items these books seem to assume everyone carries in their back pockets. It's funny how they think I have a Swiss blade but not a lighter. Wait.

  I felt my pockets, then I rummaged through my still-drenched rags and didn't find it. My lighter!

  Would I not be able to keep anything remotely cool?

  It was a shame that this cabin was short of backpacks, though I suppose a backpack wouldn't have survived something like the grass entity's periple.

  I thought back to that moment, how I was suddenly able to see it more clearly when I got into the water, water that I drank, and couldn't help but link the facts. Was it caused by me drinking the lake water, because I made a soup of living grass, or simply because it went out of hiding to hunt me down more quickly? I could still picture those waving colors, real and unreal at the same time, like an optical illusion whenever I closed my eyes.

  Would there be any other side effects from having drunk that water?

  I went outside, the sky azure as a bunting bird's wing, not a single cloud on sight. I hate this place.

  I delved into the forest, unsure of what to look for. I had found a map inside the desk, but in a funny twist of fate, the map was of somewhere else entirely. Not that I had big hopes of some remote island in nightmare land being thoroughly explored by cartographers. I observed the map, if only to pass the time as I kept going forward.

  It was a small segment of a larger territory, clearly not a reserve, because there were several points marked as phone towers and electric layout, a generator room on the top left, and a cabin a little to the left of the center. It was a relief map, so I could clearly see a mountainous formation to the left – or a really tall hill that I was sure I would have noticed if this were a local map – and some kind of camping site in the right corner.

  There was a small lake and a thin river that ran across the place, but I couldn't make sense of it. It had some similarities to the evil grass meadow, due to the cabin being near the lake and that part of the map being mostly flat, but then there were the phone towers and the hills that just didn't make any sense. I sighed and decided that perhaps there were some random elements to this place.

  It wasn't like I was expecting to come across any pizzly bears anytime soon.

  I used to love the forest, but when I get back to the real world (or rather, if I get back), I will be avoiding them for the rest of my life. Now I understand better those people who say that life is nature against men.

  I felt it in my battered body how, rather than men adapting to their surroundings, they industrialize and make the latter more suitable to their needs.

  It was men against nature, and nature here was particularly malevolent. Could it even be called nature?

  I spotted a patch in the land, a sunken area of earth as if something was beneath the surface. As I neared it, I noticed an opening, clearly a cave. I strolled around a bit more, pretending to look for clues as to the true nature of the cave, but really just stalling for time, as I didn't want to go again into some dark, mushy, mossy cave where I could barely see the tip of my nose.

  A sudden idea came to mind: I grabbed a thick branch and tried to wrap it in some dried leaves... Nope. All soggy from the deluge moments ago; how did I forget? Right, because the blue sky made the rain seem like an illusion.

  I thought about my options, where going inside the cave was definitely my least favorite one. But what were the alternatives? Looping around the lost island, trying to play survivalist?

  Or (I laughed) making stone and fire signals, waiting for a plane or a ship to pass and spot me? This last idea made my resolution: I delved into the dark cave.

  I tried to light a match and ignite some thin branches that hadn't gotten that wet, but unfortunately, they had enough humidity to shrug off my attempts.

  Something was unnerving about those caves, something difficult to put into words. The earthly, dusty chambers seemed dug out rather than naturally occurring, and the ground itself was exceedingly loose, as if it could collapse and bury me at a moment's notice.

  A part of me wanted to back down and rethink a strategy - a poor and cowardly attempt to flee the inevitable -, but I got over that feeling and pushed forward. The moment I took two steps inside the cave, the entrance collapsed, leaving me no path but the one before me.

  The air I inhaled was no longer the pure wilderness fresh, but thick and mephitic — this cave was not what it seemed.