The cold weather had finally found a golden opportunity to harshly bite at my uncovered skin as I run through the empty streets that were buried in a peaceful silence.
My nose which highly resembled that of a clown had turned very numb by this point and it wasn't even 10 minutes since I had abandoned the comfort of my home.
After every few seconds, I would quickly glance at the wet concrete beneath my feet and would become anxiously reminded yet again that my shoelaces were undone but it was too time-consuming to tie them up.
"I can make it. I'm almost there" I chanted as I ran and hoped that I wouldn't trip over them because I certainly could not afford the bill from a broken nose or a fractured knee.
The small hole in the bottom of my left converse had made my sock wet and therefore would cause a shiver to run down my body every time my foot touched the frozen ground.
The enormous sign was the first thing I noticed when I crossed the street into the main road.
The black letters spelled 'Evergreen Historical Real Estate' in bold.
I hurriedly crossed the wide street when suddenly the sound of a blaring horn and beaming headlights stopped my movements.
I slowly turned my head to the right where a vehicle approaching fast, quickly closing the distance between us and as the light grew brighter, I quickly braced myself for the worst
and whispered a quiet "oh shit"
as I closed my eyes tightly, waiting for the inevitable…. when all of a sudden there was a deafening silence.
I gradually started to open my eyes and quickly realized that perhaps I had been transferred elsewhere because my surroundings had completely changed now.
There was no sign of the small French bakery or the antique store that occupied the corner of the street.
The crowded newspaper shop adjacent to the real estate agency that always smelt of cigarette had also vanished.
Everything was replaced by a mahogany-brown forest that was cut right in the middle by a thin dirt road.
The sky had changed color from a depressing grey to a smooth white.
The wind was now noticeably colder, and the sky looked miserably heavy like it could fall any second and cover the earth beneath in a soft and thick blanket of white.
"Oh wow, it's really cold" I voiced the obvious
as I wrapped my hands around myself to stop the shivering.
'Isn't this the forest that surrounds the orphanage? What am I doing here now?' I questioned.
'I was in front of the real estate agency a minute ago, then what happened? am I dreaming now?'
My mind was working harder than ever, perhaps even harder than when I was doing my final exams, in order to find answers before I suffered another panic attack today or worse got hypothermia.
As I took slow steps towards the centre of the road, I noticed a thin fog forming in the air which gave me a creepy feeling.
"This can definitely be the start to a horror movie" I thought out loud as I squinted my eyes to see better.