'How the hell did I get here?'
The thought kept on nagging at him and he almost shouted into the jungle, but what would be the point?
Deep down he knew, that he was well and truly alone.
But that's fine. Arlo had gotten used to isolation. When Arlo was back on earth he lost loved one after loved one. First, it was his brother and girlfriend, then several of his friends got arrested and sent to labor camps all at once, and finally, his last friend unexpectedly overdosed. Even though Arlo had never seen her touch a drug in her life. This left Arlo spiraling down the slippery steps of depression.
It took a couple of weeks to scavenge enough money for a proper funeral and in that time something inside Arlo snapped. Almost immediately all his tears dried up and he gained the ability to see the world in color again. But Arlo didn't feel happy, in fact, he felt nothing.
His mind was clear of anxiety, but also of the hope, morals, and dreams that caused it. He was finally free, leaving him empty.
But he still had one last promise to fulfill, one last tether that kept him invested in his life: He had to give Emeila a respectable funeral.
So he set his mind to it, he worked days on end before collapsing to the ground. The work was rather easy when he had no respect for his body or well-being.
When the funeral commenced not a single tear left his eyes. He wasn't sad to say goodbye, or proud of what he accomplished. He sat through the ceremony like a robot, not noticing the looks of pity from the funeral employees. He was the only soul to show up, but that didn't matter, nothing did.
Arlo had always been a cheerful person. He always gave much more love to the world than he received.
Yet if you looked at him now, all you could see was a shell of what he was.
He was standing with his back up to a solid black tree, with one hand pinching the bridge of his nose and the other at his waist. There was an empty expression on his face, but he was still fervently thinking about his weird situation.
'OK, I remember finishing up with the funeral, then bussing home. I remember collapsing to the floor from exhaustion and then falling asleep, but I still feel like there's something more, something I'm forgetting.'
'Yeah, I swear something weird happened right before I fell asleep.'
'WAIT NO, it was the process of falling asleep that was weird'
Arlo tried to recall exactly what happened when he fell asleep with mild success.
Disorganized and cloudy memories appeared in his mind, but one scene popped out, It felt like it was the closest he could remember before he fell asleep:
His muscles had failed on him, yet his heart was calm and his breath robotically steady. then something odd happened, he blinked, shutting his eyes for a fraction of a second, yet his vision never returned. then the perpetual sound of construction slowly faded to nothing. More of his senses disconnected. his smell disappeared and the sensation of the cold floor tiles on his skin left him too.
There was probably more, but that was as much as he could remember.
'I definitely didn't fall asleep in a normal way, I was conscious and alert, yet I didn't think it was weird that I lost my senses at that time.'
'huh'
SNAP
Arlo's head whirled around and his eyes locked onto a small bird through the bushes.
the bird was hopping from branch to branch slowly getting closer to Arlo. it stopped and looked at him with intelligent eyes before flying up the hill.
'Damn, that was creepy.'
'its eyes looked almost human.'
Arlo took his weight off the tree and took a careful step forward. his foot squashed the crunchy leaves on the surface of the jungle floor. once his foot had finished sinking to the muddy ground underneath he took another step, then another, then another.
before he knew it he was sprinting up the steep hill toward the smallest mountain.
'If I get to higher ground I might be able to figure out where I am.'
'But I sorta just want to see that bird again.'