It was a dark and void-filled night only being illuminated by the crescent-shaped moon high in the sky, down below on the ground there seemed to be an unending amount of weathered oak trees that seemed to stretch as far as the human eye could see, even with a flashlight in hand, it was still quite a challenge to further then a couple of meters, but a young man of skinny stature, with little muscle, short black hair, and ordinary brown eyes that blended easily into a crowd, trudged forward, continued since there had been many complaints about mysterious sounds and other strange phenomena going on in the park and since it was his job as the park ranger to investigate and conforms the complaints.
"Sigh... what a pain in the ass.", He muttered under his breath
Howard had ignored these reports for weeks, dismissing them as the wild imaginations of late-night hikers and campers. But as the complaints piled up, so did pressure from his superiors. So after the park closed, Howard finally decided to investigate this headache and in the meantime try to get a long overdue raise, but by the time the last visitor left and darkness had already swallowed the park, nearly most of the park had been thoroughly searched he didn't find anything of notice as he expected, nothing out of the ordinary appeared—no eerie shadows, no mysterious figures, no howling specters. He sighed in relief and prepared to retrace his steps back to the entrance.
But as he had wrapped everything up he began to backtrack and walked backward from the path he came from as he walked more and more he noticed that the path seemed to be somehow unending as if he had not even taken a step from the start.
Still, Howard quickly put this thought in the back of his mind, thinking that his mind might be playing tricks on him due to his horrible sleep routine. As he continued to walk, everything around him had gone dead silent. After a few more moments passed, Howard knew that something seemed to be wrong.
"What's happening I have been walking for a while now yet it seems as if I haven't even moved at all.", As Howard analyzed to himself his train of thought had been suddenly broken due to the florescent light in his hand beginning to flicker uncontrollably, at this sight Howards heart began to race and he began to run as if life depended on it.
"Ohh hell no! I have seen way too many horror movies to know where this crap leads to", Howard screamed in his head, even though Howard naturally didn't believe in the supernatural or otherworldly, he didn't want to stand around and find out if his beliefs were correct or not"
The faster he ran, the more disoriented he became. His legs burned, his lungs screamed for air, and his sides ached with sharp, stabbing pain. Finally, exhaustion overtook fear, and he collapsed to his knees, gasping for breath. Every breath felt like fire in his chest.
The flickering light in his hand stabilized. The forest around him remained silent, unmoving. Slowly, his heartbeat settled, though his body still trembled from exertion.
Laughing to himself, Howard leaned against the nearest tree, his chuckles spiraling into a near-mad cackle. "I can't believe I fell for those stupid stories," he said, shaking his head. "Damn, hikers and their wild imaginations…"
Howard's laugh gradually began to fade being replaced by a deep frown, "What the hell is this bullshit? It is as if I am trapped in one of those.. what were they called again!? Oh yeah, one of those infinite mazes! I think that's what they were called. I really don't remember"
As He stood up he noticed that the stone path he walked on had seamlessly disappeared, his frown only grew deeper.
"I know for a fact that I ran in a straight line, it is impossible to get lost when you literally walk in a single direction... also why do the trees seem to mysteriously get taller and wider" He thought to himself
As his head went up to observe the strangeness of the Howard eyes shrank "What the... why are these trees full of leaves?" He thought to himself finding the whole situation strange and weird "It is obvious that trees don't have their leaves at this time of season."
After a while of thinking Howard's head began to hurt as if he was stabbed in the head, it was so bad to the point he had to crouch down and grab his head but after some seconds seem to go away but Howard was not happy in the sliest.