"This can't be happening… It can't, it can't, it can't…," the girl repeated over and over, her eyes closed and hidden behind her hands. She pressed hard with her palms, as if that action could bring her back to the world she knew but barely remembered. When she freed her eyes and opened them to see nothing but red leaves everywhere and the two Moons high above, she knew there was no turning back. "Shit!"
That nightmare, unfortunately, was real. That unknown world was real and accepting it was the only thing she could do. Helplessness, as well as so much and sudden stress, made Tristessa finally break down in tears. Her shattered memory did not help with any consolation, nor did the search for logical explanations for what she was experiencing.
The overwhelming loneliness in that forest made her cry harder… But, in essence, crying cleansed the soul, even if it was only a dim feeling of lightness upon the colossal the weight of what tormented her.
"It's okay…it's okay," Tristessa managed to articulate, once her eyes were left without more tears to shed and her breathing became more controlled and devoid of sobs. "I have to think. Yes, calm down and think."
She wiped her tears with the back of her hand, and the movement made her feel that stab of pain in her forearm that she felt in her room. She decided to ignore it, knowing that the current situation required her utmost attention, and stood up.
Even if her mind did not help with memories or clues from the past, she did remember perfectly the last dozens of minutes before leaving planet Earth, as absurd as it sounds.
She remembered her room, although she was undoubtedly missing several details, such as the origin of that horrible feeling of heaviness, and the unpleasant smell of something rotting.
"The mirror…"
And then, of course, there was her reflection; that doppelgänger that she couldn't help but associate with her sudden summoning from one world to another. The empty gaze of her supernatural double was still fresh in Tristessa's mind. The way she pointed her finger at her, as if to say I found you… It gave the girl the chills.
That phenomenon and the fact of being in a world with two natural satellites called into question any understanding of reality, and witnessing them marked a clear before and after.
"What can I do now? Someone… No, a town, civilization…" she thought in the privacy of her broken mind, looking in all directions as she turned on her own axis. Beneath her bare feet, the ground was cold and indifferent… There was nothing that gave her any apparent direction in that forest, all the paths between the trees led to shadows that daylight could hardly eliminate. "What if I'm the only person here? What if I don't find anyone? What if…what if I get lost in the forest?"
So many questions that brought with them a horrible feeling of impending doom. Despair took hold of Tristessa's heart more and more, until her eyes stopped on something foreign to the forest; something that had been jealously hidden at the foot of one of the trees, protected by the shadows projected by the branches meters above.
Quickly Tristessa trotted in that direction, without losing sight of that object, kicking leaves in her path and feeling dizzying excitement among so much pessimism. Upon reaching the foot of the tree, the girl let out a sigh of surprise.
"This is…," Crouching, she picked up a piece of clothing from the protruding-with-roots ground. Made of dark, ruined fabric, punished by the elements and nature, it was a veil with small gold chains at the end to adhere to a tunic. "This means there are people somewhere!"
Yes, that fact was more important than thinking about why and how that piece of clothing had ended up in that place. Knowing that the existence of civilization was practically confirmed by that simple object, Tristessa was more than satisfied.
"Now I have to find…!"
The girl's hope and enthusiasm waned slightly as she looked up and saw the interior of the forest. There was no definite direction or any other sign that indicated the origin of that veil. Tristessa swallowed, the bottom of her stomach twisting at the inexorable and intrinsic corridors between the trees that stretched out in front of her, with no end in sight.
It was a difficult decision, to move forward and risk getting lost in the forest; behind her, the clearing that had seen her arrival in that world offered a false sense of security. The day was advancing, and Tristessa did not know how much more time she had available before the darkness of that new world begins to fall.
"I must go… Yes, I will gain nothing by waiting here," she decided, putting the veil in one of the pockets of her jacket and trembling from head to toe. She just had to take the first step into the unknown, no matter how difficult it was. "Come on, you stupid coward…"
Slowly, she began to walk. Now all that was left was to move forward and keep going, against that deep fear of the unknown.
The crunch of the leaves under her bare feet, hurting from the uneven ground, was the only thing that broke the disturbing monotony that reigned in that Red Forest. Sometimes, the blowing of the wind moved the roof of the branches above her head, contributing to the disturbing natural cacophony. It didn't take long for paranoia to take over the girl's common sense; as she moved forward, she looked back and in other directions from time to time.
She felt like she was being watched. In that sea of trees, in silence… It was the reigning tranquility that fed her fear second by second; that immutable panorama, of leaves eternally falling, the crunch against the ground, and the blowing of the wind…
"H-hello?" she asked timidly upon hearing, or thinking she heard, the sound of a branch breaking. With her breathing coming in short gasps, she looked around. Cold sweat was building up on her forehead, her legs unable to stop trembling from that dangerous mixture of fear and tiredness. "Is there anyone…?"
The only answer she got was that of the forest, with its constant natural orchestra…
Amidst her fleeting glances filled with paranoia, Tristessa saw something in the east direction from her point of view: a furry bundle among leaves, grass and dry mud. As she approached carefully, the girl almost covered her mouth with her hand when she realized that it was a rabbit with brown fur and small ears. It was motionless, almost as if curled up against the ground as if it wanted to protect itself from the cold, and several flies were buzzing around it.
"It's not moving," she thought, as she approached and without alerting the small animal. The flies instantly took distance, and she detected no strong odors coming from it. "Is it…?"
She crouched down a few inches from that brown pompom and with a tentative finger, touched it. It was a little cold and stiff, almost confirming its passing. Its fur was soft, like a stuffed animal, although upon closer contact, she noticed that the skin was rough… No, it stung.
"Ouch!" Tristessa suddenly withdrew her finger and looked surprised as a trickle of blood flowed from the tip that had felt the prick, as if a stinger had stuck in it. "What the hell?"
Looking around, she saw that several corners of its torso were sticking out white, hard and sharp spines, and an interesting amount were concentrated around the animal's neck, forming a discreet ring between fur, bulky and dangerous.
"Wow… A rabbit with spines on its neck and body. Poor thing, it must be painful," she thought, sadly, as she carefully caressed a harmless part of the animal's back. Thinking, she became more and more convinced that those thorns were not the cause of its death, since they gave the impression of being part of the body, just like nails or hair. "I wonder what kill..."
Suddenly, Tristessa was the victim of a dizzy influence that momentarily turned her perspective of the world upside down. It was as if someone had shaken her head from side to side, scrambling her brain and generating deep nausea.
"Ugh, w-why?" she asked herself, with her free hand against her temple and clenching her teeth to resist that mental attack. She had been taken so by surprise that she noticed too late several movements throughout the animal's body. "What the fuck!?"
The girl broke contact and jumped back, already feeling that general dizziness in her head less strongly. The pain was completely forgotten when she watched, a smile forming on her lips as the bunny began to move. He raised his head and looked to the side at Tristessa, his pitch-black eyes fixed on her.
"So you were asleep!" she assumed, laughing and smiling non-stop. "Hello, little one!"
"…"
"You are so adorable!" she exclaimed, satisfied with the animal's passivity. "Although with those thorns you are a little dangerous, eh… Can I come closer?"
Tristessa could not contain her happiness at finding such a cute living being in that world that, from the first moment, caused her a flood of unknowns, uncertainty and discomfort that converged into fear. After so many adverse events in such a short time, from losing her memory to arriving in that world, something like a bunny was a breeze of fresh air to the soul, alleviating for a while the titanic weight of her current problems.
She took several slow steps towards the animal, which stood on its hind legs and continued to stare at the girl.
"I'm not going to hurt you," she said, extending her hand and giving the rabbit a new, honest smile. "Calm down…"
"…"
"That's right, I'm a friend. There's nothing to be afraid of." Her hand was almost there, inches away from touching his little head, with the intention of caressing him between those adorable little ears. "What do you want me to call you?"
"…help."
Tristessa stopped instantly, and her loving smile shattered. She blinked several times, paralyzed by the abyss projected by the animal's black eyes. A large part of her already punished mind refused to believe that she had just heard that rabbit respond to her in her own language, its mouth still but half-open, showing small, sharp incisors.
"Help."
Without a doubt, the rabbit had spoken with a deep, masculine voice, which undoubtedly had no business coming out of the inside of the throat of an animal like that.
The rabbit took distance from Tristessa, trotting in the opposite direction.
"Impossible…," the girl murmured, refusing to believe what she had just witnessed.
"Help."
Having heard it for the third time, Tristessa realized that it was a voice without emotion, without any feeling behind a cry for help. It was a false voice, a replica, whose only purpose was to attract the attention of other animals… But why?
"Wait!"
The girl ran after the rabbit, ignoring the pain in her feet as she stepped on rocks and protruding tree roots. Her black hair flew in the wind and became a spider web for the falling leaves, but Tristessa couldn't worry about that at a time like this: she had to reach that strange little animal, learn from it and, above all, keep it company.
"Please come back!" she begged him as she began to feel a burning sensation of exhaustion in her lungs. Dodging the trees and the rain of leaves, Tristessa didn't take her eyes off her target for a moment, knowing perfectly well that if she did, she would lose it forever. "I'm not going to hurt you, r…e…ly…"
Without warning, Tristessa was forced by a will greater than her own to slow down; the exhaustion that invaded her was astronomical, covering every corner of her body. And at the same time, when she could barely drag her feet, the rabbit collapsed like a rag doll a few meters ahead. Its body dragged itself against the giant mattress of red leaves, victim of the inertia it had been carrying, until it stopped in an abnormal position. Mouth open, legs extended... The animal was dead.
"Ah..."
Gravity wanted to crush her mercilessly. Every cell in her body acquired a massive weight that threatened to make her collapse into the ground, and taking a couple more steps towards the motionless bunny required a combined effort of energy that she almost didn't have anymore.
"What the hell is happening to me?" the girl complained. "First my memory, then this world with spiny, talking rabbits, and now this?"
She had lost all physical resistance. Without a doubt, running could not cause that in a human being more than tiredness and a heart attack in the worst case...
No, that was something else. Something had happened to bring her to such an extreme of fatigue, and there was no doubt that it had to do with that rabbit, a couple of meters ahead, lifeless.
Very slowly, she closed the distance. As her body regained strength, the sunset became more than evident in that sea of trees, dyeing the skies orange. And, little by little, gently but relentlessly... Darkness was coming, and Tristessa could not stay adrift in a place like this.
"If there are rabbits in this forest... There must also be predators," she thought, with emptiness in her stomach. It was the balance of nature in its purest form, just as she had learned in school, and if she did not hurry, she ran the risk of experiencing it firsthand. "The little rabbit…"
When she reached the little animal, she intended to bend down to touch it but something inside her prevented her from doing so. A feeling of a bad omen.
"If I touch it… Even with my toes…" She didn't dare, she couldn't. She could verify that the animal was dead just by seeing that it wasn't breathing. And yet, she couldn't shake off that heavy feeling. "How did it die so suddenly?"
That question had burned into her mind. Did life and death work differently in this world? Before, she had thought that the rabbit had been sleeping or unconscious, but now, seeing it there, motionless and unresponsive… Tristessa wasn't sure, and she had no evidence to support her terrifying theory, but she couldn't ignore the option that this rabbit had been dead from the very beginning.
"…anyone?"
"Hello…?"
"…over there…"
"…son…"
Various voices, of men and women, began to be heard in the bushes ahead. Open-mouthed, Tristessa saw many of those spiny rabbits coming out of the thicket.
"Others?" she whispered, and consequently those seven rabbits repeated that same word, asynchronously and so disturbingly that the girl felt shivers run down her spine. "You repeat what you hear… So, you heard people!"
The rabbits stayed in place, repeating that word over and over again, waiting until Tristessa was ready to walk towards them. It was then that they went in a herd in the same and unknown direction, towards the darkness between the trees with the most abundant leaves.
"Where are you going?" she asked them. Of course, there was no answer, but some rabbits stopped and waited for her, as if asking her to quicken her pace, making her unable to hide a hopeful smile. "Are you…leading me?"
"Leading… Leading… Leading…"
It was early to declare victory, but at last, Tristessa was firmly optimistic in her present situation. Those rabbits had undoubtedly heard other people speak, and the way they were guiding her, there was reason to have faith that their destination was going to be with the original transmitters of the words that those animals had learned.
Time passed and Tristessa was so attached to that hope that she tried to ignore the imminent fall of night over the forest. The trees seemed endless, the rain of red leaves did not stop, and now the bushes that the rabbits were forcing her to cross hurt her with thorny plants. If it weren't for the strong luminescence offered by the Twin Moons, there would be no way for Tristessa to see beyond her own outstretched hand.
"Almost there, huh? Almost there, yes… Almost there," she said under her breath, laughing as she passed for the umpteenth time through a bush that caused several cuts on her legs and thighs. "I'm going to… huh?"
Her foot kicked something that was hidden among the endless leaves. Round and not very heavy, it rolled out of the woods, almost reaching the small horde of rabbits in the middle of what seemed like a clearing. Tristessa walked towards it and had it at her feet, with the light of the Moons shining between the tongues of shadows that abounded in the forest.
It was a human skull.
And around it, bones. Many bones, hundreds of bones. A cemetery without tombstones, full of human remains and those of other animals; there were so many bones that they even managed to match the volume of leaves that had been falling.
Tristessa was left open-mouthed, looking at that mortuary landscape with wide, bloodshot eyes that seemed to want to come out of their sockets. Her hands were shaking like crazy, her legs too, and the fear that she had held back for the last hour regained its place of predominance. She saw the rabbits that had led her there mixed with dozens of other rabbits, getting lost among leaves, bones and hundreds of mixed words.
Lost voices of all those who inhabited that cemetery; voices of victims of that vile trap; voices that now belonged to those rabbits, giving them a connotation devoid of emotion but that, in Tristessa's ears, also expressed mockery. It was as if they were laughing at her, insulting her for having been so naive to have followed them to that place.
And in the center of the clearing, were a pack of canine creatures, new to the girl's terrified eyes. Giant, hairy monsters, with mouths full of sharp teeth, eyes that shone menacingly in the dark, four legs, and two tails full of fur.
"W-wolves…" Tristessa managed to articulate, shaking from head to toes.
More than wolves, these monsters must have been the equivalent of the legendary Fenrir of her world: there simply was no wolf as big as a car, or a baby elephant. Three of these monsters stood up upon noticing Tristessa's presence, cruelly betrayed by the rabbits that approached and passed between their giant paws with sharp nails. They growled, hungry and eager to provide dinner for the pack.
It was simply worthy of admiration, the way in which she had been deceived. A second before turning around and starting to run for her life, Tristessa remembered that concept that explained everything: why those bunnies had brought her there, and why they lived so comfortably among those natural predators, without fear of being devoured.
Symbiotic relationship. Animals that cooperated with each other so that one or both could benefit from working together. In this case, the rabbits guided fresh food to the wolves, facilitating the hunt and ensuring the continuity of their species by not being hunted.
That cooperation had just doomed Tristessa.
"SHIT! FUCKING SHIT!" the girl screamed, running desperately through that labyrinth of ancient titans and a perpetual rain of red leaves falling in the darkness. "HELP!"
Everything was going against her: the panic caused by the howling of the wolves behind her, the bushes dampening her advance, and the roots and rocks hidden in the bed of leaves hitting her toes. The trees were endless and there was nothing that could guide her to a safe place, in so much darkness.
"PLEASE, HELP!" Her screams echoed in the shadows, but no one answered. "HELP…!"
From one second to the next, Tristessa felt a violent jolt on her back, followed by a deep burning pain in her shoulder. The impact made her fall rolling on the ground, although the impact was cushioned by the bed of leaves. Without understanding what had happened, the girl with hair as black as that night looked up, and with the help of the moonlight that filtered through the roof of branches dozens of meters above, she saw and heard:
"Grrr…"
One of the giant wolves had caught up with her and had successfully hunted her: in its mouth, with sharp teeth firmly embedded in it, it held Tristessa's left arm, torn cleanly from the shoulder joint. And the former owner of that arm, in a fraction of a second, understood what had happened.
Her mind and soul understood it, penalizing her with a punishment for her failed attempt to escape: an eternity of torment.
"Aghh…aaaaAGGAGGHHHHHHH," the scream Tristessa tried to get out of her throat was drowned by the indescribable pain that flowed into her head like a raging river made of fire, as if hot embers had been poured inside her skull.
Her wide eyes found what was left of her collarbone, shattered by the wolf's bite, and a grotesque spectacle of veins, flesh and skin torn to pieces that spit blood with each frantic beat of her heart. Writhing on the ground was of no use; kicking and tearing her throat out by screaming neither; nothing could stop her agony. She felt her crotch wet and hot, and a constant whistling in her ears that she could hear above her own screams.
Nearby, the wolf chewed on his prize, vilely looking with those malicious red eyes at the girl writhing in pain on the ground. Warm saliva dripped from his hairy mouth and blood-stained teeth, while the severed veins and torn muscles at the end of her lost arm caused fresh blood to drip out.
"Kill me."
That wasn't her voice inside her head, but it said what she could only think about in order to stop feeling that pain. It was unbearable, squeezing the stump full of splintered bone and warm muscles with her remaining hand was of no use. She wasn't dying, she wasn't, not even close to losing consciousness. Maybe it was the suffering that kept her from fainting, condemning her to suffer being devoured alive until the end.
Inevitably, the other wolves joined the feast, pouncing on Tristessa with ravenous hunger. She managed to see a shadow fall upon her and then dozens of teeth against her throat, extinguishing her voice forever as her arteries and larynx were pierced.
The noise of the baying of those dark-bound hounds and the sounds that followed were truly chilling. Her body became a fountain of blood; pieces of clothing, skin and flesh flew in all directions; the wolves had torn through her easily breakable ribs and were tearing her organs out of place one by one. The air was instantly filled with a potent smell, somewhere between salty and septic, from the combination of fresh blood with the contents of her burst intestines and the acid from her stomach, which had been torn into several pieces.
Her mouth filled with blood, her eyes too, and each orifice also became an escape route from the desperate pumping of a heart that refused to give up. She could no longer feel pain, her threshold had been far exceeded, and yet she did not die. Not even when another wolf joined the one chewing her windpipe and spine, sinking its teeth into her face and tearing off her right eye and nose in a single bite.
"…Kill me…"
With her vision so suddenly violated, dark and tinted red, Tristessa had a very brief revelation: an unlocked memory, of a hallway plunged in shadows, dimly lit by candles scattered across the floor, stuck to the smooth walls; a long red carpet that led to the end of the hallway, where a black door stood imposingly.
"…Kill…me…"
The door swung wide open, revealing a darkness so deep, so dense, that not even the candlelight of the hallway could penetrate inside.
"…Mom…?"
That was her voice, at last. Thinking of the unknown, what was inside that Dark Room, Tristessa ignored when the giant wolf managed to break the upper part of her spine and separate her head with an unrecognizable face from her body. It was there that the little visual capacity that the girl had left began to fade rapidly. Her mind also stopped working, abandoning all attempt at reasoning and survival instinct.
"..."
Dying was a strange experience. There was no pain anymore, not even the slightest sound could be heard, and consciousness was blurred into infinity. Fear lingered, unfortunately, like a cancer, parasitizing her shattered soul and feeding itself permanently.
The Darkness she had seen inside that room rose like a colossal shade, embracing her from all directions; a dense, heavy, cold fog. A miasma of doom.
Tristessa felt the precise moment in which her existence was an infinitesimal second of frozen time away from being erased, the pieces of her soul ready to fade into nothingness, fall into the void and get lost in its turbulent depths.
And she waited. She waited an eternity, or what the blink of an eye takes, it was difficult to interpret.
Was that really what dying felt? Heavy, dense darkness, so much so that it seemed like it could touched it with the hand?
"…"
No.
No, that Darkness was something else, something more ancient and incomprehensible. It was Discord, breaking the balance between Life and Death; capable of banishing Tristessa from that fundamental balance, suffocating her in its cold and horrifying embrace; the girl's soul was torn to pieces, trapped, with nowhere to escape.
"…still here, Tristessa?"
That was her mother's voice, so arrogant that the girl, even suffocating in the embrace of the shadows, remembered:
Her mother's name was…was…
"…Se…le…ne…"
The embrace of the darkness felt colder, terrifying. Her shattered soul cried.
"…Selene…"
That was it, her name sounded in the darkest void.
And it catalyzed the progress of infinity, forcing the Darkness, in its relentless Discord, to release Tristessa.