#red forest setting bc it was the only realm that popped into my head

[yllowpages]

❝ It’s a maze. ❞

❝ Yeah. ❞ He exhales the word, still catching up in every sense. His breath, his thoughts ... His mind totally awash — he's been pulled under its waves again : Cauldron Lake ( not that he had ever surfaced ) . He could swim upward as much as he wanted, the water would always weigh him back down to the lakebed. Even while his mind still searches for clarity, he can see how ' what is this place? ' had maybe been a less-than-pertinent question in the passing moment. ( It's coming back to me now ... The words on the page from all those years ago ... But why is it so hard to recall the details? What is this fog doing to my head? )

Alan glances around their surroundings. The trees looked as though they reached taller than the sky and the grass was coarse and thick around their feet. All while black fog seeps in around them at every angle. It was eerie. Almost more than anything else the Dark Place had shown him. ( A maze of nature's own creation, designed to madden and entrap. ) He nods lightly at the woman in front of him — the woman who may have just saved him : ❝ I can see that. ❞ ( A maze ... Brings back memories ... )

Is this how it went? The episode? I don't ... I can't remember. The longer I spend here, the more the Dark Place takes. My time, memories ... How long have I ... ? — This all feels so familiar but ... I'm missing something. Some vital piece of information the story needs to move forward. Without it ... Well, I'll just keep going in circles. But I have to keep moving. The story beats are all here — hidden, somewhere in the maze. The loop. I have to believe living through this nightmare — my own creation — will get me out. Get me back to Alice.

The heartbeat that had been pounding in his ears — his heartbeat — has faded into the background. He can breathe. He can think. ( It's the best he can do when there's no relaxation in a place like this. ) When his vision is no longer blurred by the fear and adrenaline, he can get a better look at her. And it was her. One of the episode's protagonists. He doesn't remember if it was him or someone else who named her : Jill. ( Horror is only victims and monsters, but ' Night Springs ' allowed their characters a chance — even in the darkest nights, there were still lights at the end of the tunnel. ) But it wasn’t just her. There were ... others. It was an ensemble story, he recalls. A group of unlikely survivors fighting against the night to make it to dawn … That's how he wrote it. ( Wh—where … ? Where are the others? )

And as if written on cue, a scream in the distance. It echoes, bounces against trees and escapes into the nothingness of the night sky. His heart jumps with a gasp, but he silences himself quickly. ( The monster ... The killer ... It's out there. It's ... hunting. That was its goal. Hunt and kill. That was the story. ) Sweat beads on his forehead, at his temples. The only way out is through, he remembers. ( But — how? What was the ending?! ) The tension and frustration shows on his face, in his darting eyes and furrowed brow. As Alan looks back up at Jill, he says : ❝ Fl—flashlight. I need a flashlight — we need flashlights. They'll help — with the darkness. ❞

@soulcost / jill valentine.