Whiteout

The frozen, snowy forest Shiverwood was rumored to be cursed.
What did I do? I snuck into the forest, like an idiot. My brain convinced me to do it… no, it dared me to do it.

But that’s beside the point.

I went into the forest all alone, and the first thing I saw was a fence and a sign saying, “STAY AWAY. UNSAFE FOREST!”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, eventually crawling over the fence and reaching the other side.
"Alright. Let's see if the rumors are true, shall we?" I whispered to myself, sneaking deeper into the forest.

The forest was stunning. The trees were huge but beautiful, the wind made their branches dance back and forth, and the white snow made the view look even better. I began to believe that the whole 'cursed' rumor was fake… of course it was, why wouldn't it be?

"This place is beautiful," I whispered under my breath. "And they say it's cursed? Yeah, right. Like I'm gonna believe your nonsense!"

I then wandered even deeper into the forest, snapping some pictures along the way.
I took a picture of a beautiful tiny tree, a giant boulder covered in snow, and even a selfie of myself in the snow.

I was having the time of my life, but soon I noticed it was beginning to get dark.
"Well… better head home since it's getting dark!"

I then walked down the path I had taken to get into the forest, but the worst thing that could happen actually happened…
I got lost. I walked down the path but couldn't find the same fence I had crawled over to enter the forest. All there was was an endless path that led to nothing but the forest itself.

I began panicking and even tried using my phone to find my way out.
"No no no no no… this… this can't be happening. Dear God, p-please…"

My fingers were trembling as I opened my phone. I opened the Maps app, trying to see if it could locate me, but I had no signal… typical.
I was in a forest, after all, so it made sense why I had no signal.

I began panicking even more, almost crying in fear.
"P-please just work, goddammit! I-I wanna go home. I-it's dark!"

An idea then popped into my mind. I could maybe try to contact someone to come pick me up—emergency services or something.
"I can just contact someone… damn, you're actually smart, Ayla!"

But before I could even type in the numbers, my phone ran out of battery and died right in my hands. All my hopes were lost, and I was scared like hell.
I was on the verge of pissing myself from how scared I was.
"Fuck… no please, not now… FUCK!"

Then I realized that the path I had taken was nowhere to be found. I had been too distracted on my phone to try and find help, and I had probably wandered too far from the path, even deeper into the forest. Now my hopes were completely lost, and I didn’t know what to do.
I began walking again, trying my absolute hardest to find my way out, but I was probably wandering even deeper into the forest like an idiot.

As I continued to walk, I remembered I had a flashlight with me for some reason. I took it out and turned it on so I would know where I was going in the dark.

Eventually, I heard sounds coming from nearby, and it freaked me out.
"W-who's t-there…? S-show yourself!!"

My hands were shaking, my entire body trembling from fear, but I walked closer to the sounds anyway, because my idiotic brain told me to.

I finally reached the source of the sound and saw a small wolf cub stuck under a boulder. It was bleeding, screaming for help, and looked so fragile.

"A wolf?" I muttered, still a little scared.

The tiny wolf cub didn’t even bother looking at me. It was already dealing with its own problems, trying its hardest to get out from under the boulder.

I didn’t want to get near the damn wolf, so I slowly backed off and began sprinting my way out of there.
That was until my brain stopped me and told me something.

Go help the poor wolf. You're really gonna let a wolf cub, something so small and fragile, deal with the pain of being stuck when you can easily help it?

I hesitated at first. "I… I can't… w-what if it bites me?"

It’s a cub. It won’t bite you, you dummy!

Damn, my brain was putting up a fight with me, and it fucking won.
I slowly went back to the poor wolf cub to try and save it from the pain it was enduring.

I tried reaching out and touching the wolf, but it instantly tried to bite me.

You don’t touch it yet! You help it first! Remove the boulder first, moron!

"Don't tell me what to do, you fucking dumb brain!" I muttered, visibly annoyed.
I hated arguing with my own brain. It was stupid and didn’t make sense.

I finally lifted the boulder a little, allowing the wolf cub to slowly get up. It was shaking, bleeding, and looked like it was in so much pain.
I finally let go of the boulder, putting it down before I tried to communicate with the wolf.

"H-hey there, little one… y-you won’t bite me… will you?"

It just stood there, still shaking and bleeding a bit. It didn’t make a single sound.

"Y-you're bleeding, you know?"

Again, no sound, nothing.

I tried reaching out to soothe and pat the wolf cub, but before I could, it bit my arm really hard, to the point I almost lost consciousness.
I tried letting go and running off, but I wasn’t able to.

"AHHHHH, MY ARM! LET GO YOU… you—"

Eventually, I lost consciousness and fell into a deep sleep.
The wolf stopped biting my arm, but instead bit my foot and dragged me somewhere.

[TO BE CONTINUED]