There are no sounds in the woods. No wind. No animals. There is nothing but a see of reds, yellows and oranges arranged in a way to make it seem as though the whole woods are on fire. It's only exasperated by the soft colour of the setting sun. On the one hand it brings out the vibrant colours and on the other hand the dark shadows of the woods only become darker by the minute.

Everything hurts.

His head hurts, his arms hurt, his back and his legs throb in pain. He doesn't remember how he ended up face first in the gravel. He doesn't remember how he ended up in the middle of the woods. He doesn't remember anything. Slowly he tries to pull himself off the ground and for the first few moments it doesn't seem to work. Thankfully he's able to get his hands underneath him and pushes himself away from the cold fall earth. He stands dusting his jeans and burnt orange henley off. It's all he seems to be wearing at the moment. No jacket and no shoes make the bite of the fall air go right through his pathetic excuse of a body. It's times like this he wished he could gain some weight, so that he'd have something to protect him for the ever chilling air. To compensate for the lack of a jacket he wraps his thin arms around his torso trying to keep his core warm at the very least.
He looks around trying to spot anything. There is nothing. He shivers and forces his legs to move forwards. Or perhaps backwards? It's hard to tell with this path. There's nothing suggesting direction and since he had nothing to go on, well, something is better than nothing. His pace is slow, his whole body aching in protest as he forces himself to walk. The only sound there is seems to be the soft crunch of gravel from underneath his bare feet. He knows because he's listening for absolutely anything that could lead him to getting some sort of help. If it wasn't for the sound of him walking he would have been sure he'd gone deaf.
After what seems like ages his feet become raw from walking on the pressed gravel. Each and every pebble larger than a pinprick seems to be bothering his feet and he moves to the side of the road. The tall grass and leaves are damp from a rainfall that probably happened recently. At first it's soothing on his feet. But even that after a while irritates them, the cold wetness seems to penetrate all the way up his legs and into his spine. The worst part though doesn't seem to be his cold feet. Only that the woods look exactly the same as where he'd started. The only difference is the darkness that seems to be crawling faster than it had just a few moments ago. The sun is now back behind the trees and what was once almost beautiful shows the trees for what they truly are. Dying.
He looks down at his watch though the shattered face is useless. He hadn't noticed it before. He frowned and looked back behind him and in front of him. "Hello!" His voice is harsh as though he hadn't used it in a long time. When he's nervous he grinds his teeth. He doesn't even realise he's doing it until he tries to speak usually. Yelling only makes pain shoot to his head which was already throbbing in pain. It'd been throbbing for days. He'd almost gotten used to it. "Hello!!" He cried out, this one was softer but it wasn't intentional. "Is anyone there!?" The only thing that answers him is silence. There's not even an echo as the masses of trees and leaves seem to absorb the sound into themselves. There's no one to hear him and he forces himself to keep walking. Occasionally he calls out in the attempt that someone can hear him. Though eventually his mouth is so dry and his voice so harsh that he has to stop. He's cold. He's hungry. And really he just wants to go home. But he's not even sure where home is. Perhaps he's walking the wrong way? If he'd just chosen to go backwards maybe he'd already be at a house, or a town, christ he'd even take just one of those fire telephones that are out in the middle of no where in places like these. Something to help him. But there's just more road and trees and darkness.
He was just about to stop and rest for a while when he sees something ahead of him. A man carrying Tyhpas which means he's close to something at the very least right? He'll take it. He'd take anything. He starts off at a slow jog towards the other his body crying out in protest as he does so. "Excuse me!" The man doesn't seem to hear him and Gabriel picks up his pace half running towards the other. When he yells next it's as loud as he possibly could right now. "Excuse me! I-I need help! Hello!?" His long legs coupled with bare feet get the best of him and he falls hard. Digging into the pressed gravel at full force and he cries out in pain as small rocks dig into his feet, knees and palms of his hands. When he looks up expecting the other to be hovering over him there's nothing. Absolutely nothing. He's left in the darkening woods while someone who was just a few feet away disappeared. All rationality in his mind left him at this point and he forced himself up quickly ignoring the feeling of disorientation as he stands. His heart races into his chest as he looks around for the man. He'd cry out but he can't. He can't seem to make any noises at all. All he hears is his heart pounding in his chest. No rustle of leaves, no crunch of gravel, there's nothing just like he had before.
The sun is now completely set behind the trees and it's almost impossible to see. Thanks to his eye condition Gabriel really can't see at night anyway. Now as his body seems to recoil in panic from what just happened and he's almost as blind as a bat. His body can't focus on what to fix first. His panicked breath, his focus, or his racing heart. The only thing it seems to know is that he needs to run. He needs to run as fast as he possibly could. He does just that ignoring everything but the flight response in his body. He's certainly not sticking around to find out what the hell that was all about. He picks himself up off the ground and takes off at a fast pace. Faster than he ever had before in the entirety of his life. The trail seems to stay just the same as it had for hours before. Straight into nothing. The dark fall skies don't help as clouds cover the only source of light he has intermittently. Not that he really seems to need it.
He runs until he's completely out of breath. He runs until his legs give out underneath him. He collapses onto the ground once more breathing desperately surrounded by darkness as a= rolling could covers the quarter moon once more. He wants to cry but he bites it back. He fights the desire to just lay there and tuck it all in. When the cloud disperses there's something in front of him. In the soft moonlight it looks like soft marble, beautiful yet eerie all at once, a statue sitting in the middle of the road. He looks up ahead of him focusing in on the object spotting a woman with long black hair. It covers her face. Or maybe she doesn't even have one. It's hard to tell as he scrabbles away desperately. She steps closer as he moves and yet she doesn't make a sound against the ground as she walks. Her steps touch the earth as lightly as the moon beams that illuminate her. He wants to say something, to scream, to beg. To do anything to keep her from advancing but he can't. Nothing comes out as he desperately struggles for words. He's
not even entirely sure he's breathing. He's not sure he can.

"Stay away... Stay away from them all..."




He shoots up in his bed knocking the spelling tests that he'd been grading that surround him almost clear across the room and causes Cobalt to yowl and scamper off the bed and out towards the livingroom. His bedsheet is gone and he's covered in a cold sweat. His breath sounds asthmatic as he tries desperately to breathe again and he struggles out of bed running to the bathroom, throwing himself against the bathroom sink as he retches into the bowl beneath him. Having eaten nothing before he fell asleep he doesn't throw up. His body just convulses as it tries to readjust itself back to normality. When his breathing seems to calm, at least a little bit, he pulls his shaking hands off the side of the sink to look at them. There's nothing there but he can feel where pebbles had once been lodged in there. His whole body shakes violently and he collapses onto the bathroom rug as a long huddled mass. "It was just a dream..."