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// Day 1: Going home 
// Story: Afterlife 
// by Star Sparkle 
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I think there was pain? No, I’m certain of it, there was searing, blinding, endless pain, pai-

The pain stopped, and I was awake. Heart racing, eyes still closed.

I was thirsty, I must have woken from a nightmare and was now laying on the floor in my bedroom.

Although, feeling the ground, I was immediately confused.

“Grass?” I thought to myself, and I opened my eyes to confirm my suspicion. As I saw the top of some trees and parts of a blue sky, I wondered why I was outside, since the last thing I could remember was that I was out driving... Or was that a part of the dream? I shook my head, still a little dazed, and as I looked around, nothing felt familiar. Wherever I was, it wasn’t my house, or even the park nearby- I had never seen this place before.

My body felt fine, so I sat up, but as I couldn’t hear any type of civilization, I wondered aloud: “Where am I, if I crashed? Shouldn’t there be a road nearby?”

After I thought about it, I wanted to stand up, but as I was on my way up, I felt odd, my head hurt, and I fell back down on the ground. I closed my eyes and massaged them in an attempt to get rid of the pain.

After a few seconds, my odd headache disappeared, and I thought it was only because I got up a bit too fast, so I got up a bit more slowly the second time around.

Once I stood up (with more success this time), I thought of an explanation for all of this:

“I must be having one of those lucid dreams, where you know you’re dreaming!” I said to myself. “So all I have to do is slap myself hard enough, and I’ll wake up. Flawless.’

As my palm hit my cheek, a loud slap echoed, and I closed my eyes in a wince from the pain. ‘’OW! That hurt.‘’ 
Unfortunately, when I opened my eyes, I was still here, lost in a forest I didn’t recognize.

Finally, as the reasonable part of my brain came back, I thought, “If I am in a forest, could it then mean that some hungry animals have heard me slap myself in the face?” As I looked around, I listened out for any sound of danger, but the only hungry growl I heard was a few seconds later- a small one coming from my stomach.

Realising I had a phone with me, I patted down my pockets, trying to find it to try to call somebody or at least see where I was. No luck in the pockets. I turned my eyes to where I lay before, but there was nothing there either, no phone, nothing at all. As a small breeze came, I felt that my jacket was gone as well; I only had my shorts, underwear, t-shirt, and sandals.

After a few seconds, I decided that if I stayed here, it wouldn’t be in my best interest, and if I was to return home, I had to find someone to help me. First, though, I had to get food, water and a sense of direction. I looked to the trees around me, and none of them were growing anything on them resembling food.

I had to be careful about what I ate out here, since I knew I wasn’t an expert on food that grows in the wild; I suspected my older brother was way better at that.

Maybe on my journey, I would find some food and water, but thinking about water made me notice that my mouth was a bit drier than I would like. But at least I had a good lunch, if what I remembered of today wasn’t a dream.

As I looked for something that might give me some sense of direction, I looked up at the skyline. I saw a thin trail of smoke, one I must have missed before, and where there’s smoke, there’s a fire! If it was a smoke trail, I believed there would be more smoke, giving me plenty of time to track it back to civilization. This smoke looked to be more the smoke of a campfire or maybe a factory than of a forest fire, igniting hope within me.

As my eyes followed the smoke trail in one direction, the smoke ended, so I walked towards its source and into the thick forest. The forest was like most others, warm, with dry air. The trees looked ancient, and walking among them it almost felt like walking through a busy corridor of oak and pine, bustling with some primal life.

After a long time had passed and as the sky had been blocked by the trees most of the time, I needed to know where I was, and as I had heard, you could easily get lost in an area the size of a football field while being in a forest.

I looked around and saw a tree that looked stable enough to climb, and it didn’t look too challenging to get to the top of, so I climbed. It took a lot of energy just to climb, and more still to not fall.

Finally, at the top of the tree, I looked around, but strangely there was no city in sight, and as I looked to the sky, I saw the sun had moved quite a bit, and that trail of smoke was gone. Well, that was that plan over then.

As I had no idea where the smoke came from, I looked around and saw a mountain range nearby. One of the mountains looked a bit odd, like it had a camel’s hump, but I couldn't make out what it was precisely; “it could just be a part of the mountain” I reasoned to myself.

I looked around a bit more, and I spotted a small mountain in the distance, which had to be at least three times as tall as the trees next to it, but it was several kilometers away.

It didn’t look too challenging to get to the top of, and now with a sense of direction, I looked to see if there were any streams or rivers, but I couldn’t see anything, no water, and no trees with food on them. Now on the ground, I walked towards my new destination.

But as I walked, I felt dizzier and dizzier, until I fell over, quickly using my arms to break my fall before I hit the ground.

On the ground, I saw that I stumbled over a rock that came up from the ground, one I hadn’t noticed before. As I got up, I used a tree for support, and after I got over my headache, I continued to walk.

Finally, after that long walk in the forest, I got out in the open, and as the fresh air came into my lungs, I fell on my knees, just before falling onto my side. And I lay there. I just wanted to relax, for only a few minutes, I wasn’t used to all this walking.

Some time passed before I opened my eyes and saw a small mountain in the distance that looked familiar, and after a moment I remembered that I had come here to get to the top of it. I rolled over, and as I lay on my stomach, I pushed myself up onto my knees and further, when I stood up straight and was stable on both my feet, I walked.

About halfway from the hill, I began to get my headache back, but I didn’t let that slow me down, and I persisted.

I was only a short walk away from the small mountain when I saw the sun as it went down, quite fast if I thought about it. But I dismissed it due to my lack of water and food, with a slice of warm day and a teaspoon of internal panic of which I tried to hold down.

As I reached the foot of the mountain, the sun was almost down, and while the moon came up, I spotted a cave, and to my luck, it was empty and big enough for me. Inside there was a giant boulder with some space for me behind it. Considering my options, if I slept up in a tree tonight but fell during the night and got hurt, it would be way harder to get help, and I could easily hide behind the giant boulder, so I made up my mind.

As I was about to call it a night, I took one last look at the night sky. It was so clear and beautiful, so much so that I fell and admired the stars. Looking at the sky, I tried to find Orion's Belt, but after a while of not being able to see it, I gave up, and just stared out at them. In particular, one of the stars looked more pinkish than the rest, it wasn't the biggest star, nor brightest, but it was beautiful beyond words all the same.

As I felt more and more tired, a cold gust of night wind came and sent shivers down my spine, and I walked into the cave and went onto the other side of the boulder. I lay down and took my arms to cover my chest as I tried to keep myself warm.

For what felt like the next eternity that followed, I just couldn't sleep; it was too cold. With nothing else to do, my mind reflected on my current situation:

I was happy at home. I had won the eurojackpot, and my family and I were close. I didn’t have a girlfriend yet, but I would work on that, as I had secured my living. But now? I was alone in the middle of nowhere, I was thirsty, hungry and scared, and as I felt a few tears slip out, I came back to my senses. If I cried or panicked, it wouldn’t help, and I needed to rest.

Tomorrow would be better, I just knew it.