Into the Woods - Finish the Story Contest

Running along the trail to the other side of the pond nothing changed. Sharon still saw only black haze swirling around beaver lodge. She decided to interrupt autopilot that was in charge of her body and stop running. Curiosity inside of her was so strong that she just couldn’t let it go and had to get closer to the lodge using the only visible path, through the swamp. With her first step she entered the black fog with her left foot, feeling the muddy but soft ground of clay beneath her. She knew that there’s nothing wrong with the swamp ground but again she felt the same way as this morning while she was walking back to her office after getting yelled at by her boss. Everything around her is just a bit off physically, but her feelings about all of that were so intense, she felt like the world is coming to an end. Those feelings couldn’t be described nor explained, they were just there like a supernatural enhancement of the weird surroundings. While she paced towards the beaver lodge, there were no beavers to be seen, but the lodge was still at the same distance not getting any closer. Everything was happening like in those dreams when you run towards your goal, but the goal is moving even faster than you. And the faster you run towards it, the further the goal is. You can’t explain the distance between you and your goal but you just keep running, hoping you’ll catch up to it. 

Sharon now frightened with what is happening decided to prove to herself that she’s not dreaming and stop chasing something that can’t be reached. When she turned to go back, she still saw trail just a few steps behind. This is one more of those weird things happening to her today, but this one was the drop that filled the cup and her stress level was at maximum. Not only that, now every part of her body screamed “HEEEELP!” but she was too proud to actually scream out loud, after all she was top sales manager and she can’t show fear not even in this situation. She reached the trail and frantically started running back without finishing her usual route. She set her playlist to produce maximum sound, and placed the headphones back on, not even remembering when she took them off. While she was concentrating on her running trying to turn autopilot back on, huge yellow and green fly passed by her which threw her off balance and she fell. From the stress and fear she fainted before she touched the ground. Sharon woke up in hospital not remembering her name, but in the end it’s not that bad because she doesn’t even remember the whole f-up day that brought her to hospital.  

This is my entry to "Finish the Fiction Story Contest" hosted by @f3nix.
Script, that is guideline for this story, can be found: https://steemit.com/contest/@f3nix/finish-the-story-contest-week-14

Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/fog-moor-marsh-nebellandschaft-1258892/