Chương 2: Nightmare
The sun rays were unusually hot, searing the surface of the earth with an unforgiving boil. The blistering heat waves danced on the horizon, distorting the view in a hazy mirage.
Under the scorching sun, a lone figure was limpidly laid, as if carved from the relentless heat itself. The baked earth beneath cradled the form, absorbing its silhouette, a mirage in the shimmering air. Her face, weathered by elements, bore a contrasting tranquillity to the harsh surroundings, a portrait of resilience against the searing backdrop.
Her eyes were closed in stoic acceptance, lashes casting long, languid shadows that danced in rhythm with the heated gusts that dared disturb the oppressive stillness. Amidst this fiery affliction, she resolved to open her eyes, blinking against the intense brightness.
Amongst the scorched landscape, she lay collapsed on the searing ground, her body writhing in torturous torment. Every inch of her felt as if it had been ruthlessly sliced by a thousand sharpened knives, each cut deeper and more agonizing than the last. The pain caged her, bound her, rendering her immobile against the smouldering earth beneath her, soaking up her whimpering cries of distress.
It was a relentless assault, waves of pain sweeping over her with no reprieve, as if punishment for a trespass, she could not remember. As the merciless heat bored into her skin, exacerbating her agony even further, she clung onto the thread of consciousness, trapped within a vicious cycle of enduring and yearning for release.
Her body, sprawled uncomfortably across the ground, gradually regained sensation, tingling with the return of blood flow. With a groan, she levered herself onto an elbow and then laboriously into a sitting position. Fragments of leaves clung to her tousled hair and a thin layer of dust had settled on her tattered clothes.
As she watched the encompassing wilderness, a shiver ran through her spine, a raw occurrence in a familiar setting. No, it was not here that she savoured the luxury of warmth pervaded by her usual warm drink. Instead, she found herself sitting on the fringe of an unfamiliar forest.
The towering trees whispered untold secrets to the winds, casting ominous shadows that danced around in the flickering twilight. It was an unfamiliar terrain, bristling with the whispers of leaves and shadows that played out a thrilling mystery.
"What a realistic dream", Aalia said and violently shook her head to disperse the nightmare.
She longed for the comforting illusions of the dreams she used to get lost once in a while, only to recoil in fear as the cruel truth sunk in. But the reality laid before her eyes; she started to shiver, not just from the creeping chill, but from the dreadful truth that gnawed at her mind.
Each shudder served as a bleak reminder that her new reality was not a nightmare she could simply wake up from with a gasp of relief, but a life she was forced to endure, a relentless echo of what once was.
She was a young girl, barely stepping into the tumultuous world of teens. Nestled into the comforts of luxury and affluence as the daughter of a prominent businessman, she had grown up with a silver spoon that masked the harsh realities of the world. Her childhood had been a sheltered one, her life yet to see the vast expanses of the world, its beauty and its harshness, its joys, and its sorrows. The innocence of her soul reflected in her eyes, twinkled with fear of the unknown: a deep-seated dread of solitude, an unsettling fear of darkness, and a wary uneasiness even for shadows.
The world seemed to collapse around her as the merciless reality loomed in front, she was overwhelmed by a wave of fear that made her shiver to her very core. Her heart pounded in her chest, echoing the beats against the silence cloaking her surroundings.
As she let out a chilling scream, it ripped through the quietude, bounding off the invisible walls around her, returning an echo that magnified her terror. The resounding wave of her own terror-filled decibel reverberated in the darkness, amplifying the dread and causing her skin to prickle.
Trembling with fear, she shut her eyes tightly, attempting to shut out the world around her. Her hands clasped her ears, as if the apparent silence could filter out the dread in her mind. The enthralling darkness behind her eyelids engulfed her very being, dissolving any fragment of light, and leaving her at the mercy of her escalating thoughts.
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