<------------o------------{-( I )-}---------------o------------> Stop. That’s what I’ve been told all my life. ‘Stop this, stop that.’ What was I doing wrong? What did I need to do instead? …Why was I such a disappointment? Don’t get me wrong- I’m not the sort of person who purposely does things to annoy people. I mean that if I even said something completely mundane and innocent, somebody would tell me to stop talking about it. I felt trapped. I would give anything to get that back. Well, I best not get too far ahead of myself. Typical me. I grew up in a… questionable home. If you could even call it that. See, my parents never really seemed to care much about my emotional state of being. I guess they thought that everything I needed consisted strictly of food, water, and a roof over my head. Anything else was unheard of. I would come crying to my parents about something that happened at school, and they’d tell me to stop crying and get over it. Maybe I skinned my knee while learning to ride a bike, and my dad would tell me to stop acting overly dramatic and try again. He’d then make a comment about how girls shouldn’t be riding bikes, but I would always try to ignore him. But anyways, you get the gist of it. For years, I had to learn to submit to the will of my parents. Anything I did was wrong or annoying somehow, so I was careful. It made me a quiet sort of person. Never speaking up in school even when I had something to say. Sitting alone at lunch in middle and high school, playing alone at recess in elementary. It was t0rture. Eventually I graduated from high school, and went to college. Hey, at least my parents cared enough about me for that. Well, I was able to finally move out. It was like a breath of fresh air. I made some friends, began trying new hobbies, learned to speak, and /be,/ just a bit louder. There was one hobby that I enjoyed the most. Okay, you got me- it was taking walks. What? Walking can be fun- especially when you’re just wandering aimlessly. Plus, the college dorms sat at the base of a few small mountains. They were beautiful, and they were where I wandered the most. I quickly fell in love with the rise and fall of the earth and the trees that hugged the gentle slopes like a blanket. In the mornings, mist would sleepily drift over the mossy ground like swans in a pond. I’d see this happening on my way to my first class, but I never had time to explore there until hours later when the mist had gone. After the first few quarters, I had the opportunity to have free-time in the mornings and I took it. I was finally able to wander in the misty depths. When my alarm went off last night- or was it last month? I can’t tell in this place- I jumped up out of bed, hurriedly got dressed, and shot out the door. As soon as I started towards the mountains, I felt a strange feeling of foreboding wash over me. I stopped in my tracks, confused as to why I was suddenly feeling so wrong about what I was about to do. I’d never felt like this before. Treading these slopes was always calming to me. After standing there like a deer in the headlights, deliberating, I shrugged the feeling off as anxiety over the new experience. Excitedly, I entered the mist.
-------------------------- The grayness swirled around me, and I soon lost myself in the fog. It was quite cold, and I wished I had brought a jacket. But I didn’t mind- the mist was like a friend to me. It wasn’t. I walked and wandered, going here, or there, or elsewhere. I don’t know how long I had been walking when I stumbled upon a tall, imposing silhouette. I jerked back and fell on my butt. The silhouette loomed over me… And then I realized what it was. It was a stop sign. I stood up on shaky legs, still shook by the sudden surprise. I stared at the stop sign and laughed, but then my laugh d1ed in my throat. /Wait,/ I remember thinking. /Why is there a stop sign all the way up here?/ Nothing I had seen had even hinted at this sign ever being here, and I’d wandered around these mountains plenty of times. My gaze jumped from left to right, back and forth, but there were no roads, nor had I come across any roads as I had walked. I stepped up to the stop sign and looked past it. There was nothing. No paths, not even a trail- nothing. /…What is going on?/ Hesitantly, I took another step. Then another. As soon as I was all the way past the stop sign, I felt a chill run through my entire body. I looked at the sign, then kept walking. After a minute or two, an alarm on my phone went off. /Craaaap,/ I thought. I was late for my next class. I turned around and rushed back the way I had come. Running past the stop sign, the stark white letters flashed at me as I hurried past. For a second I remembered the stop sign facing the other way, but I didn’t have time to wonder. I was already late, and- suddenly I was forced to stop. Because there was no more path. No more trees. No more stop sign. All was gray, the mist swirling around me like malevolent crows. I could feel solid matter beneath my feet, and I could breath, but that was it. I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face. Startled once again, I tried to run, but no matter how hard I tried, nothing changed. I moved, but the mist was all encompassing. I fumbled for my phone, dropping it. Feeling around on the ground for it, I brushed something rectangular. It was my phone. I picked it up and quickly turned it on. A sigh of relief escaped my lips as the glow from my phone shone through the gray just barely. I turned up the brightness all the way and could see the screen a lot better afterwards. So here I am now, writing this, hoping that somebody will see it. Phone calls don’t go through here, but I still have internet. I’m not sure how that works- I’m not sure how anything works. The mist- it had enveloped me, swallowed me, and I don’t think I’ll be able to claw my way back out. I just hope that somebody else finds me… …But I also hope that nobody’ll find me. That nobody else gets caught here. The infinite grayness is suffocating- I think I’m going insane. I can feel my mind slowly being ripped from me. To all those who stumble across this post: if you see a stop sign where there shouldn’t be one- like on a roadless mountainside- either stop at the sign before proceeding, or turn around and go back where you came from. I don’t want you to end up… …like me. <------------o------------{-( I )-}---------------o------------>
