Light flashes your eyes into seeing. Fresh air fills your waking lungs and rolling green hills step forth to greet you. Clouds hang idly, watching patiently. Soft grass holds your feet gently. You are but suspended, until you take your first step.

Then everything becomes real.

The ground is firm as you press your foot against it. The light breeze tickles your arms as you glide through it. The hills look away, planted in place. The birds tweet and chatter without a tree to rest on.

You take your first real breath. You look around with purpose now; everything resigns to you.

A sunless sky basks the grass and hills in pleasant light. All lies bare for you to see. No shadows creep and no crevices hide.

Mighty hills lift the horizon. As you turn around, you find yourself surrounded by them. Close enough to beckon, too far to call.

Your vision focuses as you see someone. High atop a hill, doing cartwheels. She gracefully arcs across the border between green and blue. Gleefully disturbing the stillness. You can’t help but watch. One cartwheel after another after another. Her black form dances with no restraint.

You don’t know when you began walking, but she isn’t getting any closer. Far enough is she that she never moves, no matter how many cartwheels she chains. No sign of fatigue. No sign of stopping. Not that you plan to, either.

The ground has held you for dozens of steps now. And yet she cartwheels.

The grass greets your every step. The breeze aids your journey. The air encourages your lungs as you keep pressing forward. The girl cartwheels, undisturbed by your approach.

Your legs have carried you for hundreds of steps now. And yet she cartwheels.

Her alluring carelessness makes stopping impossible. There is no sun to mark your progress. The clouds don’t move, not wanting to interrupt your journey.

Thousands of steps have passed now. And yet she cartwheels.

Over and over again, she keeps going. The peace of the land eases your walking. Yet you know you can only walk for so long. It’s not fatigue that presses on your brain. But a sense of danger. Dismiss it.

How long have you been going? How far do these plains stretch? Just how long will she cartwheel? Don’t think about it. Just don’t stop.

Yet, you stop.

She stops.

The hills hide themselves into the distance. The grass shrinks. The birds seize. The breeze retreats.

The girl stands, straight. Despite the distance, you know she sees you. Her eyes that are hidden in her silhouetted form stare right at you.

Why did you stop?

You’re not moving anymore, yet your heart pumps. Your lungs drag the resisting air. Silence pushes in on you as she stands atop that hill. The hill that is impossibly far away.

You shouldn’t have stopped.

You start walking again. Everything goes back to normal. The girl continues her cartwheels.

Good.

Your mind melts back into the process. Walking forth, not looking away from the girl. Your shoulders drop, your arms welcome the breeze as it resumes its massage. The birds talk again. The grass meets your feet again.

Yet your mind begins to spin.

You have walked even farther than you did before, each step an attempt to push back what you saw. What you almost saw.

You didn’t see anything. Don’t stop.

For every cartwheel she does, a projection of her stillness overlaps in your head. It grows. It loses transparency the more you try to tuck it away. So stop thinking. Just keep watching.

The birds call. The breeze grows. The grass crunches louder with each step. The hills turn their gaze toward you. The girl cartwheels.

Just keep going.

Louder and louder, the peaceful land isn’t enough of a distraction. She stopped once. But she won’t stop again. Not if you just keep going.

You’ve taken countless steps now. You can’t stop now. Remember what happened last time?

She isn’t any closer.

You stop. She stops, falling from her cartwheel. She lands on her neck. What have you done?

She stands, slowly, to look at you once more. Her head barely hanging onto her shoulders. Yet her eyes stare all the same.

Recoiling, you stammer backwards. Instead of treading over walked ground, your back slams against a wall. She still stares at you. A primal fear wells in your soul.

Your hands clamber behind you, exploring the sudden obstacle as you keep your eyes pinned on the broken girl.

Without sound, she sets off.

You fumble rapidly as she sprints toward you. Down the hill she comes, her mangled form not an impediment to her stride.

With frantic hands, you find a handle. You don’t dare avert your gaze to the black spec that begins to take on more dimensions.

You should have kept going.

Behind your back, the wall gives way to a door. She does not relent. The hills close in. The grass retreats. The clouds descend. The birds cower.

You whip around.

A void is open to you now. Silence rushes in to mute all that is behind you. There is no wall, no door, no rolling plateau. The abyss is patient. Without an end.

No more walking. No more fear. All I need you to do now, is embrace it.

Your mind has already accepted it. Allow your body to follow through. All that was doesn’t have to be. Not anymore. You stopped, and now you’re here. You’ve failed me before, you don’t have to again.

This isn’t something for you to decide. What’s one more step?

Impossible.

You rip yourself from the vacuum. You search around. No girl is to be found. The world stretches around you once again. But you’re no longer at its centre.

What’s next for you? I couldn’t possibly know.

Hills sit stalwart. Clouds move on. Grass sways in an easy breeze as birds flock and flutter.

I can’t help you anymore. Not as you walk away.