Blackfeather Woods champagne, cocaine, gasoline

@Ghoul or @Maegi or AW!

The boy tumbled about the forest, and he thought he was heading back to the place he'd last seen Relmyna and her children, but in actuality he was closing in on a segment of woodland that should've been familiar for other reasons. It seemed as if he was being closed off by the very trees that grew here, twisting his path in to knots and shrouding him in thick darkness. Mou couldn't remember being afraid of the dark — he had been afraid of the creature in the pit, but comforted by the blackness of the caves — yet as his path wound haphazardly through a patch of briar and the shadows spat him out the other side, he felt only dread as he looked upon the rising spires of trees that surrounded him.

There was a flash of something. It wasn't physical, he wasn't even sure he really saw anything in the vastness of the forest — his wide eye had a narrow band of gold within it, the pupil dilated beyond what should've been normal even for his usual dose of medicine — and he thought he saw —

There is no telling how long he's been out but when Titmouse wakes, it is in the dark. There is a stale smell in the air that makes his stomach roll, and the sound of dripping water bouncing off of the earthen interior of the space, and it all further disorients him.

It felt like the dark of the wood had somehow gotten inside. His lungs were heavy. They were full to bursting and he couldn't take another breath, while his heart continued to pound, his head fogging. It was like the shadows were moving all around him with an eagerness, a liveliness, that was almost primal.
from here

A black shape next to a gray shape, blurry like they're made of water. He's reminded of a tide pool with a gusting wind breathing deeply overtop it; and the image vanishes as soon as he sees it. The ghosts of some long dead life, maybe. He didn't see their faces — and the feelings he experiences make no sense. He feels afraid, but in bursts. There was a cavern around him but now he's alone in the woods.

He blinks, staggering a few more steps, and then his legs buckle. Mou stares at the trees and his eye trails up, up, up, until he is staring at the far away tree tops. He thinks he can see the stars through them when they dance, but he is imagining this too.