The sky was beautiful, lights from a thousand stars gleaming in the dark abyss. It was so easy to get lost in the paths that they created, dazzling light jumping from point to point, drawing lines that my feet couldn’t help but follow. The grass tickled the bottom of my soles, footsteps gently caressed by the cool earth beneath me. The only sound was that of my own legs disturbing the earth around me, the world somehow devoid of noise, neither wind nor creatures having a word to say. I wander for what feels like ages, surrounded by open plains and starry skies. In the distance, I see the silhouette of what looks to be trees. Like giants, they tower over their surroundings, seeming somehow greater than the mountains that lay behind them. As I gaze at the tallest silhouette, it sways within my vision, as if waving. Back and forth, beckoning me to it.

Yet there is no wind.

I let the stars guide me, now feeling a sense of urgency, like a rope anchored to my chest is pulling me forward. My pace quickens. The stars seem to multiply, light bouncing from one to another with a speed that I can barely maintain. The silence is deafening, my ears feeling as though they are weighted. I beg to hear a noise, to hear some sign that I am not alone with the grass and the stars, but I am met with only that still, stony silence. The earth begins to sharpen, pinches felt along the bottoms of my feet that grow into stabbing pains with each further step. Yet, when I look, it is just grass. It is just a field. The tree continues waving to me, its haunting figure growing larger with each star-led step. I will myself to take pause, to gather my feelings. My legs do not comply. They only answer to the lights.

Soon, the grass grows taller, slicing my calves like blades. The stars twinkle at me, laughing knowingly. I should never have let the light take hold of me so easily. I am such a fool. Soon, the trees are no longer silhouettes, but bark and leaves and branches. Their swaying slows as I approach, feeling no need to beckon me over. Knowing that I will greet them no matter my resistance. When I am finally before them, legs torn from the knee down, ears heavy with the burden of silence, I at last reach my moment of pause. I am stood in front of the largest tree, looming over me with a dark and disconcerting grace. It is beautiful. Dark wood reaching upwards, extended towards the stars that seem to admire it so passionately. I reach my hand out towards its trunk, rough bark pulling my fingers to it like a magnet. I place my hand gently upon it, and for a second, the grass beneath my feet caresses me once more, its touch as light as a feather. A gentle breeze fills the surrounding area, and I feel myself exhale along with it.

But then the tree bleeds. From beneath my fingertrips, dark blood seeps out as if the wood has been ripped open. It spreads outwards like a ripple, overtaking the whole of the tree in seconds, and the wind roars. There is a screaming in the air, coming from behind me and before me and to my sides. The trees, I think. They feel this. I did this. The roaring wind shoves me backwards, and the grass impales me like a sword through my rib cage. Begging hopelessly for help, for relief, for anything, I look to the trees.

They are red, looming down on me now with a feeling far more malevolent than what they had shown before. Earlier, I felt their distrust. Now, I feel their hate. I scream apologies. How would I have known this to be their fate? How would I have thought this would be mine? The trees scream back, and the stars begin to fade. As the sun rises in the distance, I place my hand on my own chest, and my own blood covers my palm. I raise it up to the light and see it shines the same bright crimson. The sky yellows in the horizon, and my eyes roll back.

I wake up to blue skies and chirping birds. The grass beneath my body is soft, the earth beneath it a solid cushion beneath my weight. A dream. Again. I sit up, rubbing my eyes, and look up, afraid to see the stars. It doesn’t matter now, the day is just beginning. Evening will come soon enough.