It was black, and misty. For a second that felt longer than a day, she was falling. She felt like it was falling.. As if in an elevator. The lift, and the slow dizziness that makes you feel like you're turning, falling, almost floating.
Then, she's standing in the middle of a large, dirt cavern. Was it a cavern? More like a mossy cave, with an opening in the ceiling to let the light peer in, crowded openings to other mysterious tunnels, rooms.. Who knows. A few seconds prior, she was decorating her lovely two-bedroom dorm for the Christmas season, blasting her holiday tunes through Spotify.
The panic is setting in, dragonflies protruding through her stomach. Or, at least it felt like dragonflies.. "Am I asleep?... Did I fall and hit my head?" She questions silently, there had to a reasonable explanation for this, well, magical transformation.
"Where am I?" She whispers. There was no one in the vicinity. Not that she could see, there could be tiny little goblins lurking in the shadows, just as she'd read in The Fellowship. She took a step, small and hesitantly. "I must be asleep.." She closes her eyes and squeezes, trying to awaken her 'unconscious self'. Nothing. She opens her eyelids to reveal the same dirt room, leaves and vines draping the ceiling and walls, twisting together in vicious patterns.
Frantically, she lifts her arm and tugs it, gently pinching the flesh across her bones. Nothing. Only a sting that sends signals to her nervous system.
Childish answers. What was she doing? She ran a hand through her hair, pulled back in a messy braid. It wasn't meant for an outing, not today. Not in this state.
"Hello?" She finally calls out, for any sign of a second party.. This place feels full of ghosts to her.
No one answers. Just the faint smell of petrichor.