There was the blissful feeling of nothingness then all at once something.
A rush of pain surged through his whole body as he forcefully scrunched up his eyes. Every muscle was screaming in agony contorting the young man's face in various ways. The pain then centralized to his head as he began to scratch and press against his skull. Perhaps if he dug hard enough he'd rip out the problem or he'd crush his head. Each would otherwise solve his predicament. His brain pulsed and throbbed representing a very extreme migraine. Burying his hands in his hair he dug his nails in and tried to pull his skin apart with no success. He barley had the strength to lift his arms through all of the pain let alone rip himself in half. His body writhed with agony in hopes of flinging the misery away.
As if his prayers were answered his suffering suddenly halted. Taking care to regain his breathing after such an attack he relaxed and felt the steady rise and fall of his chest. Slowly he began to pry his eyes open. Bright light flooded into his vision, blinding him. After his eyes adjusted he opened them fully and took in the view.
Dwight stared up at the canopy of pines and maples that attempted to shield him from the harsh sun. He...was in a forest?
Spreading his arms he dug his fingers into the dirt, feeling the texture of the coarse ground. He brought his hands up to his face and observed the soil under his fingernails. The cheery sunlight peeked from behind his fingertips giving them a light pink glow. A full smile slowly traveled across his face at his revelation. He escaped. He was free.
Sitting up he took in the layout of the nature around him. He was in a small clearing surrounded by large trees that towered high above his head. Below the branches sheltered a mixture of both wild flowers and small bushes. The greenery littered the rich soil only giving way to small paths where the creatures of the forest would travel through. Dwight had seen nothing but trees for the past two years and to be honest he was getting quite sick of it. The only upside was that for once the forest wasn't horribly menacing and cloaked in fog.
Still clothed in his grimy office shirt, tie, and slacks as well as his dirt rimmed glasses, he stood up staggering a bit as he did so. The clam quiet of the woods was sliced through when a gurgle split the air like a knife. At that moment Dwight realize the harsh reality of his situation. Yes he was free but he was also alone in the middle of a forest without any source of food.
Groaning at the thought of what he was about to do the young man picked a random direction and lurched his way onward. His goal; reach some kind of civilization or at least something to eat.
For every minute he walked his hunger grew a tiny bit more. Every step he took brought more and more of the same trees into view. The bright noon sun had arch its way across the sky and was beginning to boarder on the line of becoming a sunset. As the sky's brightness dimmed so did his hope of survival for if night fell not only would he lose his guiding light but his will to move on. The darkness brought along horrible memories that he wished to keep at bay.
Fearing that if left in the cold darkness he would surely break down and go mad, Dwight quickened his pace to the best of his abilities in an attempt to escape from the clutches of evil. Finally a thick maple tree came into view bearing a rough outline of a rectangle. Upon further inspection he discovered that the object was a wooden sign with an arrow pointing toward a distant path amongst the underbrush. Burned into the wood was the label 'Pine Grove Trail'.
Pine Grove Trail? Why did that sound so familiar? Oh...now he remembered. That was the trail he took with his coworkers on their way to the 'team building exercise'. The day before his Hell began. He hated that trail but perhaps today it would be his saviour rather than his downfall.
Briskly he walked along the winding path, vegetation threatening to re cover due to disuse. With quick feet he avoided thick roots and scattered rocks until the twinkling lights of a civilization could be seen past the large wooden trunks.
Hope filled him as he finally reached the end, dirt path turning into pavement. The parking lot for the Pine Grove Trail was littered with large cracks and missing asphalt patches. Bunches of grass and weeds hungrily occupied these spaces of disrepair.
The lot was a couples miles out from the town of Ransslin, where Dwight lived and worked at his dead end job. He needed to make it there, to find shelter, anything to get away from the impending darkness and memories. But he wouldn't have his tiny apartment anymore, would he? What possible other shelter did he have that actually had a light source and didn't involve sleeping in an alley or anything like that? Well...actually he did have one other option.
Dwight approached the driveway of a grayish blue house numbered '5208'. The pristine pave of the black driveway was barely visible in the newly arrived moonlight. The abode was the second from the intersecting corner of Burrowsby Street and Highland Avenue (being located on Burrowsby St.).
As he slowly advanced to the door the porch light flicked on making the young man jump yet no motion was seen through the large front window. He shook his head at the ridiculousness of the fact that he jumped at a motion sensor and stopped at the front door.
Taking a deep breath he rang the doorbell and waited. For a long moment nothing happened so Dwight pressed the bell again holding it for a while.
A light flicked on in one the upstairs windows followed by some shifting and what sounded like 'damn stupid kids.' The hall beyond the door was illuminated as a blurred figure approached the frosted glass of the door. With quite a bit of force the object separating them was thrown away and an angry looking woman was standing in the doorway. Her face immediately changed when she saw who it was.
In a shaky voice Dwight uttered the words that he knew would cause him grief.
"Hey, Mom."