There is no point to life.
No greater purpose other than to reproduce and slowly die. Being alive is painful; humans are extremely good at making life miserable. There is a reason why many believe they are the only creatures capable of taking their own life. There is no grand meaning to it all, just endless suffering created by God or gods beyond this cosmic realm. It was all just so tiring. He had had enough of it.
Those were the thoughts of a lone boy, staring into the cold waters more than thirty feet below him. Rohan was back at the bridge once more; this had been the third time he had been here. Each time, it would be nearly three in the morning with barely any cars zooming by. Even if there were plenty of people, he doubts they would stop to ask 'What's wrong?'. He felt exhausted, having slept only three hours yesterday and having stayed awake since.
Despite his best efforts, he couldn't find himself closing his amber eyes. Often plagued with thoughts of mistakes, insults and other stuff he pushed away to the back of his mind. It doesn't matter anymore, does it? He was finally doing it, after multiple times he gathered the courage to do it and then chickened out, today was the day to do it. The drizzle of rain made his shaggy dark hair wet.
If Rohan returned now, he would surely get shouted at. That's fine, he had made his decision. Rohan removes his glasses and tosses them away. He watched as his spectacles descended to the air before sinking into the cold waters below. It would be a bit difficult to see, but it doesn't matter now; nothing really matters.
He looked at where his glasses sank for quite a bit of time before finally deciding enough was enough, then he climbed over the metal railing between him and the abyss. The wind hit his face, his hair dancing backward as the breeze made him relax. It didn't take long for a few drops of tears to escape his eyes. If he could make a sound, he probably would've whimpered. Rohan raises one foot to the air before stepping down, only to find that there is no path for him to stand on.
He allowed his weight to push his entire body off, rapidly descending to the waters below. Oddly, he finds himself calm. Rohan originally thought he would come to regret his decision, and don't get him wrong, he indeed feels like he was making a mistake. But there would be no point to his anger or sadness; none of that matters because Rohan was going to die. Before he could get acclimated to this rather dire situation, it was too late; his head crashed into the dark blue waters.
He heard a loud snap just before the rest of his body joined his head into the watery depths. It seemed that he had broken his neck. Despite feeling a large amount of pain, Rohan couldn't help but sigh in relief mentally; finally, he was free of the mortal struggles of Earth. While Rohan was never a religious person by any means, he prayed to whatever it is out there that they would take it easy on him. His vision starts to darken; it is happening. Rohan is finally going to die.
His lungs burned, his head felt like it was rapidly rotting, and his heart slowed down. Rohan shuts his eyes for the final time.
—
[ᴚƎSԀ∀MN ԀOIN⊥]
—
Rohan gasped as his eyes shot open. What just happened? He pushes himself off the cold, grey grass to look at his surroundings. He had somehow ended up in the forest, though instantly, he felt the trees and everything felt…wrong. Perhaps it was due to all the trees around him being thin, small and blacker than even the night sky.
Or was it the dense fog that surrounded him? You could barely see anything past five feet. His heart dropped when Rohan saw a tall figure with gangly, long arms in the distance, the fog cloaking the rest of its features. Upon closer inspection, though, it had turned out to be a bizarre mishap tree. Frightening moment aside, where in the world is he? He was supposed to be dead; he wanted to be!
Instead, he finds himself in an odd forest that rubs him the wrong way. It was impossible for him to survive; he had felt his neck snap, and even if that didn't kill him somehow, the lack of air and the freezing water should've killed him. Now Rohan wasn't even wet or hurt at all! His eyes squinted around in all directions, but the fog and the lack of glasses made it very difficult to see. What now?
His attempt failed, so what is he supposed to do now? Not knowing what to do, Rohan just walked in a random direction, hoping to find…well, he wasn't sure, but there were a lot of questions that needed answering. And so he walked and walked, occasionally stopping as his eyes were certain they detected movement, but surely that was just his mind playing tricks. After another minute of wandering, Rohan shuddered from the cold. He was only wearing a plain black shirt with grey jogging pants.
Not the proper attire for this kind of environment, still, how is it this cold? Last he checked, it was the middle of July, but right now it feels like the cool air of Fall in October. Just how did he get to this weird place? Assuming he survived the fall and the cold waters, how did Rohan end up here? He suddenly stops, his eyes widened in realization.
Could this possibly be the afterlife? A place where dead folks ended up? It was the only thing that made sense; he had died after all. That would explain this bizarre-looking forest. Still, it felt wrong; it neither felt like heaven, hell, nor any other kind of afterlife in other religions.
Everything just felt so out of place; it was truly difficult to explain why he was feeling this way. Rohan resumes his walking, and after thirty minutes, his legs start to ache. Just how big is this forest? Was he going towards the exit, or going in deeper? By now, he noticed that the sun hadn't come up all the way just yet.
Or perhaps it was going down. It was difficult to tell with the fog blocking everything, and even the grey clouds covered the sky. This makes it so that it would be impossible for Rohan to tell whether it was dawn or dusk. He needed to find help; either way, the growing anxiety of being unable to tell the time wasn't good for his heart. After some time passed, Rohan had to rub his eyes to make sure what he was seeing was real.
In the middle of the forest, where civilization seemed so far away, was a house. Not a cabin or cottage, mind you, but a neighbourhood house. It was like something transported a random house off the street and placed it here in a random forest. It wasn't very big; it was something that someone from the middle class could purchase. It had a garage on the right side.
To the left were concrete stairs leading to the door. His heart started to pound, but why? Shouldn't this be a good thing? After all, he finds a house! A house means people, people who could help him out of the woods! And yet his instincts told him not to go.
Rohan decided to ignore those feelings and slowly crept to the door before bringing his finger to the doorbell, which made no sound, most likely broken. With that, he knocks on the door. He cringes from how silent everything is; his knocks might as well be gunshots. Rohan stood by the door and waited patiently. By the time three minutes had passed, he started to get antsy, looking around the fog, fearing that someone or rather something, would emerge from the shadows.
It was all too much, he got desperate and twisted the knob. To his surprise, the door opened. Once it did, a small jiggling noise played from somewhere for a couple of moments before dying down. That must've been the system of the house that activates whenever someone opens the front door. The noise made his breath hitch, and his heart started to drum like a hammer. But when Rohan realized it was nothing, he removed his hand from his chest and breathed a sigh of relief.
Rohan steps inside, knowing he is trespassing, but what choice does he have? Hopefully, the owners wouldn't be too mad at him. Still leaving their house unlocked was rather careless of them, even if their house was in the middle of nowhere. The house was dark, only illuminated by the tiny light from the windows. He carefully shuts the door and moves inside the house.
It was nothing special, just a regular home, though he noticed it was dusty. It was as if no one cleaned it for a while. The lack of light made Rohan gulp as he carefully walked into the kitchen. There was the usual stove, dishwasher, fridge and a knife drawer. There was even a fruit bowl, though his face scrunched up with disgust seeing multiple rotten apples covered in some kind of black ooze. While there was nothing special about the kitchen, he did find something useful.
He grabbed it off the counter. It was a flashlight. Rohan turned it on, and it did work, but the light kept on flickering. He smacked lightly in his hand like in the movies, and miraculously, the light stabilized, creating a beam of illumination to cover the dark. After shining it around a few times, Rohan carefully went up the stairs where there was a guest room, the master bedroom and finally the kids' room. He went inside this room last, and its blue walls reminded him of his old room back in his old house. The only difference was that multiple posters of Spider-Man didn't cover the walls.
Rohan opened the closet, and there wasn't anything much in it, but there was a black hoodie. He puts it on and it fits his small, skinny frame. He instantly felt regret for his actions; not only did he break and enter, but he was now wearing their clothes. Rohan wanted to remove it, but honestly, he's cold and hungry and scared. Rohan just wanted a small break from all of the confusion and fear.
Still, he would no doubt apologize to the family profusely once they got back.
The familiar jingle can be heard downstairs as well as the opening of the door.
Rohan freezes his heart and feels like it has stopped beating for just a moment. It wasn't just him; in fact, it feels like the whole world just stopped in time. It was hard to breathe, but why? It's just the owners. What does Rohan have to be afraid of? They would most likely be afraid of him being a total stranger and inside their house, even if said stranger was just a random skinny 13-year-old kid.
He tries to move, but he finds himself stuck. Instinct has told his brain to become still as a statue so as not to alert whoever is downstairs about his presence. His rational side scoffed and told Rohan to go down and explain everything. He forced himself to walk, though he was noticeably slower and his body couldn't stop shaking. The flashlight in his hands trembled as he quietly descended downstairs.
The stairs were facing the front door, and yet he found no one there. Rohan unintentionally let out a sigh of relief, his shoes touching the first floor before noticing something wrong. First, it was the smell that caught me off guard. It wasn't one of gross farts people release, this was something odd, and honestly it was a far more horrible smell. It was to the point that it was driving him to tears. The second thing he noticed was these slimy black drops of liquid on the floor.
He shines on the bizarre stain which leads behind the kitchen, which is opposite where the stairs are. Rohan turns around to shine the flashlight on the black drops. It didn't take long for him to spot someone, no, something. It wasn't human.