Who Was I Looking For?

Crunch crunch crunch.

The leaves beneath my feet groaned as I unapologetically crushed them into the cold, damp ground. Fog permeated every nook and crevice before my eyes, visibility limited to barely a foot from my face.

How eerie and unsettling the setting was, yet strangely calming and alluring. In many ways it was a beautifully tragic sight, trees still and silent, all of nature coated with a thick, gray cloud for miles around. The silence was interrupted only by my steps. The brief rustling slowed into quiet, hushed voices. They seemed to fear being heard. My ears couldn't quite catch what the crunched up leaves were saying, if they were indeed saying anything at all.

The air around me cooled, my teeth beginning to chatter as I hugged my arms close to my body. Where was he? I had been looking all of a short eternity, but my exploits remained fruitless. Fwap! A noise that sounded like the unsticking of plastic from glass or perhaps the flatulence of some woodland animal rocketed through the woods, coming from just north of me. Panting as I sprinted, I quickly found myself at the edge of a gaping hole in the earth. He had to be in there. Peering into the shiny and clear, almost reflective hole, I gasped. He was there! I couldn't reach for him though... Trying simply met with a moist, cold and biting feeling on my arm that left it freezing and wet.

His face was crumpled into such a forlorn expression that I nearly wept at the sight of it, such an expression did not fit a face as monstrous as his, with eyes nearly snapped shut and cheeks as red as flame. I noticed for the first time that he had been... Mocking me, doing everything I do- every. single. thing. Why would he do that? I came here to save him and he-

Perhaps that's why... I could never do that, no matter how hard I tried I could never save him.

We stared at each other for a long time, the cold tempting my mind to sleep, nipping at my lips and pushing down upon my eyelids. I couldn't take it, I couldn't save him. I couldn't take it. The breeze gently nudged me into the hole, and I could not fight back. I did not want to fight back. As I toppled into the void beneath me, I slowly closed my eyes, embracing the void and all it offered.

For the briefest second I saw him smile, and I did not.