Hmm. Elias started moving around, looking and observing the forest.
"The trees here are quite tall, but I am pretty sure Earth had similar plants and trees," Elias thought.
So far, Elias had noticed what appeared to be squirrel-like creatures and some form of birds.
"This world must be like Earth when it comes to its overall biological makeup," Elias thought as he continued walking.
Halt.
Wait a fucking second.
World?
Why do I think I'm in a different world?
Why? Why? WHY?
Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead as terror crawled up his body.
He could feel his trapped self contemplating it as well.
"What kind of fucked-up mess am I in?
And aren't I way too calm for this situation?
Even on Earth, when I was depressed, crazy, overanxious, emotionally burnt out—
why do I not feel the basic instinctive worry for my life now?"
If someone were to see Elias right now, they would see a person trying to hold his smile, breathing heavily.
Because death doesn't bind you yet, someone or something whispered.
"WHAT WAS THAT!?" Elias was alarmed. He immediately stopped laughing and slowly started scanning his surroundings for the source of that bizarre voice.
After a few minutes of checking the nearby area, he calmed down.
"There's nothing here… perhaps it was less a whisper and more like telepathy," he thought.
"Hmm, this situation reminds me of H. P. Lovecraft's novels," Elias decided, choosing not to contemplate the whisper until he was aware of his situation.
After some time, he continued to walk.
It felt like only a few minutes before he noticed a squirrel like creatures nest on his path , at least he think it was a nest . Looking up, he could see the unknown birds flying.
Not giving it much thought, he continued walking…
Until he noticed the same nest again. The same birds flying.
Hmm. Elias stared at the nest and the birds for some time and continued to walk, but even after hours of walking, he appeared always near that nest with the same birds flying in the same manner.
Again and again and again. It wasn't just the birds but everything was the same the same insects on the ground the same trees he marked before . Even after hours, whenever he returned to those places, they would be the same—he could tell.
No, not exactly same sometimes the trees would look younger , sometimes covered with moss, the nest would be there often but in different conditions, sometimes it had fungus growing over it often it would be a dead creature that was not there the first time
That's when he realized something.
He was walking in circles.
And not because his sense of direction was bad—
No, he was trapped here. Not just physically, but perhaps even temporally.
"Is this some kind of natural phenomenon?
Am I hallucinating?" Elias wondered.
After thinking for a bit, he decided to continue walking.
Why? He didn't know. But he just did.
After some time, he felt he was no longer trapped.
How he knew that, he didn't know, but he had great intuition.
Some time later, he reached a cave of sorts.
After slowly observing it, remembering how one should look out for bears or other dangerous animals as they could be inside caves like these…
After some hesitation, he entered to check it.
But the moment he stepped in—
He was suddenly inside a dark hallway , lit with blue and purple torches on each side as if teleported
His brows furrowed, and he couldn't help but say the obligatory—
"Fuck this shit," he said, excited.