Entity Chronicles: Forest Entity

Chapter 2: The Dream Encounter

The air around us seemed charged, heavy with anticipation. He took a deep breath, his eyes closing momentarily as if gathering some unseen force. Then, with a swift, fluid motion, he struck. His hand, glowing with a concentrated energy, hit me squarely in the chest.

The impact was unlike anything I'd ever felt. It was as though his palm carried the weight of the entire universe, a focused point of energy that resonated with every fiber of my being. Time slowed, the world around us pausing as if holding its breath. Then, with the force of an implosion, I was catapulted into the forest.

I was a blur, a streak of light tearing through the woods at an unimaginable speed. Trees around me dissolved into fragments of code, flickering and disappearing as I passed, like leaves caught in a tornado. The sensation was exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure, a rush of energy that defied the laws of physics and reality.

My breakneck journey through the forest came to an abrupt halt, plunging me into darkness. A disorienting silence enveloped me, thick and absolute. Then, slowly, a faint light emerged, piercing through the blackness and revealing a small clearing bathed in what appeared to be moonlight.

As I staggered to my feet, still reeling from the surreal speed, I saw her – the girl from the city. Her face was the same, yet different; less battle-worn, more serene. Her hair, long and almost white, fell around her shoulders like a cascade of moonlight. She seemed ethereal, otherworldly – like an elf straight out of a storybook.

Pulling back her hoodie, she stepped towards me. "And once again, I'm only able to stand and wait in shock," I murmured sarcastically to myself, though my voice betrayed a sense of awe.

She moved closer, her presence both calming and unnerving. Leaning in, she whispered into my ear. The words were elusive, more like a melody carried on the wind, a language of emotion rather than speech. Simultaneously, she placed something small and cool into my hand.

Then, unexpectedly, she kissed my cheek. It was a gentle touch, but it triggered something profound. My gaze shot upwards, as if trying to pierce through the very fabric of the universe. A heat built up behind my eyes, a prelude to a storm of memories and emotions.

Images, words, and feelings swirled around me in a maelstrom of sensations. Tears escaped my eyes as my feet lifted off the ground, my body levitating as if caught in the eye of this emotional tempest. I was absorbing the environment, overwhelmed and utterly powerless to resist the torrent of revelations washing over me.

And just as quickly as it had started, it stopped. Everything went pitch black once again, and I was lost to unconsciousness, the girl's enigmatic presence the last flicker in my mind before succumbing to the darkness.

I woke up with a start, my body jerking upright as if I'd been jolted back to life. The first thing I registered was CINO, buzzing and beeping anxiously, with a tangle of cables connected to me. "Hey, boy, I'm alright," I reassured the little bot, though my voice sounded far from convincing.

"What happened?" I asked, rubbing my temples, trying to piece together the fragments of the surreal experience.

"You were unconscious for one minute and 44 seconds, Kyle," CINO responded in its crisp, metallic tone. "I initiated a scan the moment you collapsed. Would you like to hear the full diagnosis?"

"Not now, later," I replied, my voice laced with exhaustion. "Let's go home."

As I made my way back, my mind was a whirlwind of questions, the very definition of 'information overload'. It felt like an eternity had passed in those dreamlike sequences, yet it was less than two minutes in reality. Whatever that experience was, it had left an indelible mark on my consciousness.

When I arrived home, my mom was there. The flood of emotions and mental stimulation from the day's events was still overwhelming, and without a word, I fell into her arms, struggling to hold back tears. She hugged me back, her presence a silent source of comfort, like a healing potion for my frayed nerves. We didn't need words; her embrace said everything.

Dinner passed in silence. Grandpa Jasper mumbled a story from his time about a war, his voice a distant echo in the back of my mind. I was there physically, but my thoughts were elsewhere, tangled in the events of the day.

Retreating to my room, I shed my black hoodie, weary to the bone and ready to collapse into bed. But as I reached into the pocket, my fingers brushed against something unexpectedly cold and solid – a small cube. It was an oddity, seemingly a hologram floating in my pocket, yet tangible and heavy in my hand.

A sharp pain lanced through my head as the memory of the girl in the dream surged forward. She had whispered something, her breath a soft breeze against my ear, and had placed this object in my hand.

"CINO, scan this," I said, holding out the cube. The bot whirred to life, its sensors focusing on the object. Moments later, CINO replied, "The object is unidentified."

Unidentified? In a world driven by AIs and digital records, something being unidentified was not just rare; it was near impossible. This realization was the final straw, the last piece of evidence that what I had experienced, dream or not, had a foot in reality.

"No idea what happened to me, what I saw, or what this is," I whispered to myself, the weight of the day bearing down on me. But this small, mysterious cube was proof – proof that the surreal events, the girl, the shadow version of me, they were real.

Exhausted beyond measure, I let the cube rest on my nightstand and collapsed into bed. Sleep claimed me swiftly, a deep, dreamless slumber, the likes of which I hadn't experienced in a lifetime. It was a respite, a brief escape from the whirlwind of mysteries and revelations that now enveloped my life.