(The picture is merely an example of what I picture her descriptors to be as it's my favourite kind of spirit (like Kuchisake-onna), yes it's me from a Halloween a few years ago but it's purely an example. I am in no way 'otherworldly'.)
I had wandered so far through the forest that only seemed to get denser, darker and unending.
I was tired, every new step made my body feel heavier and I was beginning to feel my hope dwindling and I knew that soon I would allow myself to sit down and let nature do its bidding.
Looking up, I couldn't decipher if it had fallen darker than I had anticipated or the canopy of the trees was too deep for me to see past and that was what was causing the shade, I could have been walking for hours or mere minutes and I'd never be able to tell.
In a state of completely numb haze, I managed to trek into an area clearer than the others and found myself wanting to stop, any determination or drive taken from me completely as I climbed over the last log before slumping to the floor on my knees.
"No more," I said in a voice so hoarse I barely recognised it as my own.
The area I had clambered into wasn't much, but it wasn't as overgrown as it had been to this point and gave me enough room to stretch out my legs and let the void take me.
I couldn't recall when I had lost track of the path, the view of vines, trees and other varying plants was so deeply ingrained in my mind that I even with my eyes closed I wasn't relieved of the greens and browns I'd been stumbling through for what felt like a lifetime.
The longer I stayed slumped against the log, the more the tiredness seeped into every fibre of my being and I accepted that I was never going to leave this forest.
Slowly, I began to feel my head slumping towards one of my shoulders and I couldn't find the strength to lift it up again, I simply let it fall and allowed my eyes to fall closed.
When I was roused from my slumber, it was as dark as it had been when I'd slipped under, making it hard for me to estimate how much time had passed, if any truly had.
Somewhere in front of me, seemingly far off into the distance, I could just make out something white and flowing weaving between the tree branches before settling off lower down in the distance.
Though it would have been easy to put this down to the blurriness of my eyes and my mind playing tricks on me, there was no way I could deny the soft, melodic sound that appeared to be coming from the same direction.
That was too vivid to be made by my imagination alone, surely.
I pushed myself up onto my feet, surprise by how light I felt, I had fully expected to feel a deep ache and weight to my muscles after my previous tiredness but instead I felt weightless and drawn towards the strange source of light.
It took more weaving through foliage and climbing over logs to close in, though somehow this seemed more effortless than the previous few days had been and I was closing in on my target easily.
The closer I got, the more the bright blur obtained an outline.
One of a woman, sitting on the ground.
The clearer she became, the more ethereal she appeared to be.
She was otherworldly and beautiful.
Adorning a long black dress with large bell sleeves, her dark hair flowing around her as an invisible wind picked it up, she was truly a sight to behold.
Her skin was pale to the point of being pure white with no other pigmentation, which explained the insinuated glow to her appearance and accentuated the darkness of her seemingly sunken eyes as well as the deep groves that were crawling up her cheeks, still seeping drips of crimson.
Lips that were somehow both grey and pink moved as she continued her melody while cradling a tiny bat within her ghostly pale hand, feeding something writhing to the thing.
"You were lost too soon," I heard her say, the melody melting into her voice.
She hadn't been singing at all, merely talking to the tiny runt of a bat and yet somehow, her voice had the luring effect of a siren's song until I was drawn close enough.
"Excuse me," I stammered out, stopping mere feet away from her.
As the bat crunched on the offered bug, she stopped her murmuring and lifted her sunken eyes to me, offering me a smile that warped her crookedly cut cheeks.
"I've been waiting for you," she said, her voice a soft whisper.
"You have? Why?"
"You've been lost for a while."
"Yes," I nodded, taking another step closer, "can you help me?"
"I can, though not in the way you may think."
I frowned, shaking my head slowly, "I'm sorry, I don't follow."
"You shall."
Slowly, she rose from her place on the floor and cradled the bat to her chest, it was then that I noticed the thing's horribly bent wing and a strange realization dawned on me.
The spirit turned to me and gave me another wonky smile, dipping her head before walking back through the brush.
She didn't say another word.
She didn't have to.
I knew what I had to do.
So, with only a brief glance over my shoulder towards the direction I had come in, I followed behind her.