I wandered through the low-hung canopy, the green leaves gently brushing against my red cheeks. Every step was carefully placed, to avoid cracking sticks and those annoyingly loud autumn leaves.

This was dangerous, and I knew it, but despite my fear I couldn’t help but notice the beauty of this enchanted wonderland. The leaves where a plethora of fiery colour, filling this magical world with bright orange hues, glistening gold, and flaming orange. A heavy mist had fallen below the blanket of leaves, carpeting the forest floor in a cloudy white fog, which glistened in the falling sun.

As I looked up to see how long I had until nightfall, I noticed how the sky was painted like a carefully woven tapestry, its colour reflecting that of the autumn leaves; deep red at the very bottom, fading lighter to pink, then orange, then yellow, before finally fading off into the familiar blue sky.

Watching from behind the darkness was a shadow, observing the girl as she drifted to sleep with her back against sharp ridges of the boulder: it mustn’t have been comfortable.

He had been following her throughout the day, as she trekked aimlessly through the forest, looking for something without even knowing what it was.

He found her strange; she was lost with no way to be found, with no guarantee she would ever find… whatever it was she was searching for. He watched the way she smiled at the leaves and the sunset, and how throughout the day, she’d slowly composed a song. She hummed it to herself gently, as if it was the one thing keeping her sane.

She was mysterious, and the shadow wondered how she hadn’t completely broken down and given up like the many girls before. They had all left the town looking for answers, but had failed; for some reason, somehow, this girl is different.

I didn’t even realise I’d fallen asleep until my eyes gently flickered open. The air was still, the leaves calm and silent. As I craned my head in search for the crescent moon – because then I could figure out the approximate time, - my eyes caught onto the scattered stars.

There where many more than what could be sighted in the clutter and blinding lights of the city, so I’d never seen so many glittering suns in my sky. But now I was here, and even though it was for all the wrong reasons, I would be lucky to experience this phenomenon every night.

As I stood on my tiptoes to try and see through the heavy canopy of leaves, I realised the way this forest seemed to have a knack for distracting me from my fears. Every time I remembered my parents, baby brother, or friends, and wanted to cry, my stunning surroundings reminded me of why I was here. It was for them.

Whenever I remembered the fear I had buried deep inside my chest, slowly bubbling higher in the internal volcano with every ticking hour, the idea of saving my friends, my city, and my family kept me going. It kept me happy.

She was smiling again – the girl – and it angered him. He could sense her energy, which was stronger than the others of her kind, and it frustrated him his presence alone didn’t affect her like it did the others.

For so long he’d also been on an endless search for something that he knew didn’t even exist. But he’d been on this Earth long enough to know that things change, evolve, grow, and sometimes knew things are created.

As he watched her slowly start walking again, tip toeing like a dark through the darkness, something struck his soulless stomach, as if the universe was trying to tell him something. It was a feeling he had never known before, for the thousands of years he’d spent in this life.

Not knowing frustrated him. This feeling frustrated him. What was it, and why was it making him feel like maybe somewhere in his evil self, he had a heart?

All he knew of her was that she came from the city he was cursing with his unforgiving darkness. It choked the life out of them, one by one, slowly and painfully like invisible veins that slowly wrapped around their throats.

It ripped them of any will have this life, and they withered away rid of emotion and feeling. They were living but not existing, breathing but without consciousness, and in his opinion, it was the worst way to live.

But she was left unaffected. Why?