I stand barefoot in the forest, listening for her voice again, to guide me in the right direction. Breathing slowed, I can feel the steady rythmic beating of my heart as time stands still in the waiting. I can hear every sound, including a trumpet that sounds both close and far away.
She calls again, "Danielle". She is to my right. The forest floor is still damp, and the morning sun is rising, letting enough light through the trees to see my path. Wet leaves and dirt cake to my feet like sod slippers, but I push ahead through a hanging sheet of dead branches, opening to a grassy embankment.
Down and to my right is a pier leading into a pond that is alive with movement. From where I stand it would appear the surface disturbed by wind and rain, but the air around me is heavy, still, and sticky.
She sounds again, and I let my eyes follow the call. I see her. She is tied loosely to a wooden post, her nightgown unsoiled despite her placement in the center of the pond.
She sees me and calls out again, "Danielle.". Her voice commands my once frozen body into motion down the pier.
Readying myself to jump, I discover it's not the water moving erratically, but the countless number of snakes that are animating it.