Breakdown of Reality

               The night was silent and warm. Steven stood on the edge of the road, his car parked on the shoulder, emergency blinkers on, staring at the forest in front of him, one hand in his pocket, the other pulling the cigarette from his mouth. He inhaled deeply and exhaled the smoke as he brought the cigarette down to his side.

               He’d seen her. She’d dashed quickly into the woods as he drove by. He’d been plagued by dreams for week, of a mysterious woman, running, scared. He’d never seen the woman before, never met her, and had no idea who she was. She was beautiful, five foot five, a hundred pounds, long dark hair, medium sized bust, and nice hips. She seemed terrified though. Steven spent his nights dreaming of her running and his days wondering what it was that made her run. He worked as a security guard at a local manufacturing plant and had a lot of time to think about it, he’d sketched her a few dozen times.

               Then he was driving home from work one night, passing by a small local forest when he’d seen her. He’d stopped the car immediately and pulled over to the side. She’d been standing at the side of the road, with that haunted look on her green eyes, when his headlights had flashed on her she’d turned and dashed into the forest.

               He looked down at the cigarette in his hand and then brought it up to his mouth for one final drag. He flicked the butt into the road, pulled the zipper on his jacket up to his neck and headed into the woods, work flashlight in hand.

               As soon as he stepped into the forest he felt it. Something felt… different. He couldn’t necessarily place his finger on it, it didn’t seem bad, it just felt strange. The rustle of the trees, the grass beneath his feet, the light breeze blowing through the air, for some reason it felt more real here. He’d grown up out in the country but moved to the city in his teen years. He had some fond memories of playing in the woods near his house, but they were nothing like this. He’d heard stories about this forest, and at the moment he was inclined to believe them. There was a part of him that instinctively knew; this was a place of power.

               Steven wasn’t sure why he was going the way that he was going; it was just instinctive, like a part of him knew this forest. He came to a small cropping of trees, branches blocking the way he needed to go, and he pushed his way through them. As the last branch cleared his sight and snapped back behind him, he took a sharp breath.

               He stood in a large clearing, a clearing that didn’t make any sense. He was familiar with the area and had driven by this forest numerous times. This clearing couldn’t be here, it was too large, and the forest circled it, indicating that Steven was still in the forest. However, that wasn’t the largest surprise. A tall tower, sitting on a high hill and standing high above the trees, was in the center. Dark polished marble with a stone tipped roof, ebony gargoyles jutting out from the tower made the tower a very imposing sight. This most certainly should have been visible road, yet Steven had never seen it.

               A beautiful woman in a stunning golden set of full plate mail was walking towards him. She had long flowing red hair and a long sword strapped to her side. She stopped about twenty paces away from Steven and held out her palm in greeting, not wanting to appear hostile, Steven did the same.

               “Hail stranger,” she said with high accented words, “Who are you and what do you want in these lands?”

               Steven frowned, not quite able to place the accent, and responded.

               “Steven MacHail,” he said, “And what lands are these?”

               The woman looked him over and laughed.

               “Well Steven MacHail,” she said, mirth obvious in her voice, “You’ve walked into the land of the Tuatha De Danann, and you have the pleasure of addressing the Lady Brigit.”

(Source: nykyos)