I was nineteen when I died. It wasn’t a painful death or expected, it just kind of happened suddenly one afternoon while I was on vacation. One second I was taking a picture of a “no trespassing” sign, then everything went black for I don’t know how long. When I opened my eyes I first noticed a body lying in front of me, it was mine. I started having a panic attack and I tried to take deep breaths, but then I realized I couldn’t hear myself breathing, I wasn’t making any sound. I closed my eyes and kept repeating “you’re okay, you’re okay,” over and over again in my head. When I opened my eyes again I noticed a blue light among the fog and branches some ways ahead. I needed a distraction so I decided to investigate. I took a few steps forward, the leaves underneath my hiking boots didn’t even flinch or crunch. I couldn’t breath and now apparently, I’m weightless also! I kept walking to the mysterious glowing light anyways, the fog growing thicker every second. I was starting to struggle to see the blue light so I started running. I didn’t have to worry about getting exhausted since my lungs still weren’t working…
Wait! I’m going to take a break from the story to explain where I was when I died. Like I said before, I was on vacation. I was vacationing in one of the many forests of Maine. I had been in the town for two days already and had been on three hiking trails. On my third day in town, I went to a diner across the street from the hotel I was staying at for breakfast. My waitress handing me a newspaper when she handed me my large cup of coffee. The top headline read “Two Hikers go Missing on the ‘Forbidden Trail’”. Intrigued, I read the article. So far twenty people have not come back from hiking the “Forbidden Trail”. I decided to be a daredevil and hike the trail. I asked my young waitress where the trail started when I paid my bill.
“Go left at the end of the main road and keep walking forward. It will change into a dirt road, you’ll see the signs,” She told me with a worried glance at the newspaper in my hand. I thanked her. When I opened the door, she said, “Be careful out there, my sister never came back last year.” I turned and told her I’d be okay and thanked her again. I walked to the grocery store and bought energy bars and water bottles…
As I made my way down the skinny dirt road I noticed short wooden signs all along the sides. I read one near me. There was a name and a date engraved in the mildew covered wood. Under that it read, “Those taken by the Forbidden Trail will always be remembered, don’t be next”. For some odd reason, I kept walking…
Back where I left off, I could barely see in front of me since the fog had become so thick. The blue light had become a dim dot in the distance. I kept running, I heard a loud howl somewhere behind me, I turned around but didn’t see anything. I kept running faster and faster and glancing behind me till I ran into a tree. I mean I went right through the trunk. I had another non-breathing panic attack. I couldn’t breathe, I was weightless, and now I could run through solid bark! I started running again, the only thing keeping me going was the tiny light in the distance. “Would I ever reach it?” I thought.
The light got bigger and brighter as I made my way through the dark forest. As I got closer to the light it stared to take the shape of what looked almost human. She had on a long dress and she was floating just above the ground staring at me. More figures appeared around the floating woman. They were all glowing in pale and pastel colors. She opened her flawless lips and spoke to those around us, “Hey everyone, looks like there’s a new ghost in town”.