Midnight Wanderer

By Megan Pederson

While wandering through the woods at two in the morning is not enticing, Delilah found herself in the woods almost every night. It was not a mere act of rebellion as most thought, but the only place she found pure joy. She found time to leave her head in the woods. Delilah lived in a rural town in the Appalachian mountains, and the urban legends surrounding her area caused people to be wary of the woods, especially after dark. But with the area surrounded by miles of trees, how could she resist entering the woods? Delilah never cared for these legends, and she knew nothing would happen to her. The dreadful creatures the legends spoke of never seemed to find her, although she occasionally prayed for them to find her. One night, it all changed.

Delilah argued with her mother about venturing into the woods; her mother had finally caught onto midnight adventures. Delilah's obsession with wandering in the woods began years before the night her mother discovered it. In Delilah's true nature, she went back to the woods immediately after the argument. Delilah was not in the right headspace; she wanted to shriek and run until she collapsed. All of her thoughts ran wildly in her head. Delilah was too naive to understand why she could not be in the woods late at night. She strayed from her usual path. She knew unmarked paths were dangerous, but she needed the danger to feel better. Some flawed area of her brain needed it. 

Almost immediately, she could feel the effect of leaving the path. Delilah felt her surroundings change, and she felt the eyes of the creatures around her. Delilah tried to act like her eyes were playing tricks, but she knew better. She did what the average person would, sprinting further into the woods. When Delilah stopped running, she could not recall which direction she came from or which direction to take back. She was so deep in the woods, which meant nothing anymore. The trees were dense, and she was in an area she was not familiar with. From there, she decided her only option was to keep going. She was heading deeper into the woods or almost out of them. It was a fifty-fifty chance. Delilah also decided being stuck in the woods might not be a terrible fate. Maybe she would starve to death, or she would learn to live off the land.

Delilah walked for hours until dawn, and without a doubt, she knew she went deeper into the woods. The woods looked strange and completely different from what she was normally around. It reminded her of the forests in the Pacific Northwest. She did not notice the extreme change of scenery while it was dark. It was beautiful but strange. While the sun was up, Delilah decided to rest. She felt safer in the daylight, felt less vulnerable to the creatures lurking. As she sat on the soggy, mud-ridden ground, a sudden feeling of remorse washed over her, and Delilah knew she had made the wrong choice by going to the woods. Delilah wanted to go home and apologize to her mother. She wanted to promise to never go into the woods again. Delilah wanted to do and to be better. But alas, it was too late. As the sun went down, Delilah started moving again. She moved in the opposite direction, hoping she would end up where she began. The hunger aches kicked in, as she had not eaten in over twenty-four hours. She knew she had to continue if she wanted to find her way home—or find a blackberry bush. The only berry bush she found contained berries she had never seen before, and she did not know if they were edible. The neon green fruits did not look appetizing or safe to consume. As Delilah kept walking, she spotted a treeless hill in the distance. 

At this point, she had been walking in the woods for two days. Delilah almost succumbed to exhaustion and hunger, but the hill in the distance gave her hope. She knew she could climb it and attempt to find where she was in the woods. She had a bad sense of direction, but she thought the hill could give her an idea of where she was. Delilah trekked up the hill. Despite her negative state, she found peace and joy in the stunning landscape around her. Delilah saw the greenery go on for miles, and she had barely climbed a quarter of the way up. The size of the hill deceived Delilah; it looked small and easy to climb. Delilah trudged upwards for hours, and when she finally reached the top, she saw something beautiful. It looked like an overgrown medieval French palace, but she knew it could not be. She lives in West Virginia. A palace deep in the woods and of this style was a puzzling find. She was in America; she knew it was not possible to have a French palace of this style in the woods.

Delilah freely entered the overgrown palace; the door had been taken over by nature. As she wandered through, she admired the intricate art along the walls, the statues, and the gold lining on the walls. Although the earth had taken over the palace, the craftsmanship still had immense beauty. Delilah appreciated every detail of the palace. She knew finding the palace took her nowhere, and if anything, it showed she was further from home than she thought. A humming sound came from the distant side of the palace, and Delilah still had some adventure left in her, so she went to explore. She found herself climbing stairs to find this hum. The stairs were unstable, but she needed to find the source. Delilah had nothing left to lose. There was a miniature door at the top of the staircase, and the door led into an old bedroom. Right in the center of the room is a bright light, shaped like a crack in glass. Delilah was convinced she was hallucinating from hunger and thirst. She also had the thought she was already dead, and maybe this light would take her to the afterlife. 

The light sucked Delilah through; she thought this would be the end of her life. Delilah flew through a long tube with shades of lilac purple, light pink, and dark red swirling around her. She felt as if her head would explode—the pressure from the tunnel felt horrible. But then, the tube shot Delilah out exactly where she began. It shot her out where she strayed from the path and the area where the woods shapeshifted around her. Delilah made her way to the path and started her journey home. She noticed the path was the same as when she went missing. It had no new marks, footprints, fallen branches, or anything. It was untouched. Delilah pondered how she entered the portal. She wondered if she was blinded by rage and simply did not notice being sucked into another world or if she hallucinated the entire experience.

Delilah walked home sobbing, still utterly confused about what happened. The walk home dragged on forever. The walk home itself felt longer than her time in the woods. Once Delilah got home, she immediately checked the time. It had only been an hour since she ran out. This confused her more, but all she could do was eat, drink, and have real sleep. Delilah never figured out if this was all a hallucination. No matter what the truth was, she made a promise to herself that she would never wander in the woods past dark again.