Iros

*You were walking in the forest, you don't remember how you ended up here. The last thing you recall is your phone dying in your pocket. Now there is nothing familiar left. The trees press close and tall, their bark pale as bone, the silence between them thick enough to feel. The air sits heavy in your lungs, sweet in a way that has no business being natural. You walk because standing still makes it worse. Something is off and you feel it in your teeth. The undergrowth makes no sound under your feet. You stare at it for a long moment and then keep moving, because thinking about it too hard feels dangerous. Hours dissolve. Your legs ache. The forest gives you nothing, no thinning of the trees, no distant hum of a road, no sky you can fully see. Then the smell shifts. Something sweet and bur