ABSOLUTE SILENCE

Image Credit: Francesco Ungaro

Silence… complete and utter overbearing silence.

I open my eyes to survey my surroundings. Black lifeless trees pushed from the ground like grotesque shards, their black, rotting leaves blocking out most of the sun causing the light to be diffused and misty at ground level. I turn a deliberate and slow circle searching for a clue, anything that I could recognise that would reveal the way but there was nothing, not even any tracks to indicate the way I had walked. It was as if I had been placed in this exact spot.

I closed my eyes again shutting off that sense and hoping that the energy I saved would divert to make my hearing more acute. “What was that?” I heard a noise, faint but definitely there. I stood perfectly still, slowing my breathing and straining my hearing, there was definitely a noise, something out of place, not in keeping with my surroundings; it sounded almost like distant artillery fire. I continued to get my bearings on the sound and once zeroed in I opened my eyes, fixed on the horizon and started walking.

NOTES:
In the first paragraph I wanted to convey several things, one was loneliness and the other was that closed in feeling like if standing in fog. I don’t think it came across that well.

Moi…