Where am I?
Sasha was a 20-year-old woman pursuing her college studies in India. Coming from a middle-class family, she considered herself fortunate—at least, that was what she always told herself, remaining thankful for everything she had. The next day was her birthday, and she was full of excitement, looking forward to spending the entire day with her beloved parents.
But the heavens forsake her.
The next morning, she woke to a world of unfamiliar green. There was no roof, no walls—only the dense, oppressive air of a jungle. “What a vivid dream,” she thought, and closed her eyes, hoping to wake again in her cozy bed. Instead, a heavy, murderous intent pressed down on her, so palpable it raised goosebumps all over her body. Every instinct screamed at her to run, yet she knew, with a cold, subconscious certainty, that survival was impossible.
She opened her eyes, hoping for a miracle.
But boom!
There stood an unnaturally large animal, all rippling muscle, dagger-like fangs, and a terrifying demeanor. Hope evaporated. She froze, paralyzed by its horrific appearance.
The first bite was not clean. It was a wrenching tear that took her shoulder and part of her chest. The pain was a white-hot supernova, so absolute it silenced her scream before it could begin. She felt the wet heat of her own blood drenching her, the grating sound of her own ribs splintering in the creature’s jaws. She was shaken like a ragdoll, the world a nauseating blur of green and red. She could feel the precise moment a tendon in her leg snapped with a sickeningthwipas the beast worried at her limb. Her final sight was of the creature swallowing a piece of her arm, her own hand vanishing into its maw.
Then, her head was torn free. It sailed through the air in a dizzying arc, the last sensations a phantom scream in her lungs she no longer possessed and the brutal crack of her skull hitting a tree trunk. Her vision swam, then focused. Her eyes, still functioning, darted around, searching for the body that was already gone, scattered and being gulped down. She remained conscious the entire time, and soon, the beast vanished back into the sea of trees.
Twenty minutes passed. She was still conscious, a disembodied head. The pain was no longer localized; it was her entire universe. A phantom fire raged in the ghost of her spine, a ceaseless, screaming feedback loop from a nervous system that didn’t know it was dead. She tried to sob, but had no lungs to draw breath. She could only feel the tears, hot and futile, tracking through the dirt and grime on her cheeks.
She closed her eyes slowly, waiting for death.
An hour later, she suddenly woke up—a fresh, different kind of agony tearing through her. It felt like her very nerves were being spun back into existence, each one a live wire. As her vision cleared, she saw something impossible in the distance—bones knitting together with a sound like grinding gravel, muscles winding around them like crimson vines, skin sealing over the raw, red tissue in a searing, itchy crawl. Her body was rebuilding itself, piece by horrifying piece. The process was a new torture; it was not healing, it was a violent, conscious reconstruction. She felt every fiber of new muscle stitch to her jaw, the weight of her reforming torso pulling at her neck, a deep, internal ache as organs bloomed back into existence.
Three hours passed, and her body was still forming. She could believe nothing—not the world she was in, not the nightmare of her resurrection. It all felt like a dream, but the writhing, electric pain confirmed a brutal reality.
After six hours, every muscle had returned. A fragile, desperate hope sparked within her.Maybe… maybe I can survive this.Just as the thought formed, a new creature emerged. It was a massive animal with great horns, similar to an elephant but fundamentally wrong. It looked at her newly formed, trembling body, drooling thick strings of saliva.
Sasha laughed. It started as a choked gurgle in her new throat and erupted into a raw, hysterical shriek. “Why? Hahahahaha!” she screamed at the sky, her voice hoarse from disuse and terror. The absurdity of it all—the pain, the rebirth, the immediate threat—shattered her completely.
The next minute, she was inside the animal’s stomach, plunged into a world of crushing pressure and corrosive, suffocating heat. The air was stolen from her new lungs, replaced by a foul, acidic burn.
It spat out her eyes.
And she could still see, two lonely orbs watching from the grass as the world went dark. Damn it all.
