I'd walked for hours. Everything looked the same. I wanted to scream at someone that they had led me past the same tree again and that we were doomed and this was their fault, but I was alone and therefore the only one to blame. Naturally, I'd tried to make conversation with every living creature I had passed. Saying nonsense things, just to hear a voice, even if it was just my own.

I'd seen deer and foxes, rabbits, squirrels (whose grey color still upset me because, as far as I knew, there were no grey squirrels in Germany outside of zoos), mice and other small rodents as well as what might have been a boar. Plus, countless birds and gross insects. A tiny part of me was whispering that this meant I wouldn't starve. My biggest problem, though, was thirst and I just couldn't picture myself drinking the blood of hapless little critters, no matter how much my throat burned.

My feet hurt as well. I kept tripping over roots and sticks, and I could feel every little rock I stepped on poke through the rubber soles of my sneakers. Exhausted, I sat down on the ground, resting my back against a tree. I picked up the hem of my t-shirt and tried to wipe my face with the already sweat-soaked fabric. I wanted to cry, but I feared I couldn't spare the fluids.

What was worse was that it was gradually getting cooler and darker. Night was falling, which meant that soon I would be all alone in a forest in complete darkness. This was bad.

If only I had my phone, I thought. There'd be a flashlight, a compass, google maps, gps, the ability to message or call someone ... I would be saved. Even without reception, my phone would be a source of comfort. I missed holding it, feeling its weight in the palm of my hand. Without it, I felt completely helpless, cut off from society and totally doomed.

I hung my head and stared down at my feet. My sneakers were much worse for wear than they had been when I'd woken up. They were grimy with dirt, the canvas torn on the left shoe where it had snagged on a sharp rock, the rubber frayed. For a moment, I watched some black ants crawl around at my feet; their pattern of movement looked chaotic and random to me. But then, my movement would probably look just as chaotic and random from up above. They were so small, I wondered if they had any way of making sense of my shoes, which were these giant things dropping down on them from up above.

Did they care? Probably not. But maybe they did?

What if there was a giant thing, too big for me to see or ever make sense of, watching me right now?

I shivered, and not just from the drop in temperature, though it was noticeable, but from my sudden realization that if that demon was real, then ... then maybe a whole lot of other supernatural stuff was too.

This wasn't something I had the brainpower to contemplate right now, plus, there was the much more pressing issue of survival. I looked around. Sunset had come and the shadows of the trees were growing longer, the sky between their black silhouettes the burnt orange of a distant fire.

I was so tired. I licked my cracked lips and the sensation of my tongue on my skin had a sandpaper on sandpaper quality.

What if I just laid down right here, I wondered. Would I freeze to death overnight? And would that be a painful way to go? Would the horrible demon snatch my soul from the ether as it left my body and drag me to hell after all? Or was death perhaps the one and only true escape I could make?

Even the thought of death made my heart beat frantically. Tears rose in my throat and I swallowed painfully against them, trying to stop myself from completely breaking down. "It'll be okay," I muttered, "It'll be alright. Just don't give up. Keep moving, Nevin, you can do hard things."

Except, when was the last time I'd done a hard thing? I couldn't even get myself through a thirty minute HIIT workout most days.

I bit my trembling lip and sucked a shaky breath into my ever tightening chest.

Maybe this is it, I thought, and there was a certain kind of almost relief in the idea of relinquishing myself to this forest. I could finally allow myself to cry.

And then I heard it, a shuffling and rustling and a growl.

I froze, my ears pricking at the new and terrifying sounds.

This was no rabbit or deer. It definitely sounded bigger.

I grabbed onto the tree behind me and pulled myself to my feet. Once again, my heart started racing. Life was not giving me a break. I began inching away from the noises, careful to move as silently as possible.

I had managed about two steps when the large black creature emerged from the thicket about three meters away from me. My brain needed a second to process what my eyes were seeing: Furry, four-legged, big snout, deceptively cute round ears ...

A bear. A freaking bear!

I stared at it and it stared right back, lifting its head to sniff the air.

It was black, not brown, so that was good, right? But it was big and it came with very large teeth and claws.

I had no idea what to do. Obviously, I'd never seen a bear up close and personal in real life.

"You're a black bear, buddy," I whispered. "You don't eat people. Your bigger brown cousins might, but you're not like them, right? You're a good boy or girl. You're friendly. You like sweet things like honey. I'm not sweet. Seriously, ask anyone. I'm known to be bitter. My bitterness is what got me into this mess. I bet I taste real bad." I was just babbling, my lips moving more or less of their own accord.

The bear ambled closer. He seemed quite unhurried, but I feared that might change if I broke into a run. He had a strong musty smell and I could hear his rough panting as he got closer and closer. Already, he was almost within reach. My mind was scrambling to assemble any scrap of information I had on bears, especially anything I might have heard or read about what to do in case of an encounter.

Play dead, that was what rose to the surface. I pressed my back into the trunk of the tree behind me, my fingers digging desperately into the bark.

"Come on, buddy, please just go away," I muttered, even though I'd probably better shut up to make myself as uninteresting as possible. His snout touched my thigh and he sniffed me as I clenched my jaw and tried my hardest to become one with the tree. A small whimper escaped my lips when the bear sniffed harder, his snout moving up to my stomach.

I squeezed my eyes shut. If I was going to be mauled, I didn't want to have to see it. Never in my life had I been this tense, every muscle and sinew in my body felt close to snapping. My heart had turned into a jack hammer, pounding blood through my body with relentless violence.

Just when I thought I would explode, I heard a bang. My eyes popped open and the bear let out a surprisingly high pitched noise, somewhere between growl and scream as it turned tail and ran. I barely had time to suck in a breath before a large bloodhound burst through the foliage, heading straight at me.

I'd reached my limit. I couldn't take it anymore. Even though I knew this was the wrong choice, I started running as well, pushing past trees and stumbling over rocks for all of ten seconds until my foot caught on a root and I went down, hitting the ground hard enough to have the air forced from my lungs. I deflated like a punctuated balloon. The ringing in my ears mixed with the barking of the dog, creating a shrill cacophony.

And then, just when I thought it was all over for me, I heard a voice. Human. Male.

"Woah, there, boy, now what do we have here?" English, American English. Footsteps and breathing. Coming closer.

My head was swimming. The pieces kind of fit together. Thick forest, grey squirrels, black bear. This wasn't home. Was I ... in the US? Did it matter?

I could barely breathe. My nose was full of dirt. I tried to turn my head to get a look at the man, who seemed to have stopped by my side. I heard the creak of leather as he crouched down.

I was a young woman alone in the forest. No one knew I was here. Without him, I would probably die. But now that he'd found me, I was at his mercy.

What to do?

Play dead, a little voice in my head supplied.

"Please don't hurt me," I whispered, and then allowed myself to pass out.