Fuck it...

I stepped onto the incline, and pushed off with my opposite foot. My feet began to slide. Slowly at first but rapidly faster than I expected. I began to attempt to shuffle my feet but the uncertain footing began to cause each step to become more off balance. Soon I was stepping only on the outer edge of my boot, and furiously cartwheeling my arms trying to keep my balance. With one final lurch, my heel came off the ground and I felt myself falling. I quickly tried to twist my hips into a proper breakfall, but the angle and the speed I was traveling at caused my slap to turn into an awkward flail and I came down HARD.

I could barely breathe as I felt myself sliding to a halt. Each breath came hard at first, but easier as I gasped. Hadn't fallen that hard in a long time. I blinked my eyes rapidly, my vision swimming again. I thought I could see the sun glowing through the fog for a moment, before it faded. The breaths were coming easier now, and I levered myself up, trying to cast my eyes around for where I was.

It seemed, quiet. Quieter, than it had any right to be. I was slightly damp, and I brushed at a few of the needles on my sweater as I rolled to my knees. I rubbed at my head feeling no pain, and no stars. I was pretty sure I had at least kept it tucked, so no worries there. The breathing, well, that was just a bad fall. I'd be fine in a few seconds. Wait. Where was Helen?

I glanced around the bottom of the ravine taking stock of the small trickle of water that ran along the bottom of it, and the various trees that dotted the area. The fog seemed lighter here. Not much, but the entire area seemed filled with some kind of radiance that hadn't existed a few moments before. This was getting strange. It felt like something out of a dream. Oh SHIT, maybe I HAD hit my head!

I reflected for a second. Nope, this was definitely real. I cold feel my right side ache where I had fallen. It was better than it was, but I was definitely going to feel this one in the morning. I reached my arms up, and pressed down against the ground hard, cracking my back. It helped a little with the pain and the reality. Yes, definitely real. I didn't do warm ups in my dreams.

I glanced around the small clearing in the fog. There was nothing much there, just a small ravine with a trickle of water flowing through. Although, the trees did seem a little too regular, almost like a circle of pillars. I stepped forward, my eyes casting about the area. Off in the fog, I saw the shining glow that I had thought was the sun earlier, and it just as rapidly faded as my eyes tried to make out what it was. I heard footsteps now, and I strained, trying to make out the figure.

"Hi, Babe." I heard Helen's voice clearly, and thought I heard the rattle of metal on metal. However, just as rapidly I was able to take in the shape of her in my jacket, and the soft profile of her beret.

"Hey, thought I'd lost you. " I nodded, looking around the area. "This is, kinda weird." I gestured to the clear air, with the swirling fog kept at bay, almost like a wall.

"Yeah, well, things get weird, when you're remembering a lot of things." Helen shrugged.

"Ok, that sounded way too cryptic for my own good. " I quipped. This was actually starting to freak me out, and the fact that Helen was taking it so casual, well it didn't do much for my state of mental health.

"Do you want the Bullshit reason this is happening, or the real reason this is happening.?

"Both." I nodded evenly.

"Because of higher moisture content due to the stream. The break in the fog is a mere coincidence due to local weather patterns. The Golden light you saw was the reflection of the sun from a clear portion of the sky onto a passing vehicle which you cannot hear because of the Doppler effect and I was just taking a look around because I was certain that you were fine." Helen rattled off the explanation easily and quickly.

I began to laugh. Yeah that was a pretty good reason for... I looked at her and noticed that she had been making the "Jerk off" motion the entire time she had been speaking.

I swallowed rather hard. The fog seemed to take on a malignant tone, and Helen's face seemed sinister in the shadowed light. For a second, it almost seemed that she was someone I had never seen before. Someone far more dangerous than I could ever contemplate.

"Promise to believe me?" She asked, and her voice had not changed. Despite the visage, it was still her, the woman I had fallen in love with. "No hedging, no 'are you serious', no long winded denial of something you know in your heart to be true after I tell you."