The Creeping Rainbow

 Recently I had an experience that I feel the need to post here. I like taking long walks on nature trails. It was my first time in a long while being outside. Being a solitary person, I was looking forward to experiencing the outdoors by myself seeing as how not many people were out at that time. Whenever I go on this nature trail it's usually a pretty straightforward process.

I walk on it for a couple hours, pass all the familiar landmarks, stop for a quick snack, and come back the way I came. Things went differently. I was about halfway done before it was time to head back. I was taking a quick water break at the halfway point landmark which is a mossy boulder. As I sipped my water I took notice of something I hadn't during my other trips. The trail branched off to my left from the boulder.

Curious, I took a closer look at it. My initial thought was that it had been made recently. The problem with that was it seemed too organic to be done by chainsaws and other machinery. I can’t explain it but I didn’t get the sense it was new. I got the sense it had always been there.

This confused me because I had been on that trail many times in the past, and not until then had I seen that path. Naturally, I got curious and decided to walk on it. The sensation I got while taking it was tranquility. It didn’t look different from the other parts of the forest except the leaves on its trees were a little greener. The path eventually led me to a small pond.

Although it was pretty I had been expecting a bit more from the path. Still, my water bottle was empty and the water seemed pretty clear so I proceeded to gather it. When I submerged my water bottle inside the pond began foaming. Before I could react, a large jet of water shot up from it like a fountain. When I pulled away from it, a peculiar sight greeted me.

I stood up with my now full water bottle and wet clothes to find that I was in a completely different place than I had been previously. It took a moment for it to register with me. This was mainly due to the water getting in my eyes and causing blurriness in them. When it wore off I found I was standing in the pond but the area surrounding had gone from the forest to a field of flowers. The pond I was on also ran into a stream that went into a river.

“What the hell?” I thought.

Although I was confused, the surrounding area was quite pleasant to look at. I was going to step onto the field when something caught my eye. I spotted it coming out from a bed of roses. I didn't know what I was viewing at first. I can only describe it as being a rainbow that somehow had sentience and moved like a snake.

Seeing it made me hesitate. It’s true everything I had seen there had not given me cause for concern. Then again I could not recall a time I had seen a living rainbow able to move on its own prior to that point. It slithered up to me stopping right at the water and did something that really took me by surprise. It spoke to me.

“Are you lost, friend?” It asked in a soothing tone.

Hearing its voice caused me to be less apprehensive about seeing it. There were a few moments of silence prior to me replying

“Yes, I am. Where am I?”

“Isn’t it obvious? You are looking at paradise.”

“I am? Where is this place?”

“It’s in a place where you no longer need to worry about anything.”

“What are you?”

“I’m a being of happiness. I can tell you’re stressed out. A single touch from me and that’ll be wiped away. Just step onto the grass for me and I’ll do the rest.”

Its voice caused me to feel so relaxed. It was like I had taken a strong drug. Yet, there was a part of me that didn’t trust it completely.

“Why not come to me?” I asked.

“I would but the problem is this flowing water. It would sweep me away.”

“How do I leave here?”

“I don’t see why you need to. If you truly do, however, I can show you how.”

“Has there been anyone here besides me?”

“No, you are the first of your kind to come here. You’re unique. Now, step onto the grass and I will gladly show you. Don’t you want to go home? I can tell you have been moving for a long while. Aren’t you tired?”

“Yeah, I am…”

I felt like I was gently being pulled by an invisible rope. All the while the rainbow kept encouraging me. It kept saying to relax and let it help me. The more it spoke, the heavier my eyelids felt. Its voice was so relaxing yet what was this other emotion I was feeling?

"Why do you hesitate?" It asked me. "I only wish to help."

"I don't know something...is telling me to."

The other emotion was so familiar. It was like a voice in my head trying its hardest to get my attention but the rainbow had the voice of a friend who'd gladly open their home to you.

"That's simply your worry voice," the rainbow explained. "No wonder you are unhappy. You constantly have it nagging at you. Don't you wish it were gone? Do you not wish to be happy?"

"I do…"

"Then all you need to do is come to me."

I felt my shoulders slump as I started walking. The rainbow kept encouraging me. I was about to step out of the pond when a noise reached me over the sound of the stream.

“What is that?” I asked, feeling slightly less drowsy from hearing it.

“That is simply the sounds of the river. Why concern yourself with such a trivial thing?”

It spoke in such a convincing tone. I would have listened to it had it not been for what happened next. There was a part of the water that appeared more reflective than the rest of it.

“Look where you are. You are in paradise. It’s no wonder you are stressed having a mind that can’t let you calm down."

Its voice had a hint of agitation in it. Hearing it, caused me to feel even less sleepy than I had previously. The noise coming from the river grew louder. I started walking towards it. As I did the rainbow kept insisting that I stop and step onto the grass.

I was able to ignore it for long enough to reach the source of the reflection. I reached down and grabbed it. Pulling it from the river showed me that it was a pocket watch. It seemed to be an old-fashioned one. I held it up and gave the rainbow a questioning look.

“I thought you said nobody else came here before me?” I said.

“Well...I meant to say you are the first person I’ve seen in a long time.”

Now it sounded nervous. The noise was even louder then. It almost sounded like chanting.

“Don’t trust it…” What sounded like many voices speaking in unison said.

Try as I might, I couldn’t find where they were coming from. I knew they were coming from the river but I couldn’t tell what part.

“They are trying to lead you astray. Pay it no mind,” The rainbow urged.

“Why didn’t you mention them before?” I asked, beginning to grow worried.

“I was afraid they would scare you away.”

“It’s lying to you,” The voices said.

“No, they’re lying to you,” The rainbow said in response, trying to make its voice sound pleasant again only to not quite be able to.

“Where are you all?” I asked the voices, ignoring the rainbow.

“The dark part of the river.”

I didn’t understand what they meant at first. Then I noticed a shadow that was being cast by a large tree. I went over to it and looked down. There I saw the owners of the voices. Within the shadow, I could see hundreds of faces that wore anguished expressions. Not only that but there were other items.

I found a necklace, a locket, a flute, even some old-looking coins among other things. One look at them and I knew what that other feeling I had been experiencing was. It was fear, humanity's most primal instinct. I felt its sensation spread throughout my body. The rainbow had been trying to give me the same fate as the owners' of the voice.

“What did you do to them?” I demanded to know of it, only to see it was gone.

“It tricked us,” I heard the voices say.

They told me each one of them had been tricked by the rainbow when they came here. Apparently, its touch sucked all the joy out of whoever it touched and left them in a shadowy ethereal state.

“You must be careful,” They continued. “If it can’t trick you, it’ll try other methods of deception to claim you.”

I didn’t think my nerves could become any more shot but they did.

"Fucker must be staying low," I thought.

Beads of sweat rolled down my face, causing my shirt to become even damper. My grip tightened on the stuff I found in the river. Somehow I felt safer with them on my person. It was almost as if they were good luck charms to me. I thought so long as I was standing in the water I would be safe.

That was until I noticed off in the distance a log going over it that formed a bridge. My boot heel was touching a rock that connected back to land. What the rainbow had been doing clicked in my head. I looked back just in time to see the rainbow slithering on the rock. It let out a hiss and got ready to lunge at me.

I got really lucky. Out of reflex, I kicked away the rock it was on, causing it to fall into the water. Any pleasantness it had in its voice previously was clearly gone from how it spoke next. It sounded like a nail scraping against dry glass mixed with blaring static. I couldn’t understand what it was saying but somehow I knew in a very ancient language.

This was the last I heard from it before the river carried it away. Seeing it go made me feel as if I had barely managed to escape the maws of some large beast. This feeling was short-lived. The instant it was gone, the plants began wilting. Areas of the ground were crumbling away into a dark void below.

Essentially, I was about to go from the frying pan to the fire. I knew I didn’t have long until the decay reached where I was standing. I've seen a video of a living crab in a jar. An octopus demonstrated its ingenuity by opening it up and ensnaring the helpless morsel within. I can tell you at that moment I strongly identified with that crab. With that being said I would be damned if I was going to end up like it.

“Shit, how the hell do I leave this place? I wondered aloud.

“We can help you,” the voices said. “Think of it as a token of gratitude for getting rid of the rainbow.”

"Okay, you’re welcome. Now how do I escape from this place? I don’t have much time.”

I glanced over to find that two-thirds of the field had crumbled.

“Go back to where you arrived from and wait,” the voices told me.

I did as told under the assumption that another jet of water would shoot up from the pond. This did not happen. My panic skyrocketed when the rest of the area save for the pound crumbled around me and no water shot up from the pound. I yelled at it to hurry up as if doing so would be effective in helping me. At last, the pond crumbled as well and I fell into the water as it fell into the void below.

At that moment I wondered what fate would befall me. Would I be stuck falling into this void for eternity or would there be more ground below me that I would splatter on? Both guesses turned out to be wrong. Suddenly I felt as though something was pulling me upward. The next thing I knew I could see the surface of the water.

I merged from it and coughed up some lungfuls of water. I had accidentally swallowed some during my fall. I found that I was back by the mossy rock. My body was halfway into the river behind it which I took a drink of and used to fill my water bottle again before climbing out. I went over to where I had first seen the path only to find trees where it had been. I thought perhaps that I had imagined the whole thing until I looked by the river and spotted something gleaming in the sunlight.

It was the watch that was scratched in several places but had otherwise survived the trip back with me. To be honest, I was apprehensive when it came to deciding whether or not to take it home with me. Sure, it had technically saved my life. However, I was too keen on keeping a reminder that I was nearly turned into whatever the owners of the voices became. Eventually, though I decided that I needed to remember what happened and pocketed it.

I pulled out my phone which had thankfully been kept dry inside of my pack and saw that only ten minutes had gone by during that entire ordeal. It felt like I had been there for hours. I’m guessing the place I was in also messed with my time perception. Then again without my phone, it tends to be shit anyway so who knows. What I did know is that I had enough of the outdoors to last me for a while.

I’ll probably go for another hike again in the future just not on that particular trail. I do wonder exactly what that creature was. If anyone has an idea of what it could be, I’d appreciate it if you shared it with me. Hopefully, that rainbow is the only one of its kind. I also hope seeing a rainbow will give me pleasant feelings more than it will remind me of it.