On a vast land covered with snow, a young, fine lady opened her eyes naked.

  The first thing she felt was the blizzard delivering frozen death. With the shivers kicking in throughout her body, she wrapped her arms around herself as an instinctive measure, and only then did she realize there was not a single string of fabric above her dried-out skin.

  Specks of snow piled one by one on top of her head and shoulders while some flowed along her curvature, and her feet were slowly giving out on feeling the numbing softness below them. Every inhale froze her lungs with impaling frost, and every exhale drained her life away in the form of white steam leaking from her mouth.

  The second thing that swirled in her mind was confusion. She knew she wasn’t supposed to be at a place like this, but she couldn’t remember why she wasn’t supposed to be at a place like this. No, it was more than that; she couldn’t remember anything. About this place, about this time, or about herself. There was no memory of where she lived or who she was. It was as if she started to exist at one random moment, possibly at the worst time and place.

  In desperation, she forced her frozen legs to move closer to the edge of the cliff she was standing on. The scarcely dispersed rays of light penetrating through the waves of clouds were dimly shining on the land covered in pointy trees with piles of snow on their dark green leaves. As the wind howled from the mist hanging on the faraway mountaintop, the forest beneath her swayed left and right with no signs of animals or of civilization to be found. She cried out for help in the slightest hope, only for it to be swallowed by the squall and deliver her empty despair. It did not take her long to realize that she was truly alone.

  She tried to convince herself that everything was just a bad dream. A really vivid one that her uselessly imaginative brain created to surprise her. Once she decided to think it that way, the thought of jumping off the cliff to end this meaningless agony penetrating through her flesh did not sound that crazy. After all, the worst thing that would happen was for her to wake up in her bed with the mattress covered in her sweat. But her feet disagreed with that plan, as the pain scribed on her bones every time the wind clawed her skin and the sensation of her eyes freezing from the back of her iris — they were too real to be the fruits of her creativity.

  With every second passing, she saw her vision narrowing down. Her chest rose up and down vigorously as more cold air passed through her airway, and her blood vessels pulsated under her skin alongside the heartbeat echoing throughout her body. The muscles around her eyes twitched anarchically, and her eyes constricted to form a single dot above the brown and blue irises.

  She looked down at the fall beneath her. Everything looked like miniature props created by an exceptional artisan, and the distance between her and the bottom was far too immense that it almost felt like a fabricated illusion rather than a true perception. With her eyes devoid of light, she forced her right leg to move forward into the nothingness in front of her. She felt the cold air scraping the sole of her foot and took the first step out of this cruel world.

  At that moment, she heard the chirping coming from behind. A sudden goosebump crawled up her skin from her spine, and she realized that there would be no next once she finished this step. While her right leg was still hanging in the air, she threw herself backwards with all the might left in her left leg in an attempt to survive and rolled down the snow over the slope behind her. When she finally stopped her motion, the agony of her muscles tearing apart wrapped around the body under the bruises sprouting all over her skin, but she had to be satisfied with the result when she saw a tree trunk with a sharp fragment standing right next to her face.

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  And for the second time, she heard a chirping; this time from above her. She raised her head to see a single white, dull-looking bird sitting on the branch and staring at her, with its eyes filled with curiosity rather than fear. Soon, a powerful gust of wind carrying the snow blinded the lady, and the bird was no longer there when her vision returned. However, the chirping was still spreading through the deafening storm, and she soon found the same bird sitting on a branch of a different tree. It was a crazy thought to have, but it was as if the bird was guiding her to somewhere she needed to be. So she followed the bird, as that was the only thing she could do.

  As she moved deeper into the forest, the dim light shining from above the sky grew weaker, and the blizzard stripping anything that crawled the land grew fiercer. The bird was no longer looking at her as it had lost its interest a long time ago, yet the lady followed it through the piercing storm with her muscles and bones screaming for every single step she took.

  By the time she reached the tree it rested on, the bird flew away to the next tree, and the next, and the next. She suspected once that she was going around in circles, but there was nothing she could do to prove it as everywhere looked the same. At a certain point, she started to feel warmth from the frost forming on her skin rather than the chill, and the feet that sent pain signals with every walk now remained silent.

  As she slowly lost her mind, the bird moved boldly onto the branch as if it found a foolish worm crawling on the surface under the blizzard. When the lady finally arrived at the tree the bird was on, it delivered a pile of snow right on top of her head by making a victorious movement against the worm. Even though it was merely a handful of snow, not enough to cause an injury, it was enough to make a million thoughts pass through the victim’s brain. And when she lifted her head back up, the bird was no longer there, and the chirping was gone.

  The lady looked around to find nothing but trees. There were no fruits borne nor any traces of the animal on top of the white canvas drawn over the earth. The howling winds were scratching her ears relentlessly, silencing any sounds trying to find their way out of the storm. She had to do something, but with her plan of following the stupid bird having failed miserably, there were no more clues left for her to follow.

  She smiled for the first time since she opened her eyes. And then she laughed maniacally for the entire forest to join her, before cursing into the sky with the freezing air scratching her lungs and throat as it passed through the freeway. There was no response other than the faint echo of herself, but she was satisfied. At least she will die letting whoever was behind this damned misery know how she felt.

  With her back leaned against the tree the bird was sitting, she slowly slid down to the snow below her and sat on the frozen ground. The tree bark carved her skin, and her toes were swollen like a red balloon, but she couldn’t care anymore.

  As the snow steadily piled on top of her, she felt her eyelids getting heavier and the urge to close her eyes for an eternity grew stronger. However, there was no longer fear taking root in her heart. After all, she thought of dying under the falling snow as a romantic way to face the end.

  At that moment, a sudden bright light caressed her with warmth. Through the blinding illumination, she saw a pale hand extending to her, and a voice that was too gentle filled the white emptiness. Although she couldn’t hear what it said through the tinnitus ringing in her ears, she knew that it was calling out her name in the nostalgic way that she longed for in her life.

  She barely raised her lifeless arm and reached out for the hand. She mumbled a name on her purple-colored, fractured lips without a voice coming out of her throat. While her right eye stared into the void beyond the radiance, her left eye glittered with a thousand spectrums of light as it dripped a single tear down onto her vigorless cheek. It wasn’t hope she saw within the light. It was a regret; a regret so deeply rooted in her heart, yet she couldn’t remember what for. And she knew that the hand in the light was the answer to her quest. About why she was here, and about who she was.

  But with only a fingertip remaining between her and the hand, the world went dark, and the light was no more.

  And the next moment, she heard the sound of a ladle scraping the surface of the metallic pot.