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When Kibum awoke he gathered from the bright sunlight cascading in through cracks in the curtains that it was already well into the morning hours. He glanced at the electronic alarm clock located on his bedside table. It read 10:05am. After letting out a long, drawn out yawn he proceeded to slowly rise up into a seated position, pushing his covers back as he did so.

It was absolutely freezing in the room. The cold hit him like a slap to the face immediately after he had finished pushing the blanket off of himself. Almost instantaneously he yanked it back up to wrap around his now goosebump ridden body. The mornings prior to this one had been cold, but they were nothing like today. True unforgiving Canadian winter had finally set in.

Once his body had taken enough time to adjust to the new low temperature Kibum cautiously stood up, allowing the blanket to crumble in a pile around his feet.

He softly padded across the cool hardwood floor and pulled back the curtains. Harsh sunlight engulfed the room, it's rays providing some small amount of warmth to the icy cold that still lingered. Kibum looked out the window which was directly across the room from his bed and noticed the heavy snowfall outside.

Though he was on the second floor he could still see the ground with ease even while laying in bed as the window was large and took up most of the wall.

He smiled to himself. Despite the cold, the sight before him was captivating. Raw untainted nature in all of its glory. A majestic symphony of the land and the sky. So much unlike the tired city streets when it snowed back home in Seoul, the rotten odor of the city always on the breeze even during those cold months. Here this place was, like a long forgotten memory faded away at the edges as though it were an old well loved piece of paper.

Kibum took notice of the treeline to the left hand side of the window. Tall and foreboding were the deep green pines which lined the entrance to the wild untamed lands beyond as silent and ever present guardians. A fresh coat of white graced each one of them.

He then looked beneath the majestic pines and noticed traces of earth still peaking through, protected by the canopy of branches above despite the heavy snowfall. Something about the treeline was so enticing. The longer that he held his gaze the deeper his desire to enter the woods became.
 

As though his thoughts were guided by an unseen force he decided that today would be the day for a hike. He had pondered over the idea of exploring the wilds alone once or twice before, but ultimately had decided against it due to his many fears associated with nature and the unknown. It was funny how now that snow blanketed the ground and would likely make for unscalable terrain he was feeling motivated to venture off into the woods. Funny, when the idea scared him long before snow had ever fallen.

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Surprisingly it didn’t take Kibum long to get used to the cold. Despite the floor initially feeling like a sheet of ice beneath his feet he was able to adjust and warm up quickly.

He made his way down to the first floor of the home and paused briefly in the hall to adjust the dial on the thermostat before turning into the kitchen where he began the process of preparing breakfast for himself.

As he watched the bacon and eggs simmer away in a pan he thought about going into town before he took off on his hike, but quickly decided against it. His desire to see other people on this day had started at a low and dwindled down to practically nothing by the time that he found himself in front of the kitchen stove pushing things about in a hot pan of grease.

Anyway, knowing himself he would likely end up gossiping with someone if he went into town, and then he would in turn not end up getting back home until after dark once again. Kibum was a chronic gossip. He just couldn’t help himself.

Once his pan full of food had finished simmering and his bread had popped up from the toaster he quickly deposited it all onto a plate and carried it over to the hardwood dining room table, where he made quick work of devouring his meal.

Normally he wouldn't dare eat anything this fatty and cholesterol ridden back home, but he didn’t feel like remembering that he wasn’t from here. He wanted to imagine that Nazko was his home, far, far away from modern civilization.

He washed the dishes and then placed them on a rack to dry, not being one to leave a mess behind before going out.

By that time his desire to enter the forest had become an unbearable pull. He made quick work of packing a small bag full of supplies and dressing himself accordingly for the weather. He had just bought a new navy blue winter coat from the general store in town a week prior, along with a pair of insulated waterproof snow boots. One of the locals had helped him pick them out. Winter here was far messier than the winter he was used to experiencing back home and he considered himself lucky that there were people friendly enough to help him choose the proper things to wear for the harsh Canadian weather.

The time was just past noon when he set out from home. As soon as the door shut behind him he made a beeline for the forest that had been so on his mind since waking that morning. He hesitated slightly, and stole a fleeting glance back at the large bedroom window he had gazed so longingly out of earlier, and then he stepped inside the treeline.

Nobody had told him that it was unsafe to go into the forest alone.

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Time seemed to come to a standstill from within the woods. Kibum had been walking in one direction for what could have been mere minutes, or had it been hours? Did time even really exist here?

He mulled over the thought as he trudged deeper into the woods whilst taking a sip of hot cocoa from the thermos he had brought along. Time was merely a human construct, after all. It wasn't really real, on the grander scale of things.

In a place cut off from the world, where no other human was present in any direction for legions maybe he had somehow passed that boundary.

Possibly, when people went missing within forested regions never to be seen again this is where they ended up, wandering about in a place void of human understanding for all eternity.

Kibum pondered over these things as he continued to walk forward. Vegetation and dead tree branches mixed with the freshly fallen snow crunched beneath his feet. The feeling that had compelled him to enter the forest alone in the first place only grew more urgent and all consuming with each step that he took deeper into the heavy scent of pine and frost.

What time was it getting to be?

He looked down at his phone. It read 1:11pm. Just as it had the last several times he’d checked it. There was no service this deep within the Canadian wilderness. Somehow his phone had even stopped telling time. Maybe he really had passed a barrier of some sort.

His focus was immediately lost from his thoughts when he heard a branch snap from somewhere behind him. During the entirety of his hike so far he had heard nothing. Absolutely nothing.

He froze immediately, unsure of how to react. The sound came with a sense of impending danger. He had no time to react before a low menacing snarl broke the silence yet again. It even closer behind him than the snap of the brach had been,

and then everything went black.

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Kibum awoke. He was alone, motionless on the forest floor. The trees surrounding him were now shrouded in almost infinite darkness. The night would have been pitch black if it were not for the large full moon in the sky above casting beams of light in between trees. For a moment he fel