Engulf by Elise Lester (14, New Zealand)*

Imagine, dark space engulfs the path like oxygen smothering flames. Adrenaline crushes my chest as we wander further into the night. Roots knot and entwine themselves with one another. It is blackened and burning in my memory, never to disappear again. Deep in the archives of human history; untouched in centuries. Aphotic and abandoned for many generations. Imagine, arms reach out, tantalising me, daring me touch one. Wishing they would whisk me away to another land on the tips of their wooden fingers. Figures form and deform in shadows of the walkway. 

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Figures of fatality blow their scent in the wind, decayed wood and rotten foliage.

Someone in particular, standing short and ashamed, beckons us toward our twisting fates in the hole he dug to hell. A hole towered over by the derelict, decaying graphite recollection of our life story. Tip. Tap. The sound of a thousand feet rings out into the nether darkness surrounding me.

Skies are bleeding a horrendous cocktail of all things dark, drawn out by the forest dwellers' delusions.

Without warning, the leaves and dirt underfoot aren’t there, my soul has taken the nearest exit, and in all of a second, one more candle has been snuffed in the course of history. 

Now imagine, airy golden haze drifts between woody limbs stretching out into the sun. Roots twisted, lazily bathing in the glow. Taking a wander, weaving through the foliage, figures rise and fall, blowing on the somnolent breeze. Bundles of auburn fluff tumble and roll, bushy tails rummage through trunks, and little toes tickle the leaf-coated ground.

There is a smell sweeter than powdered sugar flowing in the cool breeze, and a song more beautiful than anything else serenading your ears; could you ever imagine that this is the same place as in the darkest nights? Bright gold fills the sky and brings the most gorgeous colours into the foreground. An array of avian charms in all colours of the rainbow pepper the sky like jewel-coloured stars. 

This is the same place where the stars melted into a pool of milky white fear; and all that remains is the pitch black expanse above us. 

Perspective.