Chris sighed as he looked at the timetable, which showed that the final train home had been cancelled, again.
"God fucking damnit." He muttered, bunching his coat closer in the cold British wind. This wasn't the first, hell even the fifth time this had happened to him since starting his new job a few months ago and he was sick of it. At least he knew the way home, he thought to himself bitterly, the platitude doing nothing to raise his mood at the thought of another cold and lonely walk home.
Setting off from the station, Chris considered his options. He could take the entire walk home, looping around the massive park that dominated the centre of his town, or he could jump the fence and drop a substantial chunk of his walk. He was sure that he could navigate it, he had done it plenty of times in the past after all, he was just worried about getting caught. Firstly, it was technically illegal, since the park closed early during the winter months, and Chris was already in hot water with the local police because of a few "misunderstandings" they had shared. Secondly, and even more worrying, his ex worked for the park's security and running into her... Well he didn't even want to think how that would pan out given their less than amicable breakup and her apparent obsession with winning him back.
Just as Chris was beginning to write off the idea once again and resign himself to another dreary trudge through the streets, a car drove past him and through a puddle, spraying a gigantic wall of water up and soaking Chris through to the bone.
"Fucking arsehole!" He yelled at the car, which was rapidly disappearing into the murky night. Fearing he may not have got his point across, Chris held up his middle finger, hoping the occupant would see him and feel at least some remorse. Unfortunately he would never find out, and his frustration, coupled with a renewed urgency to get back to his flat, warm up and change clothes, led to him making a snap decision, grabbing the wrought iron fence to his left and hauling himself over it.
"Ah, fuck!" The young man yelled as he landed in a snowdrift that was deeper than it appeared, twisting his ankle and causing pain to shoot up his leg.
"God, could this fucking night get any worse?" He muttered, gripping his ankle and hauling himself up on the bars of the fence. Limping gingerly over to the path, he grunted with frustration, trying to power through the pain in his ankle and look around for any familiar landmarks.
He instantly realised that he had made a mistake jumping the fence on impulse, as in the dark, he had absolutely no idea where he was. There was no signage nearby that he could see, the trees looked entirely the same and the path stretched off into the darkness on both sides, with nothing, not even a bench in sight. Rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration, he sighed and resolved to just pick a direction and walk, assuming he would find some sort of landmark he could use to pinpoint his location and map his route somewhere close to his home.
An hour later, by Chris' slightly broken watch, he had still found absolutely nothing he recognised.
"How big is this fucking park?" Chris wondered aloud "I swear I should have found something by now." As he wandered, following the tarmac path as best he could, imaginary eyes began prickling the back of his neck, making his footfalls just a little faster and his goosebumps not just a symptom of the cold as he began to imagine what horrors lurked in the void just beyond his vision. This faster pace, however, alongside his very limited vision, caused him to trip over a root that he swore hadn't been there before, almost slithering out of the darkness to trip him up. This was the final straw and he stood, wincing at the (dulled but still noticeable) pain and stomping on the root repeatedly, swearing as he did so.
After venting his anger he swept some hair out of his eyes, scanning the path ahead for anything of note, when he noticed something.
There were a lot more roots there, and they definitely hadn't been there when he fell.
"Uhm.. okay, that's fucking weird." Chris said to himself quietly, subconsciously trying not to alert anything that might be nearby. Gingerly he stepped over the original root, threading his way slowly though the sudden web of roots that dominated the ground, growing under and through the tarmac at his feet in a way he swore wasn't happening the last time he had visited. He frowned as a fork in the path became visible. There was no signage to indicate where each path led, but to his sudden joy he could see a very faint light off in the distance on the left branch. Not caring if it could possibly be security, or even his ex, he limped as fast as his leg would carry him, the promise of being able to leave the confusing maze of a park behind for the night so tantalisingly close.