The Bridge of Footprints
Episode 2: Across the Ravine
Determined to follow the invisible traveler, Julian strapped on his mountaineering harness, clipped into the safety cable running alongside the bridge, and began walking toward the center of the chasm. The thick valley fog rolled in rapidly, swallowing the stone railings and plunging the ravine into a grey twilight where the bottom was entirely invisible. As he reached the midpoint of the span, the wet footprints began to multiply, surrounding him on all sides with the sound of heavy boots splashing through puddles that did not exist on the dry stone. A cold wind whipped across the ravine, carrying the distant sound of church bells ringing in a frantic, inverted rhythm.
Nowhere to Nowhere
Julian reached the opposite side of the Mistveil Ravine, stepping off the bridge onto what should have been the established hiking trail leading back to the research camp. However, as his boots cleared the final stone paver, the landscape dissolved into an endless, featureless expanse of grey mist and cracked mud that stretched away into nothingness. When he turned around to retrace his steps across the footbridge, the bridge itself had vanished, replaced by a sheer cliff wall of wet stone. He pulled his GPS unit from his pocket, but the screen displayed no coordinates, locked in a perpetual search mode while a steady stream of wet footprints began marching in a circle around his boots.