Just as I started to feel like I was going to pass out from the pain and nausea consuming me, everything stopped. The colors looked normal again and my vision was no longer blurry. I tried to stand up and this time I could move. My knees were shaky, but I managed to fully stand. I looked around and realized that I was no longer on the pathway. Instead I stood on an outcropping of rocks looking over a river. Three people stood before me. I held my breath in anticipation of what was to come next.  

"Ella... Ella Davis," the first person called. 

I immediately, and unwillingly, began walking closer to the three people. 

"Have you come to seek your freedom from the ghosts of that horrid house?" the second person as me. 

I walked closer and closer until I stood just in front of them. 

"Of course you have dear... Anybody would..." the third spoke. 

I just stared dumbly at them. I had no clue what was going on and didn't have the energy nor the willpower to figure it out. 

"In order to escape..." the first one started. 

"You must make a journey that is more difficult than the first..." the second one added. 

"And once you have succeeded, shall you be free from the monsters forever..." the third finished. 

I continued to stare blankly. To me, it was like they were speaking in tongues, I wasn't processing any of what they were saying. 

Freedom? From the monsters? After all of this, there is still such a thing as freedom?  I wondered. 

"Oh dear child, just follow the path and you will see the light of day once more..." one of the three people told me. 

I looked up at the sky and noticed I still couldn't see the sun. I again wondered how long I had been stuck in that house. 

"What path?" I asked, my voice rough. 

The three others glanced at each other before looking back at each other. 

"The path in which you take..." 

"Has many forks along the way. Your path will change and so will you..." 

"But first you must decide..." 

They each said their piece on after the other, but the forth and final part they said together. 

"By land, by water, or by air? What you do, is up to you. Good luck my dear." 

And then they were gone. Just... gone. Not a single sign that they had been there in the first place. 

Thinking I'd finally snapped and gone crazy, I looked around, trying to make sense of what they had said. 

Another pathway had opened up before me.  By land,...

I noticed a boat as well.  ...by water... 

The third thing, well, I couldn't quite tell what it really was, but it looked to be a sort wing-like thing. ...or by air...

I looked back and forth between the three things. It made sense then what the three people had been trying to say. 

If I wanted to get away from this place and back home, I'd either have to go on the path, in the boat and down the river, or use the winged thing. 

Deciding it would be in my best interests to use the boat, I pushed it to the edge of the rock outcropping and cautiously sat down. I pushed myself completely away from the shore. I made my way down the river with no problem until I reached the rapids. Off in the distance, I could see a bridge and wondered briefly if the second pathway would have lead me there. 

My thoughts were turned back to the present when the side of my little boat hit the edge of a rock and sent me twirling down the river. I didn't bother yelling out or screaming. I wasn't afraid anymore. I couldn't be, not when this was the least terrifying thing I'd face in who knows how long. I was beyond the point of fear. And even if I had  been afraid, there was no one out here to save me.