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I wanted to get back on the team as soon as possible, so I vowed to be the best depressed person ever. I’d win this fucking challenge andexcelat therapy. Schmidt would have no other choice but to give me the all-clear soon.

Jerke still expected me at practice so at least I got a bit of a hockey fix.

Fuck, I miss competing.

I was there at every game they played in Veitsreuth. Watching from the stands hurt like crazy, and watching them on TV was even worse. I hated having to sit alone in my tiny flat with a bottle of water and a healthy snack and watch the rare moments when Arne’s calm held back the team. He hardly ever got penalties and liked his game clean. Bo and I? We fought dirty when we had to. They needed me.

Focus on your challenge. You’ll be back on the ice in no time.

After my appointment, I’d pinned the piece of paper from Dr Schmidt to my fridge and bought a packet of coloured pencils so I could colour in the leaves as I completed them. At the same time, I’d picked up one of these colouring books for adults, too.

I’ll be so fucking zen in no time.

Then I’d sat down at my laptop and did a search on KrakenMaps. I’d flagged everything that looked remotely interesting, which was about everywhere in the Fichtel Mountains.

Every weekend, I’d vowed, I would go on an adventure. No matter how shitty I was feeling, or how tempting holing up in my apartment on the edge of Veitsreuth’s court garden sounded, I would go.

Today was my first outing. I’d picked the granite labyrinth, which, in all honesty, didn’t live up to its name.

Unless you’re smaller than a fox, I suppose.

I walked around, following the path. The walls were so low, I could see the middle of the labyrinth. But I still had to walk through it to get there. I was a little offended that I found a parallel between this place and my life.

I could sort of see the goal but insignificant obstacles stood between me and my happiness. Like me feeling like a burden to everyone around me, and the loneliness that plagued me. Feeling lonely in a rink full of thousands of people and as a member of an amazing hockey team was one of the shittiest things I had experienced in my life.

I still nurtured the childish hope that I would find something in these woods, perhaps even myself.

Again, I stopped and turned on the spot. There were no markers on the trees that indicated a path I could follow, no signs pointing back to the labyrinth, the car park, a village...anything.

I had spaced out only for a moment as I entered the forest behind the granite blocks and somehow found myself on this lonely path.

That was over an hour ago.

And what had begun as a pretty Saturday afternoon had turned dark and gloomy.

There’s a storm brewing.

I needed to find my way back, and fast. If growing up near the Alps had taught me anything, it was that you didn’t want to be outside on a mountain range in a storm.

Yet, even turning around immediately hadn’t helped. I must have zoned out for longer than I realised and somehow lost my way.

Perhaps I can find shelter.

The state usually built huts in the forest so people could seek shelter in storms. I wasn’t too worried about freezing. It was May, and as a professional athlete, I should have enough strength to survive one night outdoors.

On autopilot, I checked my phone.

Wasn’t it Einstein who said that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results was the definition of insanity?

I huffed at myself. For the last hour, I had gotten no signal. It was as if this neck of the woods didn’t exist.

Damn.What if I had had an accident, and this was a figment of my imagination?

I stopped and crouched down in the middle of the path to give myself some space to think. My water bottle was empty, and I had no food on me. The latter didn’t worry me, but I should try to find a water source.

Straightening, I peered up at the skies. Dark grey clouds hung like a heavy blanket over the forest.

And I better find it and shelter fast before darkness falls and all hell breaks loose.