Riley Abigail Penning had it all: a wonderful family, amazing friends, and she did well at college. Riley was pretty, and with her sweet and independent personality, jaws dropped. But, something was missing. She felt like a part of her wasn't there, everyone could tell. Sometimes she was so distant, that she would space out for an hour at a time.

Monday was no exception. Riley was sitting in her dorm room in Hastings, Nebraska. Yes, Nebraska. Riley didn't like it much, but it wasn't the worst place in the world. She sat on her bed and stared at the wall. The sound of the television seemed distant to her. The light seemed to fade away, all senses were lost.

The door opened and Riley's roommate, Brittany, walked in. She saw Riley and instantly knew what was going on. She walked up to Riley and snapped her fingers in front of her face. Riley blinked and looked at Brittany.

"How long have you been like that?" Brittany asked. Riley shrugged.

"I don't know. What time is it?"

"7:30."

"Three hours," Riley replied. Brittany's eyes got wide.

"Oh my god! Riley you've never been out that long. What the hell were you thinking about?"

"Life. I feel like there's something I need to be doing, but I'm unable to figure it out. It's like I'm here, but then part of me is somewhere else. It's complicated," riley explained. Brittany nodded slowly and sat down at her desk.

" Riley stood up and walked over to her dresser and pulled out a black tank-top and black sweatpants. She murmured something about going and taking a shower. She walked into he bathroom and turned on the water in the shower. Riley took off her clothes and stepped in. She let the water engulf her. Reality was slowly coming back to her.

Thirty minutes later she stepped out of the shower, put her clothes on, and wrapped her hair in a towel. Riley walked back into her room and found Brittany on her bed talking on her cell phone. Riley walked over to her bed and sat down. She grabbed a hair pick, took her hair out of the towel, and started to comb thru the knots.

Brittany got off the phone and looked at Riley. "You feel better?"

"Yep. I'm back to being me," Riley replied.

"Good. I hate it when you're like that. It freaks me out," Brittany admitted.

"I'm so sorry about that. It's been getting so much worse. I used to be able to snap out of it easily. But, now it seems like no matter how hard I try, I can't move. It's as if I'm here, but I'm not." Riley said. She really didn't know how to word it. She seemed so detached from the rest of the world, and she didn't know why.

"I don't know what to tell you. I've never been through what you're going through. I mean, nothing major has happened in your life that would cause this. It all of the sudden began. Was there anything that happened that you're not telling me?" Brittany asked. Riley bit her lip and looked down at her bed. There was something, but she was too afraid to talk about it.

"I take that as a yes. Please, Riley, tell me."

"Remember a few months ago when I didn't come back for a week?" Riley asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, my ex-boyfriend, Rob wanted to talk to me. So, we went driving and started talking. He was saying how he needed me and he couldn't live without me. And, I told him the truth. I said that I had no feelings for him and that I had no intentions on wanting him back. Well, he got angry, starting yelling and driving really fast," Riley explained. "I kept telling him to slow down, but he kept saying 'not until you admit you love me.' And before I knew it, there was a deer in the middle of the road. Rob couldn't stop in time so he swerved and we went into a ditch. My head hit the dashboard and split open. The next day I woke up in the hospital."

Brittany was stunned. They had told each other everything, and to find out Riley had kept something like that hidden, hurt her.

"Riley, why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to talk about it. I still haven't really told my family. After that night was when I started spacing out. I guess I never realized that was why." Riley responded. She was holding something back, Brittany could tell.

"What else?" Brittany asked. Riley looked at her, stunned that her friend realized there was more.

"Listen, don't freak out what I say this. I wasn't thinking clearly that night, so I could have just been seeing things. But, that deer looked a lot like a lion."