My eyes opened and everything was hazy. My head was pounding but what caught my attention more was the fact I could see clearly. Apart from the ceiling spinning every so often, everything looked pretty normal, no white and more importantly no reds. I sat up and as I did the blood fell from my head and I had to focus for a few seconds to make sure I wasn't going to pass out again. I looked around my room, I had been right. I'd been right here the whole time whilst my body went on a journey of its own. The walls started to close in on me and I suddenly felt extremely claustrophobic, I had to get out. I jumped up, grabbed my sweat shirt which was thrown onto my bed and made a break out of the house to woods.
The woods had never scared me as a small child; my mother would happily let me play in the edge of the greenery unattended. Of course I used to venture further, but she doesn't know that. Ten years later and a whole lot more common sense; I now know the woods like the back of my hand. I wanted peace and open space, somewhere where I could escape the closing walls of civilization and just forget. I knew where to go; it had been one of my favourite places since I was a child; a small lake that no one knew about. I took the winding path that would have been invisible to everyone else, and my thoughts quickly found something to think about.
The burning had receded and I was hoping it was on its way out for good. It didn't feel like an illness, well, not any illness I knew about, there was something abnormal about it. It felt like an intruder trying to change me: change my attitude, my appearance, and the way my body works on a daily basis. I got a chill at the thought of it.
I turned past the huge oak tree towards the lake and a fierce fire let rip inside me. The burning was back and this time it was ten times worse. I doubled over grasping at my abdomen at the pain. I took a look up at the lake, there was someone there. Never ever in ten years had someone been here at the same time as me. I didn't know what to think until the pain suddenly increased and I let out a wild gasp.
