Eric woke up to several faces looking down at him. He had no idea where he was, and everything was to blurry to actually tell who the faces were. He heard voices. They were distant, but became clearer.

"Eric...Eric..." a voice kept saying. He could see that one of the faces saying it, though he couldn't make out the face just yet.

Another face said something, though the only word Eric could make out was 'awake'.

His eyes opened up a bit more, though not too much, and things started clearing up. He identified the faces. They were the faces of his friends and family.

The first one he noticed was Jackie, who was on the right of him. Her face was pale, as if she had seen a ghost. He can see the worry on her face. He could see the rest all around him. All looked nervous, though Red and Hyde were doing a much better job at keeping a normal exterior. Though he can still see they were alarmed.

The only one who looked more frightened than Jackie was Kitty. She had a tissue in her hand, likely from crying, and he saw the fright in her eyes. This made him feel bad inside, never seeing his mother look so scared. In a way to calm her nerves, he mumbled something.

"I'm awake..."

"Oh my baby!" He heard his mother yell and he was suddenly gripped in a tight hug.

Once she let go, he sat up on the couch, rubbing his eyes. Jackie had put her hand on her chest and took a deep sigh of relief. Eric looked around and finally realized that he was on the couch of his living room.

"Eric, honey what happened!?" Kitty asked, sitting on the couch next to her, panic still in her voice. Eric held her hands.

"Mom, it's okay, just calm down. I don't really remember what happened", he lied.

"You collapsed." Jackie said, still looking as white as a ghost. "I mean, I panicked. I didn't know what was happening! I didn't know what to do!" She closed her eyes, and started breathing deeply again, looking like she was going to have a panic attack.

"Jackie, it's okay. Everything's fine..."

"Then what the hell's the matter with you?" Red inquired, looking down at him, arms crossed. "You taking drugs or something?"

Eric snickered, "No...no. Nothing like that. I think, I just had an anxiety attack or something."

"Since when do you have anxiety man?" Hyde asked, sitting on the piano bench.

"Anxiety doesn't run in this family..." Red added.

"Are you sick or something?" Kitty asked.

Eric sighed, "Guys, please. Enough with the interrogation. I'm fine." He stood up, almost in a way to prove it. Though, when he did, he felt dizziness and he stumbled a bit, though he caught himself. "See...fine..."

He studied all the faces looking at him. They didn't look too convinced, especially Jackie. She looked like she knew something, and that scared Eric. Their skeptical expressions made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Now if you'll excuse me...I have to go looking for apartments..." He stated and excused himself, leaving the room.

Once he left the room, he started running down the hall next to the kitchen. His heart suddenly felt like it was going to jump out of his chest.

He got to the bathroom, went in, and locked it. He went to the sink and turned the faucet. The water started flowing down, and Eric started splashing his face, breathing getting calmer.

Once he calmed down, he turned the faucet, and the water stopped. His panting got slower, and slower. He looked in the mirror at himself, frowing at his reflection.

"Just calm down Eric...just calm...down..."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXx

It was 10:11 PM. Hours after the whole incident in the living room, there Eric was sitting at the water tower. Being there brought back fond memories of him and the gang hanging out there. After a wave of flashbacks hit him, he realized he'd do anything to get back to that innocent time when he was 17.

Everything was just so carefree and fun. Even when bad things would happen, they would usually be resolved quickly, and everything would be back to normal.

But he knew things wouldn't resolve itself this time. Something was broke inside of him after Africa, and he didn't know how to fix it.

He watched the beautiful, star-filled night sky. Things were calm and peaceful right now, though he feared they it wouldn't be that way for long. Now he had to worry about his friends and family. He knew they suspected something. He knew they knew, there was something wrong.

But his plan was to just act like it never happened, and hopefully they would forget. He couldn't dare tell them the real reason he fainted back there. He just couldn't tell them what really happened in Africa.

The horror he witnessed...

As he was reluctantly thinking about Africa, he suddenly heard somebody climbing up the ladder. He looked down to see a brunette, slowly and cautiously climbing up. "Jackie?"

She didn't say anything back, still climbing up. Though when she reached for the final rung, her foot slipped and she nearly fell back but Eric quickly grabbed her hand, tightly.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she was being pulled up. "Thanks..."

Eric chuckled, "No problem."

Eric got back into his sitting position and Jackie sat next to him. He eyed her closely. "Jackie, listen. I'm really sorry about earlier...at the driveway when...that happened."

"You really freaked us out..." She admitted, making eye contact.

He sighed, "I know...it's just... you're okay now right?" She looked at him, studying his eyes, seeing how bad he felt at how shook up she was.

She smiled at him, "Yeah, I'm fine. It just scared me. I just never got put into a situation like that. Where I had to act instantly, you know. There's always someone else there to figure those situations for me...but never actually me."

"What'd you think I was having a heart attack?" He joked.

"I didn't know what you were having, dumbass."

They both looked down, at the forest below the water tower. She turned to him, he looked uncomfortable and awkward. Like he didn't wanna talk about it. But she wasn't gonna give up that easy. "Listen, Eric. I came here because I want you to tell me what happened."

He turned to her with a frown, "I told you I didn't remember."

"That's crap Eric. I'm not stupid!"

He groaned, "Jackie, what exactly do you want me to say?"

"The truth, you twitch!"

He chuckled, "Jackie, what truth do you think I'm holding from you? See, I know you like to blow things out of proportion, and add drama to situations you don't find interesting enough, but there is nothing to tell. Can you register that? Or do you want me to explain it more slowly?"

Her face dropped, completely taken back. Almost instinctively, she pulled her hand back and shot it right at Eric's face, smacking him hard.

"You've explained it quite clearly asshole", she said before getting up and climbing down.

Eric held his cheek, which was now red and had a slight hand mark on it. He watched her angrily climb down the ladder, feeling bad and uneasy about what had just happened.

His curse of ruining things didn't die in Africa...

So what do you guys think? If you enjoyed it please leave a review! If you didn't feel free to PM me with your criticisms.