Their shoes squeaked as they made their way through the wet and slippery grass, walking counter-clockwise around the circular bog, studying its characteristics for a class project. The sky was gray, though there was not a cloud to be seen. The class was on a field trip, as the teachers had decided to give the students a sort of "hands-on" experience with the wetland, as it coincided with their current unit in science class.

Tom Johnson stared up at the sky, having a premonition, a feeling in his gut that something bad might happen today. While he walked lazily along the hidden path, his two best friends, Jack Blackwell and Dana Williams, were comparing lists of the characteristics they had found. Jack was insisting that his entry of listing the bog as "green" was alright, while Dana was telling him that their instructors had said to "be very specific", and that he should list it as "forest green".

"What do you think, Tom?" Jack asked him, giving him a look that signified to Tom that he should lean toward Jack's side of the argument.

"Well...", Tom replied, his voice trailing off while he thought for a second. "I think you're both right. Jack, you're right in saying that the swamp is green, but then again, Dana's right on the hand that Mr. Turner and Mrs. Corinthos did tell us to be very specific."

Dana stuck her tounge out at Jack. Jack opened his mouth to make a rude reply, but thought better of it, and just sighed. Dana then turned to Tom.

"So, what have you got down?" She asked him interestedly.

Tom peered down at his list. The only characteristic that he had put down was "green", as he had not been paying much attention to the bog, but rather staring at the sky, trying to interpret why he felt something dreadful was to come.

"That's all you've got down?", Dana asked, her eyes wide in surprise. "That's not like you, Tom. Now you're being just as bad as Jack over here," she told him, slapping Jack on the back so hard that the wad of bubble gum he had been chewing went flying. Jack gave her a look of utter disgust, while Dana giggled in delight. She then turned to Tom again.

"Here," she said, handing him her list. "Copy mine. Just make sure that you put absolultely everything in your own words."

Tom saw to it, looking back and forth between Dana's list, being extra careful to re-arrange and change a few words here and there. He knew that Dana would rather stick her bare foot in a 200-degree oven then get caught cheating, for she was a straight-A student, and he knew that her parents would punish her for a year if she didn't keep up her record. Jack had often joked with Tom about Dana lying to everyone, that her parents were an excuse, and that she just wanted to be perfect.

Tom, however, believed her, and his guess was that Dana's parents would assume that if she wasn't able to keep up her record that year, then she was slacking off.

A bit later, they were back in class, chatting noisily about what they had experienced on the field trip. Tom was chatting with Jack and Dana, Jack solemnly swearing that he saw a deer. Dana was arguing with him, saying that a bog was not a deer's natural habitat. Jack continued to persist, while Tom watched. Sometimes he could just watch them argue, prefering not to get involved. However, this time was different. While watching them this time, he caught Tess Hanson staring at him several times out of the corner of his eye, not with a look of infatuation, but a studying look, as if he were a lab rat in a maze, and she was waiting to find out what he would do. However, every time he turned to her, she whipped her head back around, pretending to study the chalkboard.

Tom sat near the window. It was storming outside, the clouds a near shade of black. It was pouring heavily, and Tom was enjoying it. He loves storms. At least, he did then.

When I interviewed him to write this book, he told me that he still, to this day, does not know how it happened. He heard multiple cracks of thunder, each of them coming closer and closer to the window. Then, when he turned around to see what was going on, he saw a quick streak of blue. He felt his hair stand out on end, and he knew that he had been struck. He screamed. His vision became blurred, everything flashing blue. Then, he felt it end, and hearing the frightened and utterly horrified shrieks of his classmates, everything faded to black...