Where...where am I?" I asked into darkness. I could see my breath. I shivered and reached up to rub my arms. Arms? No wait... arm. I looked down to my right. I remember now "I knew that as soon as my arm was bitten. I screamed but huddled over my sister who was still unconscious. My arm was torn away from my body. I couldn't even feel the pain." I lost my arm protecting my sister. Well, I suppose you could call it protecting. I'm not even sure if she's alright. I can't recall anything that happened after...

"Am I dead?" I asked again to the darkness. This time, however, I was answered. A deep, rich voice responded to my exasperation.

"No, no you are not dead. You are dreaming. You are dreaming but then you are also wide awake." Riddles?

"That doesn't make sense, if I'm dreaming then I can't be awake." I said cautiously.

"Tell me, can you feel the pain in your shoulder there?" I almost said 'no' but as soon as the voice said it I realized that my shoulder did hurt. It hurt quite a bit actually.

" does hurt. But that's...that's" I was at a loss for words.

Another voice finished my thought for me. "That's...impossible? Yes, it may seem so but as you can see, and quite obviously feel, it is very possible."

"Humans always think things are impossible until they accomplish them. That's what we like about you humans." The deep voice said.

"Wait...you aren't human?" I asked confused.

Both of the voices chuckled and the second voice, the one that seemed slightly feminine although I couldn't place a gender on it said, "No, we are not human. We are...the universe. We have known you for a great while. We know what you have done and what you will do."

The deep voice spoke now, "Yes, we are human. We are you. You have known us for a long time now. You know what we have done and what we will do."

At this point my mind was spinning. "How...what...?" My mind couldn't wrap around this idea. My confusion was once again met with the two voices chuckling.

"We do not expect you to understand yet." The feminine voice said to me.

"You have to understand yourself to understand us." said the deep voice.

"And you have to understand us to understand yourself. We are the universe and yet we are you."

"We are you and yet we are the universe."

I still had not the slightest clue as to what was going on. The voices had stopped talking. "Hello?'' My own voice carried on into the darkness and echoed. Then it was silent. Nothing but me and the slight throbbing of pain in my shoulder. The air was suddenly sucked out of my lungs as my eyes were met with too bright of a light to see correctly in. I coughed and sputtered, kneeling on the ground. Then I was thrown out of the darkness into a scene of my sister crying over me, Tori trying to stay strong but biting her lip too hard in an attempt to hold back tears. Nathan pat Candy on the back, a sadness of his own clouding his expression. Even Jason, whom I had pissed off so constantly, let a couple of tears slip down his cheek. He didn't bother to wipe them away. I went to rest my hand on Tori's shoulder but my hand passed straight threw her.

Over the next few hours I had watched as Jason sewed my severed limb onto my lifeless body as Nathan gathered up my things. Tori and Candy had been digging a hole. They were going to have a funeral for me. "I'm not dead!" I screamed. I knew it was pointless. The two boys placed my body gently into the hole and everyone took turns burrying me. But that wasn't me. I wasn't dead.

"I'M NOT DEAD!"