One day, I took a walk through the forest. The trees were beautiful. The leaves were bright green. And there were flowers everywhere. The path was the color of sand on a beach. Every now and then there was a dip in the road. I saw a bright reflection in the middle of the path ahead of me. As I came upon the shinning object I realized it was a key. Mostly rusty, but some silver continued to shine through. As I examined it I saw the beautiful and unusual designs all over it. I laid it in my bag. As I continued my walk down the path I stumbled upon a beautiful tea cup in the middle of the road. It was iridescent and white with an extravagant pink floral design. When I picked it up I discovered it was chipped. I threw it in my bag.

Later in my journey I was stopped by a voice. It was screaming, "Move!" Just seconds later I was almost trampled by a giant white horse. I had never even heard it until it was feet away from me. After I ducked it took me a second to realize what had happened. The voice said once again, "Move!" But that time I was truly frozen in my place. In the distance I could hear a loud roar. A great lion appeared out of nowhere and ran straight through me. I fell and hurried to get back up. Then I ran. I came upon a large body of water, something told me I needed to get in. I waded in the water for a moment before the voice told me what to do for the third time. I was told to swim to the bottom of the lake, so I did just that. I had the feeling I was supposed to find something, but I didn’t know what. I felt someone grab my arms and pull them forwards. I could feel a hand, so I grabbed it. (FLASH)

When I came to I realized I didn’t know where I was. I looked around and saw a young girl, she was around thirteen years old, making tea. The tea set she was using looked familiar. As soon as I got up I ran out of the door. The house was small and cottage like. Vines were growing up all the sides of the house. It all came back to me. The vines were in the pattern like the one on the key. And the cup I found was a part of the tea set the girl was using. It freaked me out so much I ran straight to the fence across the yard from the little house. It was a rusty barbed wire fence. I had to jump over the fence because there was no gate to open. Something forced me to grab the barbed wire. My hands were cut up and bleeding. And what was a beautiful field full of green grass was actually a lake and I sank to the bottom along with the many that did before me.

When I gained consciousness, I was in a car with a girl. I could feel her thoughts and they were tremendously scattered. It gave me a headache. But one thing was clear to both of us; she was going to pull out in front of one of these cars. I was terrified she was going to kill us both. As she started to pull out into traffic I grabbed the steering wheel and swerved off the road and fell two hundred feet. I blacked out before we hit the ground.

When I woke up this time I was inside of a burning house and sitting in a recliner across from me was an old woman, wearing an oxygen mask. I knew I had to do something to save her. In my mind I was like a ghost, I didn’t feel completely there, but I could see my physical body. I picked up her phone and dialed 911. I frantically said, "The house is on fire and an old lady is inside. She uses an oxygen tank! Hurry!" I was gone again.

I was floating in the lake I had once drowned in. Oddly enough, I felt safe in those waters. I swam to the fence. It was now a beautiful white picket fence. I climbed over it. As I entered the house I felt dazed. The young girl was still there making tea. She pulled a seat out and I sat down. She stretched her hand out and nodded her head towards my bag. I handed her the key and the tea cup. She sat the cup down on the table but before pouring my tea she took some rusty scissors from a pocket in her apron and cut a long and thick chunk of her hair from the front of her head. After she strung the hair through the key she tied it around my neck. It was a necklace made from her hair. Then she poured my tea and handed it to me. The initial taste of the tea was great but soon my throat started to burn, and I couldn’t breathe. I fell out of my chair. It got worse, I felt like I was being choked. The cup had fallen on the floor with me. I threw it across the room. It shattered against the wall and where the tea had splattered had caught fire. I ripped the necklace from my neck and tossed it away from me. With the rest of the strength I had I crawled out onto the yard. When I looked back the house was engulfed in flames and the girl was standing in the doorway. She was chopping her hair off as she did when she made the necklace. The burning had stopped. I blacked out. I can’t remember what happened next.

Next Chapter: Beating