I was dying.

I didn’t know for sure how, but I’m sure I was. Death is a most interesting idea. It is known by all but understood by no one. And that was where I was at the moment. One moment I was racing towards something, the next, a loud screech echoed in the near-dark and I was frozen with fear. Blinding lights flashed. There was no pain. None at all. But I felt an odd coldness creeping outwards from the center of my being towards my limbs.

Distantly, I heard screaming. My breathing felt labored.

 I saw a flash of crimson.

Blood seeping from somewhere within me and into the wet asphalt.

Feet pattered around me in a flurry, but I couldn’t have cared.  It seemed like forever before I could feel things changing around me. Everything was blurry and it felt good –peaceful even.

I smiled.

And then there was nothing.

The next thing I knew, I was alive again.

I woke up one day in a dire little room. The green curtains were drawn, and there was an insistent beeping sound that echoed throughout the place. I didn’t make sense of it at first. It seemed like some kind of bad joke –the sterile smell, the deafening silence, the glass window.