I couldn't breath. All I could see was the surface racing towards us, all I could feel was the rushing of the air around me, stealing my breath and making my eyes water. And then my body was suddenly impacted, icy cold shock touching every part of my skin, a sudden feeling of weight and weightlessness, and then... nothing. The sound was gone, as well as the sensation of falling. Now all that was left was the cold and the dark. Just like my cell.

Except... this was nothing like my cell. As I opened my eyes under the water to a brand new world, that fact became even more clear. Unlike my cell, this cold, dark place wasn't a prison. It was far from small. When I looked below me, I couldn't even see the bottom. Around me, beams of sunlight (sunlight!) sliced through the waves, cutting the dark water into pieces. I stretched out a hand, letting my fingers play through a beam right beside me. My unnaturally pale hand seemed to glow in the light. To my right flickered a sudden flash of red, and when I looked in that direction, my eyes were bombarded with sudden bright, glowing strands of hair, floating around me, seeming to engulf my entire body, twisting around my arms and between my legs, wrapping itself around my waist.

It was strangely beautiful, this cold, dark place that seemed to have no end.

Of course, it became a lot less beautiful when I realized that my lungs were starting to seize up. A sudden flare of panic set my arms and legs flailing, my hands grasping for a surface that was floating dangerously high above me. My hair, which had seemed so beautiful to me before, suddenly became a death trap, wrapping around of arms, legs, and neck, tightening themselves and holding me down. My lungs were becoming a searing burden. In my panic, I could no longer tell up from down.

Bubbles floated past my face, heading to my right and slightly above.

My body stilled, my brain shutting down and my instincts taking over. I let a little bit more of my precious air out of my lips, and when it floating up in the same direction as before, I turned upwards. My legs starting kicking smoothly, untangling from my hair. My arms stretched above my head, reaching for fresh air. A few times more I let small breathes out through my lips to be sure I was going in the right direction. My hands, elbows, and finally, my face emerged from the water, and I gulped greedy, hungry fresh air.

A few seconds later, another head emerged from the water a few yards away. Riff's hair was pasted to his forehead and he gasped, just as greedy for the simple, yet lifesaving, element we call oxygen. For a few moments we just floated in silence, each catching our breath. Then, a loud, frightening growl sounded from above. We both looked up to see the monstrous beasts red eye's peering at us from the drain we had just came out of. It's breath fogged in the bright sunlight, steaming clouds of mist, as it crouched down, still in the shadows. It stayed that way for several seconds, breathing heavily, eyes wearily taking in the drop and water below. Finally, with a howl that split the very air, the beast backed up, eyes disappearing.

Huh... the mighty beast is afraid of water. That's a fact that I should file away.

"Come on." Riffs whisper pierced the sudden silence left behind. Nodding, I followed him as he starting swimming for the distant shore.

* * * *

I was cold, wet, and bitter, my bare feet scraped and raw, my lungs sore, my hair heavy and tangled on my head, my body weary and exhausted. I could hardly keep my eyelids open, and my feet stumbled over the uneven terrain. We had left the drains several hours ago, and have been alternating between running and walking for the entire time. Even Riffs exhaustion was starting to show. He was stumbling just as much, purple bags starting to show around his eyes. I could just imagine how I looked. The sun had just set and night lay heavy on the world.

Before my exhaustion made me oblivious to my surrounds, I had been astonished by the variety of colors and sights and sounds, all bombarding my senses. For several minutes, I had spun in circles, trying to breath in all of the beauty at once, until Riff had finally gotten far too exasperated to deal with my "childish nonsense," and had pulled me away. Still, my eyes remained wide and alert, continuously taking in the world around me... Up until the moment when I got too exhausted to bother. Even now, though, with the world cast in shadow, it was beautiful.

"Okay..." Riff finally muttered, after stumbling for the fifth time in ten minutes. "Okay, maybe we should stop for the night."

It took everything inside of me to stop myself from exclaiming in relief. Instead, I just nodded and followed him as he tottered over to a fallen tree truck and crawled beneath it. I joined him, being sure to lay down as far from him as possible. In seconds, I was asleep.

* * * *

The walls were yellow, covered in small pale yellow ducks and white dots. Hanging from the ceiling above my head was a danging mobile, black and white, with various small clouds and one small moon. With blurry eyes, I looked about me, noticing the white crib I was in, like bars stretching to the ceiling from my point of view. A bubbling, high pitched giggle like I have never made before came out of my lips. My arms and legs kicked, tiny hands reaching towards the swinging mobile above my head. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw pale brown fur, and my head turned that way, the motion jerky. A small brown bear, perfectly intact and impeccable.

A vaguely familiar bear.

But before I could figure out where I had seen it, the world faded to black. I suddenly felt like I was spinning, falling, without a body to keep me grounded. A few moments later, I fell into a different place. This time the room was larger, with white carpet and tan walls. Around me was furniture, white couches and chairs and black tables. On the wall above my head was a large flat screen t.v., some type of cartoon blaring down at me. Chubby hands pushed me up from my sitting position, one gripping the same bear, this time a little more worn. Taking small, hesitant steps, bear dragging on the ground behind me, I moved towards a hallway beside me.

Mommy hadn't put the gate up.

Slowly, I moved down that hallway, some part of my brain knowing that I wasn't supposed to go down there. But my toddler brain didn't care. The door at the end of the hall called to me, beckoned me forward, refusing to let me hesitant or stop. Two more steps, and then I was there.

The door was cracked. Bright light shone around the edges, spilling into the hall.

My small hand reached out, pushing against the white wood. Slowly the white light grew, more and more of it spilling out, washing over my face, blinding me. And then I was falling again, the white fading above my head, getting further and further away, being replaced by all consuming darkness. This time, I felt like I was jarred when I landed, vision blurry for a few seconds before clearing.

I was now on a street, two story houses stretching before me on both sides of the road. They were all beautiful, with impeccable lawns and flower gardens. They were bright, colors vibrant and eye dazzling.

All except for the house beside me. Instead of bright paint and a tamed lawn, this house was strangely beaten, the white paint fading to a sickly yellow and peeling, dead vines climbing up the walls. The lawn was overgrown and unmowed, the garden in front dead, the flower bushes brown. The windows were all dark. The entire place looked abandoned.

But I knew it wasn't.

Under me was a bike, green and rusty in some places, training wheels still on. It had a basket between the handle bars, and in that basket was the stuffed bear, a lot more worn and it's button eye loose. I kicked off of the pavement, legs dangling for a second before I placed them on the peddles. I raced down the street, hair streaming behind me, a wide smile breaking across my face. The street in front of curved slightly down, making me go even faster. My breath was snatched from my chest, adrenaline pumping through my veins. I removed my feet from the peddles and just let the momentum carry me down.

A few yards in front of me, the road I was on suddenly ended. At the end was a fence, wooden and hard. And I was heading straight for it at a breakneck pace.

Panic. I slammed my feet down on the peddles, but the bike was going too fast. The wheels kept spinning, still sending me straight for the fence. Acting on instinct, I threw myself off of the bike seconds before it crashed. My body hit the concrete and rolled, and I stayed on the pavement even after I stopped rolling, tears streaming down my face, body scraped and bruised.

Eventually, I pushed myself up to my feet. My palms were scraped and raw, blood running in droplets down my fingers. I tottered over to my bike, where it had crashed into the fence and splintered the wood. The handle bar was bent, the chain broken, and basket between the handle bent and broken. A few feet away was my bear, his fur matted. I bent and picked him up. There was a new rip in him, right by his arm, stuffing falling out and raining to the ground like small clouds. I moving him under my arm and grabbed my bike, pulling it up and starting the long walk home.

* * * *

My eyes flickered. I yawned, body stretching, only to wince when something sharp dug itself in between my shoulder blades. I shifted, reaching behind me, and pulled out a stick. Oh yeah... for a second, I forgot where I was. Everything from yesterday suddenly rushed at me all at once. Leaving Jordan, the chase, the monster in the sewers, the plunge into icy water... the escape. Sighing, I sat up, only to bang my head into the log above me. Cursing, I stumbling out from under it.

The sun was shining straight in my eyes. I squinted, arm moving to block it. I still wasn't used to how bright it was, even after having been in it for the better part of yesterday. Once my eyes adjusted (sort of), I squinted at the world around me. It was still so astonishingly beautiful to me. All the green, splashed with browns and pinks and reds, all lit by such a soft golden glow. Birds chirped in the trees around me, proclaiming the day. Birds of blue and gray and a bright crimson red I had only ever seen staining my own clothes. Small furry animals (squirrels, my brain told me) scurried between trees, chasing each other with their puffy tails high. I laughed, the sound bounding off the world around me, high and surprisingly breathy. I widened my eyes, suddenly realizing that I couldn't remember the last time I laughed. I had forgotten what the sound sounded like, and how it made me feel, a weird feeling that I wasn't used too. I laughed again, just to test myself, and found that I liked the feeling.

"I found some clothes for you to change into." The voice had me spinning around. The stranger was leaning against a tree nearby, his arms full of clothes, face blank. What was his name again?

Riff.

Riff stared at me for a few more seconds, face unreadable, and I wondered how long he had been standing there. Did he think I was insane because I was laughing at nothing? The second after I had that thought, I shook it out of my head. I never said I wasn't insane, and I didn't care what the asshole thought anyway. Finally, he pushed himself off of the tree and stepped towards me. I froze, everything in me screaming to back up. I wanted to, but he stopped several feet away and dropped the bundle of clothes at my feet. As if sensing my hesitancy, he backed up and leaned against the tree again. I noticed that he had already changed, the white suit replaced by worn jeans and a black t-shirt, with a patched jacket pulled over. He still had the same white boots on, though. Guess shoes aren't so easy to steal.

I crouched, still cautiously keeping an eye on him, and shifted through the pile. There was a black long sleeve t-shirt, jeans, and a dark green jacket. I shrugged. I didn't care what I wore as long as I could get out of this baggy suit. I started to unzip the suit, but stopped when Riff suddenly cleared his throat awkwardly. I glanced up to see his face had turned bright red. Oh, yeah. Normal people don't just change in front of strangers. I had gotten so used to changing in front of cameras that I forgot that being comfortable doing that wasn't right. Just another thing that he can add to the list questioning my sanity. "Turn around," I snapped, my weirdness making me irritable. He did, perhaps a little too eagerly, which just made me even more annoyed.

I had the clothes I was wearing off in record time. The chilly air brushed against my skin, making me shiver. I hurried to pull on the other clothes. The shirt was slightly to big and the sleeves danged past my hands, so I rolled them up. The jeans were too large, styled in such a way that I knew they were supposed to be more form fitting then they were, on anyone whom actually had a form. The jacket was a plain green zip up, probably a boys jacket, since it fit me perfectly.

"Done," I called out while pulling my hair out of my clothes. He turned around and sized me up. I stared boldly back, and finally he nodded, before his eyes went to my feet, which were still bare. He grimaced at the sight of them. They were dirty, that's for sure. "Sorry," he said, actually sounding genuine. "Shoes are hard to come by on a clothes line."

I shrugged, but a part of me was disappointed. Another day to wander through the woods with nothing to protect my feet.

"You ready?" He asked.

I nodded again, and we set off once more, heading into a world unknown.