I smelt like cigarettes.
Even walking outside in the harsh wind, I could still smell it. Maybe it was stuck in my nose.
No, it was just stuck to me. Like glue, really. Well not me, mainly my hair and my clothes.
The smell wasn't from me myself smoking, but I'd still stopped minding it years ago.
Couldn't even bother to go outside when they smoked. Whatever, though, I was almost there now, not much I could do to get rid of the stench.
Putting my hands in my pockets, I noticed a group of kids leaving the bus stop near the corner across the street from me. They laughed and pushed each other around playfully.
I waited for the light to change, and when it did, the school came into view a few minutes later. The old, cracked building. It wasn't exactly an uplifting sigh, but public schools in poor neighborhoods never were. I think. Wouldn't know.
Walking in, it was like it always was. Loud, even in the morning. Groups of kids talking, metal lockers clanging, and the especially annoying kids skidding their shoes across the floor just for the sake of making noise.
I walked across the lobby and into the hallway where my locker was, and spun the dial. 7694.
Nobody looked at or noticed me, nothing out of the ordinary.
Finally, the bell rang, and I grabbed a folder, a pencil, and a book out of my locker. First period was English.
We talked about the book I took out of my locker. I didn't finish it, but I could predict what happened based off of what people were saying about it when the teacher called on them.
The most effort I put in was writing down whatever was on the board that looked important. That and listening half-heartedly was all it took to pass this class.
My eyes stung every time I blinked. I hadn't slept at all last night, I felt like I'd pass out any time I closed my eyes even just for a moment.
The day was so amazingly boring.
And then it finally reached 4th period. Finally. Just this class and I can eat. Nothing the cafeteria makes, but luckily, we do have some vending machines scattered around, and I happen to have a few dollars.
But as I sat down, I started to feel dizzy.
I'm gonna pass out. I knew I shouldn't have stayed up all night, and now I'm going to pass out and embarrass myself in front of an entire class. God forbid my parents get called.
I'm gonna…
Wait, everyone else is tipping over as well?
Are they? I can't tell. I can't see.
Am I going blind?
No, I'm already blind. Where are my eyes.
Wh-where are my fucking eyes.
Someone help.
I can't see.
I tried to reach up and rub my eyes, but I had no arms.
No arms? What?
I couldn't hear anything now. I tried to reach up to feel for my ears, but still, I had no arms.
I tried to ask for help next, but I no longer had a voice.
I tried to scream, but I no longer had a mouth. I no longer had teeth or a tongue either.
I couldn't feel anything.
Help. Please help.
Can I think? I can think, right? I can still think?
Yeah, I'm thinking. Ok.
I'm thinking.
…
Am I dead?
And then even faster than it went, it all came back.
I could smell. Grass.
I could hear. The wind.
I could feel.
And then finally, I could see.
But the first thing I saw wasn't a classroom or a hospital. No, all I could see were trees.
A forest?
Uhh, yeah. A forest. Ok, yeah. Definitely. For sure. For sure…
I stayed on the ground for a minute longer to make sure I had all of my senses back. I felt weird in my body, honestly. My tongue didn't even feel like it was sitting right.
Sight, smell, touch, hearing. Yeah, all here.
But there was something else I could feel. A sense I couldn't quite get ahold of, like it was just there but I couldn't yet feel it. Weird. Was it always there?
Pushing myself off of the ground, I finally stood up for the first time.
One second I was in class, the next I'm surrounded by forest in the middle of nowhere.
Weird…
Taking a deep breath in to calm myself down, it was the first time I noticed how much easier it was to breathe. Maybe it's because I'm surrounded by trees? Yeah, sure. We'll go with that.
First thing's first, I should get a vantage point. See which direction would be best to go in, or if I can see any structures around me. Unfortunately for me, I was no climber, and all of these trees were at least 70 feet tall. I'd have to choose a random direction to go in.
I looked to the direction I was facing when I woke up and started walking. The first thing I noticed was how clear the ground was. No leaves, no broken branches or sticks, nothing. Just dirt and grass. Weird.
I kept walking.
***
I was hungry. So so hungry. Why couldn't I have been sent here after I'd eaten lunch.
But no, the hunger wasn't even the worst part. It was the thirst. I was panting like a damn dog.
So damn thirsty. So damn hungry.
The worst part was that I couldn't even tell how long I'd been walking. Could be an hour, could be two hours, could even be three hours. Maybe more.
And as if the universe was listening to me, slowly, as I walked forward, I started to hear the sound of running water.
I ran for it. I ran as fast as my legs could take me.
Which wasn't far. I didn't see the damn rope. I didn't see the damn rope, I tripped over it, and a net shot me up into the air.
I was trapped, and yet that was the best damn thing to happen to me today. If there was a trap set here, that means there was someone who set it. And if there was someone who set it, I'm not alone. All I had to do was wait for the guy who set it up to check it, and bam, I'm rescued.
And so I waited.
***
Waiting wasn't so bad, really. It'll be like resting in a hammock with the wind cooling you off.
By the time the sun started to set, that's when I realized I was wrong.
The damn ropes were cutting into my skin, and my hands and legs were numb to the point I was worrying about amputating.
Really just couldn't get much worse than this.
And then the sun went down. I tried to sleep, but no one this uncomfortable could. The skin being cut by the rope was starting to bleed a little now, though I couldn't see the blood, I could just feel it running down my fingertips. It tickled.
It was pitch black now.
I wasn't someone afraid of the dark, but right now I was terrified. I couldn't see anything, I couldn't feel anything because of the numbness besides the ropes cutting into me, and the only thing I could hear was clicking.
Clicking? It was coming from my stomach. That's not normal. Did that happen when you were hungry? I don't think so.
But no, when I felt something crawling across my stomach, I knew I was wrong. There was only one thing I was scared of in this world. Bugs. Bugs of any kind. And this one was clicking.
My vision started to adjust a bit. I could see outlines now.
It was a goddamn centipede. A centipede as big as a snake.
I freaked out. I started shaking my body as hard as I could.
"Ahhhh! Get off of me! Get off, get off, get off!"
But my screaming only made it worse. A sharp pain on my stomach proved that. I looked down and the thing was burrowing into my fucking stomach.
"W-What the fuck get off of me! Get the fuck off!"
I shook harder, and one of my hands somehow got out of being trapped in the net.
I grabbed the back end of the centipede, squeezed as hard as I could, and I pulled as hard as I could. It came out of the hole in my stomach with a "Pop!", squealing as it did.
I threw it as far and as hard as I could.
You know how I said it was so much easier to breathe in this place? I knew why now. There was more oxygen. And with that came bigger bugs. This wasn't Earth, or if it was, it was an early version of it.
I was in another fucking world.