'Can you hear me? Open your eyes.'

'I knew to stay away from the prettiest girls in school because they caused trouble. I followed all directions given to me and never talked back to a respectable elder. Everyday in my life was the same, it was usually the same schedule, school, homework, dinner, dishes, and on the weekends a party here and there. I was an only child but had great friends who I never argued with. Duanesberry, my town, was small and simple. Everyone was close and nothing could ever happen without the whole town finding out about it. When Cindy Bedlock got pregnant at age 17 the whole town knew. Maybe she had a miscarriage, I was only 7 back then, but by the mass of mothers scolding their children to 'Never do what Cindy did' I knew it was bad. Cindy wasn't the type of friend I would have.

'You can do it, come on, stay with me'

'I guess you could say that life was the easiest thing a person could ever give me. It was perfect and simple. But there was something missing, it was too easy. I longed for excitement. A sudden epidemic of zombies formed from a medical research gone bad, or even a random outbreak of cancer caused from the everyday household spray of Febreze, anything to mix up my boring, everyday life. Nothing exciting or special ever happened in my town until the day I met him. He was special. He wasn't the exact excitement that I was looking for but I guess that's one of those times when you're supposed to say, 'Be careful what you wish for'.

'Okay, come on people, let's get through this'

'I didn't really have dreams, so it wasn't like I had a goal to try and accomplish. My only dream was to become a professional dancer. But with no dance experience, and no drive to learn how to dance, I was pretty sure that dream was never going to happen. I wasn't scared of anything either, nothing really frightened me. I guess that was because I felt like I had nothing to lose. Most say that they're scared of dying, but I never really understood that, who wants to live forever? I always used to have this dream'nightmare, I had it at least 4 times. I was this old woman, about 237 years old, and I looked like death. I was old and wrinkly, and just absolutely horrifying, but I was the healthiest person on the planet. I was alive, and my organs and insides were still functioning'worst dream ever. In my mind, a person is supposed to die, whenever nature takes its course.

'Don't Give up yet'

'It was the coldest spring morning that I had ever experienced. It was about 7:30 in the morning, and the sky was still dark. The trees were blowing ferociously from the strong winds, and the sky was getting ready to open. I turned on the television to get the weather report but our cable was out, supposedly it had been out since 3:00 that morning. After throwing a sweatshirt over my head I followed my legs down to the kitchen where my parents sat with coffee and newspapers. 'Good morning', they had said to me, the usual robotic hello, without a glance away from their papers. After my morning routine was over I headed out to school. My school wasn't far from home so I never needed to drive there. The clouds were moving swiftly through the sky, as if a tornado was on its way. 'We don't get those here' My friend who I walked to school with scolded me as if thinking about a difference in our town would kill us. But when we had arrived at school that morning, the eyes were low, and the shoulders were slumped. Our principle had stopped us from even entering the building, and he demanded we all went straight home and stayed inside our houses. I stared up at the sky and looked back at our principle, tornado, I said, feeling an odd sense of excitement, but I was shot down immediately with the same extensive scold, 'We don't get those here'. Suddenly my heart was racing. I had never felt such adrenaline before. I wanted to know more, why, why was our school being closed for the day, why were we being sent home, and told to stay inside, but instead my friends and I walked back home together, then parted our separate ways to our houses.

'How're we doing?'

'Adam loved to start trouble in our town. When he first moved here, he walked into my class and tried to grab a seat. Our classes were sorted by gender, so, obviously that wouldn't have worked out. When the teacher told him to leave he began pretending he was a girl and put on a high pitched voice. Surprisingly enough, his high pitched voice made every girl fall in love with him. Well, not me, those other girls, the pretty ones. They thought that he was the funniest kid on earth, and that brought a commotion to our town. Most mothers thought that he was dirty, and not clean, while most fathers thought that he was trying to make all of their daughters 'Cindys'. Either way, he was special. I wanted to be friends with him, to maybe hang out with him and laugh with him. When I told my friend this she laughed in my face. 'Don't be ridiculous Alissa, save him for them' she'd say. I had thought about arguing with her and telling her that he would like me as a friend too, but I didn't. I kept my mouth shut, and agreed with her. Hoping to get a different answer I had talked to my parents about him. I just simply told them, I want to become friends with the new kid Adam. 'The city boy?' They had said, and then gave me a simple reply, no.

'You can do it, we can get through it together'

'I had always followed the rules, every instruction that had been given to me, I followed. But that was before I was presented with an opportunity to break them. I didn't care what our school had closed down for, and I didn't care why the sky was acting so weird, for the first time ever I was excited. After going back home that morning, I saw Adam walking past my block. He was holding a paper bag with a bottle inside of it. Choosing not to follow directions of staying inside my house, I walked outside and watched him. He had looked at me, smiled, and waved me over towards him. After I walked over to him he began to ramble on and on about leaving and going somewhere fun. He began to tell me stories about from his old home, how him and his friends used to go on adventures and spur of the moment things. I wanted to be special to him like how he was special to me, and I didn't want to let him down. My mind was racing; I grabbed the keys to my parents' car and drove off with Adam in the passengers seat. He continued to drink from his bottle, and continued to tell me stories, slurring and stumbling upon his words now and then. I drove aimlessly, with no goal in mind, and no sense of direction, I just drove.

'I think we're losing her'

'After about thirty minutes of meaningless driving I was losing my rush of happiness and feeling the old Alissa coming back to me, the sky was getting darker, and the road was getting narrower and narrower. The trees were closing in on my path and their shadows were haunting my thoughts. I had to do something, something to prove to Adam that I was just as cool as all of his friends from the city and to prove to myself that I was allowed to feel excitement in my life. I began to think, if I'm not scared of death, than what am I worried about? I pushed down hard on the gas and drove down the empty street as fast as the acceleration was taking me, as scared as I was myself, Adam began to freak out. He started holding onto the insides of the car and closing his eyes tightly, so I released. I let go, and pushed the brake, slowing the car down to a complete stop. Adam was gulping down more of his drink from the bottle, and I had never felt more alone. I'm not scared of dying, I'm not scared of dying, nothing is going to happen to me, I'm fine. I tried to convince myself over and over to just do it again, to forget about Adam, and to just drive to the end of the street while going 70 mph. Just to the end of the street, that would be it, and then I would go back home, safely. I just needed one act of craziness, to show a little difference in my daily routine. I screamed inside my head over and over, to convince myself, until suddenly the sky opened and a down pour of rain appeared. The rain was hitting the still car so hard that I new it was not safe to drive in this weather. I could barely see anything through the windshield, but knew that I wanted to get home. I figured a down pour can only usually last for about ten to fifteen minutes max, and that I would just wait there in the car. But after 45 minutes past I couldn't take it any longer, I was getting tired of listening to the same radio stations and I knew that I was draining the battery. I turned off the car and told Adam to stay here. I stepped out to at least see the street sign and maybe call for someone to come get us. But the street sign was far from my car and I had to walk all the way down the block to see it. By the time I got to the sign I was soaked, I looked up at it, 'Crestwood Drive' that was what it said. I heard Adam calling my name through the harsh sounds of water smacking the pavement. As I began to turn around and make my way back I saw headlights. They were getting brighter and closer towards me. A sudden gush of pain jolted me into my side. My insides were collapsing, and I felt warmth as I fell to the ground. The sound of rain hitting the ground next to my eyes was growing fainter and my vision was getting more and more unfocused. I was cold, but laying in a pool of warm water.

'We have to try something else'

'As I open my eyes I notice that I'm inside a hospital. I look around at the expressions on everyone's faces. There are 5 heads, all with stained white jackets. My eyes begin to slowly close and all I can think about is to try and open them. But they don't budge. I hear voices talking to me, and calling my name, trying to get me to open my eyes. I try to talk back. I try to tell them that I'm doing my best, that I'm trying to open my eyes and that they wont move. My breathing gets harder and harder to do and suddenly my body begins to vibrate with stinging sensations. My thoughts begin to drift into my past and I become unsure if I'm breathing anymore. I feel no pain, and can't hear the voices anymore. My body feels normal, like it used to. I can feel every hair, and every muscle move. But no one is here. I 'm confused. Not knowing what to do, I do nothing. I just lay there. I don't try to move the muscles in my body, and I don't try to open my eyes again. Instead I tell myself to take a nap, to go to sleep, and to wake up in the morning, from the weirdest dream. I tell myself that it will be even weirder than the dream where I live to be 237 years old. I wonder what Adam is doing right now, and if he is taking a nap too.

'We lost her'

'I was never scared of dying.