Away from London

Prologue

I cringe, but stay exactly where I am.  Another groan.  I tell myself, this isn’t real, this is fake, I am hallucinating, but this must be real.  There is no possible way to tell myself otherwise, as I feel goosebumps up and down my spine.  How can this be real?  I must be kidding myself, my senses must be playing tricks with my mind.  I keep telling myself these things while I concentrate on the task ahead: stay alive.

    How can I explain what has happened to me and my city from the past four months?  If someone had told me this story, I would be laughing in their face.  I would be calling them crazy, or even ridiculous.  But here I am.  Now, I’m the one who’s trying to convince others about this absurd tale.  But to start, I should probably begin with the day that ended my peace, my learning, my happiness.

    Four months ago, I was sitting in the very classroom that started it all.  I can still feel the moody anticipation in the room as we were preparing to take a quiz on what we had learned throughout the year.  For me, I sat there patiently, waiting to answer everything precisely.  Most kids say I’m a loser because I’m such a know-it-all.  They say I’m a nerd.  But honestly, I had no choice in the matter.  I was born that way, somehow.  Most people with a good work-ethic study hard and do the work for good grades.  Without my strangeness, I would’ve been one of them.  But all the knowledge you learn in school is already stored in my brain.  I don’t need to work for it.  As soon as I’m asked a question, I just blurt out the answer.  It’s like something else is battling my brain to say the right answer, with no choice in the matter.  That goes for anything academic.  Okay, to clear things up, I’m not a robot.  Outside of my schoolwork, I can choose to say anything I please.  But in school, I have no other choice but to say the correct answer.  

    Anyways, back to my classroom.  I sighed a breath of relief when I was handed my test, and the teacher commanding in a brisk voice, “Begin.”  I smiled and read the test.  My mistake, I forgot to mention that I’m quite the speedy reader.  It’s good for analyzing things.  Pencil in hand, I circle D.  Less than a millisecond, it must be a new record.  But then, Wait.  Is that.... the.... right answer? I can’t believe I’m questioning myself, but I’m almost certain that we went over this in class, and the right answer was A.  I wondered how in the world I answered the question incorrectly, and how in the world I could have remembered a different answer in class.  I was so taken aback that I spent the entire hour pondering over how I circled the wrong letter.  Maybe.... not enough brain sleep?  Is my knowledge beginning to fade, leaving me to study from now on? I wouldn’t have minded studying every once and awhile for upcoming tests.  It was just that I’m not used to this sort of thing.  The idea just about scared me half to death.  

    “Pencils down!”  my instructor barked.  I jumped, my mind quickly racing back to reality.  Oh.... dang it.  Of course, I had nothing finished.  I went into full-panic mode.  Luckily, someone barged in through the door, saving me from my unfinished work.  That’s what I thought in that moment, but what I didn’t know at the time, was that the journey ahead of me was going to be far worse than right then.