The Unseen

Prologue

PROLOGUE

~~~~~~~~~

I awoke with a sharp gasp. Sitting up abruptly in my bed, I groaned as a horrific headache began to pound at my skull. I clutched my head through my long hair, one thought running across my mind. No pain medicine, no matter how strong, could get rid of a headache like this!

I'd never felt pain like this before, beating in my head. It felt like thousands drums were being played inside my head. Sure, I'd had migraines before, but I had never experienced anything that even compared to this pain I was having now.

I managed to flick the switch to turn on my lamp, and then, in desperation, I strained for the glass of water I had placed on my dresser the night before. I missed completely and groaned loudly as all of the contents spilled onto my wooden floor. Ugh! I'm pretty sure a blind person could have reached that!

Still groaning in agony, I shot a glance at the clock on my bedside.

2:24 a.m. 

Despite the agonizing feeling of a train running through my head, an oddly happy thought ran through my head; I am sixteen now!

Just as my delight about this found its way to me, it faded as the headache stabbed at me again, even sharper than it had been just a moment ago. With weak knees, I stood up, only to fall onto my green bean bag chair. Was this what it felt like to die? I'd never heard of people dying from headaches, but I felt as if my head was going to explode at that moment.

As luck would have it, the headache lasted a solid two minutes before it retreated, disappearing completely. One moment it was there, and then it was just gone. My breaths continued heavily while I sat, awaiting the arrival of the severe pain that had been here only moments ago, but it didn't come back. My head was clear; pain-free.

Perplexed, I stood up again, noticing that everything looked and felt completely normal. The pounding had completely vanished, and I seemed fine. Had I imagined it all?

As if to prove my thoughts wrong, which tended to happen a lot more than it should have, everything turned black. My view of my room disappeared and I was abandoned in utter darkness. I knew I had to still be in my room, and my eyes were still open, but it was as if I was blind. I couldn't see a single thing, not even a vague shadow.

It almost felt like a dream, but what person had real dreams while standing up? 

After a few seconds of standing in the utter dark, a movie-like image appeared in front of my eyes, casting me into even more confusion than I was already experiencing. Narrowing my eyes, I tried to see the image clearer. What I saw shocked me.

There was a man, as far as I could tell, struggling to swim in a lake. His arms flailed with each attempt to pull himself to the surface, but this man was unable to hold himself up. I could almost hear him calling for help, but the whole image was like a silent film happening before my eyes. When I attempted to reach out and help him, I realized that in this dream-like state, I couldn't move. There was nothing I could do to help him, and he was drowning.

Just as his head slipped under the water, my 'dream' ended, and I was once again standing in a familiar setting; my bedroom.

What just happened? I stumbled over to my bed, my mind still processing the event. It had to be a dream, but how could it be if I wasn't asleep? The fact that it had happened right after such an awful migraine made it a little stranger than it already was.

Nothing was making sense. I need to get some sleep. Nodding more to convince myself that I hadn't completely lost my mind, I lay down on my bed and closed my eyes. Perhaps, just perhaps, when I opened them later, this would all have been an imaginary occurence.