Inhale, two, three, four.

Exhale, two, three, four.

I let my feet lead my way around New York City, listening to the voices that softly spoke my name.

At some point, I lost track of where I was going and was only focused on my final destination. A destination in which I had no idea what it could be.

Suddenly my feet stopped. I found myself on the top of a crumbling bridge looking out into a small, quaint garden. In the distance, I saw a figure of sorts laying on a bench.

Was anybody else seeing this? Or was it just me?

For some odd reason, I cannot yet explain, my body moved towards the mysterious, sleeping person.

I descended down the stairs of the old bridge that arched itself over a bluish-green stream. I passed through numerous bushes that were filled with an assortment of flowers that smelled bitter sweet. I slowly approached the end of the gardens to identify the unknown boy who lied uncomfortably on the wooden paint-chipped bench.

Samantha

     Wake him up

                                                       Now

I seemed to have lost all control of my movements when I found myself moving my hand to touch the warm body and giving it a shake.

What was I doing? What was happening to me? I have so many questions that needed to be answered.

The boy began to moan and attempt to turn a bit. Then he sat up forcefully, breathing heavily. His eyes were wide and his head whipped around, taking in his surroundings. He then made eye contact with me, taken aback by my closeness.

"Woah... um hey." He stumbled, trying to act nonchalant. "Do I know you? Sorry, listen, I was so drunk last night that if anything happened between us..."

"Hold on a minute. We didn't do anything together!" I snapped out of my trance like state, regaining my aggressive personality.

God, it was about time.

"You were sleeping on this bench and I came and woke you up! Thought you might be lost or something." I fibbed, trying to create a false reason as to why I woke up a person I had never met before.

"Oh... well then." He said speechless. "Do you know where I am exactly? I need to get back home." He said getting up. I lent him a hand, offered my gesture of kindness and stood up on his feet.

He tightly clung to my wrist. "Hey! What -"

Before I could finish my sentence, I looked up into his eyes that had somehow transformed into a glassy white. His mouth was agape and his whole body was shaking.

Then he quickly let go of my hand, backing away. I looked at him again and his eyes had returned back to a normal brown.

"What the hell did you just do to me?!" He pants, leaning against the arm of the bench.

"I don't know! Did you see something? Did you see someone die?"

"Die!? God no! I saw you, walking around as if you were in a trance, and then..." he was huffing and puffing, trying to catch his breath. "You were on that bridge and I saw you... you looking at me."

"You... you saw me on that bridge." I pointed to the bridge which I stood on only moments ago.

"Yeah." He responded finally regaining his composure.

"Holy shit. What the hell is going on?" I ask myself, skidding my fingers through my short black hair.

"Did you see something too?" His eyes went wide with complete confusion.

"Not just now, but I was on the street and yeah... I made contact with this guy and saw him get shot." I explain, trying to stay as calm as possible.

Then, this guy just begins to look around. As if someone was calling his -

"Do you hear the voice too!" I exclaim.

Good. This is confirmation that I'm not the only insane one here.

"Yeah. They are calling my name. But, they seem really far away." He said in a dazed tone. It looked as if he was undergoing the same symptoms that I was.

"What else are they saying?" I asked. I was confused as to why I was asking a complete stranger, whom I have never met before, all of these details.

I guess I just wanted my questions answered.

"Follow me." He began walking down the path back towards the bridge.

Great, now I'm following a crazy person just like me.

How many times have I told myself  'If I was in a horror movie, I would never go in the basement.'

This feels like my twisted form of the basement.

I quickly caught up with the good looking guy. He looked around my age, maybe a year or two older. He had shaggy blond hair that fell low on his forehead, creating a side bang effect. He was really well built and wearing black dress pants and a white button down shirt. It really looked like he had been dressed up wherever he was before now.

"I'm Carter by the way." He says looking at me as we made our way across the bridge.

"Sam." I reply, trying to keep up with his long strides.

"So Sam, do you know what is going on?"

"Nope! All I know is that last night I was in Main and this morning I woke up in a sewer in New York."

Carter stops in his tracks and turns to face me. "Did you just say, New York?!"

"Yeah..."

"How did I freaking get from Beverly Hills to New York City!?"  He shook his head in utter disbelief. He then began to continue walking down the path which I treaded not long ago.

"Beverly Hills huh? Explains the nice suit."

"I was at a country club last night. Big party."

"I can tell. I'm also assuming you're the womanizer type."

"What makes you think that?" He snaps at me.

"Because you asked me if we did anything last night and that if we did, it was basically all a mistake."

A  guilty expression came across his face. "I wouldn't call myself a womanizer, per se."

"Yeah, okay buddy."

We began our journey back down the streets of New York. I watched as the Beverly Hills snob walked with ease up and down every street.

"Have you been here before?" I inquire.

"No. Never have been here in my life." He says, stopping at the crosswalk, waiting for the little walking man to appear on the sign on the other side of the street.

"It seems like you know the place like the back of your hand."

"Yeah. It's kind of scaring me. I'm just kind of... well..."

"Following the voices." The lights turn red and the sign flashes the stick figure guy, giving us our opportunity to cross the busy street.

"Yeah that. I don't want to say it too loudly." He looks around as if he's trying to make sure nobody heard us.

I don't like this guy already.

We walked and crossed multiple streets before stopping at the entrance to a hospital.

"Really? Here?" I look up at the old brick building.

"Not quite. I think we might have to go inside to find whatever it is we are looking for." He begins to saunter towards the automatic front doors.

I run up behind him, luckily being able to catch my chance of an entrance before the sliding doors closed behind me.

I follow behind Carter as he manoeuvred his way around the white hospital halls.

It smelt of old people and disease. I'm not sure if disease actually has a distinct smell, but if it does, this was it.

He reached a place in the hallway where the elevators were located. He pressed the button with the  arrow pointing upwards. Quickly, the elevator doors opened making a *ping* sound.
We entered the silver box and my eyes immediately darted towards the numbers.

Choose

                                Level

                                                         Three

The eerie voice told me.

I reached over Carters body and pressed the button with the number three in the odd looking font. The doors to the elevator shut and the mumbling sound of ascending was heard.

"Let me guess, the voices told you that we need to go to level three?" Carter tuners to me with an eyebrow raised.

"Yup."

"Oh yeah, we don't sound crazy at all." He sighed out, rubbing the back of his neck.

The elevator *pinged* once again and the doors opened. Both Carter and I headed down one of the halls of the hospital, the voices leading us towards the room directly at the end. We stopped at the door, #321. I reached my arm out and placed my hand on the cold silver door handle and turned it clockwise to open.

Once the room was exposed to us, Carter an I were able to see another attractive teenage boy sitting on the edge of a hospital bed.

He quickly cranked his neck towards us. He spoke in an English dialect, whispering as to be certain no one would hear.

"Are you Carter and Samantha?" He asked.

"Yes." Carter replied with a bit of caution detected in his answer.

"Good. I've been waiting for you."

Oh God, what am I getting myself into?

________________________________
Hello everyone!

Thank you for reading my story! It really means a lot! This is a story that is out of my usually comfort zone and I think it's really lying off!

#733 in Adventure right now! Woot woot!

Thank you for all your support thus far and I hope you decide to read on!
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Thanks. -Lex