Some years ago, one summer Saturday (I doubt I ever told you this before); so many memories forever lost, and this one I can't make myself forget... [[The story begins]] I woke up sometime shortly after dawn; the room was quiet, dark, and far too hot. [[Sleep]] [[Sit up]]Staring at the ceiling, wide awake; sweating through the sheets, too hot to sleep, too listless and too bored to stay in bed. [[Sit up]] [[Sleep]]I sat up, stretched; I groaned and rubbed my eyes, then realized the power had gone out. [[Get up]]I stumbled through the house, from room to room, in search of something, anything to do. [[Bedroom]] [[Kitchen]] [[Front door]]I stumbled through the house, from room to room, in search of something, anything to do. [[Living room]]I stumbled through the house, from room to room, in search of something, anything to do. [[Living room]]I stumbled through the house, from room to room, in search of something, anything to do. [[Bedroom]] [[Kitchen]] [[Front door]]and then, as quickly as it first occurred, the thought took hold to take walk. [[Go outside]]The wind was ripping through the leafless trees and hurling tumbleweeds into the cars; the sky was jaundiced, thick and dull with sand, the air was hot, beyond the early hour. [[Turn right]] [[Turn left]][[Turn right]] [[Turn left]]I'd meant to only walk around the block, just four quick turns and then be back inside, but then I saw a path off to the left that somehow I had never seen before. [[Go on|Empty lot]]It led across a block of empty lots, away from family homes and watered lawns until, on looking back, they all were gone, hid within the churning cloud of dirt. [[Go on|Wilderness]]I crossed the final road, the path went on; I followed, for no reason I can see, until it reached the bottom of a hill that I, in foolish pride, resolved the climb. [[Climb]] I climbed, my body dripping wet with sweat; my watering eyes were fixed upon the ground. [[Look up|First Look]] [[Climb|Climb2]][[Climb|Climb2]]I climbed, my flesh was heavy on my feet; my stinging fingers bleeding from the sand. [[Look Up|Look2]] [[Climb|Climb2]]Above me, at the crest, a saw a tree, a dingy, desperate flowering of leaves. [[Climb|Top1]]I reached the peak, joyless and exhausted; my only thoughts of rest and shade. The wind was dying down, the sand was falling like a hopeless parody of rain. [[Look around]]Beneath tree I saw my closest friend, and with him there, a girl I didn't know. [[Look at them]]He held her forearm firmly in his fist, his other hand was locked upon her throat; he shook her hard, she offered no resistance as bruises bloomed across her sagging face. [[Look at them|Look3]] My eyes were wide, in shock at what they saw; my mind recoiled and would not take it in. I tried to speak, my mouth would form no sounds, at that for which there are no fitting words. [[Walk towards them|Look 4]] He turned to me and gave an easy wave; and smiled like we were passing on the street. [[Confront him]]He shrugged his shoulders next, as one would do when mucking gutters on an autumn day as if to say that life is so unfair to make us do such dull, distasteful things. [[Go on|Turn1]]I knew for certain then, as I do now, the man beneath that tree was not my friend; the town below was somehow not my home, that morning walk had led me somewhere else. Mortal man has walked upon the moon, one day he will set his feet on Mars, and even, someday, worlds of other stars, but I had gone much further on that day. [[Go on|Finale]]Whatever I was seeing wasn't real, "it isn't him" I sighed in sweet relief; and so I left to try and get back home and then forget that I was ever there.