[center][img]http://tombraiders.net/stella/images/TR9/Lara_face.jpg[/img]
[h3][color=f7976a]Harley Whitfield[/color][/h3]
--------------------------------------------------[/center]

[color=f7976a][i]Keep...running!  Got to keep...running![/i][/color]

My entire body is soaked to the marrow, a cold, chilling rain battering my marred, bruised skin with some unspeakable agony as I push my way through this dense, dark forest forever stretching before me.  Black, towering trees creak and moan in the fierce, roaring winds forming icicles on my flesh,  lightning flashing and thunder growling everywhere around me.  Suddenly a branch catches my ankle.  I plummet to the ground, splashing into a foul smelling puddle of muck and mire, hastily and frantically scurrying to my feet.

[color=f7976a][i]I...I have to get out of here!  I have to keep running!  It's not real!  It's not real![/i][/color]

Those are the only thoughts racing through my mind, frantically my heart pounding against my chest, threatening to break through my rib cage.  I wipe something away from my forehead, sweat...no...that isn't sweat pouring down my face...it...it's [color=ed1c24]BLOOD!![/color]

I keep running, there's something chasing me, something I cannot see beyond the endless veil of darkness engulfing the wicked forest of withering pines and ashes, but I can sense it, I can feel it....the malevolent, malicious force coming forth to devour me. 

[color=f7976a][i]No go away!  Leave me alone!  NOOO!![/i][/color]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I jolt awake with a gasp from where I lay, shaking like a leaf, my skin clammy and sticky with intense, fearful perspiration.

[color=f7976a]"God blimey....what a nightmare..."[/color]  I sigh with relief, but as my eyes begin to adjust, the blurry, abstract shapes coming into crystal clarity, I discover...perchance this dream...may be far from over.

[color=f7976a][color=f7976a]"Where....where am I?"[/color][/color]  I've never seen such a place.  The soft, sweet smelling breeze gently calms my nerves as it brings a warming sensation to my dampened skin and I find myself...surrounded by such...such beauty.  Grasses, so green and so verdant, stretch before me, surrounded by towering walls of leafy hedges.  In the midst of the clearing, there are three things that catch my bewildered eyes.  The first, a tree of such lush, vibrant colors, it makes me shameful I didn't bring along my watercolors.  Its leaves are fully blossomed, casting its dappled shadows as the warm sunlight seeps through its branches, its fruits, pleasing to both the eye and possibly the pallet.  If I didn't feel so sick to my stomach, I would probably have picked one just to sample.  

Second, a well, not far from where the tree stands, made of old, ancient stones covered in thick coats of moss and lichens.  Slowly, I approach the well, just as the breeze picks up and a few leaves from the tree are cast into it creating ripples across the sheen, undisturbed surface of the water.  I dip my hand in.  It's so cool to the touch and oh so clear that I can see right towards the very deep of it.  I dip my other hand in as well, splashing water on my face and giving yet another sigh.

[color=f7976a][i]"What is this place?"[/i][/color]  I question, soon realizing...I am not alone.  For thirdly....there are others here, three other people, lying beneath the shade of the apple tree.  Are they asleep...or are they...dead?

[color=f7976a]"H-hello?"[/color] I call out to them, hoping in my heart that one of them at least stirs.  This place, as beautiful as it is, there is something so...unnatural about it.  And I've no earthly idea how I ended up in such.  Perhaps I'm still dreaming.  Yes, that's it.  I close my eyes, expecting to appear in my room at the ranch in Hereford, expecting to hear mum and dad telling me to wake up for school, but...as my eyes open again...nothing...just the same grasses and tree.