There are some days that feel like it going to go exactly as you had wanted it. And then that eerie feeling creeps up on you. The feeling of doubt. The feeling that inevitably leads you to believe that it rings true. And so, the feeling becomes a mental note when things don't go as you had planned, and become trained to notice the most miniscule things that process in the subconscious of our minds, so then, we have the sense of imminent failure on one's initial feeling of things going right. It is a super sense. A sixth sense so to speak. That sense alerted a certain young man in regards to his statement when he awoke.

"Today is going to be perfect."

And why shouldn't it be? It was his eighteenth birthday. He was an adult in the eyes of the legal system. To his parents...that would not ring so true, but for him...it was a big deal. He threw off his dark blue blanket to send the gentle chill of the room to his legs. He got the appropriate response and jumped out of bed, feeling refreshed from a good night's sleep. He had not cared for the fight his parents had gotten into and the thought had not carried over from the night before. All that was on his mind was his birthday. He was so excited he could hardly contain himself. He had developed a habit of jumping jacks every morning a year before, and it showed. He was fit, but not muscular. He wasn't athletically inclined, nor was he academically. He was in almost all respects average. The only notable thing about him was his love of reading. Bookworm wasn't a phrase thrown his way. Mainly because he only read the interesting side of literature. Fiction, mythology, theory of life in the universe...all of course the same as fiction. "Until proven otherwise." was his motto. He knew that they could not be all alone in the void of space and time. There wasn't a cruel God or for that matter, a merciless explosion. He was neutral to those things. He didn't want his image of the creator or the formula for creation for that matter, to be the ones commonly viewed by society. He wanted to find out for himself someday.

He slipped out of his boxers and hopped into the hot shower across the hallway from his room. No one was home, so he felt no need to wait for formalities such as caution. His dark brown hair was getting in his face. A sign he needed to get a hair cut soon.

"If it can hit my eyelids then it needs to be snipped..." he chimed to himself remembering his grandmother's words from long ago. His family had died down considerably the past few years and it had saddened him. All that he had...was less than desirable. He tossed the thoughts aside and went back to his shower routine. He thought to his hair color and thought about where down the line his hair got that color. His mother was blonde and his father had black hair...and both German American. He did not concern himself with the thought any longer than he needed to entertain his parent's presence in his head.

After he had finished showering and dressed in the bathroom, he looked at himself in the mirror. No blemishes was a good sign. His acne medication had finished off the unsightly things. His teeth looked...okay. He wasn't a model on television, but they weren't terrible. He made a few faces in the mirror for a few minutes before departing from the bathroom, only to hit his head against the doorway. He was measured six foot recently and still going on the assumption the house he lived in was met to those standards. Which, sad to say, it wasn't.

Morning ick was gone. The little traces he had felt anyway. And so he worked on breakfast.

"What do we have today Aaron?" He mumbled to himself. The fridge looked raided. Literally.

There was nothing save for the bag of salad he had saved from the other day. "Might as well..."

He craved some potatoes to make into hash browns at the very least if not bacon. He did not even find those. "As good a day as any to eat a little more healthy..." He didn't mind salad. He wasn't particularly finicky about his food. Except for frosting. He hated the grittiness that frosting brought him. He preferred whipped cream. His mind wandered as he bit into his leafy meal.

"Pie."

This one word sums up his hatred for the frosting. His birthday cake was normally a cherry pie with a layer of whipped cream on top. He wanted his pie now. And with his parents out, he was going to get it.

He threw on his walking shoes and a light sweater to top his plain black shirt. He zipped up the sweater, threw the hoodie on, and made a jog for the nearest Cocos. He stopped jogging about ten minutes in and realized it was going to be an hour's walk either way. He thought about pacing his day so as to take in the full effect it was to take on him. Then that feeling hit him quietly.

Something is going to go wrong.

He mouthed a silent no to himself and continued walking. "No, no, no, no." He didn't have any friends he could speak of, sure. He didn't feel the need for anyone.

Something isn't right about today.

"Shut up..." he said aloud to himself. The sidewalk was quite empty on both sides of the street. The houses looked nice and cozy compared to the cloudy sky hanging above him. "This is my birthday...I love cloudy weather in winter...I am going to get my pie early...No one can ruin this for me."

The feeling hit him again. He wanted to stab it in the face. Very much so, he wanted it to take a physical shape so he could beat it up. Sure he didn't get any presents from his parents, so? He bought his own things with his part time job. They provided shelter and decent amounts of food. And pie once every year. He was okay with it. Things were the way they were and hadn't changed much at all.

Can't you feel that? Something is off.

Aaron was tired of the silent voice growing in his head. He decided to jog after all.

Halfway to the establishment, the weather took a turn for the worse.

"Shit..." He cursed to himself.

Snow began to fall and melt onto the fabric of his hoodie, making his hair a little damp. And he could feel his nose getting stiff and cold. The weather was bad so what? He laughed to himself.

"That's all it was..." He laughed out loud.

Then the snow whipped into his face quite literally and made him fall to his knees and brace himself from the waves of snow he was experiencing.

"F-fine..." he chattered his teeth. "You win!"

He never knew who he was shouting to. But whatever it was, it spun him around until the world went dark and he felt weightless for a brief moment. Then a pain shot through his body, as if it was peeling his skin off from the front to the back. If he had opened his eyes, he imagined, he would see a wave of flames causing his discomfort. He almost laughed at the thought under the pain he experienced.

"Fuck...fuck..." He mouthed to himself. The pain had gone and started on his insides. He wanted it all to stop. He wanted to die.

"...Give that...ass a piece of m...my..." he began to fight the feeling. It soon began to feel oddly pleasant. It had shifted in such a way as if it went into reverse in an instant, and began to clothe him in a soothing warmth. He swore he heard a silent whisper.

He woke up to the birds chirping.

"Birds..."

Winter had just begun. What were birds doing, chirping around him.

He took note that he was flat on his back. And that his eyes and mouth seemed to be the only thing functioning properly.

"Blue skies..."

He wanted to say it. It was his sense telling him it fit.

"'I...I'm not in Kansas anymore.

Relief came onto the feeling, being proud of the line.

"...never been to Kansas." He mused to himself. Aaron never went anywhere. He had been a suburban guy. His whole eighteen years of life. Reality hit him hard when he understood the feeling of being unable to move was soreness all over his body. And he began to take serious note of the gravity of his situation.

"I was in a snowstorm...the sky is clear...I am laying on...grass? Birds...wildlife noises...the smell of trees...I am not in the suburbia."

Panic set in.

"Where the hell am I?!" the echo went around him giving him the eerie feeling that he was truly alone in some wilderness...somehow.

He never cared about being alone...but he was deathly afraid of it deep down. He knew those closed houses held families inside of them. He knew that the cars were driven by people. His parents...they were people. He wasn't alone as long as he knew they were there. But now...he was alone. And he felt sad for the first time in a long time.

"...I'm going to die...alone..." The thought echoed in his head now. Until he heard something in the distance. He knew it was probably a bird in the bushes. It sounded so quiet and gentle. And the flapping of wings too. It confirmed the picture of a bird nearby.

"...animals...then I'm not completely alone..."

He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "...nothing..."

Failed attempts at getting up caused panic and unrest.

"I don't want to pass out...please..." he teared up. "Let me stay awake...I don't want to..." he felt sleep settle in whether he wanted it or not.

And for the last moment of his eyes closing, he swore he saw something yellow cast a shadow over his face.

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