Limping, through the pathway, I let my hands droop down to one side. It retaliates with every contact it makes with the cold, silver gates. Bent double beneath my ever burdening schoolbag, I supress the pain I feel within. My chest is aching, I feel nauseated. Looking up at the clock, I see the world crumble, blurring into a vast field of darkness.

It wasn;t the first time, that I suddenly found myself awak in this alien nation, filled with sanitation gadgets and people dressed in plain white tablecloth. I don't see the use of telling all my friends not to see me, they say to leave me be and enjoy my peaceful rest, but everything in this place feels loud. Even the air, is filled with a sharp, dry, alcohol scent. It lingers in my nostrils, tugging at my nose hair and tickles my throat. I hate hospitals. I dreaded the thought of it, and I loathed all the hypocrites, who pretended they were sick just to skip a test. Yet I could not escape it, it was the only 'cure', this materialistic world could offer to solve the disease I had, an abnormally large heart.

Naturally, when I heard of it I wept in joy. Finally another exit. That was how I ended up here, on the road to my enlightment, or false hope.

The road to Neverland was long, and although the sunc was scorching hot, the weather seemed dark. Dreary. Vultures spiralled above me, like my own personal, feathered halo. The Mustang leaped at the slightest bump, and on this abandoned road, it seems that not an inch of asphalt could be characterized as smooth. I will not let these obstacles stop me. I seek immortality and I shall get it.

Seconds change into minutes. Minutes into hours, and hours into days. As the night approaches me yet again, challenges me, mocks me. I push through the cold night air, furiously holding me back. The front light stutters and so do my eyes. It was time to camp and get a decent night sleep, and by the choking of the engine I could tell that both me and the Mustang could agreed on that. SO I pulled over, the sheer amount of exhaustion just drizzling down my spine.

6:00am, that was the first time I saw it. A beautiful patch of land, filled with luscious greens. No trace of the common human accommodation.

The tips of my lips curl, like celleries which had been placed in iced water. for the first time in many years, I smiled. I held the awkward, new expression there, ignoring the burst of pain in my cheeks, as I started the Mustang again, heading towards my future.

20 meters away I parked the Mustang, grabbed my backpack and entered the forest managing to peep a pale laser beam through the dense canopy. The smell of earth, damp and warm gathers beneath my nostrils. It clings to my outfit and slowly grows into a mellow yet intoxicating scent.

'Badump!' a bark drops from above me, and the gash it made on my forehead, leaks a ruby red liquid, blood. It stings my eyes, but I force my eyelids to stay put. a red film covers the landscape which I once saw as green. I start to doubt my senses. A familiar sensation overcomes me. 'Please let this paradise be real! I don't want to lose it,' I kept repeating to myself. It slowly transforms into a chant.

It wasn't the first time, that I suddenly found myself awake in this alien nation. But this time it was different. a boy, his round hazel eyes looked through me, his gaze was innocent but sharp, piercing. Searching. I burst into tears, angry at how my childhood, innocence had been robbed. Every tick of the clock, every moment awake I spent going through medical exams, resisting the urge to walk to the park, showering in the rain, playing hopscotch, brag about my new polished pair of shoes. All that time, all for nothing. I punched my clenched fist, deep into the dirt and wailed.

A gush of warmth, as the boy hugs me, buries my frail body in his cavernous arms.