"Stepping away from Marcie, I gasped in a lungful of air, trying to breathe against dense fog. I’d felt this before, the memory of it stinging my eyes with fresh tears. My heart sank, darkness clouding the bright relief I had been feeling moments before. My vision blurred, Marcie’s red hair the only color I could see before I bent over, sobs erupting from my lungs. I blindly felt in the dark for a solid object to keep me upright, but Marcie’s hands gripped my arms instead. I could hear her voice, but I couldn’t make out the words. My legs shook from my weight. I wanted to fall, to hit the ground with so much force I would crash through the floor and sink into the dark abyss of the underground. Something tugged at my gut, like an invisible string was attached to it, and someone was pulling, the material expanding, stretching like a rubber band. Snap! I felt the pull of the rubber suddenly bounce back, slamming into me with full force.

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong."