My eyes stung intensely. They felt like a thousand needles were stabbing them. Ask me how it happened and I could not tell you how. I do not know if it was shock from the icy water, or if some other force was blocking my memory until that point. All I know is that I was standing on a frozen lake and that I had fallen through. Naturally, I was not prepared. In situations such as those, it is humanly impossible to think clearly. My mind was going a million miles an hour, in a million different directions. So many questions I’d never answered, so many things I’d meant but never said. I’ve never been in a situation where my life was endangered, and I’d never have known it would be so frightening. I blacked out. I saw visions of my past, and even possibly visions of my future. Attempting to determine the difference between the two was futile at this point, and I did not try. I saw my mother’s face first. Warm and gentle, cradling me. I saw our old house, the one with the red door. My mind flashed back memories from my whole life, things I had forgotten. Then suddenly I saw a man. I saw his shadow above the ice, with me drowning beneath him. I gasped, and choked in as a last attempt to stay alive. Much to my surprise, I took a breath underwater. I blew out again, and watched a million tiny bubbles dance their way to the surface. As I followed them with my eyes, I watched as the shadow reached out his hand to me, and as he did, I reached out too. For the split second I held his hand, I was in total confusion and abyss. In one single motion, he pulled me through the ice. Caught in my dizziness, I grabbed my head and fell to the ground, on my side. I was unable to properly function. When it wore off, I opened my eyes to find myself completely and utterly alone.