As my feet strike the pavement I feel the light warming my exposed flesh. Even in the sheer darkness of night, the warmth seems to flood into my soul. A small dip, a simple mistep, a tangling of legs and the ground rushes to meet my gaze. Pain resounds in my ears and across my body like a taut drum being beaten during a war party. My eyes screw shut against the suddenly blinding light. I try to move my hands to raise myself from the ground, but they are wrapped in the icy chains of death and despair. Unable to act, unable to move to prevent any further harm from coming to myself or another. My legs, suddenly leaden and cold, almost as if I had been paralized from the neck down. I could not even feel the ground beneath them as I strove to pull them closer to my body. My core, frozen in shudders from fear, defenseless, unable to move against any foe. Within my ears the only sound was a blood chilling scream. Like a mother watching her only child tortured, beaten, and bloodied. I tried to scream, to muffle the sounds, to drive one last ounce of desperation into my limbs. But no sound emerged. It was just as if my voice was a candle, trying to illuminate the expanses of space. I must have blacked out from the pain, and lack of feeling, because the screaming stopped. My arms became my own again, and my legs could be moved under my own power. Raising my head I slowly cracked my eyes open to see the blinding light, when I realised, it wasnt blinding, it was merely a warm glow. The street I was once walking on, was no where to be seen, and instead I found myself in the middle of a cross roads. I spun around, trying to find another soul, a landmark, or even my own footprints, some means of discovering where I was, where I came from, where I was going. I could find nothing. The dust was undisturbed, no water was left in the ground save for where my head lay. I looked ahead of myself, and found a road. Paved in cobble stones, with forboding clouds looming overhead. There was no rain to be seen, no thunder, no lightning. Twisting my head to the left, I found a road made entirely of mud, with rain pouring from the heavens as if straight from a jar whipping in an unending torrent. Afraid I looked to the right, and found a wonderfully paved road ahead of myself. The clouds overhead spat lighting and thunder with every waking second they puslated. It was as if the very sky was hatred incarnate. Suppressing a shudder I spun around, looking behind me. I found an asphalt road, torn apart as if by a farmers plow. The sky was as clear as glass, and untainted by any form of covering. Looking down at my bare feet I sighed and collapsed into a heap in the center of the intersection. Which way did I come from? Which way was I going? Which way is safe, which is dangerous, where is my ultimate destination, where is happiness, where is sorrow. Where am I supposed to go, now that I am stuck at this crossroad?