If you can read this, don’t go in there.

**If you can read this, don’t go in there**<br><br>We drove for hours, and I had to repeatedly interrupt something with “Hey, Josh. If I tell you to stop, you gotta stop, okay?”<br><br>Somehow he knew why.<br><br>The road drifted from asphalt to gravel and finally to dirt. He didn’t stop until we were surrounded by thick trees. The other car finally caught up, but instead of going to them or calling anyone, Josh just left the car on and bailed from the driver's side. I tried my best to help him carry Tina into the forest.<br><br>I think the initial plan was to just find a landmark, but we’d done so much traveling in the dark that I had no idea which direction we were headed. We just walked for almost an hour into the trees when I said, “Josh, can we stop?”<br><br>He didn’t answer. He just looked at me and said, “Stop what?”<br><br>“Can we stop?”<br><br>“I don’t know if we should,” he said.<br><br>If you can read this, don’t go in there.<br><br>I was on the ground, shaking. I realized the strange thing is that I think I was just standing in the forest, looking at Josh and Tina, my friends. My best friends. Now Tina was dead. Now she was back.<br><br>Josh was still holding Tina, but he was still looking at me. “What did you say?”<br><br>“I said, can we stop?”<br><br>Josh looked around. “No, we shouldn’t.”<br><br>We kept walking.<br><br>If you can read this, don’t go in there.<br><br>I was in the car. I looked over at Josh. “You okay?” I asked.<br><br>“Yeah.”<br><br>“Then why did you stop?”<br><br>“I don’t know. I felt like it for some reason.”<br><br>“You good?”<br><br>“Yeah.”<br><br>We kept driving.<br><br>If you can read this, don’t go in there.<br><br>I rammed my fist into the wall as hard as I could. It hurt, but I digested the pain. I kept going, drove my hand into the wall again and again and again. I was on the ground, screaming at the top of my lungs. I had to break free, I had to leave.<br><br>If you can read this, don’t go in there.<br><br>I wasn’t alone. There were many of us. I could hear us all screaming together. I felt pain like I’d never felt before. I could feel my body breaking. I rammed my fist into the wall again and again and again, even though they were starting to bleed. One of them broke. I could feel it. So I kept going. I wasn’t me. I was all of us. I was all these people, locked in this room. I was screaming and crying and pounding away at the wall until—<br><br>If you can read this, don’t go in there.<br><br>I was on the ground. I was crying. I had no idea where I was or what I was doing. I hurt, but I was still alive.<br><br>I wasn’t alone. I looked around the room, an old fashioned living room gone to waste from years of being in this same place. The room itself was in shambles, torn apart at the wallpaper and floorboards. It was dirty, dirty beyond the level of filth I’d ever seen. I was alive, but something was wrong with me. Everything smelled liked death. If I had a mirror, I’m sure I’d have seen pure agony. I didn’t even have to look, though. I knew I was in trouble. <br><br>There was nobody else here, just me, but it didn’t feel like that. It felt like I was trapped with a lot of people. It felt like I had been here for years, like I had been here my whole life.<br><br>If you can read this, don’t go in there.<br><br>I was still on the ground when I realized I was moving. I was crawling, crawling across the floor in agony. I was leaving the living room, but I had no idea where I was headed. I knew it was important to move. I had to move. I didn’t know why. I just knew I had to. I could hear myself screaming out in pain. I ignored it. I had something important to do. I was being driven by an important force. I had to move. I didn’t know why.<br><br>I crawled out of the living room and into the hallway. I had no idea where I was or where I was headed. I just knew I had something important to do. I had to move. I had been moving for years, but I felt like I was just starting.<br><br>If you can read this, don’t go in there.<br><br>I was crawling along the ground, determined to move. I had no idea where I was, but I felt like I had been here for years. I rammed my fist into the ground. The ground hurt, but I digested the pain. I kept going, I digested my fists into the ground again and again and again. I was on the ground, screaming at the top of my lungs. I digested my fists into the ground again and again and again. I was trapped in a room. I had to break free. I had to leave. <br><br>If you can read this, don’t go in there.<br><br>I was in the car. I tried to pass out. I couldn’t. I tried to scream. I couldn’t. I just looked at Josh. He looked at me.<br><br>“Are you okay?”<br><br>I tried my best to answer, but I couldn’t.<br><br>I could feel myself being driven by an important force. I looked at Josh. “I think there’s something in my head.”<br><br>I don’t know how he knew, but he did. His face contorted into agony. “Fight.”<br><br>I tried. I really did. I couldn’t.<br><br>But I did. I was fighting. I could feel myself trapped in a room, trying to get out. I was trapped, but I couldn’t remember how I got there. This was my whole life, the only thing I could ever remember. It was agony. I just wanted to die. I just wanted to get out. I tried to escape. I rammed my fists into the wall again and again and again. I had to break free. I had to leave.<br><br>If you can read this, don’t go in there.<br><br>I had to stop. I had to stop ramming my fists into the wall. We were still in the forest, but I remember back to my life. I was having trouble remembering it, but I could. <br><br>“Josh,” I said. “Can we stop?”<br><br>He looked at me. “Why?”<br><br>“I don’t know, I just feel like we need to.”<br><br>He looked down at Tina and shook his head. “No, we can’t stop.”<br><br>I looked around, I had no idea where we were. “Where are we?”<br><br>“I don’t know, I thought you could figure it out.”<br><br>I looked at the trees. I had some idea where we were, but I wasn’t entirely sure.<br><br>“Do you think our landmarks will work?”<br><br>He shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think I’m in control right now.”<br><br>“What do you mean?”<br><br>He shook his head. “I’m not sure. I have to hold on to you. I don’t think I can.”<br><br>I thought about Tina, but I didn’t want to say anything.<br><br>He looked at me. “You said something to me, when we were back at the house. Do you remember?”<br><br>I didn’t, but I nodded anyway.<br><br>“What did you say to me?”<br><br>I had no idea, but I knew it was important. “I told you, don’t go in there.”<br><br>“I know that. What else?”<br><br>I thought about it, but I couldn’t think about it. I had to think about it. I had to remember. <br><br>“If you can read this, don’t go in there.”<br><br>He shook his head. “What does that mean?”<br><br>I thought about it. “I don’t know.”<br><br>He looked around. “I don’t know where we are. I don’t know what we’re doing. But I have to keep moving. I don’t think I can leave.”<br><br>“What’s happening to me?”<br><br>“I don’t know.”<br><br>I thought about that. “What’s going on?”<br><br>“I don’t know.”<br><br>I had to get out of here. I thought about that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I couldn’t think about that. I just had to move. I had to keep moving no matter what. I tried my best to think of anything else. I could feel myself being driven by an important force. I had to move. I looked at Josh. “You okay?”<br><br>He looked at me. “Yeah.”<br><br>“Then why did you stop?”<br><br>“I don’t know. I felt like it for some reason.”<br><br>“You good?”<br><br>“Yeah.”<br><br>I could feel myself being driven by an important force. I had to move. I had to keep moving no matter what. I just had to move. I just had to keep moving. I just had to move. I just had to keep moving. I just had to move. I just had to keep moving. I just had to move. I just had to keep moving. I just had to move. I just had to keep moving. I just had to move. I just had to keep moving for some reason. <br><br>If you can read this, don’t go in there.