Blood.

 I followed the footprints in the snow alongside a trail of deep red blood. With each step I struggled to breathe, as I felt the buckle of my knees. The footprints and blood trail led me to a graveyard of the scariest sorts, to a tombstone that had my name on it.

Out of breath, I fell to my knees. And saw a bloody handprint on the tombstone. Fuelled by sheer curiosity and a fighting instinct to survive, I looked down at my hands...

…Covered in blood.

I placed my hand on the tombstone, on top of the bloody stained handprint. I realised in that moment, that the handprint was mine.

I looked around, trying my hardest to make sense of it all. I couldn't help but be filled with dread as I noticed how the footprints and blood trail had disappeared...

…That they never really existed.

The feeling of betrayal, pain and the deepest of sorrow escaped my being from within, in the form of a loud moan that echoed before fading into a soul splitting, bone chilling silence.

All of a sudden, everything went black. I accepted that this is how I died. That this is the exact spot that my fragile body must lie.

Quicker than a bolt of lightning striking the Earth, I could feel myself being teleported through time. Images of my life flashed throughout my mind. As quickly as this happened, it stopped.

I heard a voice telling me to open my eyes. I obliged. And was greeted with the beautiful warm morning glow of sunlight.

As I sat up in my bed and rubbed my eyes, I realised with a sense of familiar comforting peace, that all of it had been nothing but a dream. I have never been so grateful and truly happy to be alive. From this day onward, I swear, I am determined to make the most of my life.

- Alexandra Pierotti.