Chapter 35: The GardenerI twisted in the blackness, under its heavy weight. Pressure against my chest caused me to feel as if I couldn’t breathe. My head swirled. I couldn’t move any of my limbs; I was trapped and misplaced in that bleak subterfuge. I felt confused, pulled into the dark, dragged, and absent. I’d never felt so distant from the world, so unconscious. I became woven among the thick threads of mindless dark, trapped there, and cocooned, without any sense or knowledge of where I was, but aware that I was alone, somewhere beyond Templeton along Lake Erie, beyond Pennsylvania, the United States, and planet Earth.
Was Colton in that underworld place? Maybe. Maybe not. I really didn’t know. I did hear him say, Come to, Joel. Come on. You can do it. I know you’ve been through a lot
