It whispered. Its voice like a faint, slick sound. It whispered something I'll never forget. I leant over to listen more closely and then backed away in acknowledgment. There comes a time in every person's life where they need to escape. It may be because of a problem, an argument, or just a desire to vanish from the face of the earth. For me, I have that place, a place where I can go, where I can sit and think, escape and avoid life itself.

It is a special place, a place with a mind of its own. It can see, hear, smell and feel what's going on, and if it can trust you, you will develop a connection and it will let you in and reveal its most deepest secrets. This place and I have shared special moments and unique events, some of which have become part of me, part of my life. Every time I arrive at that place, it sends out its forces and they wrap around me pulling me in. I sense something, something unexplicable.

I look around at my surroundings. The environment has changed, the atmosphere is different. It does not feel the way it used to. It is a feeling which has been coming and going lately, but every time it comes now it gets worse and grows more intense. I cannot understand this feeling and I cannot find a definition for it. Is this place angry at me? Have I done something wrong? I should not worry about it. It is probably just a phase that will soon pass, or will it?

Every time I am affected by something in any way, I immediately retreat to this place and talk to myself or just imagine my thoughts away. As time ticks on, any time I want to be alone or seek advice this is the place I go to, and very often I listen to what it has to say. I go there because I feel safe, secure and wanted. It is a place where I can be myself and there is no need for me to try to impress anyone. I do not need to hide my real identity or disguise what and who I really am. It has helped me be myself, as I grew up within the forces of this place.

This place is like my second home, I know it off by heart, inch by inch. It then occurs to me, a sudden, unwanted explanation as to why I am feeling so insecure. This explanation I now have terrifies me and yet it also reassures me. I travel to that place without great difficulty. I did not even have to walk. All I did was call to it, and it brought me to it without me even knowing I was moving. I confront what I have to face. Everything is quiet, the place is deserted and it's just it and me.

I begin to talk to myself, deep down inside. That is where we can talk, and as I question myself, I begin to understand. Unexpectedly I start to wander off, I see myself in the past. I see events which have taken place re-enacting once again. I see the times where I was happy, sad and angry. I see myself with friends and family and most of all, I see myself develop throughout the years. Stage by stage. The memories that flicker past show me from a little kid to what I am now. It ends. Everything is black. I open my eyes with understanding. I stare at my surroundings, I feel nothing, I sense nothing. What and where are the secrets we've shared? Somehow I do not know them anymore. I have forgotten them for some odd reason. They have been taken away from me. The place has pushed me aside, I am not wanted anymore. I push my anger down. A gust of wind rushes past and everything settles down again.

I stand up. It is time to move on. It is time to be independent and the place itself has helped me to realise that. Although I may not share its secrets anymore, or those feelings, there is a new feeling developing, a feeling that I can always return when I need to and this place will always be there to listen. I walk to where I engraved my name sometime ago. Is this all that will remain of me, here, in this once upon a place of mine? No, it will not remain. It has started to fade and rot away already, waiting for the next person to write his or her name. It is waiting for the next child to come along as I did and start to re-create what it had once created with me. To start building those powerful forces and share all of those deep secrets which grasp your breath and disallow you to breathe properly. Secrets that also must be lost in the end.

I back away to where I was sitting breathless and speechless and before I know it, a little kid comes running in, picks up a sharp stick, snaps it in two and very slowly and carefully, starts to engrave his name right where I had mine. From the look on his face I knew what was about to happen.

This place has no name, no style, no specific meaning. In my mind I can hear the gates shut and the thick chain with its old, rusty grey lock click hard. I can also hear the key being thrown away. I place my hands in my pockets and start to walk away. At a fair distance, I look back and the place is fading away, it has totally disappeared.