An excerpt for a novel I am working on!

Misery

This was the very moment in time I had been waiting for all my life. I could feel my heart racing with excitement. I had spent six gruelling months saving up for this very instant. I had stayed six months longer at a job I detested, in a town I hated, in an apartment I loathed, with people I couldn’t wait to leave behind, so that I could be standing here at this very moment. I breathed in a huge, deep breath. To say that I was miserable before this instant would have been the biggest understatement of the century.

Now, here I was, a few minutes away from taking the most significant step in my entire freakin’ life. I could taste and smell the excitement in the air. The last five days with Master trainer Mike Realms had been entirely awe-inspiring, completely life-changing  and worth every single sacrifice I had experienced. These past five days and nights had been genuinely magical and had transformed my life completely. Truth be told, these last five days were freaking awesome! I was a changed man. I was a new man. It was like I was about to be born again. I had focus, vision and a real purpose for my life. I was on fire. I was going to take on the world. I was freakin’ ready. “Come on world! I am ready for you!” I joyfully thought to myself as I waited my turn in line.

I was awash with positive vibes. I was literally bouncing up and down on the spot, like a child waiting his turn to go to the bathroom. My body was tingling with nervous energy. Three more people to go and then it would be my turn.

Mike Realms always ended his big five-day life purpose events with a fire walk. The moment I discovered this I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that I needed to do this work.  I felt deep within my soul that once I completed the walk, I would be utterly unstoppable. It was my time, and I knew it!

I looked around. Two more people to go. I was so excited and nervous at the same time that I could taste bile in my mouth. “Damn this is going to be good!” raced through my head. The noise and the chaos was raising my excitement to a feverish pitch. I was a starving rat at a buffet.

One of the always smiling fire walk assistants came over and stood before me, bellowing at me, “Ground yourself and stay focused!” I grinned. He bellowed again, “Ground yourself like we showed you.” I fought down my excitement as I closed my eyes and began to imagine that my feet were gigantic roots that extended deep into the ground. From there I continued to believe that those roots stretched out for hundreds of feet in all directions. I breathed in and breathed out. My frantic heart rate began to slow down., The tingling sensation in my body began to evaporate, and an overwhelming sense of peace and inner knowing enveloped my whole being. It was like I was now wrapped in a giant marshmallow of love and protection.

I didn’t know how long I had been grounding for but it was long enough for the person in front of me to go and complete their walk. Somehow I managed to hear, “Okay mate, it’s your turn – go!“ I felt a tap on my shoulder indicating for me to move forward.

I stepped out onto the sizzling hot coals. It was like I was walking on a warm tile floor and not the nearly 1000°F hot fiery embers that I was actually walking on. With each new step, I could feel the excitement in my body returning. Here I was, walking on fire. I was amazed. “I am actually doing a fire walk!” My mind began racing with the thoughts, “This is crazy! I am actually walking on flipping freaking hot embers!”  I could taste victory; I only had  fifteen more feet to go. “I am the man! I am on fire! I chuckled at the irony of my thought.

I heard my name, “Devin!” I looked in the direction of the voice that called, “Over here!” I turned and saw that my new retreat friend, Ali, had his camera out. I turned slightly, waved and smiled.

The pain was instant and intense . . .

I awoke the next day in the hospital to the discovery that I had second degree burns to twenty-five percent of not one, but both of my feet. The doctor told me, “You’ll need to stay off your feet for a couple weeks but other than that, you should have no long-term damage to your feet. You are very fortunate!”

…