For me it's my basement. It's finished, but abandoned and mostly just storage. I have to pass through the finished section to reach the laundry room which is well lit, but the rest is in complete and blinding darkness. Years ago the drop ceiling lighting stopped working, and I'm unable physically or financially to fix them. In recent years, I developed severe neuropathy in my arms and legs, and can't race up the steps to get away from that darkness like I used too.

Now it's just there, right behind me, breathing down my neck as I take one shaky step at a time. There's two doors in that room, one to the laundry room that is always open, and one to the garage that's rarely used. Two weeks ago, the door out to the garage opened and closed with a slam. Everyone in the house heard it, the garage door was securely locked.

I hate my basement.

Meningitis when I was twenty two, close runner up was the emergency Spinal Puncture they had to do to relieve the pressure on my brain. I had been sent home 4 times with the wrong diagnosis of a sinus infection. I was told if I returned to the hospital before the 25th, they would just send me back home. I waited till the 25th to go back, had a fever of 103, wasn't coherent in any way. (parents took me back in) And the ER doctor on call that day knew what it was right away. In the end, I lived, and at the time held the record for the person to have it the longest without dying at my hospital. (Not really a record I would suggest trying to beat, or even competing for.) If there was more than one hospital within reasonable traveling distance of my home, I might not have suffered as long. (3 Weeks from the onset of the headache.)

I didn't read when I was growing up, that is, until one year my family rented a beach house, and took a seven hour trip to the ocean. There were bad storms all week, I grew bored of my Gamboy (dating myself there) and when we went out shopping, I picked up a paperback book. It was Watchers, by Dean Koontz. I sat on the couch in the den of our beach house, and read it cover to cover, only stopping to eat and use the bathroom. That was the first time, I read a book cover to cover, and in just a day and a half.

I was hooked, and now, I always have something to read within reach, rather that be on my phone, kindle or PC. I can't imagine not getting lost in a book when I need an escape. I still love gaming, especially games with great story telling, but books took the number one spot for me now, all because of one paper back, no a rainy trip to the ocean.