Up until now, everything had been going great. The town fair had been going surprisingly well for me. Of course, that's when I let my guard down and made the crucial mistake.

I got in into the bouncy castle.

Now, I'm sure you have your questions. Yes, I'm an adult. Yes, I was allowed to be on it. Our town really shells out on the yearly town fair, including rentals of adult friendly bouncy castles.

It was a spontaneous decision I made, and those don't usually end well for me. I wasn't really thinking of that, though. I just wanted to bounce around for a bit before heading back to my apartment.

I had been jumping for maybe 35 seconds when I heard the dreaded POP. I felt it too, the sudden rush of air out of the bouncy castle as the floor underneath of me went lax.

Another thing to know about me is that I'm incredibly claustrophobic. As soon as that POP rang through the air, my heart dopped to the floor. I immediately turned my gaze to the opening of the bouncy castle, and to my horror, that was the first thing that was losing air and collapsing.

My screams of terror were drowned out by the screams of delight from everyone else. Shrieking 'help' apparently just mixed right in with the laughter and joy because no one came to help me.

As the castle collapsed around me, I continued to thrash around. Panic clouded my vision, preventing me from getting any sort of view of the opening. The ringing bell of someone winning a game sounded like alarm bells in my mind. It was all I could do not to start hyperventilating even though it was getting more cramped by the second. The pleasant summer air suddenly felt stifling as the walls of the bouncy castle rapidly closed in on me.

Just when I thought all hope was lost, I spotted a glorious patch of grass. It was a pretty big opening, I guess where the bouncy castle must have ripped. I didn't particularly care about the details; all that mattered to me was that it was big enough for me to fit through. I dove towards it, wrestling my way through the whole and back onto solid ground.

I looked around me at the other townspeople, enjoying the fair and completely oblivious to my near death situation. As I stood there, red faced and panting, next to the limp bouncy castle, I decided firmly on one simple thing.

Never. Again.