Scurrying over to the cream painted fridge, I slide the pre-made sausage rolls into my pink, floral, picnic bag. Wait, was I supposed to make desserts instead? I wonder while zipping up my bag. I shrug, knowing there's no time to do anything about it now. I dart my eyes to the small analogy clock hanging on the wall.

Ah shit...

I pace myself even faster, rushing out of the kitchen towards the doorway of my now empty house. I unfasten the buckles to my leather sandals and slide them on, unconsciously glancing up at my family portrait on the wall, looking longingly at my father. The house hasn't been the same since he died. He had Aplastic anemia, a disease where your red blood cells don't regenerate, well at least that's what we think? As almost all his cells didn't, no matter the amount of donor transplants he got. His passing made my mother mad with nonsense, always talking about bizarre incoherent things. So mad it drove my brother away, he couldn't stand me 'entertaining' her delusions, always insisting on beating her down with the truth every, single, time. It broke my heart to see my poor mother struck with the reality of a truly dead husband and distant children from her imagination. Anguished by her loss she distanced herself into a care home, though I still talk to her whenever I can.

Bringing out my phone, I quickly flip it open and look at the time. I'm so late...I grab the keys off the rack hung by the door and throw them into my bag and swing the door open, jogging out. I miraculously make it to the bus, paying the fare and settling down onto my seat, I lean against the cool window, a luxury in contrast to its warmer environment outside. I stare out into my grim, dated town filled with eyesore tower buildings and miserable people. I can't wait for my contract at the school to end so I can move out of this suffocating town. No one can thrive in these hideous small cities that lack opportunities.

As we pull into the bus station, I hop off the bus into the glass built station, and walk towards the 'meeting place' and wince. Amelia, Ellie and Millie stand there with a disappointed look. Yeah yeah I'm late so what? I do a little jog over to them and profusely apologise for my lack of time management. We have a quick conversation as we pace ourselves to our next bus, the chariot to our deliciously beautiful destination, all words intended as I know Ellie brought victoria sponge cake. I've never been more excited for a ladies day out than when cake is involved.

Getting on our next bus, we all watch as the view shifts from our meek town and its bustling streets, to hilly fields where flowering plains meet a dense woodland forest. Finally, nature's bliss! Getting off, we walk to where we could see the high summer sun strike the tall leafy trees, strike them in such a way that it looked as if it was creating a world where only streams of light flow. Sitting beside the trees that lay on the outskirts of the woodland, we turn to the wild field of tall flowers where the occasional rabbit would pass. The overwhelming sense of calmness and autonomy arises like I could lay dormant forever just staring at the view. As if the encapsulating beauty of the landscape is unconsciously draining you of all your worries and impurities. As if nothing mattered in this view of flowing grass and colourful vegetation.

A feeling that everything is fine, where my mother is herself, my brother isn't astray and father...alive. I ignore the pang to my chest, and join in the laughter with my close friends as we pluck the tomatoes out of our sandwiches, as if they were diseased and to eat them would kill you instantly.

"Good for the plants." I laugh, as if I had to justify my childish palate of disliking certain veggies. We all nod in unison to the justified hate of tomatoes.

"It's quite nice that we all can meet up, even if it's only during the holidays." Amelia, an age old friend of mine, mentions.

It is nice. It's difficult to keep connections when your fast coming unpredictable adult life is thrown at you. Yet for moments like these where we can meet up and act as if our age and time away from each other has never changed, it is nice.

Nevermind amusing seeing how time has changed the people you used to watch, anxiously approach their school crushes and horribly fail into an exploding mess of words, and cry about it afterwards.

"It is nice...So nice in fact, that I feel as if we need to do something, to maybe...Well, I don't know...Walk off our lunch? Or hide our lunch." Ellie smiles, pinching the side of my stomach playfully, causing me to give her a smug side eye. The gall of that girl!

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Ellie gets up and runs into the well lit forest giggling and looking back at us, as if urging us with her eyes and her body to come up and play with her, just as though we were no longer a scatter of women in our early 20s, but 12 all over again.

Those of us still sitting at the picnic just look at each other and unanimously agree to ignore the behaviour society has agreed for our age. In unison we get up and run towards Ellie, laughing and pushing each other along the way.

I lift my long blue skirt and run, jump and wheeze trying to catch up with Ellie...Man I need to get into shape..

Catching up to her, I tackle her to the ground, laughing as we both turn to face the sky for a brief moment to catch our breaths. Calming ourselves down briefly, we slowly get up as the others catch up with us from playing between themselves on the journey into the dense woodland.

"Should we go to the pond? I want to wash my hands." Amelia suggests to the group. Causing Millie to speak up in turn.

"Is that really true, or are you going to pluck the reeds from the pond and chase us again?" Millie questions with her arms crossed, remembering our last visit to the flowing floral fields.

Amelia just stares at her as if she's a deer in the headlights.

"Uhh...I'm unwilling to answer that." She adds before walking off into the direction of the pond.

"We might as well go, something to add to our adventure before we catch the bus home." I add, pushing Millie and Ellie into the direction of the small body of water.

Along the way to the pond, we make sure to distance ourselves away from the edge of the path where a steep slope is connected to one side. It's not a big slope, yet it's still slippery and abrupt enough where you could sprain an ankle or two. Nevermind the dense shrubbery located along the slope and base, that would most definitely cause a nasty bruise or cut.

So either way, it's best to stay on the side of the path where there's flat land next to it then a steep slope of a bruiseful fall.

The line of trees on either side of the path become less dense as a small opening between them show the hidden away small nestle of a pond surrounded by sparse amounts of reeds. Amelia and Ellie rush to the pond to wash away the dirt and grime on their hands as Millie and I slowly make our way towards them. I hoist my patterned blue skirt to just above my knees and kneel onto the dry ground and dip my hands into the lukewarm water, turning to see Millie doing the same. Serenity captured me once again, well atleast I thought so until a cold sensation hit my hair and giggles followed suit.

"Hehe whoops..." Ellie sheepishly grins holding her hands to her mouth as if it was a great accident.

"Oh you're...SO ON!" I shout, collecting a handful of water in my hands, clambering up to my feet and rushing towards Ellie as she playfully screams and runs back into the direction we came from.

Gaining on her I threw the water towards her, though missing completely, I had fun in the chase. Though it quickly dawns on me that I am without any left weapons in my arsenal, I am completely defenceless against this lunatic. I stare at her blankly as she slowly turns to me and gives me the deepest devilish grin. Run!

I squeal as I turn to run away, ducking into the woody path to escape my foe. I find cover behind a tree along the path.

I capture my breath as I wait out Ellie's presence to find me. Hearing a noise in front of me, I peer out from behind the tree to see a shadow race past the small collection of trees on the other side of the path. Holding in my giddiness, I creep out and follow the path the shadow might've gone. I hear a rustling noise and spin towards it to see the shadow just miss a tree. Idiot I see you. Swiftly changing my movements I run towards the shadow. Seeing my soon victory in slow motion, I reach my hand out in front of me hoping to catch Ellie by surprise but in a large stride forward, the dense trees before me dissipate.

Time doesn't allow me to catch up with the knowledge that my path will run short onto the dense slope we passed earlier. The shadow appears before my last stride to the end of my path towards the depth below and suddenly time seems to slow, I turn to face the shadow that guided me to my eventual fall. Dad? Before I can even come to terms with who I saw, my eyes straighten to the steep sight before me filled with dense prickly shrubbery. As I hit the ground I watch as the world moves quickly as I'm thrown down the side of the forest floor. I instinctively throw my arms up shielding my every being from the sharp bushes, countless branches and thorny plants. My view then meets the sight of a line of white mushrooms before everything turns black and I'm knocked unconscious.

Weightlessness, as if I was floating on water, the feeling encapsulates my sleep filled body. It felt like a familiar sensation I had from my childhood, when my family and I had gone to the local baths, and I had found enjoyment in drifting at the top of the surface of the pool. Feeling as though I was completely unaffected by my own mass, a moment of surreal bliss of calmness.

Yet it felt a little different from that quaint sensation, a little more ominous...As if I had fallen into a hole I couldn't quite reach out of. Or if I had tumbled into a place where my soul didn't wholly belong.

A feeling of hopeless dread began to fill me as my body laid still against the now flat ground.