Stanley fell to a sitting position on a grassy area next to a road. He quietly observed the location that until a minute ago, was occupied by his house. He was unsure if it was safe to approach, but he didn’t want to leave. Technically it was a rental property, but that didn’t factor in to what he was feeling. He’d lived there for the past eight years. He was only twenty years old.

Gone. It’s all just… Gone.

He was seated atop a hill that overlooked the rest of the neighbourhood. If he looked, he would even be able to see one of the nearby islands from there. But his gaze was fixed. Unmoving. A crowd was starting to gather around the entrance of his home street, apparently drawn by the mysterious phenomenon that had just taken place. They were starting to block his view of the point of impact. Not that there was much to see.

“Guess there’s even less reason to stay here now,” Stanley said, before breaking into laughter at the impossibility of the things he’d just witnessed.

Emergency services soon arrived. They were puzzled at first, but seemed to decide that their job was just to cordon off the area. Luckily, nothing in the surroundings was damaged. Even the trees that surrounded the house were completely unharmed. Stanley took solace in the fact that the trees that his family had planted would live on. Even if it would no longer be his responsibility to care for them. The bottle brush shrubs, at just over six metres tall, were still displaying their brilliant red flowers. They were sure to attract a diverse range of birds far into the future.

I guess… I was kind of hoping that after I’d left, I’d still have something to come back to. But this… Should I even still go?

His gaze wondered from each member of the distant crowd. Even from this distance, he could still recognize them. Names popped into his head, memories. He realised then that he had only gotten to know most of them in the past month.

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Toby arrived soon after, apparently having received an explanation of what happened. Even though there were multiple witnesses that saw what Stanley did, there still weren’t any answers as to what exactly happened. After ensuring that his brother was okay, Toby left to take care of some of the more official questions that were going to be asked.

Stanley let out a sigh of relief when he heard he wouldn’t have to deal with that right now. Things seemed to blur past him as he sat there. He soon decided he needed a change of scenery. Before he knew it, Stanley was in a quiet field that unfolded down the unpopulated side of the hill.

I haven’t been here in years.

The memories that accompanied the field belonged to a different time. When life was much simpler, when just exploring a new town was a grand quest without equal. The field was rectangular in shape, being much longer than it was wide. Except for the entrance, it was surrounded by forest. Stanley stood at the base of a tree, staring up at the spreading branches.

“Hiss!” came a sound from near Stanley’s feet.

His eyes went wide, his body stiff. Struggling to resist the urge to jump into the air, he surveyed his surroundings.

Snake. Probably venomous.

He never got around to learning enough to identify them on sight. The creature was slithering a few centimetres from his feet, apparently ignorant of his presence. He struggled to keep still as it moved past him, every displaced leaf now a deafening noise. It eventually left him, disappearing into the knee high grass that stood at the edge of the field. Even with the danger seemingly gone, Stanley still tried not to move too much, choosing instead to examine every inch of the ground carefully. He couldn’t remember how many times he’d avoided one snake only to encounter another soon after. Satisfied that his surroundings were safe, he carefully made his way back from the tall grass. Standing back at the apex of the hill, he let out a sigh of relief.

“I’m alive,” Stanley exclaimed with relief. “Still breathing, somehow. That makes this… A pretty good day,” he said before chuckling to himself.

His laughter was cut short when he realised he was falling. The soil beneath his feet abandoning him. He flailed, managing to grab onto the edge of the hole that definitely wasn’t there before. He got a foothold on an underground root and began to hoist himself up. But the edge gave way, leaving him to fall face last past the earth. He continued his journey down, his consciousness taken from him on the way.