(As you can see I'm very creative with titles. Bear with me I have IGCSE mocks for the next two weeks )

Half worried, half not-caring (literally not caring) Claire decided that she needed a nap. Perhaps that she stayed up too late last night. Or maybe it was the fact that she was literally bonkers. Bonkers, yes. Claire decided, nodding grimly as she yanked the covers over herself. The air-conditioner in the nurse’s room was merciless: it nipped fiercely at Claire’s exposed calves and face. But Claire’s eyelids soon closed-

And found herself on the swings.

And not just any swing. It was the one in the abandoned community playground, where the lack of children over the years have caused it to be nearly forgotten. It was exactly how Claire remembered it , the colourful blocky structures of playground equipment, along with the odd patch of dirt and wild flower. The old cluster of jasmine trees had rooted themselves deeply into the exhausted dirt, and were so untamed, they were leaning on the rusty wire fencing, reaching their intertwined branches to the sky, desperately inching towards the sunlight. As a child, Claire used to think that the jasmine trees were cursed dragons who were forced to protect some great treasure, and Claire had spent many moonlit nights fantasizing about what was hidden in their gnarly roots. However, Claire soon had to settle for no treasure, and accept the intoxicating petals as an alternative.

The sky was exactly how Claire remembered it, for her childhood was always filled with red-gold sunsets, and the skies were never thick with dust. She could even feel the warm, teasing breeze against her cheek. She was a child again, and suddenly the jungle gym was a fortress, and the monkey bars were far too high to be reached. Claire giggled anyway, sucking the air into her two missing front teeth. She scrambled up the steps, felt the bite of the flooring into her knees as she crawled into the dim yellow tunnel towards the slides. Normally, it took Claire a fraction of a second to reach the other end. She rarely paused, unless one of her (now-long-forgotten) friends was waiting to scare her at the other end, or if there was something shiny in the grimy gaps.

She paused now. There was a girl at the other end.

The girl’s hair was a black waterfall that fell down to her shoulders. Claire couldn’t see her face, and the girl remained silent still. She was a stranger, but Claire had the feeling that she needed a friend.

So Claire went forward, tapping her on the shoulder as she squeezed in next to the girl. The girl turned to face her-

She was crying. She had dark crystals for eyes, which were red-rimmed and wet with tears. Drops of saltwater dripped down her dainty chin into her lap, which somehow, pooled into a small puddle. The girl just sat there silently, while Claire stared at her.

The wind rose, from a light breeze to a howling gale, causing both girls to crawl into the heart of the tunnel. The jasmine trees were ripped from their roots, and white petals whipped through their tunnel, plastering themselves against the crying girl’s damp cheeks. Outside, metal shrieked as they were uprooted from cement, and rain pounded against the tunnel, like a monster’s many hands hammering fiercely against their hideout. Both girls gripped their hands tightly, and hid their faces in their knees.

Suddenly, as if the wind had found another victim, it shot through the tunnel and in between their fingers, causing them to loosen their grip-

And the other girl was seized, airborne. The storm would have swallowed her whole if Claire hadn’t seized her by the wrists.

The girl wasn’t crying now. Her eyes were closed. She wasn’t fighting. Claire’s heart sank as the wind prised her fingers apart-

And Yuna Sato was swept into the abyss.