The spring grass was warm and slightly damp underneath Amber's back as she stared up at the sky. She stretched her arms out in front of her, humming at the light, comforting caress of the afternoon breeze on her skin before slowly resting her hands on her stomach. Taking a deep breath of the earthy, sweet air around her, she closed her eyes and began to dream.
The song of laughter and clamor of company greeted her as she came to the wooded scene. Her family was bathed in the golden light of a sunset as they sat down on a picnic blanket among others doing the same: her mother and father were to either side of her younger brother, who wouldn't stop fidgeting.
"Momma!" He whined, long and drawn out as he slumped forward, fixing a scowl on the checkers of the fabric, "Just please tell me where Ambi is! It's my birthday! You've been avoiding the question all day! I'm tired, sick. I'll die of old age! I swear it! I'll-"
And Amber and her friends jumped down from their hiding places in the trees and began to sing together, acting out his favorite bedtime story.
The scene abruptly morphed and dimmed to embers like a candle blown out by soft breath, the vivid flame of the memory gone to the blue-black murk of a place she didn't immediately recognize.
The edges of her vision started to be encroached upon by a shivering, writhing darkness as she realized she was sitting on the bed of the clinic, surrounded by unfamiliar bottled ointments, equipment, and odors. Her awareness of her body began be overcome by the feeling of static akin to when your legs fall asleep, and slowly, as her vision was smothered completely, it felt as if she had no physical form at all.
She awoke to the warmth of an older sun and cried.