• As she mad her way down the hall, chains clicking together, her mind wandered.

    A swing set. There she was, swinging back and forth, shifting her body weight so she didn't fall off. The wind was blowing softly, rustling the big oak tree right in front of her. She always swung facing the forest. It seemed so magical to her at the time, before she knew that it was just dirt and bushes. A place where anything could happen. She even thought she saw a unicorn there once.

    Her friend Charlie was right beside her, pressuring her to go higher and touch the tree branch with her toe. He stuck out his tongue and claimed she couldn't because girls weren't as cool as boys. Especially him. He was challenging her!

    Let's just see about that...

    She pumped her tiny legs, going higher and higher, breaking out into a sweat. Her blonde hair protected her face from the blazing summer sun, even in the middle of the afternoon, but blinded her the faster momentum took her. She huffed, her hands getting slippery and sliding a bit on the metal. She stretched out her toe, leaning as far back as she could, and was able to push her entire foot off of the branch.

    "Yeah!" she yelled, a big accomplishment for a five-year-old.

    But she miscalculated.

    She pushed too hard and she was falling backwards. The chains didn't have enough friction to keep her small hands from sliding off of them.

    She was falling.

    And fast.

    She didn't even have time to scream. Her bottom pulled her to the ground, gliding her off of the black rubber for the seat. Her legs quickly followed. All of a sudden she was flat on her back, the ground doing anything but cushioning it.

    And something was wrong. She didn't know what it was, she couldn't figure it out. A pressure was building up in her chest, but she wasn't able to breath. She squirmed, trying to find some way to pull oxygen into her lungs. She couldn't. Black spots fizzed around her and she almost laughed, they looked so funny. Her head felt light, she couldn't hear anything. She was fading out, the blackness growing bigger and consuming her vision.

    A sharp pain made her gasp, taking in a much needed gulp of air.

    Then she started to cry. The black fuzzies squirmed away, and she saw Charlie, wide eyed and pale, squating next to her, patting her hair.

    "Are you okay?" he asked sheepishly, afraid to help her or else he would hurt her.

    She sniffed, sat up slowly, and wiped away her tears. After a few moments of breathing in and out, relaxing, she turned to her friend and grinned.

    "Told you I could do it."

    The two children laughed and ran towards the rest of the playground, teasing each other about what they thought they were better at.

    And now it's ending...

    The woman sighed, stepping through a white door where a man had an IV and clipboard in hand.

    "Death by lethal injection?" he murmured and the cop behind her nodded. She was forced to lay down on a hard, metal table as the needle was shoved in her arm, contecting itself to a vein.

    She let her mind wander...