A light?

I don't respond and just stare at him, my face going a bit pale, my hairs on my neck and arms jumping up and my expression falling off my face.

"Well.. It's actually right around the corner.. So, shall we go?" He says whilst he grabs my hand and pulls me forward.

"N-no… I don't want to.." I say whilst I quickly pull my hand out of his grasp, "I… I think I should go…" I take a few steps backwards and run away, without any clue where I'm going, I just run till I can't run anymore. Whilst I run, I see a lot of people pass, a lot of cars going by, I run past the café and past the grocery stores, not knowing where I'm going I almost stumble over a rock. I stop running and bend over, I try to calm down my breathing and stand up straight. I look around me and I find myself in a kids' playground, children playing on the swings, slides, running around and playing tag. All the children stopped what they were doing when they noticed me. They stare at me, like they've seen someone who was running for their life.

My stomach begins to twist and my throat feels like it's being squeezed whilst I hear them whispering, a voice in my head overpowers my thoughts, "What is he doing?", "He looks so weird.", "He's a creep..", "I don't want to be here, he looks scary", "He looks like he's seen a ghost!", "Look at him, he looks so ugly and wei-"

A small child, who looks around the age of 4 with long hair, wearing worn down clothing and a torn down teddy in her hand, tugs on my sleeve and asks with a soft, dimmed voice, "Mister… Are you okay?"

At that moment, all my thoughts disappeared in a blink of an eye. My stomach, which felt twisted, felt relieved and my throat, which felt squeezed, felt like it had finally gotten air to breath. I took a deep breath, recollected my thoughts and I think to myself, "Remember who you are, Rozale." I look at the kid and pull a gentle, yet warm-full smile, "I'm doing alright, now. Thanks for asking.��

She smiles back at me and tugs my sleeve again, she bends her head down and then back up, looking at me with desperate eyes and her hand shaking a bit, she asks, "uhm, do you want to maybe play with me?"

I, who was getting ready to walk away, stood still, surprised that a child would ask me that. I turn around to face her and bend down on one knee, "What's your name?"

She looks at me and tilts her head in a questionable manner, "Do you not have a name?" I ask surprised.

"Deilu!" She says, trying to be a bit loud.

"Alright then, Deilu it is. I can play with you but, what about the other children?"

She shakes her head and tightens her grip around my sleeve, "They say bad things to me.." she says with a shaky voice, which you'd hear from someone who was getting bullied.

I look at her, questioning what I should do, after a short 10 seconds of thinking I decide what to do, "I see, alright then. I'll play with you!" I say to her and pat her head gently.

She smiles happily, like a child that finally got what they wanted after so long. I couldn't help but think back to when I was in kindergarten. An outcast that no one wanted to play with and only having one toy to play with. So, with my past, I was able to sympathize with her. She pulls my hand and we walk towards the red seated, old swings, she points to one of them and runs over to it. She sits on it and looks at me, with her hair covering her eyes, she makes a movement with her hand and signals me to come over.

"You want me to give you a push?" I say whist I walk over.

She nods at me with a smile as she kicks her legs to try to swing back and forth.

I walk over behind the swing and give it a gentle push, so she starts swinging back and forth. Whilst swinging she still kicks her legs, making the swing stop each time. I stop the swing and giggle, "Here this is how you do it." I sit on the swing beside her and swing back and forth, "got it? Don't kick your legs, you'll go out of balance. You got this! I say whilst I giggle a bit in between sentences, I stand up and stand behind her, again, to give her a little push.

A few hours passed whilst we we're playing.

"It's getting dark. Time to go home, don't you think?" She holds onto my hand and doesn't let go. I look around and it's empty, no one except us two are standing in this playground. At this point, I realized that her parents never came to pick her up.