Thump.
A sunflower field bobbed in gliding waves around my hips. Their brilliant yellow matched the sun in a clear blue sky, but the daylight didn't blind me. I drank in its warmth until my stomach felt full.
A light breeze weaved whispers through the leaves and petals, so close to words, but I still couldn't understand. I tilted my head to listen while my hair played across my face.
Thump-thump.
Clouds swirled gray through the sky. The wind kicked up, slapping happy sunflowers against Mom's gravestone at my feet. I knew this place, or this mishmash of places, and I didn't want to be at any of them anymore, in my dreams or otherwise.
Mom and I always went to the sunflower patch when I was younger, and I loved it until the day I got lost. When I met the twisted face of the scarecrow, my scream alerted everyone who had ears. Mom, panicked and out of breath when she found me, promised never to take me back there.
Thump. Thud.