The outside world is continuously there, but that doesn’t mean one couldn’t escape for a while. A walk is good way to start. The day was cool, birds singing above me as walk under the oaks that have been there for many life times before me and will still be there when I am gone. Shadows cast across the dirt path, making stripes of warmth that quickly turned cold. It was the suns way of indicating that the sun was finally starting to set. But my feet still toke me further, on their own accord for my head was somewhere else entirely.

Wandering on a different path as my thoughts taking me on a route unknown by the feet under me. The route in which I am traveling is unfamiliar but I still march on. Why not? If I go back I’ll only see what I have before. Times not all ways the best and I shiver at the thought. As I feel myself going down the darker path.

The sun now struggling to break through the thick foliage, pin holes of light guide my way. Like scattered stars on the earth, not in the sky where they belong. Fallen stars, also where they do not belong. And I look up, really seeing where I am. Spinning around quickly to look back where I came from; nothing but twists and turns, ups and downs. The wind blows in warning and cold shoots through my body.

So I run, not knowing where I am going but anything is better than where I have been. Closing my eyes to the horrible sights around, suddenly warmth. As I spill out on to a path that shows the true time of day. The sun still very much in the sky, if only just, it’s enough to warm my exposed skin. Enough to bring back the faintest of memoires of what it is like to be truly warm. Then that is when the astute observation came to me.

I am not alone. Two strong, solid arms around me close enough to smell the scent of a good run. Stumbling as I try to get away from the stranger that was holding me.

“Sorry Miss, but you ran into me and well-- you were pretty cold” he stuttered out in embarrassment.

He was a well build, man? Boy? What do you call someone of the in-between, dressed for a run not saving a damsel in distress. Beads of sweat collected at his temple, was it from his recent activity or me I wasn’t sure.

“No, no the fault is all mine; I thought I was out here alone. Why are you out, isn’t it not safe to run at this hour”

“I should be asking you the same thing Miss” he said.

“Names Lucy”

“Lucy, pretty name; and I don’t know I just felt like it needed a run. Maybe I was just waiting to save a cutie such as yourself from the clutches of this wood” he said mischievously with a glint in his eye that made me want to smack it right off his face.

Regardless of the fact that he may have just saved my life. But he didn’t know that, and certainty nether did I. So I did, I smacked him just hard enough to surprise him.

“What was that for!” he whined

“For saving me” I smiled, knowing full well that I had the same glint in my eye that he just had. Hooping my arm in his, we walked down the path. The sun in front of us, illuminating the way towards a better fate.