Annihilation

Chapter 1

It was late October and the leaves were turning auburn. Dawn watched as they fell from the trees. As she watched them she thought about how it would feel to be a tree. Her only experience of life that she could remember was being a human. The leaves drifted to the floor in the park, laying down politely in a way a new mother would tuck in her newborn child. The grass was dry and yellow, overgrown with nettles and dandelions. She looked at them from all angles. Dawn was twenty-four and she sat in the middle of the park on the metal bench watching the leaves.

Dawn had deep red hair and  light brown skin. Her skin was as clear as a blue sky at a beach when the degree was high enough to be warm and just right where there was a light breeze. No clouds of course. Her eyes were hazel with a tinge of green dancing around the outside of the iris. As she looked at the leaves she wondered about crunching them. She hadn't stepped on them since she was twelve and still thought about stepping on them now just to reclaim the feeling she once had.  It was quite picturesque and she enjoyed it throughly. Imagining what it would be like to paint it. In the far distance she saw a man with his child. He was flying a red and brown kite. Dawn thought those were weird colours for a kite but his child was jumping up and down enjoying the view. Dawn had never flown a kite before and she had heard that it was hard, although as she watched the man it didn't seem that hard.

She let out a sigh and carried on thinking about how the leaves could in fact blow anywhere, if the wind was strong enough. The idea of a leaf that had gotten further than the rest played with her mind. She got up from the park bench and began to walk towards the exit. She stepped on  the leaves as she passed however  none of them offering the delight of her youth and dragged her legs out of the park. The air was thick and you could in fact cut a knife through it which was strange to her as it was October. She walked on, her mind still pondering the leaves falling. The cars went by as she trekked up the hill towards her home and then a man came.

'Hello sweetheart' the man slurred. It would appear he was drunk well she gathered from the slur of his mouth and the can in his hand.  She stared at him and carried on walking.
'I said hello sweetheart' the stoutly man was staring at her now with a venom in his eyes that was foreign to her. She walked on and decided to ignore him.
'Are you ignoring me?' He blurted out.
'I don't know who you are' she replied
'well you can get to know' he replied. Dawn rolled her eyes and carried on walking towards her house. The trees enveloped the passageway as she took the next exit away from the drunken man. People always told her that travelling alone was dangerous, but it was 3:30pm in October and the night hadn't set in yet. So she wasn't afraid, more or less alarmed at the drunk man. She wondered if he was lonely.

She walked up the steps towards her road and down the narrow walkway. The road was bumpy and you could tell they hadn't renovated the area in what seemed like a decade but these things only caught her eye once. She kicked a coke bottle near a bin and walked towards her home which was in a cul-de-sac. If the term cul-de-sac escapes you it was basically a dead end for houses. Her house was on the middle of that cul-de-sac. It was a white bungalow. She took a deep breath and walked towards the door. When she was in front she hovered around turning the key in the latch. As soon as she opened the door the noise poured out like a worm can and she headed straight to her room avoiding the street festival that was taking place in her home.

Her mother had invited the whole cul-de-sac to commemorate the community watches 10th anniversary. Dawn really didn't understand why a community watch would need an anniversary and assumed it was just a way to gossip about the neighbourhood. She likened it to desperate housewives only, nothing really major happened other than when Mr. Martin had stolen Delilah's car and denied it. The police never got involved but it was quite a ridiculous story to hear. He denied it so much Dawn believed the fairy was waiting to turn him into a donkey like from the story of Pinocchio. Mr. Martin was a bizarre man of  72 so you couldn't really fault him in his eccentricities.
'Dawn darling!!' She heard her Mum scream as she had one foot out the door. She turned around and looked at her.
'Mother' she said as she rubbed the back of her neck.
'Moon pie oh I need you to help with the cocktail sausages I'm trying to figure out whether they are posh hors d'oeuvres' she whispered.  Her eyes widened ' I'd hate for Tina to say other wise, she does talk a bit' she hushed.  Dawn rubbed her forehead as she looked at her Mum. She was a polite looking woman with a round face. She had black ringlets for hair and was three to four shades darker than Dawn. Her eyes were as black as night and as she stood in the dim passageway it wasn't easy to see them.
'I'm not sure, I don't really know what hors d'oeuvres are for a community watch anniversary Mum'
' Oh come on! It's not that hard, plus her son Tremaine looks very manly' at this point Dawn was sure her mother winked. She remembered Tremaine, but she didn't want to remember Tremaine.
"Mum, I'm really busy, I have a deadline and I'd really like-"
'Oh so you can sit in a park for two hours, but you can't help me figure out a cocktail sausage' 'It's just...I really think it's not that important...'
'Not important?' Her mother questioned. Dawn looked up to the sky asking in her mind why would God let that slip from her lips. Her mother was muttering not important as if she was the mad hatter. Dawn pursed her lips.
'Mum'
'This is the tenth anniversary Dawn.' She said it in such away you would have thought she was talking about the oscars. 'Now, help me figure out these sausages.' She walked up to her and dragged her by the arm.