Another Place Another Day

Bex walked through the door, floorboards creeking as she made her way through the darkness.
"Damn where is my stupid torch?", she muttered to herself, rummaging through her bag and cursing herself for not getting it out earlier.
Her head shot up as she heard a noise. She looked around, squinting at the darkness. She tried to make out identifiable objects in the gloom, but couldn't see more than vague outlines.
She froze as she heard a malevolent laugh, the laugh triggering a memory of another time, another laugh.
She had just turned six and she was playing in her neighbours' back yard with their eight year old son David.
She was running round their garden, wearing the dress she never used to take off. It had short puffed up sleaves and a round neck. The dress came to the top of her knees and it was a dark green colour that made her feel like an elf. Her white socks were pulled up to her knees although by this time her left one was sliding down her leg. She had lost her shoes sometime during the game but it was a warm day and the grass felt good through her socks making her feel more at one with nature. At that age she believed if she acted like an elf enough they would come and play with her.
She was running round the garden looking for Daniel but she was quickly getting tired of this game of hide and seek. "He always knows good places to hide", she sulked.
She looked all over , in bushes, behind the shed and even in the big bin at the end of the garden.
Finally she sat down in a huff and called out, "Daniel I give up. I can't find you. You know your not allowed to hide in the house", she pouted, looking at the back door suspiciously.
Suddenly she heard a boy laughing hysterically, " I'm not in the house stupid."
"Hey! Don't call me stupid", crossing her arms she looked round, trying to find Daniel, but no matter where she looked she still couldn't see him. "Daniel?" She called, her voice quavering a little.
"Up here"
Looking up, she saw Daniel laying on a tree branch, looking down at her with a smirk plastered across his face. His blue eyes were twinkling with merriment and his dark hair had a blue tint where the light hit it. Bex looked up at him and laughed to herself a little. "With his hair sticking up like that, and his smile, he looks like the cheshire cat".
She took a good look at the tree he was sitting in. It was not that big a tree, although she couldn't have climbed it without help.
"I looked at that tree", she pouted, " Your lying. You just climbed that tree when I wasn't looking".
"No you looked at the bottom of the tree. You never looked up. Look up next time Bex".
Bex came back to the present, the past still echoing in her ears, "Look up next time Bex".
She slowly raised her head, her hand coming across the torch at the same time. Aiming it up at the ceiling, she turned it on.
"Oh just great Bex, You haven't progressed from when you were six", she thought to herself as she found herself eye to eye with a monster.