Willow's POV

I smiled weakly as I read the journal that I had written when I was just eight until about fourteen, just before that day. A trip down memory lane is always a very emotional thing, and add painful to that once all the people that are involved in that certain 'memory lane' are gone.

My journal is filled with loads of memory and pictures of the best moments in my life in my family. Well, actually, this book is actually more like a scrapbook, a scrapbook that Jess and I wrote together.

"Hey! Willow! Look what I just bought when I went out with Mum just now!" Jess yelled at me from downstairs.

My ears perked up in curiosity. I immediately put down the stuffed teddy bear that I was playing with and scrambled off my bed, running downstairs as fast as my legs could take me.

I ran straight into my sister, and knocked her over, panting heavily, with me lying on top of her. I didn't bother to get up. She pushed me off and then helped me get up. Well, she carried me and carried me all the way to the couch, and put me in a sitting position. She then sat down beside me, placing a box on her lap.

"What's that? What's that? What's that?" I blurted out, all in one breath.

She chuckled – obviously able to sense the curiosity in me – and put one finger to my lips. "Shh... It's a secret."

I pursed my lips and started pouting, jumping up and down the couch at the same time. "No fair!"

She chuckled once more. "It's our secret silly!"

"Oh," I replied dumbly.

"And sit down! Someone might see us and know our secret!"

I nodded enthusiastically and sat down back beside her. My eyes twinkled in excitement. "So, what is inside the box?"

"You really want to know?" she asked me teasingly.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"

She smiled. "Okay. I'll open the box then.

She untied the pink ribbons that sealed the box shut excruciatingly slowly. A lot slower than it would normally take a person to untie a ribbon. I can bet that she is just teasing me, making me wait much longer than necessary and making me die of curiosity, as usual.

She's always doing that. It gets annoying at times.

She lifted the lid slowly, but I knocked it out of her hand, not wanting to wait any longer. She grinned at my reaction, an obviously satisfied grin. She wanted me to die of curiosity. And she knows that from what I did, she definitely got what she wanted.

I peeped inside the shallow box. It was only a notebook, with its pages in landscape. I pouted in annoyance and disappointment. So the 'secret' was only a notebook. And with a used, brown cover, and its papers looking like they're blank recycled paper, bounded with a blue ribbon together messily.

I pursed my lips. "So, is the secret inside the notebook?

She burst out laughing so hard, that I thought that she might die from lack of oxygen. She managed to control herself a while later though, and then, she rolled her eyes and messed up my hair at the same time. "It's not a notebook silly. It's a scrapbook!"

I cocked my head in confusion. "What's a scrapbook sis?"

"Oh Willow," she sighed, sounding slightly amused at my question. "Why are you so innocent? A scrapbook is a book where we can paste pretty pictures and write down all the good and happy times we have?"

"With who?"

"With anyone. It can be just us, or it can be with Mummy and Daddy, or with Alex, or with your friends, or with my friends."

"Oh..." I replied, having nothing else to say.

She giggled. "You are just too cute Willow."

I fake pouted. "Hmph!"

Jess giggled once more.

And for the rest of the afternoon, we spent it planning out what we were going to write in that particular scrapbook, and how we wanted to keep it in the future for whenever we want a trip back down memory lane and our real memories fail us.

I chuckled at the flashback. It was really ridiculous, but at the same time, it was kind of cute. I can't believe I used to be like that, not knowing anything at all, only knowing all the happy things in life. Maybe that's why I am always left in the dark.

We ended up going to a beach a few days later, and that was our first ever entry in our little scrapbook. Mum and Dad took a lot of pictures, and we printed out a few, and pasted it there. It's called 'A Memory Not Forgotten'. Jess came up with that.

I sighed as I flipped over a couple of pages – well, that's a lie. I flipped over a whole lot of pages – and it landed on the page where I wrote about the day of my first ever camp. It was a youth camp, part of the alpha course actually. It's called the 'Holy Spirit Weekend Away', and I was only allowed to go because Jess had to go as she was one of the camp speakers.

That wasn't Jess' first camp, but she rarely went on camps, so yeah!

I was staring out the window as the bus travelled along the road, headed to the beach resort, recalling the memories of last night. I was already too excited for this camp since a whole month ago, and a few days before the camp, I almost couldn't sleep as I was just way too excited.

And yesterday, on the first day of camp when we were camping at our church itself, it was really an enjoyable moment. The girls talked about a lot of things last night, and we only slept at 2am, but had to wake up at 7am. I don't regret staying up to talk though, it was so much fun!

"Hey Willow! Want to hear some lame jokes?"

I turned my attention to the voice. "Sure!"

"Why did the chicken cross the road?"

I know this one. I've heard this too many times. But for some odd reason, I always never seem to be able to remember the answer. So, I just gave a wild guess.

"Because it couldn't fly...?"

My friend looked so... Lamed out. Haha! I can bet that that wasn't the answer after all, but it turned out that I just lamed her out.

"Oh my goodness. I can't believe I just heard that!" she complained.

I laughed at her. And for the rest of the bus ride, while everyone was so sleepy in the bus, my two friends, my sister and I kept on telling lame jokes and riddles to each other.

~~~ ♥ ~~ ♥ ~~ ♥ ~~~

I was splashing my sis with the salty sea water.

"Willow!" she exclaimed.

I ignored her, and continued splashing her with more water. And somehow, it ended up in a mini water fight in the middle of the sea. Well, it wasn't exactly the 'middle of the sea', but you know what I mean, I'm sure of it.

We were all just relaxing and playing in the sea, after a few rounds of games. We had about two hours of free time, and most of us decided to go swimming, though there were also a few of them who went biking.

Time passed so quickly. And before I even knew it, I was back on the bus, headed back to town. The rest of the time after the 'free time' we had passed so fast. It was almost as if I had put it on fast-forward or something.

We had attended a talk after dinner. Then, I had hung out with some of my other friends in another chalet. Then, time for breakfast, another talk and then it's already 'go home' time. I don't want it to end. I mean, sure I was tired, but this is just way too much fun.

I didn't really get that much sleep, but I am just way to hyper right now. I still want more fun. But I guess all great things have to come to an end, don't they?

I really miss that camp. That was like the most epic camp I have ever attended. Well, I can't exactly say that because that's the first ever camp I have ever attended. And I have never attended any more after that. Because I attended my first camp when I was fourteen.

And we both know what happened after that.

I sighed as I flipped through more pages of the scrapbook, going deeper and deeper into memory lane. I really miss all those times. It's almost like I'm never happy any more. Well, don't get me wrong. I used to have loads of happy memories.

But it's only natural for them to become sad as almost all of them involved my family and they're all gone already.

I can't believe that when that fateful day happened, I had blamed God for everything. I shouldn't have done that. God is our Creator, why would He want to ruin our lives? I wasn't thinking then, and now, I wish I had.

But then again, if that hadn't happened, and if my family hadn't died, I wouldn't be where I am now. I would obviously be happier if my family is still here, but of course, our lives are not fairy tales. There are bound to be sad and unhappy twists in it.

I suddenly heard the creaking of a door, which pulled me out of my train of thoughts and flashbacks. I immediately slammed the book shut and stuffed it under my pillow. I didn't want anyone to see that scrapbook. Only Jess and I – and probably Mum and Dad as well – knows, or knew, about that scrapbook, and I plan on keeping it that way.

I don't dare to move. The quietness in my house is deafening – note the irony in that – and it's very eerie, even for my own comfort. I am actually starting to get pretty scared. I don't like any of this, not at all. My heart sped up due to the anxiousness that was slowly bubbling up inside of me.

All of a sudden, I felt a pang of pain shooting through my body, starting from my head. It started hurting like crazy, and I saw black spots in my vision.

And then, everything turned into blackness.