Can’t just leave it here. I pick it up and pocket it. What will I use it for.... a cake, maybe? Or.... whatever else you use vanilla extract for. Cookies? Do people put it in cookies? Surely sometimes. I become preoccupied with thinking of all the things I could create, a limitless world of vanilla goodness opened up to me, that I fail to focus on my walk.
When I mentally return to the physical world, I... notice things are a bit odd. Is this normally the way home? It has to be, I’ve just been walking straight. Then why does it look so unfamiliar...?
I just keep walking straight, like I always do.
But it just keeps getting... unfamiliar. But surely that’s just a trick of the mind. Nothing has changed about my walk. It has to be the same place. I must just have something wrong with me. I’ll have to lie down when I get home.
But home feels so far away now, for some reason. I stop walking. I only just now realize that no one is around. Where did everyone go? I go straight from confused to alarmed.
... An open door... that’s strange...
The green, pulsating glow is...
Comforting. I walk inside without hesitation.
Alarming. I run away with all the speed I can muster.
Voting ended onMar 3, 2023