The Room by Saraya Perdios

remember walking to the park with my family. It was a sweltering, sunny day. I remember the sun was shining so brightly on a world that had looked so dull the day before. I remember the sound of children running around in the playground. The walk was long but the end goal kept me going. I remember hoping for ice cream. I remember the flowers blooming the way they did in summer. I remember the air smelled fresh and clean, bursting with wildlife and plants. I remember the feeling of long strands of grass itching at the skin on my legs.

Arriving at the sand park, the sky suddenly shifted from a bright, cloudless blue to a dark, consuming black. Darkness engulfed the surrounding skies, leaving me blind to the elements. The sun that was shining so brightly disappeared in the wave of darkness. I stood there, frozen to the spot, unable to see, unable to move. The sand park that had seemed so close before now felt as if it were ten thousand miles away. Suddenly, the sky changed developed a heavenly glow that illuminated the surrounding park. This wave of blinding light completely shocked my family and me, and these emotions were reflected by the other people in the park. At the same time, deafening booms blasted through the air, and a familiar scent washed over us: as if cream, milk and sugar were being infused into the park's atmosphere.

As the bright light dimmed, my sight partially returned; I witnessed the

Ihorror painted on everyone’s faces. The clouds finally began returning to their original shape and the sky shifted back to its ominous stormy black. The only permanent change from the incident was the smell of cream, milk and sugar. Rather than fading, the scent intensified and it seemed it was not just me that was experiencing the smell. As the smell grew, the clouds roiled, growing in size, fuzzing at the edges. Droplets of rain fell from the sky as the clouds finally dispersed their liquid. Not droplets of water; a thicker, stickier substance that smelled of the cream, milk and sugar. I noticed that the rain drops were slowly growing in size, increasing in speed as they fell. A storm. I ducked for cover.