He lept through the doorway without a care in the world. That day felt different, maybe the new shoes he was wearing or the package that he saw on his doorstep.
“I’ll get to that later”, he exclaimed and threw it before locking the door.

The way to work was always the same. Left down Pocket Street, then on to the freeway, exit on Turnpike, and one more left, and into the parking lot. He was running low on gas, so the way was going to look a little different it seemed. Pulling into the SINCO station, the sky was dark. Rain, he thought.

“I haven’t seen rain in forever.”
The gas station was empty, so he decided to pay inside.
“30 on pump 16 please”, he motioned to the clerk.
“Anything else for ya?”
“Hmmm, maybe a Slurpee, one second.”

With the new found desire for a Slurpee, he walked over to the kiosk, grabbed a large cup, and grabbed the handle on the bright red cherry flavor. He noticed the freezer next to him was empty.

“Probably renovating”, he thought. “It is an older gas station, a pretty dated sign too.”

The store started to shake and the dust from the ceiling was falling down on his Slurpee. Confused, he walked around to the door to see what was actually happening outside. The clouds had turned black, almost like it was nighttime.

“Back away from there!”, yelled the clerk.

They both started running to the back of the store. Looking around for where they could properly find shelter from what was coming.

“In the freezer!” he exclaimed

Both swinging the door open, and squeezing into the old, cold freezer. It smelled of beer and flat soda. The minute the door closed, every drop of color started floating towards the sky.

“This is straight out of a nightmare!,” he expressed

Once all the color was gone, the door to the freezer slowly creaked open and the two men fell onto the floor. Everything was gray and cold. The world looked like a show from the 50’s. Every drop of color was gone.

He ran outside and looked around at the new world that he had just fallen into. His car was still sitting at pump 16. He got in and tried starting the car but the keys felt like 1,000 pounds.

“What is going on,” he yelled, “I just want to go to work and escape this nightmare!”

He started to walk back to his apartment, in awe at what had just happened. He had no idea of what he was going to do or what was going to happen. After a while, he got to his door. His keys were stuck in his car, but he always kept a spare on the top of the frame. Unlocking the door, he saw what his new life was going to be like.

Everything was frozen! Even his dog was frozen asleep on the couch. The TV stopped on the morning news. But the package he found this morning was moving. It kept inching towards him. He picked it up and the tape flew off. A glowing purple paintbrush jumped out and landed on the floor.

“Not this again,” he groaned.