It was a perfectly normal day. The kind of day you read about in children’s storybooks and romance novels. But I suppose perfectly normal days are the ones of which to be the most wary. For as we all know, ‘tis the perfectly normal days that have the most potential to go perfectly awry.

Alice was simply exploring her new street, getting aquainted with the area.

Then she smelled it. The scent reached her nose and sent her reeling. She knew this smell, she knew it well, but why was it here?

Leaning against the fence of the house beside her, the déjà vu fully set in. A slippery shiver slipped down her spine, as things suddenly started to seem more familiar…

The breeze blew again, ferrying the scent her nostrils.

It smelled like the outdoors. It was campfire mixed with wet wood and hint of the ocean’s salty sting. The smell didn’t fit the suburban setting.

It was the smell of summer, the smell of things that couldn’t last.

But to Alice, it smelled like trouble.