………….

I didn’t really think too much about where I was or even how I’d ended up there. I just knew the entrance was too unusual not to explore.

At first I thought it was some kind of storage warehouse. Endless shelves stretched into the darkness, lined with hundreds of glass jars, each carefully labelled.

Curiosity got the better of me. I wandered closer, trying to make sense of what I was looking at. The print was tiny, so I fumbled through my oversized carry all for my glasses.

Each jar was marked with the same heading. SCENT. Beneath it a short description.

Most of them meant nothing to me. First kiss, fresh bread at dawn, a mother’s embrace.

Then one stopped me. Summer 1998, a scent you’ll never forget…

I loosened the lid, the scent wasn’t what I expected. It wasn’t flowers or sunscreen or salt air. It smelled of smoke, damp earth and something sweet I couldn’t quite place.

Then the room disappeared…

Suddenly I was barefoot. Not I…

She.

The sand beneath my feet was coarse, as though mixed with crushed shells. Every step bit into the soles of my feet.

But fear has a way of making the body forget itself. Especially when every instinct is screaming the same thing. Run.

I didn’t know her name. Yet I knew, with terrifying certainty, that if she stopped running.

We would die…