The Herbs and Spices Cupboard

‘It’s high time I did some explaining’ Luke repeatedly thought the old man’s words, trying to find some hidden meaning to them. Luke tried hard to understand why the man had gotten up from his seat and dashed away. Wasn’t he just about to explain everything? It had been almost ten minutes since the man’s uncalled for departure, Annie was still lying unconscious on the ground and Luke was eager to get her to school. Perhaps Annie has been poisoned Luke thought. He went over to the cabinet above the stove and rummaged through the various herbs and spices jars.
“Poison, poison....” Luke muttered, to keep himself aware of what he was looking for. Most of the jars lacked labels, so he opened their lids and sniffed oregano to paprika to finely chopped rosemary. Once it was discovered that a jar contained innocent cooking ingredients, Luke frantically dropped it to the floor. After several minutes of searching through the abnormally large herbs and spices cabinet, Luke found himself standing in a pile of smashed glass and smelling of a disagreeable blend of aromas. Luke felt faintly sick and light headed, he had never sniffed harder in his life, but he was determined to know when or whether Annie would wake up.
It was when the cabinet was almost bare and Luke was ready to give up, that he saw a pill bottle. He dropped the jar of over dated cinnamon and reached for the white tablet container. The label read:
Sleeping Powder: use sparingly
Luke popped open the lid and looked curiously at the blue dust inside. Without thinking of the dangers, he sniffed the sleeping drugs. It didn’t surprise him that it had no smell. He looked back at Annie, she didn’t appear to be sleeping any more, she looked solid and frozen. Luke searched the container for more information and was relieved to find, in almost illegibly fine print, the words:
1 pinch = 1 hour sleep
3 pinches = 6 hours sleep
Luke spent a while trying to figure out the logic in the dosage information, but all he could come up with was that the old man most likely used one pinch. He then heard Annie give a weary grunt and whizzed around to look at her, during his whizzing journey, however, he knocked his head on the herbs and spices cupboard and watched, terrified, as everything went black.
He could no longer feel his feet on the ground, or sense his own presence in the kitchen. The blackness soon turned into a rollercoaster of rainbow coloured stars, Luke felt as though he was being teleported to another place. He tried to move his body, but could control nothing... could sense nothing. All he could do was watch the wacky colours jumble around before him, it was as though his soul had been sent on a journey, leaving his body behind. Then he began to hear voices radiating out of the bright colours Annie! We have to hurry or we’ll miss the train! he remembered himself saying the words earlier that day, but the voice that spoke them wasn’t his I saw you shoot my sister. I saw the blood they where Luke’s words again, but the voice spoke them in a monotonous way, compared to the frantic tone Luke had used when he spoke them. Then a deep unknown man’s voice yelled: she’s not usually shy! Only around people she thinks are better than her! And people she wants to like her! A woman’s voice began to sing the words I do believe in magic over and over again.
Then all was silent.
The rainbow rollercoaster spiralled into one shade of hot pink, Luke helplessly stared at the blank, pink space, praying that he wasn’t on his way to heaven or – because everything had just turned hot pink- hell. In the middle of the plain pink space, an image of Annie appeared. She seemed far away and unreachable, as if Luke were watching her in a dream. She sat up, holding her head, and weakly muttered what happened?
At that moment everything sped backwards, Annie was soon out of site and the rainbow came spiralling back at high speed. Luke felt like he was being sucked backwards. The rollercoaster was playing exactly as before but incredibly fast and in reverse. The voices began to speak again, their word inaudible.

Luke took in a deep, desperate breath as his vision returned. He found himself standing, once again, in the old man’s kitchen. The light blinded him, as if he had just awoken from a dark sleep and stepped into the sun. He rubbed his eyes and thanked no one in particular that he was alive. At the sound of Annie’s exhausted murmur, Luke opened his eyes and watched as she sat up and dreamily muttered “What happened?”