The Sunflower Fields {Discontinued}

1

   5:00. The time Jane Herrings' shift ends. She shut down her computer and grabbed her purse before heading towards the entrance of her office building. So far, her day had been normal. Get up at six, get a shower and something to eat before heading off to the office. The town she lived in was in sort of a draught, to say the least. So when Jane opened the door and saw rain pouring from the sky, she was astonished. She hadn't seen rain in so many days, she almost forgot what it looked like.
     Rather than getting a cab or taking the bus like normal, Jane walked home. She saw stores she had never noticed before.
     Oddly, it was getting dark rather fast. 'Perhaps I was at work longer than I thought', she said to herself. She looked down at her watch to see that it wasn't keeping time. 'That's odd. Maybe one of these stores is still open?'
     Jane pulled open the door to a small, abandoned looking store with an "Open" sign on the door. Stepping in, she noticed that the room was practically covered in flowers. Some were only small plants that had barely had time to grow, while others were almost dead because they had been alive so long. The store seemed almost empty, like no one worked there. No one was at the counter.
     'Hello? Is anyone here?' She called out. No one answered. She went to check the schedule on the door for when the store is open.
     "Monday to Friday- 6 pm to 3 am
      Saturday- 6 pm to 11pm
      Sunday- closed."
     'Odd. The store is only open in the night-
    'Odd? How is it odd for it to be open during the most active times of day?' A voice behind Jane chuckled. Jane slowly turned around, and was surprised by what she saw.
     A young man stood behind her. He was tall and thin, yet slightly built. His obsidian black hair dangled in front of his dark eyes.
     'Sorry, Ive never been in a store that's open in the night before.' Jane mumbled.
     'Never?' Said the man. 'You must be new to town.'
     'Oh um, no not really.' Jane replied quickly.
     'Alright, well what can I help you with?' The man asked. Jane had forgotten what she was in the store for.
     'Oh. I forgot.' She looked down at her watch and remembered.'Right! My watch isn't working so I wanted to know the time.'
     'The time? Well, its almost midnight.' The man started wiping down the counter.
     'Okay, thanks. I'll be going now.' Jane turned to the door to leave, but the man stopped her.
     'Take this. As a gift.' He handed her a small pot with a young sunflower in it.
     'Thank you.' She looked down at the small flower. 'I never got your name.' She looked up, and the man was gone. Jane looked around for a minute to see if he was still there, but there was no sign of him.
     Jane opened the door to the store and stepped out.

  What Jane saw surprised her. People everywhere. The street was somehow different than it was before, it was lively with music playing at the occasional corner.  Women in lovely dresses strode next to men in olden suits. Instead of the yellow street lights, there were tall pillars with a glass and steel box on top that contained a candle that glowed with a blue flame. It wasnt raining now, either. She turned around to look at the store behind her and noticed that the store looked completely different than it did before she stepped in. Instead of the store looking boarded up and abandoned except the lonely "Open" sign on the door, the store was lit up with some oil lanterns and odd glowing.. Flowers? Jane looked down at her sunflower to see that the small flower had changed from a brilliant yellow to a warm, glowing baby blue.
Jane looked back at the street. A couple people occasionally stopped to look at her oddly before speeding off. Jane started walking in the way she thought was the way home.
Her home wasn't supposed to be far, and like normal, it wasn't. However, the blue street lamps followed her all the way to her house. Jane opened the door and carried the sunflower inside. She immediately watered it a bit and put it near the window.
'That's odd. It glows..?' She said to herself. 'And all those people on the street, why were they wearing those clothes?' She shook her head and slid into her bed, without changing her clothing.