Excerpt: Normal

The first thing that really stuck out in his mind was the smell. Not the screams, though those woke him up every night as they echoed in his room. Not sight of the ruins around him or the flames going up in the air. No, it was the smell. The familiar cologne around him mixed in with leather, burning rubber and… blood. He never saw the blood because he was forced to face in one direction, but he could feel the cool liquid in the heat and he could most definitely smell it. It always meant death in that amount. And he always felt as if it was him, so while he feared it he let himself drift away.
Maybe that was why he concentrated more on the smell. He closed his eyes, so the world vanished and it was easy to not hear anything when the noises became so loud that it was deafening. But the smell stayed and continued to haunt him for the rest of his life, which he believed would only be a few more seconds.

“Mr. Miller?” a hesitant voice asked, snapping the person back to reality.
The smell of blood was quickly replaced with greasy and salty food smells that belonged to the local fast food restaurant Quick Eets. Not necessarily the best smell, but far more welcoming…