I grabbed the keypad from my purse and quickly turned to lock the car doors. "WHAT! You still use that bag I bought you for your birthday yeaaaars ago?" Gabby asked. "Uh..... yeah! This brown coach bag gives me LIFE," I said while affectionately stroking my crossbody. Gabby smiled and rolled her eyes. "Whatever Tor, you just like holding on to old things, well I'll buy you another bag so you can go ahead and part the seas with this one," she said while pointing to my purse. Just then I felt a cold gust of wind whip across my face and brush up against my arms. Which was rather odd, because it wasn't particularly windy today, and just as fast as it appeared it disappeared. I thought to myself, Well if it's going to be a storm we better hurry up, get the ice cream and go home before it gets really bad.

I looked up towards the heavens and saw no sign of a storm approaching. It was a sunny day. The birds were chirping in harmony as they flew across the sky but something in me didn’t sit well. I don’t know what I expect to happen. Maybe it was my anxiety acting up. My brain trying to stir up crazy stories of disembodied voices again or strange winds that seemed only to hit me. Or, maybe itwasn’t just my imagination. I slowly turned towards Gabby with a frown on my face; she has long shoulder length hair; the wind should have blown it out of place, but it didn’t. That’s weird. I thought.“What’s wrong Tor?” she asked. “Nothing. Let’s just hurry up and get inside,” I hastily replied.

I handed Gabby a small basket from the large stack in the entrance, and we headed towards the frozen section. “Okay, so what flavor do you want?” she asked. “Let's get Rocky Road for me and Cookies n' Cream for you,” I replied back. She grabbed one pint of each flavor and placed them in the bag. “Okay. That was quick. I'll get the toppings for the sundaes. You want pecans and chocolate syrup right?" She asked. “Yep, that sound good to me.” I answered back. “Okay well here, take this in case you find something else you might want.” She handed me the basket and took off down the aisle. Looking at the other flavors of ice cream through the long glass refrigerator doors, I realized that there were so many flavors that I had yet to try, but I don't like trying new things. I know what I like, so there’s no use in buying something that I may not want anyway so I might as well go find Gabs I thought. As I start off towards her direction, a strong burst of wind knocks me down, causing me to hit my head against the hard linoleum floor, which sent my purse, the contents, and the basket flying across the aisle behind me.

Laying on the floor in pain I heard the familiar voice call out to me and say, “Tori, It's my job to protect you. Stay down. Don’t get up.” The floor began to shake and shift underneath me, but I did as the voice instructed. I stayed down. From my view I could see men women and children running hysterically as clothes began to fall off the racks, carts toppled over, and food flew off the shelves. Husbands were separated from wives and children screamed for their mothers as the chaos that ensued separated families and friends. “Tor Tor!” I heard Gabby calling from a distance but I didn’t move. “I'm here. Can you follow my voice?” I screamed out. Within minutes I saw her appear from around the corner. Staying close to the ground she crawled towards me on her hands and knees. Gasping for air, she hugged me tight and said, “Someone pushed me on the ground and told me not to move. I couldn’t see them, but I could hear their voice. I'm so scared. What's going on?” She looked at me with tears in her eyes. I can't believe she heard the voice too. In the midst of the chaos, I feel a sense of comfort knowing that my best friend is by my side and that I'm not crazy after all. I thought to myself while holding her tight.

The store went completely dark, and I could still hear the crashing of objects as they hit the floor around us. I looked up to see a small girl grasping her little brother's hand as they ran passed us with tearful eyes. I assume they were separated from their parents when the commotion hit. Was it an earthquake that was causing all this? It can't be, we're in Texas, we never get earthquakes like this here, and now both of us are hearing the strange voice. Something's definitely going on here, I thought to myself. "We're going to figure this out Gabs," I said in a hushed tone. "But for now, let's just listen to the voice okay?" I said. She kept her head down and nodded in agreement.