# Negatives **August 2nd, 2023**  A place devoid of the sun’s light, where it constantly rains. The clouds painted by a perpetual shade of gray. Desolate structures populate the city-like landscape everywhere you turn, with the lights of greeting signs from abandoned stores constantly fading in and out. People walking to unknown destinations, averting their gaze, heads down, avoiding any chance at making eye contact. Alleyways filled with shadowy figures huddled together, anxiously watching their surroundings. The longer I roamed around this bleak, but familiar environment, the stronger the feeling of dread continued to grow. Everything is exactly how I remembered it: dull and lifeless. It’s as if the constant rainfall had washed out the vibrant color from this place. Was there even color to begin with? I can’t really remember. The oldest memories I have of this place all seem to look the same. I stopped paying attention to the details ages ago. As my journey continued, the land became increasingly bare, with the rainfall intensifying. I took a glance down at my ocean-blue jacket and remembered how it never seemed to become wet, regardless of how much rain fell. I never enjoyed visiting this wasteland because of how weary it made me feel after the journey ended, but there was someone I needed to visit. If not for them, I would rarely visit this place. The few exceptions would be when I needed to remind myself what it looked like. --- I eventually reached the outskirts of the city, and spotted the house a few miles ahead of me. It’s exactly as I remembered it: the only house on top of the hill. The entire structure had to be six feet tall at the most, with the main door being less than five feet, give or take. A pitch-black exterior and no window frames. It’s design never made much sense to me, but nothing does over here. The closer I approached the house, the more intense the rainfall became, growing increasingly violent. The sound of my footsteps was deafened by the impact of the rain. I finally made my way to the door of the house. I turned the knob, opened the door, and walked in. The sound of the pouring rain seemed to vanish the moment I closed the door behind me. The interior of the house always did seem isolated from the wasteland for whatever reason. It felt like its own little world. I removed the hood of my jacket off in order to observe the familiar surroundings. I was in a dimly-lit kitchen with a water cooler located at the far right-hand side next to a dinner table, and a long flight of stairs directly in front of me that lead to the basement. I knew they were waiting for me at the end of the stairs, gazing out into the large aquarium as if they were searching for something…or someone. I looked around some more and noticed the somber gray color of the walls. This was definitely a new element. The colors constantly changed every time I visited, but there was one distinct feature that remained the same: a stick figure sketch of three people near the top of the wall. Besides the water cooler, dining table, basement stairs, and the sketch on the walls, there wasn’t much to pay attention to. I started to make my way down the stairs of the basement and instantly remembered how quiet things were. The steps never made any noise. No creaking from the pressure of my feet. No random sounds echoing through the silence. It was always difficult trying to reach the last step because of how pitch black everything became the deeper you descended into the basement. The only source of light was from the aquarium near the bottom of the steps. As I continued on my silent journey, I noticed the first window of the aquarium approaching. When I finally reached it, I paused momentarily to take it all in again. The water the countless fish were swimming in was as blue as ever. It was so clear you could see the bodies of fish as if you were observing them from miles away in the ocean’s currents. Just as I was getting ready to continue down the steps, the fish started to rapidly scatter in multiple directions, making way for an ominous creature. I instantly recognized the familiar whale-like creature. The closer it approached, the more I could feel its endless animosity from the other side of the window. Its ferocious eyes fixated on me. Silently judging me. I nonchalantly held its gaze for what seemed like an eternity until it slowly swam off and the fish finally returned. I began my journey down the basement steps and noticed a silhouette standing next to the main window of the aquarium, silently waiting in the exact position my memories had painted in my mind. I finally reached the bottom of the steps and looked around at the enormous amount of empty space that surrounded us in the dimly lit basement. “Still no furniture, huh?” I said. There was no response, just as I had anticipated. I approached their left-hand side and started gazing out into the boundless ocean as well. After some time had passed, I found myself back on the top floor. I could tell the journey was almost over because of how blurry everything was becoming. I started walking towards the main entrance and decided to take one last look around the kitchen, just to burn the details into my mind. As I headed for the main entrance, I could hear the sound of pouring rain become louder with each step I took. I put my hood back on and exited the house. While walking down the hill, I noticed my vision becoming blurrier and the environment began to fade as well. I tilted my head back, standing still waiting for the sensation to end, and thought to myself: “When was the last time it stopped raining?”