✅ My Sister's Problem

3. Accident

Here's the first chapter of the day, dedicated to Bill this time. Thank you for your support!

I'm a little unsure about devoting a whole chapter to this. I've seen so many stories where this particular scene happens in something like 2 lines, and I wondered if it would be more fun to add detail... I didn't expect it to run to 2000+ words. Everyone, can you please leave a comment to tell me what you think of this approach? Does it help you understand the character better; and build up some kind of suspense wondering how well it will work?

"♪ Sing from your heart and show him who you are ♪" the lyrics blasted out from my TV. Well, 'blasted' might be an exaggeration, as it was well past my little sister's bedtime and I had to keep the volume low enough not to disturb her. Thankfully Lindy had never been a light sleeper, so our connected rooms were never too much of a problem. On the screen were two girls who looked barely older than me, although I knew the actresses were college graduates now. I also knew I needed to finish watching this episode before bed; the band couldn't have a moment of triumph without something going wrong, so the inclusion of a new song in the episode just had to mean a big plot twist. One that I didn't want to hear about from my friends at school before I'd seen it for myself. My money was on a personal upheaval; the audience already knew that those two were thinking about the same guy while they sung. Soon after they came off stage they would learn the truth. They would scream that they hated each other, and then it would fade into a melancholy reprise of the new track over the end credits.

"♪Show them your power as you shoot for the stars–" Sandi launched into her solo, with the audience cheering around her. And then her sister rook over, rocking out on the guitar as she belted out her line: "♪When you roar with the heart of a lion!♪" I found my foot tapping to the song and I wanted to sing along, the energy building so high. Right up to the moment Sandi stomped on her effects pedal, and the music was replaced by pure noise. An explosion, perhaps some kind of bomb. The screen was filled with smoke, and scenes of the audience fleeing in terror. Rubble crashing down into the auditorium, doors blocked, and the silhouette of the Dragon King was visible through the smoke. We saw one slow shot of Sandi lying on the ground with a piece of rebar piercing her shoulder; the injury graphic enough to explain why I technically wasn't old enough to watch this show. And then there was silence, a plain black screen and a simple line of letters promising a big climax in the next episode.

I stared for a while at the screen, even as it went back to the menu. I knew that Redux didn't pull its punches; it was clearly sold as a darker and edgier reboot of the show that kids had watched ten years ago. But this scene was still a shock, and I didn't think I'd be sleeping any time soon. I needed to get that image out of my head.

I scooted over to the desk and grabbed my phone. Posted a message on Clatter about what a shock it had been, and asked if my friends had all seen it. There weren't many answers; it had been pretty late when I got back from practice, and I'd had to deal with a page of equations before I could relax. Why did we need to know about incredulous numbers anyway? But still, there was a message there from Harper, who'd seen that episode an hour before. Her reaction was pretty much the same as mine.

Once the TV was off, I knew I needed to calm down. I needed to take my mind off the suspense if I wanted to get decent sleep. I wished there was some way to quickly relax; and wondered if it was a good idea to be watching that show after all. Sure, it was popular, but when my heart was pounding like this after a dramatic ending, maybe the dumb moral guardians had a point after all. Maybe my emotions were only ready for kids' shows, and I'd be better watching something more age appropriate. I couldn't take the graphic scenes; I was just like a little kid.