Dangerous Daydreams

Chapter One- A Blank Mind

The sun came beating through the windows as the Taylorf amily snoozed on. It had been a busy week and everyone was tired, even eight year old Kennedy. It wasn’t like the little girl to sleep late, but as soon as her eyes opened, she realized that she was missing a day of play. Why stay in bed, when you could be outside…in the sweltering heat of Florida. As Kennedy came out of her room and tiptoed to the bathroom, she tried not to wake up her older brother, Ryder, who was a seventeen year old, lazy teenager who loved his sister to death, but loved his sleep even more. That was just one of the shocking similarities he shared with his dad, Chase.

            Ellie and Chase eventually made things work and got married when their son was only three. After Ellie being in a two week coma, it took years for her to finally realize that her ex-boyfriend was someone completely different then the awful guy she had dreamed up in her fantasy world. A world that she tried not to live in often, but it was hard to forget those two weeks of being under. Ellie had a whole other life…. one that she would never forget. Because in those two weeks, she had lived five years, gotten married to someone famous, and had another child. Sure, Ryder was in her other life, but Chase wasn’t. According to her little make believe land, Chase was the one in the car crash-not her- and it had been a crash that killed. It was still hard to believe she married that guy and had another child with him.

            Now, seventeen years later, the vision was still clear as day in her head. And even though she had never told anyone about it, it still worried her that her life was her dream almost every night. And she never told anyone because they’d send her somewhere for crazy people. And she couldn’t go to a mental hospital. They’d drain her brain and she wouldn’t get to live her life in her head with Zayn, Ryder, and Scarlett, who according to her dreams, was now seven. She was in love with someone else, and he’d never know. She was in love with a guy who she only saw in her dreams. And yes, she loved Chase to death, but something about that two week coma, changed her. It still took everything she had to continue trusting her husband everyday. Some days she was still waiting for Chase to snap and be the awful person who left her alone while she was pregnant with Ryder, but that side of him never showed. And now it was too late because she married him but yet she didn’t even know why.

            “What time is it?” Chase asked his wife as her eyes slowly began to flutter open. It wasn’t easy to tell if he was talking to her or not. He had a phone… Couldn’t he just check himself? “Never mind…” he said, rubbing his eyes and running a hand through his messy brown hair. Then he nudged Ellie.

            “Time to get up, babe.” He said, gently rubbing her back, just until her eyes opened. It’s too early to be up, she thought to herself, but much to her dismay, she caught a glimpse of Chase’s phone that said it was going on eleven.

            Yawing and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Ellie sat up in the king-sized bed. “Aren’t you still tired?” she asked, hoping for an excuse to go back to sleep. She didn’t hear any noises from down the hall, so maybe she could squeeze in just five more minutes.

            “I promised I’d take Kennedy to the park today, remember?” Chase was standing up now, headed to the set of drawers below the mirror. “I mean I guess you can just go back to sleep… God knows Ryder isn’t getting up anytime soon. It’ll be quiet in here. But just remember that while you’re in the air-conditioned house, I’ll be in the sweltering Florida heat.”

Chase was going on and on, until finally, Ellie cut him off. “Yeah… but just remember that while you’re in the hundred degree weather, you’re the idiot that volunteered to take her and…”

A knock on the door made them both shut up. “Daddy… are you ready to go?” Kennedy asked, looking like a miniature copy of Ellie. From the long, light brown hair, to the hazel eyes. Every time Ellie looked at her daughter, it was like looking back at old photographs of herself.