The Dreamer's Fall

Chapter 1 - Salt

Ethan awoke to the monotonous sound of his air conditioner humming over an old history documentary playing on the TV. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he reached to the other side of the mattress, blindly grabbing for his cell phone.

Once found, he lazily brought it before his face. "Fuck." He grumbled as he felt his heart drop to the pit of his stomach.

The time, to his dismay, read 2:27 PM. However, the eight missed calls and dozens of text notifications before him brought a greater sense of dread.

Swiping his fingers across the screen, he navigated to the alarm app to figure out why it wasn't currently blaring an air horn at him, considering how late he had overslept.

To his astonishment, the alarms were still set and active, only they read 7:00 PM instead of 7:00 AM. Backing out of the alarm app, he skimmed through his texts. The vast majority were nothing but stupid memes from his friend's group chat, so he ignored them for now.

As he continued to scroll, the feeling of dread grew in intensity. There were many more notifications, but he couldn't ignore these like he had the others.

He let out a disparaged sigh as he tapped the little green call button. It barely rang once before the call connected.

"Hey, Ma. I—" Ethan began to speak before a sudden shout from the speaker forced him to move the phone away from his ear.

"—Where the hell are you?" Ethan's mother hollered.

"I'm sorry, I fucked up. I'm jumping in the shower now."

"Your father is furious, you know. It's your little brother's communion. How could you miss it?"

If he was planning on getting to his parents' house anytime soon, he had to start getting ready. Ethan knew there would be no end to it once his mother began admonishing him. So, fleeing from this call was his best course of action at the moment.

"...I know Ma. I'm sorry. Lemme get ready now, and I'll be at the house in an hour or two. I love you, and I'll see you soon."

"I love you too... Just get here quickly before your father blows a gasket, please." Ethan's mother pleaded before abruptly hanging up.

Once the call ended, Ethan tossed the blankets off and made his way to the enormous 'L' shaped computer desk in the corner of the room. Three wide-screened monitors sat atop it, accompanied by a giant computer tower and multiple accessories that shone in various RGB coloring.

Ethan lazily threw himself onto his overpriced computer chair and tried to wake up. Unfortunately, the empty beer bottles that littered the desk clanked and clamored due to the sudden movement, resulting in the stench of alcohol filling the air.

Ethan's stomach churned as the smell reached his nose, but he felt too hungover to deal with the mess right now. So, trying his best to ignore the sickening scent, he began his morning routine.

He checked his bank account every morning as a way of guilt-tripping himself to live more frugally, but despite the routine sticking, the guilt rarely did.

Ethan had won a significant lawsuit against the city six years ago due to a bus accident that had left him with a permanent spinal injury. While the back pain and doctor-approved opioid addiction he had received would stick around for life, the settlement money was unsurprisingly transitory.

What began as nearly two million dollars had dwindled to less than a quarter million over the past six years. Ethan did have some income to cover a portion of his spending; however, it wasn't enough to cover the deficit.

He did some light day trading and was tech-savvy enough to make extra cash in the cryptocurrency market every now and then. But outside of his investments, what little income he gained came from freelance programming jobs when he felt up to it.