𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖲𝗍𝖺𝗋𝗌 || 𝖣𝖺𝗇𝖼𝖾 𝖬𝗈𝗆𝗌

No One Is Safe

I was sure no movie could ever captivate me. For me, it was more of the actor or actress. To know how they were offscreen and the characters they portrayed onscreen. The magic of changing entirely and pretending to be someone you actually aren't like at all. I thought it was beautiful, and even with a movie that was nearly eighty years old, I thought the exact same.

Of course, in a movie that was made and released almost a hundred years ago, not that many actors survived. Not with the life expectancy at the time, but there were exceptions. People that had good luck, and people that were young back then. That was why, as I sat in front of the TV, I could easily recite the words as if they were my own.

"Oh no, it was the grandfather. Goat Peter said I'd never learn to read, but the grandfather said I could if I wanted to--" I recited, absolutely mesmerized by the beauty I could never imagine a black-and-white film could have. "--And I did. So I thought Klara could walk if she wanted to, and she did."

As I continued watching, I heard some soft footsteps as they made their way to the living room. Unintentionally, my right hand touched the soft carpet that lay on the light wooden floor. Suddenly, I felt how the brown couch ― which I had been using as a backrest ― dipped lightly, letting me know immediately there was someone else in the room.

The movie continued playing as I looked over my right shoulder, noticing my grandmother, who watched the TV for a brief moment before turning back at me. "Why are you sitting on the floor?"

"I like it," I told her before standing up and sitting on the couch. "I can also get closer to the TV and I do it here because Zane gets annoyed when I do it back home."

I turned back to watch the TV, aware of the smile Grandma had on her face.

It was Monday ― the day before we started filming a new episode ― and we ended up in Scranton to visit my grandparents. In reality, we were here because Zane had one of his biggest games yet. Of course, my mom thought it would be nice to invite them and visit them. Right after the competition was over, we obviously went back to the hotel. Still, by the time we arrived, Dad was already waiting for us to start our six-and-a-half-hour road trip to Pennsylvania. Within the first hour, all four of us were annoyed with each other. We were doing something as simple as playing I Spy, and Giselle had to make a big deal out of it, making me get mad at her, making Zane get mad at both of us, and Ava existed. She said no for about ten minutes until she moved on to say some of the most random stuff you could ever think about. It got quite hard to be mad at someone while another person is trying their best to make you laugh.

Everything calmed down around the third hour, but we were now hungry. When there was a pit stop, we had only thirty minutes, and Giselle took longer than usual in the bathroom and then complained about her stomach hurting. Meaning that Zane and I had less than ten minutes to do our thing while Dad and Ava ― apparently ― finished buying the snacks. The gas station was way more crowded when we left than when we arrived, so we got lucky with that.

With three hours left, it being twelve-thirty nine at midnight, and it being a competition day, I knew I would spend the rest of the time texting my best friend, who wanted to FaceTime me, but it definitely wasn't the time to do so. At around two, all three of my siblings had given up to the exhaustion and fallen asleep. My parents were having an apparently entertaining whispered conversation at the front, which left me to try to watch some YouTube while trying my best to not wake up my younger sister. For some reason, I had to be the one sitting next to her car seat, as usual. Sadly.

Then, another problem came: my internet stopped working. After staring at the annoying loading circle for about ten minutes, I closed the app. Instead, I entered Instagram and remembered that it also works with the internet. Closing the other app, I gave up, and accepted my fate. In defeat, I pressed on the Temple Run app, wishing that I could simply fall asleep instead.