MUKE short stories

bad omens ♪ 1

It was a dream.

It must have been a dream.

Luke knew better than to forget to set his phone on do not disturb and his friends knew better than to call him in the middle of the night.

Finally awoken from his dreams he grabbed his phone.

Maybe it was his alarm, maybe he changed the tone from his usual fairytale sounds to the loud ringing.

Upon picking up his phone he realized it wasn't just a dream but a nightmare.

As an American number filled his display he rubbed his eyes and turned on the light before answering.

"Yes?"

"Oh, hello, finally."

Luke wasn't awake enough to respond to that properly and if he could, he'd have a lot of things to say.

"Who is this?"

"Am I talking to Mr. Hemmings? Luke?"

"Who is asking?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry," the accent matched the phone number, American and annoying. "My name is Sarah and I work for Diamond Talent Agency."

It was a nightmare as Luke presumed.

"I am calling as a follow-up to our email that we have sent to you, regarding the newest contract we would like you to sign. As we still got no reply–"

"When have you sent the contract?" Luke groaned.

"I'm sorry?"

"When?"

"Oh, three or so hours ago. As I've said–"

"Sarah, it is four in the morning in Sydney, and probably very early in LA as well, I was asleep."

"Oh, I'm so so sorry Mr. Hemmings but Mrs. Osman suggested–"

"Please tell Kaya that if she has anything to say or sent to me, she should do it directly, understood?"

"Yes, Mr. Hemmings."

"Now, goodbye."

♪

The moment Luke woke up for the second time that day, he knew it wasn't a dream.

He refused to check his phone and continued with his usual morning routine. A short workout in the home gym, swim in the pool, shower, breakfast, coffee, packing his premade lunch before leaving to work.

Luke worked in a high school, a twenty-minute ride away from his home. Usually, he'd spent the twenty minutes in the car singing, sometimes going over his work plan for the day. This day all he thought about was strangling his stupid ex-husband and his stupid manager.

"You look..."

"Horrible?" Luke asked his coworker as he made it to the teachers' room.