The Caris Incident

Chapter Six

I smelled pancakes and immediately sat up. In bed? I looked around me to find nothing singed or burned.

How was that even possible? I looked at my bed and it wasn't in flames. Nothing was, in fact.

The house hadn't caught on fire. How?

I lifted up my hand and looked at it. It was blistered, and looked like it had been freshly burned. It had. Because I had touched the fire.

None of it made sense. How did my bedroom look fine but my hand wasn't?

Maybe I had passed out because of the smoke at the back door and had dreamt the whole part about Helena finding me and sitting with me on the bed while we went up in flames.

I had kissed her. I had kissed her.

And it definitely had been real.

I swung my legs off the bed and walked out of my bedroom. I walked through the whole house. Nothing was burned. Everything was fine.

Then I remembered. Helena had said that it was my birthday. But it wasn't my birthday today.

My birthday was a few months ago, not today.

It had to have been a dream. That still didn't explain why my hand was burned.

When I walked into the 2nd floor kitchen, my dad was in there making breakfast. "Well you're up early," he said.

I glanced at the door. The handle wasn't pulled off, like I had done this morning.

"Yeah I guess," I said, trailing off.

My dad looked at me. "You seem distant, are you alright Andy?" He asked. Distant. My parents had been distant for a while. Always talking in whispers.

I nodded. "Did you smell any smoke last night?" I asked.

My dad gave me a weird look. "No, did you?" He asked.

I decided not to tell him about the fire. Before I could back out of the conversation, my dad saw my hand.

"What'd you do?" He asked, putting down the plate of pancakes and grabbing my hand.

"Um..." I trailed off. I couldn't tell him because I didn't fully understand it myself.

My dad raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth to ask another question.

Before he could, my mother walked into the kitchen and my dad's face completely changed. Every time they saw each other it was like all the bad stuff went away and they could only focus on each other.

My mom owned a dance studio in West Hollywood a few minutes away and they rarely saw each other. My dad worked during the day and my mom worked during the evening, a tough situation for two people, married, with five kids.

It was a magical sort of thing, watching my parents transform completely every time the other walked into the room.

"Good morning beautiful," my dad said, kissing my mom.

"The same to you," my mom said, grabbing a pancake off of the plate. My dad slapped her hands and she laughed.

"So Andy, are you excited for graduation today?" She asked me. I had completely forgotten.

"Totally," I said, putting on a cheeky grin and walking out of the kitchen.

Athena bumped into me. "Well well well what did you do to your hand?" The eleven year old asked.

She twirled a finger through her dark curls as she waited for me to reply.

"I....gotta go," I said, running away from her. I heard Athena scoff as I turned the corner to the front door.

I flew out the door and ran to my car. I had to get out of here and get to school before my family asked any more questions.

I could make up something at school. I couldn't at home though.

Caris was standing in front of my car when I got to the garage.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. Caris frowned. "You killed my sister," she said.

I shook my head. "She ran into the street. I didn't kill her," I replied, moving around her to unlock my car.

"It's your fault!" She screamed as I shut the door and promptly drove away.