I felt as if I was surfing and I was caught under a giant wave and hot, salty sea water rushed up my nose, eyes and lungs. But it wasn't water, it was quite the opposite, fire. Fire burning my skin and prohibiting my vision.
I have to get out of here.
I feel my way around my house and finally my hands touch the solid wood of my front door. I dart out of the house and onto my front lawn with my family. They're all staring at the house, eyes glazed over like they're the first humans seeing fire. My mother touches my shoulder and says,
"I thought you came out with your father."
"I thought he was out here you you guys." I say on the verge of tears. My voice trembling and cracking.
My mom release an unrecognizable scream-howl and sinks to her knees in our front lawn as our house collapses inward.
I jerk awake and in a pool of my own sweat. I'm panting and it feels like I just ran a race. I notice my clock says 1:46 am. I go down stairs and get a glass of water. I slowly make my way down the stairs, each step creaking louder than the last. I finally make it downstairs and something feels off.
Maybe it's because it's 1 'o' clock in the morning and I just had a nightmare.
I think and calm down again. I pour water out of the Brita filter in our fridge. With the light of the fridge illuminating the whole room I notice my mom's study door is ajar. She never leaves it open, for the privacy of her patients. It's only unlocked when she's in it and she isn't, it's the middle of the night so she's probably sleeping and not working. I walk over to her study and carefully pry the door open with one finger. No one's in there, I think to myself. Then I see that someone is sitting in her chair.
"Mommy?" I say wariness in my voice.
The chair didn't turn around and I know she's probably asleep, she occasionally falls a sleep working. I am reluctant to turning around her chair but a sudden burst of courage makes me do it.
She looks normal. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except her lips are blue and she isn't breathing...
I dart out of her room and rush out of the house leaving my mother in there. I knock over anything in my path. As soon as I burst of of the front door the icy air nips at my exposed skin. I keep running though, my hair flying behind me like dark flames. My bare feet digging into my neighbor's soggy lawn. I trip and my knees are wet with dew. I claw at the moist ground and pick myself up again. I am scrambling by the time I reach their porch and I ring the doorbell and pound on the door.
'Für Elise' plays throughout their house as I repeatedly jam my finder into the doorbell button. A few seconds later Mr. Stevenson comes to the door with bed head and a bathroom on.
"Ruby! When did you get in town? And why are you so dirty?" He says in his usual annoying, nasally voice and looks me up and down.
I push past him and make my way into their house. High ceilings and tapestries cover the walls.
"My mother, I think she's been killed." I say, refusing to believe it myself.
"You stay here, I'll alert the police."
He says and rushes into his kitchen. And starts calling 9-1-1.
I sit on his black leather couch and examine the tapestries on the walls. I vaguely remember him going on a trip to Africa and coming back with all of this stuff.
My mother can't be dead.
Then I feel it. Like a dam breaking and all these emotions come spilling out of the cracks.
YOU ARE READING
The Unexpected
Bí ẩn / Giật gân"Always expect the unexpected." My father had always told me as a child while I was sitting on his lap. I never put much thought into it mainly because I was a child and because I just thought it was something that adults said to make themselves se...
