You Awoke With A Start {COMPLETED}

CHAPTER I: Heat of the Moment

WARNING: This Story Contains:
- Language
- Violence

READER DISCRECION IS ADVISED.

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Chapter One: Heat of the Moment

You awoke with a start. The post-nightmare knot in your stomach still lingering. It had been over five years since you came home to the fire that burned your old house to the ground, but you still got nightmares on the daily. You lost both of your parents to the fire that you always suspected your sister, Judith, started. She used to do pot, and your parents were still under the impression she was the straight A, volunteering, prude they raised her to be. This, in turn, led to a false sense of faith and a cotton-filled room. Judith made it out, but not unharmed. Smoke inhalation was what hit her the hardest. You were the one that saved her, but oxygen depravation can't be fought. She suffered from brain hypoxia after that, and you always felt responsible for it.

Being thirteen years old at the time, you didn't know what to do in the slightest. In fact, you had third degree burns on your arms that you thought meant you were dying. Your sister, a small ash-covered figure at your feet, curled up like a dying spider on the grass. You didn't want to leave her, but how else would you get help? The nearest neighbor of yours was about a mile and a half away and up until then, you always enjoyed the solitude. After promising your sister you'd come back as fast as you could, you ran as fast as your stubby, prepubescent legs could carry you.

Things (for lack of a better word) worked out, after that. You and Judith got the medical attention you needed and you moved in with your mother's best friend who welcomed you with open arms. Living there for five years had its benefits, it was a nice place in the city near a girl you had a thing for, but that wasn't enough to stop you from moving out and getting officially liberated the day you turned eighteen.

The new apartment uprooted old nightmares and sleep was scarce for a few months. You decided getting a roommate would help you keep your mind off it.

Aiden had everything a hipster did, just not the name. He liked calling himself a "Beatnik", whatever that means. He took your Pink Floyd CD's sometimes, but other than that, he seemed like a pretty cool guy. Aiden was in the middle of getting an art major when he dropped out of college and you had to admit, he was terrific. He asked to sketch you sometimes, said it was for "reference", but you both found joy in pretending it was for other reasons. You would flex like He-Man despite having the body mass of Ichabod Crane. You soon became best friends.

"Can I borrow your Fleetwood Mac CD?" He asked you one day.
"No," you replied, placing a five of spades carefully on a four of hearts.
"Why?"
"Are you only asking because you couldn't find it yourself?"
"Yes."

You glance angrily at him.

"At least I'm honest," he shrugs.

You sigh outwardly and drop the deck of cards down onto the table and stand up. "I better get this back," you warn, tossing the album toward your friend. He caught it eagerly and pushed it into the stereo.

You never saw that CD again.

Aiden's girlfriend taught you guitar while he was at work sometimes and you became pretty good. Callouses formed on your fingers and a pick began to feel like a natural extension of your hand. Aiden's girlfriend's name was Nicole, she gave you a guitar pick that she got at an Incubus concert. She said Mike threw it into the audience and she just happened to catch it, but you knew she had to kick some serious angst-filled teenage boy ass to get it.

You really liked Nicole.

At 4:00 AM on a cold October day, you found out Aiden was cheating on her. You were up late because of a cliffhanger ending on the book you were reading, and you saw a short, skinny girl with a huge ass sneak out of the apartment, shoes in hand. You knew he could do better than her, and Nicole could do better than him, but you kept your mouth shut. Seeing Nicole everyday was one of the very few pleasures you got out of your pathetic life and there was no way she'd keep coming if her and Aiden split. You were selfish.