DAREM - Chapter 1 - Strange

Chapter 1 - Strange

  "Where is it?!" yelled 17-year old Laertes from the top of his lungs.

"Where is what?" asked Laertes' little sister Emily, staggering into the living room.

"Where is the flash drive with all my saved data of the Civil War? I left it right on the shelf this morning." explained Laertes, pointing toward the shelf in the living room.

"Well, I don't know where it is! Try asking dad! Probably he took it by mistake as he was looking for his key cars." said Emily, walking back to bed with Osmic, the family cat.

While Laertes watches Emily go back to bed, he contemplates to himself how he should confront his father to ask persistently if he has his flash drive. What if I put in all the misguided information, thought Laertes, what if I just get a D for working my butt off all night?

As Laertes sprints into his father's office, he realizes that his father has been fast asleep ever since he came home last night at 3 o'clock a.m. Now, where could've my flash drive been this whole time, thought Laertes.

Suddenly, it just hit him! He never actually lost his flash drive because he never did the report! It was all just inside a dream!

"Oh, crap!!" yelped Laertes as he darts from his father's office to find his way to the family's computer. He, then, plunks so rashly unto the computer's chair that he almost made the computer monitor fall off. As he perches the monitor back to its proper position, he briskly turns on the computer to be confronted with the new password lock.

"What the-!?" exclaims Laertes as he begins to rapidly put in different passwords into the computer, resulting to the computer slowing down. It was until he typed "OSMIC125" (after a million times trying, thought Laertes) that the computer unlocked the password.

Throughout the morning, from 5 to 7, Laertes swiftly summarizes the events during the Civil War, sometimes making errors and just ignoring them after every paragraph. It was until 7 o'clock that realization formed into Laertes' head. "Wait, isn't Mr. Aerion coming for the whole year?" thought Laertes. He thumps his head on the computer desk, suddenly realizing that the assignment will not be collected because the teacher will not be present to collect it. Earlier in the year, Mr. Aerion was diagnosed with a strange disease that caused him to be absent for the whole year. It was the Civil War assignment that Mr. Aerion never managed to collect!

Lazily, Laertes turns off the computer with all his work erased and loiters toward his room, stopping at times to make himself feel sure that Mr. Aerion wasn't going to collect the assignment. When he reached his room, he looks up toward his Minecraft clock to reveal that it was only 30 minutes until he goes to school. Suddenly, as if it was just a dream, the clock began to form into different things, including a pencil, rocks, statues, and (most horribly) a vicious-looking face belonging to a 60 year old man. As Laertes rubs his eyes to help whether this was a dream, he looks up to see that the clock has become back to what it originally was. Filled with confusion and fear, he slips right out of his room, only to be confronted by his sister.

"What are you doing here?" shrieked Laertes, after being shocked by her appearance.

"Have you seen it?" asked Emily. "Seen what?" inquired Laertes, still breathing hard from the scare.

"Have you seen things, like furniture changing?" interrogated Emily.

"Sorry, but I have no idea what you are talking about." lied Laertes, trying to avoid from talking about this strange event. Emily looks Laertes squarely in the eye, trying to see if he was lying through his expressions.

"Oh, so you expect me to believe that?" said Emily maliciously.

"Yeah, I guess so." said Laertes, "Anyway, we need to get ready for school."

"Hmm...I suppose you're right" concurred Emily. Then, both departed into their own room, only to not know that the strangeness has just begun.