Never the same

Chapter 2

Shaking slightly, I slowly lift my head to look up. However, the ceiling is the same plain white it has always been. Chuckling, I shake my head and bring it down.

Just empty threats meant to scare me.

All of a sudden, a movement catches the corner of my eye and I look back up. I search around a bit before I notice a difference.

Did my dragon painting change?

I slowly step backwards while keeping my eyes glued to the dragon painting. The dragon's eyes follow me, literally, the eyeballs are moving from within their sockets. The movement I had seen was the tail curl up and the wings lower. My mind rapidly tries to understand what is happening. The world I live in, built around logic, shatters. My body shakes in fear as I look deep into the eyes of the dragon.

Once more my phone pings and my eyes break away from the dragons. I shockingly approach the phone and look at the screen. Another text from the unknown guy:

"You are not dreaming. Prepare yourself for Sunday."

I quickly look at my hand, look back and read the text, look at my hand again then read the text. The fact that nothing changed proves that I'm not dreaming.

What does this mean? How on earth did the painting come to life? Is it going to kill me? Why me?

An alarm clock on my desk goes off, pulling me out of my mental world. I read the time shown on the clock, six o'clock. I look up at the dragon painting, the dragon's eyes continue to watch me. I sigh and switch off the alarm, before walking out of the room. I need to start cooking otherwise I would go hungry and my parents would be mad. I would, however, prefer to keep a close eye on the dragon painting. Sadly that would have to wait.

Striking a match I watch as the flame consumes the match-head. I bring the match down to the gas being released by the cooker and let the gas get lit. I put a frying pan on top of the cooker and start working on the omelette.

After eating, washing up and putting some food in the microwave for my parents, I go back to my room. It is much darker now, it's around 7 o'clock now.

I walk into my dark room and notice immediately that the dragon's eyes are on me. They glow a slight green and the darkness, making me feel more nervous. I feel my heartbeat start to increase, and the room begins to feel slightly warmer. I click on the light and the glow disappears, however the dragon's eyes don't look anywhere that isn't the living, breathing me.

Take a step forward and the eyes follow me. The room slightly shakes from my own shake and body, fear has taken hold.

I'm never going to sleep tonight. Not with this stress and fear.

I walk more into the room and look at the dragon painting. Apart from the eyes, the rest of the dragon hasn't moved since it first moved. I relax slightly, knowing that the danger isn't that big. The eyes are still creepy, but the dragon can't get me. I sigh and sit on the armchair, keeping a watchful eye on the dragon painting so as to see if the dragon moves. My phone all of a sudden starts ringing and I noticed the dragon's ears twitch.

It's listening too! Oh geez!

I walk to the desk and pick up the phone, the caller is my mum. I sigh in relief and answer call.

"Hi, Dagan! Listen your dad and I need to go on an important trip, so you won't see us this weekend or the entire week." My mum says on the phone.

"Okay." I reply.

"Bye!" My mum says the moment she heard my reply. The call ends before I have a chance to respond. I put the phone down before contemplating my problem.

Now I'm truly home alone. And probably for the entire week. This is no good.

Another thought crossed my mind.

They won't be here on Sunday!

It's night now. I'm in bed, twisting and turning, trying to avoid looking at the glowing green eyes of the dragon, they still follow me like I'm the most interesting thing in the room. There is a slight breeze that slowly and silently rocks the house. Eventually, my body grows too tired, and my eyes closed, sending my world into darkness.

I wake up with a yawn and try to remember my dream. Images of the dragon come to my mind as I scratch the surface of my memory. I sigh.

This dragon has me so concerned that it's been leaked into my dreams.

I hope in my eyes and the bright light of the morning temporarily blinds me. I slowly regain my vision and just lie in bed, relaxing.

Then, a yawn and a slight thump wakes me properly and I sit up quickly. My eyes dart around my room before resting on the dragon painting.

I immediately notice something different from before. The dragon still stares at me, but its face is now facing me, it's resting its head on its paws, the dragon itself is lying down, tail curled on the floor of the painting, and its wings are folded against its body. My eyes widen in shock as I stare at the dragon, it had moved!

The dragon gives me a bored expression before giving a curious expression. It reaches out with a paw and lightly paws the canvas, the material that seems to separate me and the dragon. I noticed that the dragon has become more three-dimensional as if the actual physical canvas is simply a window between two worlds, mine and the dragons.

OH HELL! What happened last night?

I jolt in surprise as I see the dragon hit the barrier between it and me. The room shakes the slightest from the impact. The dragon shakes its head a bit before laying down again. I sigh in slight relief.

Still can't get to me. I'm still safe.

After getting changed into a green pair of shorts and a black t-shirt, making myself breakfast, washing up and putting things away, I get ready to do my homework. The only problem I find is that my desk is right underneath the dragon painting, I don't think I could handle doing the homework under that painting, especially since every so often the dragon will ram the painting barrier, causing the room to shake as the dragon hits the barrier with a 'thunk' sound.

As I go to place my school books and writing material on my desk, I noticed that my phone it up, in fact, the lighting of the phone was perfectly synchronised with the 'thunk' of the dragon hitting the painting barrier. I look at it curiously and see a new text from that unknown person. I unlock the phone to see what exactly it is.

"I wouldn't bother."

Wouldn't bother? With what? Homework? Panicking? What??? My life has taken a really bad turn.

I decide not to do homework. I'm too stressed out to do it anyways. Instead, I take to watch in the dragon which has now decided to pace place back and forth, occasionally ramming into the barrier. I'm so worried, distracted and stressed that I don't hear my alarm to make lunch, or my alarm to make dinner. I watch the dragon, pace back and forth, back and forth. The rhythm makes me tired, my eyes grow heavy from the exhaustion of staying there and not eating.

Eventually, my eyelid shut, plunging my world into complete darkness.

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