Nick flops onto the bed, exhausted. Kylie has gone for soccer practice and is going to the movies after. Nick has the house to herself for a while. She reads a few chapters of "Flux", her all-time favorite book while she waits for the water to boil in the kitchen. She got carried away, books tended to have that effect on her.
Dozing off briefly, she wakes up to the blare of smoke detectors and rushes to the kitchen to see all the water has dried up. Adding more, she sighs and pets Cookie, her black German shepherd who has just walked up to her. Cookie pounces on her excitedly, pushing her backwards and into the handle of the pan.
The pan somersaults and for a moment, light pours through the open window and the steaming water makes a rainbow in the sky. Then it crashes down on the girl and the dog, scalding hair and fur alike. Nick screams and falls over, spraining her ankle. Cookie, though injured herself, is all over her, licking her burns. The uncooked spaghetti is somehow scattered across the floor and there's cold sauce in her hair and frozen peas bounce like tiny tennis balls before rolling to stops in the corners of the kitchen and that's the last thing Nick sees because the world is going dark and Cookie is prancing and yipping like mad.
What feels like a moment later, Nick sits up, in her bed, unharmed. Freaked out, she tries to get up but falls back, wincing in pain at her sprained ankle.
"What the..."
Her book mark is where it was when she got home, Chapter 36. Nick knows she's read at least 7 chapters since then.
"Not this again..."
How long does it take to lose your mind? And what what cost must you find it again?
YOU ARE READING
Fever Dreams
Short StoryShort stories. A collection of indepent works, mainly science fiction, dystopian, and even fantasy. Enjoy
