Playing Pretend

Chapter O1 - Proposition

Ring ring ring

Ring ring ring

I clamped my pillow over my head and groaned in frustration. Why wasn’t anyone making that damn noise stop?!

Ring ring –

Finally.

I relaxed and let go of my pillow, determined to get a few more hours of sleep, regardless of what time it was right now.

Fortunately, luck was on my side, so I drifted off into a dreamless slumber, until I was woken again, but this time by an incessant nudging to my side.

I swatted my hand at the source of the nudging, and came in contact with something cold and moist.

Put off by the nasty texture, I wiped it on my bed sheets before I opened one eye to see what I had touched – my Golden Retriever, Benny.

“Go feed yourself.” I mumbled before I turned to face the wall.

Unfortunately, Benny either wasn’t smart enough to understand what I meant, or chose to ignore what I said before because he continued to nudge me, except this time, he added whining.

I turned over to face him. “Listen, dog-” I started before he suddenly sprinted out the door, nearly knocking my portable heater over.

“I swear, that dog has ADHD.” I huffed as I settled back in the warmth of my covers.

I closed my eyes again, content at the fact that even if I was continuously being disturbed, it was alright, because it was winter break and I could just go back sleep.

Well, until light footsteps hurriedly approached my door and I felt someone’s weight cause the bottom half of my bed to dip down.

“Sera.” A soft voice called out.

Irritated, I peered through half-closed eyes and saw my mother sitting on the bottom of my bed with tears freely flowing down her cheeks from puffy, red eyes. Her nose was bright red and she was sniffling proficiently.

Shocked by my normally strong mother’s sudden disheveled appearance, I threw my covers off my bed and plopped down beside her, rubbing her back like she did a countless number of times for me.

“Mom, what happened?” I asked in barely a whisper. I braced myself for the worst.

“Your brother…” She started before another sob wracked her fragile body.

“What? What happened to Ambrose?” I asked, fearing for the twin brother I had been stuck with since birth. The last time I saw him was well over a month ago, and I missed him like crazy.

“He was in a bad car accident early this morning.” She finally managed to squeak out.

“I-is he okay?” I stuttered. I felt tears begin to sting the corners of my eyes and a tingling sensation filled the back of my nose.

“He had extremely bad head trauma, and he’s in a coma.”

I couldn’t help but feel slightly relieved at that. At least he survived, right?

“Where is he right now? I need to go see him.” I cried. No way in hell was I going to stay here doing nothing when my other half was partially dead.

“They transferred him to a hospital closer to our home. Your father and I rushed to the hospital as soon as we got the phone call this morning – It was terrible…my little baby!” My mother continued to cry. I quickly wiped my eyes of any stray tears that managed to squeeze out of my eyes – one of us had to be sane right now, and my mother was already long gone.