Rude Awakening, Pleasant Day

Ethan woke and sat up abruptly, or rather it felt like he had. There didn’t seem to be any visible floor, ceiling or walls anywhere that he could see. All he could see was a black void, although there had to be a floor, as he was sitting on a hard surface instead of falling. He stood up, surprised that he could see his body perfectly as if there were floodlights all around him. The only other thing in the void was an old, blackened, beaten-up wooden chair and the faint scent of smoke, as if the chair had recently been set ablaze and extinguished.

            He moved toward it and sat down, the chair feeling surprisingly comfortable, almost as if he were sitting in an armchair. He closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling slowly. He began to raise his hands to his face, finding that his hands were cuffed behind him, making the chair considerably less comfortable. He began to feel as if something was wrong, though he had no idea what, and started to panic, pulling his arms at the cuffs. Finding that his leg would not move, as they had been apparently bound to the legs of the chair, his panic turned into a frenzy.

            As his fear grew, the smell of smoke grew with it, and he paused to look down at the legs of the chair. The legs near his feet had caught fire, and the flames were slowly moving up toward him, further increasing his panic. The flames weren’t painful, but as he watched them rise they began to spread onto his body, engulfing his legs in fire. He started trying to rock the chair back and forth, anything to make some kind of difference in his situation, but the seat seemed to be bolted to the floor by some invisible means.

            The flames soon engulfed his entire torso, stopping at the base of his neck. His body now burned and disfigured from the fire, he allowed his head to hang forward, at which point he heard a woman scream resonating from the darkness. His head snapped back up as the woman screamed in pain or fear, and the flames then engulfed him entirely barring his vision and hearing, and withering him into nothing.

 

            Waking up in a cold sweat, Ethan sat up, threw his blanket off, and turned to let his feet rest on the floor. He looked around, relieved that he was actually awake now in his home. The fairly small amount of light coming in through the window told him that it was still early, although apparently not early enough to catch his wife Sara before she had left for work. Finally resting his eyes on his alarm clock, he found that it was almost 5:30, which meant that Sara must just be downstairs, as he didn’t hear the shower running. He stood up, still somewhat groggy from sleep, and walked down the hallway to the stairs. Before walking down, he checked on his daughter Kathy, making sure she was still asleep. Her room wouldn’t exactly be considered the definition of an eight-year-old girl’s bedroom. The walls were a very light pink on top and a light grey on the bottom, at her request, with a center molding separating the two colors. Her fan was white as most are, and the flooring consisted of a grey rug on top of a beige carpet. Her bedspread was grey as well, again at her request, and Ethan could see her dark-brown haired head resting on her pink pillows. He smiled to himself, closing the door quietly so as not to wake his daughter this early in the morning, and started down the stairs.

            Reaching the base of the stairs, he turned and walked into the kitchen. He could smell something burning, which was very unlike Sara. He walked through the doorway to find the stove on and eggs burning in a pan. He turned off the stove and tried to flip the eggs to no avail. Apparently they had burned into the pan. Still no sign of Sara aside from her ruined breakfast, Ethan walked into the living room, where he found her passed out on the couch, completely ready other than having abandoned her eggs and been knocked out, sprawled across the couch. She was lying face-down, her dirty-blonde hair tied back in a loose ponytail. She’d picked out a teal cardigan with a light grey shirt underneath, some fairly slim dark blue jeans, and black and white sneakers. She constantly told him how much she loved how casually she could dress for work.

 

“Sara,” Ethan called, kneeling down next to her on the couch and placing a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t stir in the slightest, in fact she seemed to just breathe heavier. He looked up at the clock on the microwave, which brightly displayed that it was now 5:45. “Sara, if you don’t get up you’re going to be late to work again.” She’d been more exhausted than usual lately, this being the third time this week he’d had to get her to wake up at some random place in the house. The first time it happened he had woken up to the shower running, thinking nothing of it until it had been almost an hour, as she did tend to take half hour showers. Her wavering ability to stay awake and get ready for work in the morning was beginning to concern him, but at least driving never failed to wake her up completely, so he never had to worry about her out on the road.

 

“Mhm…I’m up, I’m up,” she murmured, slowly turning her head to look at him, her steel-blue eyes meeting his, “just resting my eyes for a few minutes.” At which point she sat up, taking his hand off of her shoulder and holding it in hers. “How’s the princess doing?”

 

“Sound asleep, though I doubt she will be for long once you leave. She always seems to wake up just after you’re gone, and she’s always so upset when I tell her she just missed you.”

 

“Does she go back to sleep afterwards? She doesn’t have school until nine, I’d think she’d want to sleep in as late as she can.”

 

“Well, no actually. She keeps telling me she has a hard time sleeping when she knows she missed you.” At this Sara looked back at the clock, now displaying 5:50, and stood up, pulling Ethan up with her. She let go of his hand, made a shush motion over her mouth with her finger, and cartoonishly walked over to and up the stairs to Kathy’s room. She was there for about five minutes, and when she came back down, Kathy was walking down with her, wearing her white pajamas, holding her hand as they went and rubbing the sleep from her own eyes. Sara then walked Kathy over to Ethan, handing her over to him, then bent down to give her a kiss on the cheek. She stood up and gave Ethan a quick kiss as well before turning to the front door to unlock it.

 

Ethan led Kathy outside after her mother, raising her to sit on his shoulders. It hadn’t seemed like it from inside the house, but it was fairly overcast and on the ground were a few spots from raindrops scattered here and there.

 

“Have fun at work, mama,” Kathy called after her mother, Sara blowing a kiss at her in return before getting in her black hatchback. Ethan briefly let go of Kathy to wave goodbye, Sara waving goodbye in response. He sat there for a while, Kathy still on his shoulders, watching Sara start the car and drive it down and off the street to work, then set Kathy down and led her back inside for breakfast, the smell of burnt eggs still lingering in the air.

 

Walking back into the kitchen, Ethan looked up at the microwave, now showing that it was 6:10.

 

“Madam, would you care to return to your sleeping quarters for a quick nap,” he asked his daughter, crouching down to her height. Kathy nodded her head in reply with a small smile on her face, reaching out her arms, gesturing for him to pick her up. Scooping her up, he took her up to her room and laid her on her bed, her eyelids drooping slowly. He tucked her in and leaned in to give her a quick kiss, then stopped as he thought of something, “what did mama talk to you about, Hun?”

 

“Mama said to keep it a secret,” she said drowsily with a playful smile. And at this her eyes close and she fell asleep, leaving her father sitting next to her, a grin spreading across his face. He stood up, giving her a kiss on the forehead, and walked out, slowly closing the door behind him. He walked back to his bedroom, sitting down at his computer. He opened up his browser and began to search for symbolism in dreams, the website Dreams Cloud pulling up the most popular interpretations.

 

“A chair in a dream may suggest you need to sit down and think something over.”

 

“Fire may represent transformation.”

 

“Darkness may represent ignorance or being unaware.”

 

“To hear someone else scream may be a sign that they need help in waking life.”

 

“A burning man may suggest release of the past.”

 

“Well, that’s just great, how vague can you get,” Ethan said to himself, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. Deciding to disregard it as an outlier of a dream, he headed to his bathroom to take a quick shower, stopping briefly to take a look at himself in the mirror. His dark-brown hair never looked too great before a shower, and when was the last time he had shaved? He took off his shirt before putting on shaving cream. He was somewhat lean, but he wouldn’t exactly say he was muscular. After shaving, and practically staring himself down with his dark-green eyes, he checked his clock, which told him it was now 6:40, and entered the shower.

 

Well, I may not be sitting, but I’ll think it over at least. None of that makes any sense. Transformation into what? Humans don’t ‘transform’ so what does that even mean here? I guess darkness makes sense, but everyone is unaware of something. Someone needing help might make sense if I even knew who was screaming. As far as I know, I was the only person there. And letting go of the past…. This last thought made Ethan pause - what past events did he have to let go of? Nothing dramatic had ever really happened in his life. He shrugged, turning off the water, opened the door, and reached for a towel.

 

            He put on a light-blue dress shirt with a silver tie and dark jeans, picking out boat shoes instead of dress shoes; he got the feeling today was going to be a long day. Unlike Sara’s job as a photographer, Ethan’s work as a freelancer market analyst didn’t allow him to dress in full casual. Looking up at the clock he saw that is was now about 7:30, and decided it may be a good idea to get Kathy ready for school.

            He walked up to her door and knocked lightly, surprised to receive a, “come in,” in return. “Kathy, how long have you been up?” She shrugged in response. She was looking out the window and down the street to the corner where Sara had gone. Odd for an eight-year-old, Ethan thought to himself. He walked over next to her and crouched down, “Are you ready for breakfast?” She only nodded her head in response, still staring out at the corner her mother had disappeared around. “Kathy, are you okay?” She nodded her head again, this time turning to him with a smile. “Okay, what do you want to eat,” he asked her, picking her up.

 

“Pancakes!” she exclaimed.

 

“But-” he started, only to have her place a finger over his lips.

 

“Pancakes” she whispered, giggling to herself.

 

“Oh alright,” he said, sounding exaggeratedly defeated.

 

He walked down with her to the kitchen, setting her down at ‘her seat’ at the dining table, which she had claimed at random a few weeks ago, and started getting ready for the mess he was being ‘forced’ to make.

 

“Daddy, can I watch TV?”

 

“Sure you can,” at which Kathy stood up and practically sprinted to find the remote. After finding it she flopped down onto the couch and turned on the television. She turned it to what he presumed to be SpongeBob, though he wasn’t actively listening, focusing more on making their breakfast. “Kathy?”

 

“Yes, daddy?”

 

“Do you want chocolate chips in yours?”

 

“Yes, please,” she answered, though he could tell she thought the answer was obvious.

 

            He finished making their breakfast and turned around, surprised to see her already at the table, and the TV off as well. What did Sara say to her earlier? He brought her food over first, along with a drink, and went back to grab his own. “Anything exciting happening at school today?”

 

“We have show-and-tell today,”

 

“Do you have something to take?”

 

She nodded, smiling, “Mama gave me one of her cameras and a bunch of pictures to take.” Her eyes went wide for a moment, and she covered her moth with her hands, staring up at her father.

 

“Is that what Mama asked you to keep secret,” Ethan asked, getting another nod in response. “That’s a weird thing to keep secret, don’t you think,” this time getting an oddly relieved shrug in return as Kathy resumed devouring her pancakes. Why would she ask her to keep it a secret? He put the thought at the back of his mind and looked over at the clock, and it was now almost eight. “All right, time to get ready.”

 

“M’kay,” was all she said, standing up and taking her empty plate and cup over to the counter by the sink. She turned and hurried up the stairs to get ready. He heard her shower start and eventually stop around 8:15. About five minutes later he heard her call for him, “Daddy, can you dry my hair please?” She still didn’t like the idea of using her mini hair dryer by herself. He went up and came back down a few minutes later with her, fully clothed and hair dried. At the base of the stairs however, she stopped, turned around and ran back up to her room, coming back down with Sara’s camera around her neck and a few photos in her hands. As she was coming back down he noticed she had changes into pants and a long-sleeve shirt.

 

“What made you change your clothes, Hun?”

 

“It’s raining,” she said plainly, again as if it were obvious. Ethan turned and opened the door and sure enough it was raining fairly decently. He went into a nearby closet and grabbed Kathy her boots and jacket and handed them to her, then grabbed a light jacket and an umbrella for himself.

 

“May I escort you to the carriage,” he asked, holding out his hand. Again, she only nodded, then took his hand. She’s being very quiet today. Sara must have said something to her. He opened the door and extended his umbrella, then walked Kathy to her side of the white SUV with her car seat. “In you go,” he said, helping her up into the seat, Kathy buckling herself in quickly. Ethan walked back around to the driver’s side door and closed his umbrella. He got in and turned on the car, making sure that the A/C was turned a little on the warm side, then backed out of the driveway. His mind going back to his dream from last night, he was careful driving Kathy to school.

 

            As soon he pulled up in front of her school, Kathy started unbuckling her seat belt. She stood up in the car, leaned forward, and hugged her father from behind, quickly saying, “love you, Daddy,” then picked up her backpack, her mother’s camera, and the handful of photos along with it. Ethan unlocked the doors, letting Kathy to jump out and shut the door, and waved after her when she turned to look back at the car. After he left the school, he went home to quickly grab his laptop, then headed for the freeway, mentally preparing himself for the longest and most boring hours of his day.

            His client today was another that didn’t realize they had a product very similar to their competitors, therefore it would be very difficult to sell to consumers without something to set them apart, and his client spent the entire meeting trying to justify themselves and their company’s decisions, instead of working with him on a new solution as to what they could do to make their sales better. The meeting finally let out, the client still a bit flustered but more than happy to have made changes and pay Ethan for his work. He had a small amount of time to eat something before his second and last meeting of the day, so he decided to just grab some fast food nearby.

            While out eating, Ethan’s phone rang. His phone told him it was Sara,

 

“Hello?”

 

“Ethan? I’m going to be home a little earlier than usual, probably around 6:30, just thought I’d let you know. We don’t have many people coming through the studio today and there’s only one more appointment.”

 

“Alright, I’ll be sure to let Kathy know.”

 

“Okay, I should probably let you go.”

 

“Wait, what did you and Kathy talk about upstairs this morning?”

 

“Didn’t she tell you Ethan? It’s a secret,” he could hear her giggle to herself a little on the other end of the phone. “Alright, I’ll see you two when I get home. I love you.”

 

“Love you too,” and the conversation ended, leaving Ethan a few more minutes to eat before his next meeting.

The second client was much more willing to listen to his observations and research, and was much less difficult to work with, making it a much better meeting to end todays work on. He got back into his car to pick up Kathy, and though the rain hadn’t picked up much, the wind certainly had.

            He got to Kathy’s school early, which was rare, usually she would end up being one of the few kids left waiting for their parents. While waiting for her to get out of school, his mind wandered back to his dream, the image of being engulfed in fire having been burned into his brain. Hm, burned. He smirked to himself at the wording. Then he heard a knock on the door, turning to see Kathy standing outside the door, holding her hood up against the wind. He unlocked the door and she jumped in quickly, setting her backpack on the seat.

 

“Where’s Mama’s camera, Kathy,” Ethan asked, not seeing it on her person. She unzipped her water-proof jacket and showed him the camera, still around her neck. “Did you wear that all day, hun,”

 

“Mhm, I wanted to carry Mama around with me and take pictures,” she explained, a sweet little smile on her face, making Ethan grin as well as he pulled away from the curb.

 

“Want something to eat? Or do you want to wait for Mama to get home?”

 

“I want to wait for Mama so we can all eat together,” she stated happily, a smile still on her face and her legs swinging back and forth.

 

“Okay, she should be home from work early today, she told me to let you know.” He looked back at her in the rearview mirror, her smile widening at this information. The rest of the car ride was fairly silent, aside from the rain, which had begun to pour harder, and the still-strong wind.

 

            4:30 came and went and Sara wasn’t home, much to Kathy’s disappointment. Ethan told her that the weather probably made traffic a little slow, which made her a little happier, probably thinking it wouldn’t be much longer until her mother came home. Ethan took the time to help Kathy with her homework and spend some time with her watching TV. 5:00. 6:00. 7:00. Sara still wasn’t home. Kathy had given in to her hunger and asked her dad to make them dinner, which they both reluctantly ate. After dinner Ethan had tried to call Sara, but the calls were all immediately dropped, which he assumed were either because of her phone being dead, or because of the weather, which the rain was now pouring down very heavily, enough that the curbs in front of the houses were flooding. 8:00. 9:00. Still no Sara. Kathy’s bedtime came up quickly.

 

“Daddy, where’s Mama?”

 

“I’m sure she stopped at a motel or something because of the rain, Kathy, don’t worry,” almost reassuring himself more than his daughter. “I’m sure she’ll be home tomorrow morning; she is off of work tomorrow after all.” He saw a bluish light shine through Kathy’s window. The thunder rolled by slowly, and Kathy covered her ears. Ethan knew what was coming next.

 

“Daddy…,” she called, looking up at him, obviously scared of the thunder.

 

“Yes, you can sleep with me tonight, Kathy.” She jumped up from her bed and latched on to her father, letting herself be carried down the hall. Ethan let her down onto his bed, then laid down leaving some space between them. More thunder rolled over and Kathy very quickly closed the gap between them, burying her face in his chest. She didn’t move from that position as she fell asleep, leaving Ethan alone with his thoughts, again thinking back to his dream from last night, wondering what it all meant.

Author's Note

Alright so, first chapter of my first story. Not sure if anyone will really see it to be honest, but any feedback at all would be great. There will probably be some grammar errors. I'm mostly concerned with character interaction and whether I'm dragging out descriptions too long or not.