He decided to continue on his way, suddenly desperate to get out of the open halls to his next class. Alder ran around a corner, careful not to slip on the polished marble floor, opened the door to the biochemistry room. He shut it quickly, and scanned the room, immediately seeing that it was vacant, except for whispers of fear and old desks.
He walked across the room slowly, towards the door to the greenhouse, where the windows filtered in green, promising life.
“Alder…” He ignored the particularly loud, hissing whisper and opened the greenhouse door. It led down a stone hall, with fire climbing the stone walls, and darkness at its center, instead of yellow. Red and orange tongues licked cracks into the gargoyles, and moved impossibly fast across the fuelless floors.
Alder sat up in his bed in a cold sweat, waking as the flames engulfed him. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, and tried to calm his breathing. His wife, Uchi, stirred next to him. Heavy with sleep, she asked,
“Are you alright, Alder?” She picked up her phone next to the bed, and checked the time. “It’s almost three o’clock in the morning.”
He nodded as he answered. “Yes, yes I’m fine. Go back to sleep, Uchi.” He wrapped his arm around her waist, inhaling in the faint scent of cherry blossoms, as if it would dispel his demons. He waited for her breathing to deepen, then slow, before he slid out from under the covers, and walked to the bathroom.
Quietly, he shut the door, and turned on the sink and light. He stared into the reflection’s dark coffee eyes, wondering how they could conceal such terrors. Alder blinked away his wandering thoughts and splashed warm water over his face. He grabbed a towel before the water could drip off of him, and pressed a grey button on the side of the mirror.
White numbers and letters appeared on the shining surface, prophesying that the next day would be a cool and humid one, with some rain.
Alder sighed and turned off the mirror and light, before walking back into the darkness of his bedroom. For a moment, the sudden loss of light blinded him, and his head was swimming through a void.
The shine of the moon through light curtains slowly revealed itself. After another short moment, the contours and details of the room was clear. He stalked back to his bed, kneeling and feeling under the mattress box until his fingertips met cold steel. Alder quietly pulled out a black box, silently opening it. With the pale light at his back, he traced the outline of an onyx submachine gun.
Alder silently closed the box and slid it under the mattress box. He slipped under the covers, again wrapping his arm around Uchi’s waist, and forced himself to close his eyes to relax. He thought that perhaps he should have taken some melatonin tablets. The darkness took him.
When Alder opened his eyes again, it was the pale grey light that pierced the curtains. He rolled over and looked at his wristwatch. It was nearly fifteen before six.
He swung his feet over the side, and sat with his elbows on his knees and hands over his eyes, rubbing the sand from them. The flames left an icy chill in his fingertips.
Alder rose from his bed, grabbed some shorts, and left his room, stumbling through a dark hallway. He flipped the switch in the kitchen, temporarily staggering himself with the sudden brightness. With squinted eyes, he opened a cabinet and pulled out whey powder. As he pulled more ingredients from the refrigerator, he tapped the front interface, and it sang the long, sad hum of a cello.
He blended a shake and set it in the refrigerator before changing, and walking out the front door. Alder lived in the suburbs of Anglas, far from the hustle and bustle of the city. He was well aware of how much money he could have saved, if he had just stayed on the family estate in the rolling hills. The view was probably nicer too, but then he wouldn’t have the freedom he had now.
He breathed deeply, greedily gulping the crisp air. Despite the night’s forecast, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It would likely change before evening, as the weather usually did. Alder stretched his legs, and began running down the sidewalk. Even though it was the middle of the week, there was no one else outside as far as the eye could see. In a half hour, the sun would begin to shine through the trees that lined the road on the other side, but for now, a low-hanging mist gave the area a sense of immortality. As if the mists of Lostern were there for the building of ancient walls, and would be there for the destruction of man.
Without distractions, Alder began mull over the dreams of before. His mother had told him that dreams were nothing more than subconscious thoughts and random bits of memory. His father, however, told him that dreams were omens and signs of the future.
Submitted March 17, 2016 at 03:09AM by TheMarshallee http://ift.tt/1XvNMv1 WritingPrompts
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