The voice repeated itself over and over again and I started to hear the cries of help in the background that slowly made its way to my ears. Screams were everywhere, even animals were screaming too. The world was in pain. I didn’t know what to do. I just stood there on the backyard staring at empty air.
“I’m dreaming.”
It was the only possible reason why this was all happening. It was all just a dream and nothing more. I went back to my room– looked at the clock pointing its hands at 12 indicating that it was midnight.
“Aaaaaaaaaghh”
The screams continued but it’s fine.
“It’s just a dream.” I reassured to myself. I made my way to my bed and tucked myself inside the blankets, closed my eyes and tried to force myself to sleep.
“Please sleep, please sleep.”
No matter how many times I pleaded myself to sleep, I couldn’t. The screams kept me awake for a long time– then it stopped. But I still couldn’t sleep.
‘chak‘
I heard the door get unlocked. My eyes trembled and opened. I left the bed to look and see who came hoping it was dad and it was dad. It was a dream but I was still filled with joy for I knew that he would comfort me and help me wake up from this nightmare.
“Da-” before I could call out to him, my body felt heavy and my knees trembled and they dropped to the floor. Voices invaded my head.
“I’m tiWhawased ThNoiSesthe toisgownincrazy is msyon okay?”
“Aaarrgh” I screamed in pain. Dad noticed me on the floor all curled up and he ran hastily towards me to check what was wrong.
“Da-” before I could call out, the voices bombarded my thoughts again.
“whatisskayorong oh my god he’s bleewhawtrosn gwdoha tidohaopwhenitn g”
My eyes were bleeding, so were my ears. Blood gushed out from my nose and my mouth and I coughed out large amounts of blood in front of my dad. My dad knew I was in pain. He tried to stay calm but he couldn’t hide his expression of panic and despair. I calmed myself to show dad that I was okay but I knew that I looked like a dead body lying lifelessly on the floor. Dad picked me up from the floor as I stared at him.
I heard some panicking voices in my head, it didn’t hurt and I could understand them.
“What’s happening to my son?!”
“Herald, please be okay”
“Wait for a while Herald, Dad will save you”
“Does this have to do with the ringing sound from before?”
This time I knew, I knew that the voices belonged to my dad. I felt tired and I was relieved I was.
“Now I can sleep and wake up from this dream . . .” I muttered silently to myself and fell unconscious.
————————————————————————————————————
“I can’t go now! There’s something wrong with my son!”
“Do you know that when I came home last night I saw my son lying on the floor BLEEDING. Did you HEAR WHAT I SAID CLEARLY?!? He was BLEEDING for fucks sake! ”
“His eyes, his ears, the-there was blood gushing out of him!”
“His mother is GONE! He’s been alone for so long and you want me to keep ignoring that?!”
I was awake, awoken by dad’s frustrated argument on the phone. I looked at the clock and ‘tick tock’ it said as it told me that it was 8 in the morning. “It wasn’t a dream.” I gasped. I ran towards the bathroom ignoring my dad’s questions of concerns when he saw me. I locked the bathroom and looked at the mirror.
“Herald Booker, born in December 3, 2004. A young handsome 12 year old boy with black hair and hazel eyes that can stun beauties around the world. That’s me right?”
I pinched and pinched myself to see if this was a continuation of my dream or not but I did not wake up.
“Dad, am I dreaming?” I shouted inside the bathroom
“What’s wrong, Herald? Are you okay? Does it hurt somewhere? Tell me.”
“DAD, AM I DREAMING?”
I slammed the bathroom door open to get out of the bathroom and rushed to look at my dad. I stared at my dad to see if there was something wrong. Mark Booker, a 27 year old lame overprotective stinky scientist who wears the same lab coat everyday when he goes to work (and keeps ordering pizza from time to time for his kid to eat, which is really unhealthy and irresponsible.)
“Daaaaaad?”
Dad looked at me with worry and sighed then voices started appearing inside my head.
“I’ll be a good father now.”
“I’ll promise to take care of Herald properly, May.”
I was shook. Dad clearly just looked at me and did not say anything but I heard voices. It was dad’s.
Problem Children 