What’s happening to me?

Chapter 2.

Hazel woke up with a killing annoying headache. It wasn’t painful, just annoying. She couldn’t understand her dream, she couldn’t even understand if it was a dream, it felt too real.

The fact that everything was repeating itself made her doubt everything. Even her mom woke her up the same way she did in the dream. She decided to call it a dream for now.

When she tried to move on and went to ask her brother to take her suitcase to the car, he responded the same way he did in her ‘dream’, that’s when she realized that something was happening.

What if it wasn’t a dream? What if she had actually died and come back? She kept asking herself every possible question. None of it made sense.

For a moment, she wondered if she was in a final destination movie; she laughed at the thought, though. She had a bad gut feeling; she wanted to stop her family from boarding that plane; she didn’t want to die again if that was the case.

Before she had a believable cause, they were in the car to the airport. Halfway there, her eyes lit up with an idea. She bit the inside of her cheeks until her eyes started tearing, then she started sobbing.

‘Mom, Hazel is crying’ said Steven the moment he heard her.

‘Honey, what’s wrong?’ her mother turned to her

‘I don’t know, but I have a sharp pain in my stomach’ she lied as she cried.

Her mother looked at her dad and shrugged.

‘We are taking you to the hospital’ said her dad before he turned the car the other way around.

Her plan worked.

‘So she’s fine now?’ her father asked the doctor for the second time.

‘Yes, we ran a couple of scans, and there’s nothing wrong with her’ said the doctor again, assuring him.

‘I swear I was in pain. Why would I lie?’ she said, looking at her dad, lying again.

‘I can’t believe we missed our flight again, at least this time it wasn’t my fault’ said Steven annoyed.

Her dad stared at her angrily. She felt her soul leaving her body; she had never seen him that mad.

‘Come on, when Steven did it, it was fine, but when I do it, it’s not?’ she laughed, dropping the act.

Her father didn’t say a word.

‘The difference is that, when I did it, it was funny. I didn’t fake dying just to get attention. You scared the shit out of mom and dad’ said Steven.

She didn’t feel bad about lying; she trusted her gut and couldn’t tell them the truth, they would have never believed her.

As they were checking out of the hospital, they heard one of the nurses gasp loudly.

‘Oh no’ muttered Hazel under her breath before she turned around. When she did, she gasped as well, not believing her eyes.

The headlines of the news said: ‘FLIGHT 109 CRASHED ON ITS WAY TO FRANCE, AUTHORITIES ARE WORKING ON FINDING SURVIVORS AND THE REASON THE PLANE CRASHED’.

She took a step back, falling to the ground, not believing that her dream almost became her reality.

They drove back home shortly after seeing the news. Her parents thanked her for indirectly saving their lives, not knowing that she did it on purpose.

‘How about we watch a movie, let’s have a family night’ said her mother eagerly, happy that they are all alive?

‘I want to watch Home Alone’ suggested Steven.

‘Home Alone is it then’ agreed his dad quickly, wanting to sit down and process the day.

‘I want to take a shower instead’ said Hazel tiredly before making her way to her room.

She took a quick shower then a nap; she felt emotionally empty and exhausted.

2 hours later, a burning smell woke her up. She thought she had let her straightener plugged in, but the smell was coming from downstairs. When she opened the door, burning flames filled the stairs. She could not descend.

She knew it was too late for her family, so she returned to her bedroom, wanting to escape from the window. Before she reached the window, the flames had caught up with her, dragging her in, eating her alive.

Moments later, she woke up in bed, the cereal box, the milk; the bowl and the spoon were by her side.