Beep beep
The alarm jolted me awake as I squinted at the bright sunlight that pierced through the curtains. I lay still on my bed, staring at the white-painted ceiling and dreading the pending schoolwork I had to do this week. I yawned as a series of knocks on the door signaled that it was time for breakfast. I dragged myself out of bed and got ready for the day.
As I walked down the stairs, the aroma of honey tea and buttered pancakes filled the air and made my stomach growl. My mother greeted me with a smile and motioned me to join them at the dining table. My father was absorbed in the newspaper and his black coffee, as usual. My two older brothers were eating and teasing each other, earning a scolding from my mother for their bad manners. The radio was playing my favorite classics in the background. I took my usual seat by the window, which offered a view of the front yard.
It was a normal, peaceful morning. But something felt wrong, I thought as I looked outside. It was too sunny and too quiet. I shrugged it off and reached for a pancake. I took a bite and immediately spat it out. It tasted like dirt and something worse. I looked at my plate and saw white maggots crawling all over the pancake. They were on the table, too, and on the other plates. I gasped and tried not to scream. It must be a prank, I thought, one of my brothers' sick jokes. I felt cold sweat on my forehead and my heart pounding. I turned to face my family, hoping they would laugh and reveal the trick. But they didn't. They were dead. Their bodies were rotting and decaying as if they had been dead for a week. My mother's bloodshot eyes were wide open, staring at me. My father's body was slumped over the table, and his coffee spilled. My brothers' limbs were detached from their torsos, lying on the floor. I jumped up, shaking and sobbing. I pinched and slapped myself, hoping to wake up from this nightmare. This can't be real, I whispered, this can't be real. My eyes began to blur as I looked over the cold lifeless bodies of the people I loved.
I stumbled towards them, trying to put them back together. I grabbed Father's body from the table and made him sit comfortably. I gathered my brothers' arms and legs and put them next to their bodies. Finally, I reached for Mother's face, and with shaking hands, I closed her eyes and whispered so tenderly while tears streamed down my face; I love you, Mom. I looked up, feeling like the world had ended. And then I realized, it had.
I ran outside, hoping to find help. I screamed and shouted, but no one answered. The street was a scene of chaos and destruction. Buildings were collapsed, cars were burning, people were lying dead. The sky was dark and gloomy, and the air was thick with smoke. The world was on fire, and there was a huge hole in the ground. I was the only one alive. I fell to the ground, feeling a sharp pain in my chest. It was then when I found out I was bleeding, a shard of glass had pierced my heart. I couldn't breathe, I gasped for air, as if I were drowning. As my vision faded, I heard a familiar sound in my ear.
Beep beep
With heavy breaths and a thumping drum of my heart, I opened my eyes only to find out I was right back in the soft comfort of my bed. As if on cue, a series of knocks on the door can be heard telling me to come down and eat breakfast. It was all a dream. A horrible, horrible dream.
Author's POV
I wrote this piece for a subject activity in the last days of February 2024.
What inspired me to write this piece?
I guess I could say that it stems from the thought of losing time. Sure, a day can go as usual with nothing going on but what if it's the last? Growing up I knew by heart that life is unpredictable, and it does not always end in cupcakes and rainbows. The story I've wrote can be interpreted in various messages, perhaps one could read it as it is, a terrifying nightmare but it could also mean in reverse, what if the world already ended once the people you've cherished the most is gone before your eyes and the hopeless dream you are making is the reality you wished to live in the present? I do not mean to be a pessimistic person, but I do like twist and turns, the unusual tragedies, the vivid realities and most of all the thought-provoking insights and what ifs. Thus, from various plots from cutesy jeepney romance and a dystopian time travel reality, I have decided to trust my instincts and wrote the story on the whim of the emotions I've felt at that moment.
This is about the main message or lesson I hope my readers to take away.
As we grow older, we tend to disregard the little things in life. Of course, who wouldn't. We are too busy to reach our destination and we do not want to get left behind the fast-phasing days of time. When we look left to right, we find ourselves comparing to the achievements of others completely forgetting that we all sail a different ship. And along the way, we forget the very reason why we need to ride the waves and reach our goals in the first place. We lose track of time and wake up realizing that it's already too late. Regretting the days in which you could have done more to be with people you love while reading a funeral speech, it is a different kind of grief. I want people to realize and prioritize what they deemed important in the present so that they won't have regrets later on. After all, a moment only happens once no matter how mundane it is, but it is yours to remember- a treasure unlike any other.
How did I come up with the characters and their personalities in this piece?
I have somehow related the main character to myself in real life. In all honesty, I have always been jealous of families sitting together to dine for a meal. I believe such acts may be normal for other people but for me it is something far from ordinary. I tend to make those rare days when we are all together, special. I would not say that I have an estrange relationship with my parents, but I was born into this world craving the love freely given that others experienced. We are not the vocal type; we express through actions that is why if one day if I lose the chance to tell them not just through actions, I think it would be the most regretful decision in my life. Therefore, I could say that my characters are a part of me that may or may not be known to others. They depict my fears, insecurities, hopes and dreams in which I truly believe is what makes the story close to reality.
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