Rose's Dream (Mini story 5)
Rose Mini story (1700 words) Enjoy <3
TW: Child Abuse, Domestic violence, body horror, and fire/burning
I woke up in a small bed and morning light shining through the window. The bed feels so soft and warm I barely want to get up, but when I finally open my eyes to see I’m in a room that felt mildly familiar but couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I untuck myself from the bed and sit up on my bed, my head feels fuzzy but before I can think about it any longer I catch the sweet accent of breakfast coming from somewhere in the house. I slid off the bed onto the floor having dropped down a couple inches.
Once standing I walk to the door of the room and reach out to open it and follow the smell down to the kitchen. I try to look around to find out where I am but can barely make up anything. I keep making my way to the source of the sweet smell and eventually find myself in the kitchen where I see a tall woman cooking something on the stove. Her face looks blurry but I feel an immense feeling of love and security when I look at her.
“Mom?” I say without thinking and taken aback by the fact that I would call someone I just met ‘mom’
The lady turns to look at me and gives me a warm smile and leans down to my level, “Good morning sweety, how did you sleep? Did the smell of pancakes wake you up?”
She reaches out her arms at me and picks me up and holds me in one arm and with the other grabs a spatula to flip the pancakes cooking on the stove. Her touch is warm and comforting like the bed I woke up from, is she really my mom? I try to look at the lady but all I can make up is a smile, why can’t I remember her face? What’s going on? My face contorts into a frown of frustration and confusion that catches my mom’s attention.
“Are you okay sweety? Did you have a bad dream?” She looks at me and feel a sense of worry when I look at where her face should be.
“I’m okay mommy, is breakfast almost ready?” I respond as I smile and put my head on her shoulder.
She smiles and tells me that breakfast is almost ready and gently puts me back down on the floor and tells me to go get my dad from his office.
So I have a dad, I suppose I would if not I wouldn’t exist. I walk out of the kitchen and make my way to my dad’s office. I don’t really know who my supposed dad is, let alone where his office is but I walk there as if my legs were acting on muscle memory. Again I try to look around at stuff in the house but everything just looks like generic stuff you would find in a family home, flowers, framed family pictures without faces, cozy furniture.
I make it to a big door and feel chills going down my spine as I reach to open the door and the handle feels frozen cold. I push the door open slowly and peak into the darkroom illuminated by nothing else but the iridescent blue glow of a computer. All I can see is the computer sitting on an office-like desk with an empty rolling chair. The room feels cold as I slowly walk in and towards the computer sitting on the desk, I climb on to the empty chair to try to get a closer look at the computer. Once finally on I looked at the computer and all I saw was numbers and letters typed into a document of sorts that I can’t completely make out.
I look around on the desk and see a notebook right next to the computer and I wheel over to it on the chair and open it up to a page that has been marked with a bookmark. In the pages I see the same numbers and letters as the ones on the computer but in hand writing.
“HEY! What did I tell you about coming into my office?!” A loud booming voice came from the entrance of the room that made me jump and almost fall off the rolling chair. The man runs towards the desk and slams the book shut and picks me up with an aggressive grip on my arms causing a mild burning sensation on my arms.
“Ow, you're hurting me dad!” I say with tears swelling up out of pain and fear.
“What did I tell you about coming into my room without permission?!” He yells at me with his face inches from my face causing me to cry and sob out of fear.
My mom comes into the room running and rips me out of the grasp of the man into her warm comforting hands.
“Don’t yell at her, I told her to come get you, I didn’t know you weren’t in here” my mom yells back holding me close with one arm holding me close and the other holding my head close to her shoulder trying to sooth me.
“Get out! Both of you! NOW!” The man yells even louder in a blinding rage, I cling onto my mother and squeeze my eyes shut causing more tears to flow down my face.
“What is so special with your office anyway? Why is it so much more important than your daughter, than me?” Mom replies back at the man holding her ground, “Is that my work?”
I turn to look at my mom and see her facing towards the computer and the notebook on the desk.
“Is that my work?!” Mom asks again with a more stern and angry tone, “are you stealing everything that I have worked on? My life's work? The only reason that I married you?!”
“Yeah and?! What are you going to do about it bitch? You need me to live here, to be with her.” The man gave my mom a sly smirk and crossed his arms now calmer but still enraged.
My mom does nothing for a second and the man gets close to her slowly when suddenly my mom throws a punch at his face with all her force and in a swift move picks up her notebook and smacks the computer to the floor and runs out of the room to the kitchen as I hold on to her tight petrified with fear.
Once in the kitchen she tries to put me down on the floor but I can’t let go.
“Please sweety I need to protect you honey.” She gently unclutches my hand off of her and puts me on the floor with me still sobbing and shaking in fear. I see as my mom runs around the kitchen and grabs a knife, oil and other chemicals from under the sink. She turns on all of the gas on the stove and puts a knife on a stove fire. The man stumbles into the doorway of the kitchen with blood dripping from his nose and the corner of his mouth.
“I’m going to kill you!” The man screams, spitting blood on the floor.
“Not if I kill you first” Mom grabs the knife and stabs the man in the chest causing him to fall over. Mom then grabs cleaning sprays and shoves them into the microwave turning it on and spills oil all over the floor and the man as she picks me up and her notebook.
“We’re going to be safe, don't worry” she reassures me as she makes her way to the room I woke up in.
“Mom I’m scared” I said with my lips quivering and hands shaking vigorously.
“I know but we’re going to be safe” she reassures me as she frantically runs around the room grabbing clothes, her rapid movements scaring me more. I then heard a mild explosion followed with the smell of smoke and burning leaving me trembling.
“MOM” I call out with a tremble in my voice, “mom I’m really scared please, I want to go!”
My mom picks me up and starts running to the entrance of the house, I can feel her fear and desperation but also her determination.
“We’re going to be okay sweety, we’re going to make it out.”
We get close to the entrance and are about to pass the kitchen when suddenly we fall. I manage to break my fall with my arms and manage to barely get up as I turn back to see my mom laying coldly on the floor. I crawl towards her, the smell of burning flesh fills my nose, smoke makes my eyes water and my throat burns when I try to breathe.
“Mom get up we have to leave” I cry as I tug at her shirt and cry, “mom please let’s get away! Please mom wake up!”
A strange figure appears from the flames in the kitchen, I look at it in horror unable to move.
“Get back here you pest!” The figure gurgles out as bits of fire fall off of it, “it will all be mine!”
It crawls towards me and mom slowly trying to gurgle out words and dropping more burning flesh on the floor.
“Take the book…” my mom calls out weakly reaching out the notebook she took from the man, “take it, learn it, keep it, be free, be happy”
I reach out to grab the book, “mom please come with me!” I cry in pain, “PLEASE!”
The smoldering creature gets closer and reaches out to grab the book as I take it and attempt to get up but my legs are embolized with fear.
“GIVE IT BACK” the creature screams, reaching out to the book.
I start to crawl away but I feel the heat getting closer and closer to me eventually grabbing my arm. The pain of burning flesh touching my skin makes me scream out in agony, its hands crawling up my left arm and each touch fills me with nothing but agony and suffering, tears roll down my face but evaporate as the fire gets closer. I try to pull away but it pulled on me harder and grabbed onto my face. All I can think of is the pain of the fire and the loss of my mother. All I smelled was burning flesh, all I could see was fire, all I could hear was the popping of skin.