3:33 am; Don't go out

Asia woke up drenched in sweat, her heart pounding in her ears. She could barely catch up on her breath. She took off her sleep mask and looked around in the pitch dark room, wiping the sweat off her face, she reached for the lamp by her bedside. As she turned on the light, she realized that her bedsheet was up in knots, surprisingly. She had always been a still sleeper, always slept like a log.

She reached for her phone to check the time. It was 3:33 am. Just as she turned the light back off and put her mask back on, she heard a loud bang at her bedroom door. She sprang up from her bed startled and scared.

"Asia, beta, open the door." It was Mama.

She jumped off the bed, worriedly, wondering why would she come to her room so late into the night.

"Is everything alright?" she said, "what happened?"

"You were screaming so loud. Nightmare?"

"Probably a nightmare. I just woke up sweaty and all, But I don't remember the nightmare, so I'm not scared at all, though your loud banging almost made me cough my heart out in fear." Asia smiled, rolling her eyes a bit.

"Oh okay, I'll go back to sleep then." Mama smiled weirdly with a strange twinkling in her eyes. "I brought you a glass of water thinking that you might be scared" she handed the glass to Asia "Go ahead. Drink up."

"Mama, I don't want to drink water. It's already so late if I drink water then I'll have to get up again to pee."

"Okay then at least keep this glass by your bedside I don't want to go all the way back to the kitchen to put the glass away," Mama said, a little too angrily.

Asia was taken aback by the harsh tone. Also, weirdly. her mother looked very strange. She looked unfamiliar in an eerie manner. Asia couldn't exactly put a finger on what was wrong, but there was something, for sure.

She hesitantly took the glass of water and gulped it down. As she was drinking, something that felt like a snake in the glass caught her tongue and started pulling her tongue down. She dropped the glass to the floor, started screaming, and tugging at her tongue. A blood-curdling scream left her mouth. The pain she was feeling was unlike any other she had ever felt. Her mind started to get numb. She wailed and cried, but Mama stood there smiling a bit, not even moving an inch to help her.

All of a sudden, she felt footsteps approaching. Maybe it was her brother. She looked towards the left to see that her brother and her mother were running towards her. She looked towards her right, stunned and scared, to find that where her mother was previously standing, there was no one. She stopped feeling the snake tugging at her tongue. She looked at her hands, felt her face, and looked down at the floor where she threw the glass, but there were no shards of glass that should've been there.

Her mother and brother tried to calm her down. Her brain started spinning, and she fell to the floor.

Asia woke to her alarm blaring loudly and unashamedly right in her ear. She felt so sleepy, even though she had just woken up. She got up to get ready for college. She chose a simple white button-down, high-waisted blue skinny jeans, and her favorite Air Jordans. Because she felt tired and sleepy, she decided to put a little more than her usual sunscreen and lip tint. Today, she applied mascara and also a bit of concealer to hide her dark circles. Asia had always been a no-makeup makeup kind of girl, more like no makeup at all kind of girl. Her flawless, glowing olive skin was her favorite physical attribute. Her almond-shaped deep brown eyes were just like her mother's, but her eyelashes were long and thick like her father's. She stood against the mirror, feeling extremely insecure about her beautiful self. That was very unlike her. She had always felt extremely confident about her looks and her personality, but today the image that was staring back at her seemed hollow and unsightly. Her glowy skin looked oily, her dark brown eyes looked boring, and her lips not enough plump. Her clothes didn't seem to flatter her body.

She had almost never felt like this, not even when she didn't have as many expensive clothes or expensive facials or hair treatments to give her physical attributes a boost. She tied her hair up in a bun and left the mirror's sight.

She went to the kitchen to grab her breakfast-to-go but was surprised to see that her mother was up so early and in the kitchen, talking to Ali as he was eating breakfast.

"I thought you wouldn't go to college today. In fact, I'm stunned to see you up so early," said Mama.

"I am the one who is stunned, Mama. How come you're up so early?"

"I couldn't sleep at all last night after what happened to you. I didn't want Ali to go to school either, but today was his important presentation, and his groupmates' grades depend upon each other's. So he couldn't risk it."

"What happened? My phone that broke? I'm not even that worried about it. Honestly, I was just angry that Ali went through my gallery. Otherwise, all my important data is backed up. No biggie."

"Do you not remember anything about last night?" asked Ali.

"No, seriously, what are you guys even talking about?"

"Nothing. We were just worried about your phone. Maybe you shouldn't go to college today. How will you manage without your phone in case of any emergency?" said Mama.

"But Mama, all the sc---" said Ali.

Mama cut Ali's sentence and said, "Don't worry about it. Asia, beta, can you please stay home today? I'm not feeling well."

"Is everything alright?" said Asia.

"Yeah. It's just a headache. Please stay with me today." Mama pleaded.

"Of course, Mama," said Asia.