Morning Routine

 People were screaming and crying all around me, I had blood covering my hands as I kneeled on the cold floor. Looking through my spread fingers I could see the white linoleum floor with more blood pooling from the body in front of me. The stench of urine hit my nose as I lost control of my bladder. A pair of black boots entered my sightline at a slow measured pace, the right foot stepped into the pool of blood that I had been focusing on. Tears began to flow as if the boots stepped on something precious to me. 

 "Damn, you are one fat kid, what's the matter, can't run any further? He he, did your parents leave you behind because you were slowing them down? Or is this your mommy's blood I'm standing in?" 

 I looked up and saw a man wearing a mask with a skull pattern on it. My eyes shifted away from his face as he brought his rifle up to his shoulder. My time playing Call of Duty allowed me to identify it as an AR 15, my eyes focused on the dark hole of the barrel and waited for the flash that would tell me I was dead. 

 "One more dead white boy for the cause!" As the man spoke, I closed my eyes and heard a loud bang.

 I jolted awake and stared around blankly as I didn't recognize my surroundings. My pulse thundered through my ears and sweat ran down my body. Taking some deep breaths, pushing down the panic, I began to focus and remember where I was. I looked at my phone and saw the time was just after 4am, I pulled on a pair of shorts and made my way to the bathroom as quietly as I could.

 Closing the door, I turned the light on and hovered over the sink staring into the mirror there. My sky-blue eyes were bloodshot from the tears they shed during my dream. My face was all sweaty, so I turned the faucet on and splashed the cold water on myself in hopes of clearing the last of the dream from my thoughts as much as removing the sweat and tear stains from my face. Looking around the bathroom I realized that I would be needing to share this one bathroom with Bella and Charlie. "This is not going to be fun." Realizing I said that out loud I just shook my head and used the towel to dry my face and decided to start my day. 

 Trying to be as quiet as I could in a strange house, I went to my room and put on my morning workout jumpsuit I had previously reserved for deep winter in Phoenix. Making my way downstairs I turned on the kitchen light and found the skillet in the bottom cupboard. Frowning at the dust that covered it I quickly washed it and placed it on the stove. As I opened the fridge to pull out the eggs, I saw Charlie stumble into the kitchen covering himself with a new looking bath robe.

 "You ok Thomas? It's awful early in the morning."

 "Yeah, I'm ok Charlie, bad dreams. I decided to get up as my alarm would be going off in a half hour anyway."

 Charlie chuckled, "Took me a few minutes to remember I had you guys here, thought someone broke in. Wait, you usually get up this early?" 

 "Yeah, got to get my morning workout in or my day feels wasted. I will have to do a bare bones workout until I can find a gym. You want some eggs?" I offer as I pull out my usual three egg pre-breakfast starter. 

 "Sure, I'll take one. Since I'm up this early, maybe I can get some fishing in. Should we wake Bella up for breakfast?" 

 Breaking open the eggs and starting them cooking I just laugh at Charlie's suggestion. "I'm not touching that door with a 10-foot pole this early in the morning. She is not what you would call a morning person. Besides, this isn't breakfast, this is my pre-workout meal."

 Charlie just smiled at my comment. "If you are looking for a workout spot, I can offer the gym at the station. Not sure you will find another place open this early in town. I can let them know you will be there."

 "That would be great Charlie, I will find it during my morning run. I'll also scope out the best route to school while I'm at it." As I was cooking, I started to stretch out my thighs and calves. As soon as the eggs were done, I put them on plates and quickly washed the pan as I waited for the eggs to cool off enough to eat.

 Getting the eggs down quickly I left the house and pulled up the hood against the drizzling rain and started to run. 

-(Charlie POV)-

 After Thomas left, Charlie was sitting at the table still working on the egg in front of him. He stood up and started his coffee machine and thought to himself. It's been three years, and he is still having nightmares. He had heard Thomas calling out for his mother in his sleep, it had startled him awake after years of being in the house alone any noise did. Going through that at such a young age it's no surprise he didn't like being in crowds. First his mom's boyfriend pushed him to the ground so he could escape and then he and his mother were trampled by the crowd trying to flee the gunmen. Finishing his egg, Charlie put the plate in the sink and walked to his room to get dressed for fishing. He paused at Bella's door and for a moment he thought about waking her to ask if she wanted to go with him. Thinking about Thomas's reaction to waking Bella, he wisely decided against it. 

 Loading his fishing gear in his cruiser, Charlie planned to park just off the main entrance to the city and fish in a nearby stream. His cruiser parked there would slow traffic even if he wasn't in it. The locals knew it was the car doing all the work, but they would just laugh about the car working hard while their Chief was chasing fish. You can't hide much of anything in a small town like Forks. 

 Charlie was reaching for his cell phone to call Harry Clearwater to invite him to fish and maybe this time he could talk him into sharing the recipe for the fish fry batter he made when it lit up with a work number. "Hey Jeff, what's got you calling me so early? I was just about to go fishing."

 "Hey Chief, we have gotten a couple of calls about a giant man running the streets with a hood on. Old Matilda called it in and said he was lurking around her property. I called the Cullen's because their kid Emmett is the biggest guy in town, but they say it aint him. Think maybe we got someone broke down and looking for help?"

 Charlie sighed at himself for forgetting to tell Jeff that Thomas was going to show up to use the gym. "NO, Jeff. It's my nephew out exercising . He is one of those fitness buffs and before I forget again, I told him he could use the gym there at the station so he will be there after his run. Don't let his size fool ya, he is a great kid so long as he doesn't get riled up. He will probably be a frequent visitor while he is here."

 "Ok Chief, I'll let people know. You sure he is just a teenager? The way folks were talking he could probably give some of those men at the Quileute reservation a run for their money. Going to cause quite the stir at school." 

 "You will see for yourself when he gets there, from what I hear he takes his workouts very seriously. Talk to you later Jeff, tell Ken when he takes over about Thomas and let him know I'll be fishing so only call if it's important. Don't want the ringer on this phone scaring my fish away." 

-(POV Shift)-

 The rest of the day passed with the three new roommates learning to get along as they each did their own thing. Thomas found the gym at the police station to be barely passable and planned to use his own money to pick up some better plates for the bench, and the curl bar was bent so it needed to be replaced. Still, it was nice enough and both officers Jeff and Ken seemed like nice guys. It was weird to hear that there were only 2 deputies and one chief for the town, but Ken said they could reach out to the park rangers if needed, other than that it was an hour's wait for someone from Port Angeles. 

 "You're a long way from Phoenix Thomas," he spoke out loud as he ran a couple more miles after his evening workout. As he passed the hospital, he caught the scent of something sweet in the air. The smell caused his nose to crinkle, and he sneezed. For some reason, his instinct went into overdrive, and he became hyperaware of his surroundings. He was on edge more than normal but didn't see anything near him. Thomas decided to go with his instinct and head back to Charlie's to get ready for his first day of school tomorrow.