Thunderstorm

Irritation filled me as Aether set his bags on his side of the room, he smiled eerily, before tucking into bed.

I frowned, creeped out, and reopened the curtains, before stepping out onto the balcony. The moonlight welcomed me like an old friend, enveloping my silhouette in a silver hue. I heard booming in the distance, then a flash of white light.

Another loud noise, then another flash.

Then another.

There was ozone in the air, no rain, no precipitation, but only something much better.

A thunderstorm.

I had loved thunderstorms since I was young, I remembered mother telling me about how I was born during one, just as she was too.

"How long has it been?" I breathed, looking up at the stars.

Another noise, then the white light.

I closed my eyes, wind brushing against me, feeling icy against my skin. When my eyes fluttered open, the first thing I saw was red, red light struck what looked like metres away from me. But I knew, that it was truly miles away.

When I looked down at my hands, they were shaking violently, all my veins were glowing red, throbbing in a painful way. I knew it seemed impossible, but I could almost feel electricity in my veins, crawling up my spinal cord. It almost seemed like a part of me.

"Hello? Alan?" I could hear Aether calling, sounding confused. I turned around, realising that the curtains were not drawn close, and that the windows were actually WINDOWS and were made of glass.

Thankfully it was only my hands that were glowing, and hid them behind my back.

"Yeah?"

"Nah, it's fine, you were so still that I thought you were dead."

"Oh."

"Nevermind, goodnight!"

"Night," I replied, hastily turning away, but when I checked my arms again, they had stopped glowing, and the thunderstorm had stopped too. As usual, the rain began to pour in, as if on cue, directly after the storm.

This time, the rain didn't feel as relaxing as before. This time, the droplets looked like balls of polluted sea water, splashing onto the once dry balcony and roof. I was drenched once more, storming inside, I stomped to my bed, laid down, and screamed internally in my soaked clothes.

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"Mum?" the little boy asked, lying in bed. Bronze lights lit up the room, dinosaur stickers stuck to the wall, crayon scribbles drawn across the area.

"Yes Alan?" Mother caressed his hair gently, smiling kindly.

"Can you sing me a song before I sleep?" he pleaded, snuggling deeper into the bed.

"But I already read you a storybook!" she rolled her eyes playfully, crossing her legs on the wooden chair. I watched the scene unfold in front of me, I felt so confused. The little boy's name was Alan too?

"Please?" he begged, beginning to tear up. Mother panicked and tucked him in, pulling the blanket over him.

"I was just joking, Alan, I will, don't worry," she laughed gently.

As she sang, the world seemed to collapse around me, faintly, somewhere in the distance, I could barely hear the little boy's delighted claps. An immense pain cut through my chest, I began choking up. Suddenly became a lot harder to breathe.

That song...

I heard a familiar, shing! A strangled scream, the sound of a knife driven through someone's stomach, and a haunting melody, sang by a loved one.

I shot up from my bed, my ears ringing.

My vision was blurry, I stumbled around, panting heavily, "My inhaler! Where?!" My hands made contact with a familiar piece of metal, and I immediately brought it to my mouth.

My vision cleared as the once tasteless, boring medicine was sprayed into my mouth. It immediately felt like heaven, still horrible, but heaven.

Aether was awake, he stared at me in surprise, "What happened? You woke me up. It's like, what? 3:00? Really? The ghost hour?" he crossed his arms in annoyance.

"What happened?" I panted, sitting down while spraying the medicine into my mouth again.

"I should be the one asking you that, you were thrashing in your sleep, then you stood up and started screaming for your inhaler," Aether noted, rubbing his eyes furiously, "god, you're still in your wet clothes, you should go change. Before you catch a cold," he pointed at the bathroom.

I nodded, ambling up to the bathroom and closing the door quietly.