Chapter 1: Family

Tick! Tick!

"Ah... Um"

Tick! Tick! Tick!

A young man was sleeping with a thin blanket over his body. Instead of a sound sleep his face was covered with sweats. He was sometime frowning, sometime groaning in pain all the while mumbling something inaudible. He seemed to be in pain. He was rolling from one side to other side of the bed. Slowly he started breathing heavily, his groaning intensified but suddenly his eyes opened, his body jerked off and he sat with sweat drenching his body and breathing heavily. Tears were rolling down his cheek.

"Huff!...Huff!"

He took a deep breath and tried to calm down from all the pain, his heart felt heavier and he was having difficulty breathing. He tried to steady his breath but could not. It seems whatever happened in the nightmare was a part of his life, a part of his past which left a deep scar inside him. Beside his heavy breathing and sound of the second hand of the clock his room was devoid of any sound, it was dark, due to the lack of illumination no one could tell how the room looked. But a dim light passing from his semi closed window illuminated the empty bear bottles that were all over the room along with some trashes that were not properly managed.

After a while the boy tilted his body and pressed a button beside his bed. As soon as he pressed the button, a light bulb flickered on the ceiling and the room was illuminated with a white light. Due to sudden brightness he squinted his eyes. His eyes were red along with black circle around them, result of countless days of lack of sleep. One would think maybe he was a person who worked hard during nights so he was like this. But the bear bottles, trashes and torn papers surrounding his double sized bed spoke something else.

Along with his dark eyes, his hair was disheveled and the thin blanket that was trying to cover him was slightly raised from his abdomen implying that he was not into physical exercises.

Groaning he stood up and prepared himself to wash. Even though his room was not clean, he himself had to keep clean, in a while he will have his breakfast with his family and after that work was on its due. From sudden nonchalance about the matter related to nightmare, it seems it was his another regular day or he simply didn't wanted to think about that. Dragging himself with towel over his shoulder, he made his way toward his bathroom which was attached to his room.

After about an hour, a boy with dark hair reaching his neck, brown eyes and small round belly which covered his well toned abdomen made his way toward his cupboard which was facing the bathroom. He changed himself into a causal outfit not too tight and not too baggy, this outfit would have made him slim if not for the fat neck. He had a relatively average face and he looked a lot better than when he was sleeping. He glanced at the clock on the study table that was beside his cupboard.

"Hmm! Its thirty past seven. I woke early than other days."

Nodding to himself he made his way toward kitchen to join his family for breakfast. On his way he opened his phone which had cracks like spider web all over the screen and one could barely identify what was in the display. But for the youth it seems it was a type of filter rather than a problem. Maybe he had developed his senses to a level where normal phone would cause him discomfort.

He opened a web browser and started reading web novel in a pirated site. He was a huge fan of novels with fantasy, magic and cultivation genre and his favorite was of 'system' genre in which a system gave protagonist everything just by being alive. It was fun to read with a over powered main character and a lot of face slapping. Sometime he dreamed of becoming that person from the novel. Even though he loved his family he could not help but dream to leave for that place.

He even dreamed that one day he was transported to another world, and with good foundation he slowly but surely got powerful. All the beautiful ladies were in his arms. Whenever he walked outside people respected him and when he achieved the supremacy, he returned to his home world at the time he left. He then with the help of his magic power cured his mother from her illness, he then started his own business and became the richest person on earth. Whenever some gangster tried to find trouble with his family and his loved ones, he beat them and lived his happy life.

But all that was nothing but a dream, a dream of someone who wanted to work hard, wanted to be better, wanted to provide for his family with all aspiration and motivation but all that thought would exist in his mind for a moment and then he would continue doing what he was previously doing.

....

His house was not very big, with only four bed rooms, a kitchen and a main hall. Even though it would take less than a minute to reach kitchen, he delayed by walking like a turtle because he wanted to finish current chapter of a trending novel that he was reading.

Finally after some time he arrived at his destination. He made himself comfortable in one of the four chairs around the table at the corner of kitchen. He closed his phone smiled slightly and greeted his father, mother and sister. Even though he looked like a good for nothing person, he still loved his family from bottom of his heart and behaved accordingly.

His father and mother nodded to his greeting whereas his sister replied him with a sweet voice. He patted his sister head who was sitting beside him while his mother started placing a couple of sandwich, a omelette and some fresh salad over his plate. She also poured him a cup of coffee.

"Ask If you want refill after you finished!" his mother said in tender and loving voice and continued with her breakfast.

"Okay! Mom"

They all started eating their breakfast in silence. Although for most it would seem awkward but for them it was a peaceful morning. His father was not a talkative person although her mother liked to talk she didn't. His father believed that one should not talk while they are eating so every time they were eating either their breakfast, lunch or dinner they would remain silent. Once all of them were finished they would share some of their thoughts with each other. They would laugh and weep together in happiness and sorrow. If someone other than their family were to witness this, they would feel this family was very happy and content with themselves. Most may even envy them.

They were friendly with their neighbors and helped them whenever they could. Everyone in their society knew they were kind people. If you were to go there and ask their neighbors.

"What do you think of the Smith's family?"

They all would have the same answer.

"They are small but happy family. The father John Smith is a hardworking man, he is a product manager in a nearby local company even though they don't provide like a international company he has enough to support his family and enroll his son and daughter to good school, the mother Jessica Taylor Smith was a teacher here at our 'Lockwood School' but few year ago she suffered from throat disease due to which she had to quit her job and since then she had been at home, the son Kelvin Smith is a very good boy but he suffered from a heavy pain in his heart a while back, many believed that he would not be able to recover from his trauma but he proved everyone wrong, he is working hard and I heard he is preparing for his further studies and the sweet daughter Ellie Smith, she is a beautiful flower of Smith family. She is the Ace of her class although she is in only grade 10 if she continued like this she would sure have a great future. Mr and Mrs Smith sure are lucky, their children will soon provide for them and both father and mother can enjoy their life of retirement. Sigh! If only my children were like that, if only my family was that happy and content. But we can only dream and have to live with what god bestowed to us. SIGH!"