Baby, it’s cold outside.
Nightmares weren’t all the same, and they almost never ended in similar fashion as they did on the big screen. When his brain felt as though it had tormented him enough, he didn’t shoot up in bed with a scream. He didn’t gasp for air or clutch his chest or even drip sweat on his already damp sheets. When Nico MacKeltar was finally able to escape his nightmare it was a slow ascent to the conscious realm. His heart wasn’t racing but each beat felt as if it would crack his ribcage and the remnants of the dream felt heavy in his chest. Even in his waking state, he could still hear the way the engine ticked as gasoline puddled around the overturned car.
Rolling onto his side, Nico grabbed his pillow and folded it, stuffing it back under his head as his eyes focused on his phone. There was just enough light coming in through the window of his Queens home to make out the shapes of his surroundings. He picked up the electronic device to check the time, unsurprised at the early hour. That was the first time he realized that the sound he thought followed him out of the nightmare was actually the weather outside. Flattening out onto his back, he stared at the ceiling as the nightmare played against the white surface. He knew better than to close his eyes or try to turn away, it was like a projector that didn’t need a special screen to taunt him.
Nico watched in silence as his family’s car traveled down the road, his traitorous mind taking creative freedoms to fill in the parts that he slept through. He watched as the sleeping face of his eleven year old sister filled his field of vision. She looked so peaceful and calm, still an air of innocence surrounding her. His own face was next, the sixteen year old features still soft with adolescence, his skin still free of ink. Before he could focus on his parents on the front seat the car began to slide across a patch of black ice. His father did everything he was supposed to, everything that should have helped them minimize the damage. It would have worked too, if the road wasn’t just too wet. He watched, paralyzed, as the car careened into the cement divider and sent the vehicle, along with the family of four, airborne.
This time Nico did look like someone waking from a dream in a movie, his body shooting upright in bed. He knew what came next, the sound the car made as it continued to try to fire although it was on it’s roof opposed to its tires. He knew the path the sixteen year old would take to drag his sister out of the car when the fire started. He knew where he would pause because the pain of doing so with a broken arm and leg threatened a blackout. He even knew what thoughts would get him the rest of the way to the ditch before the car exploded. Forcing himself up off the bed, he walked over to the doors that would take him into the yard, throwing them wide. Pacing back and forth, he focused on the spongy feel of the grass under his feet and the tiny pinpricks against his bare skin as the hail landed. 2 AM knew all his secrets.
