False Awakening

False Awakening 

           

I was standing there—in the middle of Times Square. Rubble was everywhere, and people were running in all directions. I couldn’t move, and my legs were planted into the ground. Dust clouds were starting to surround me when I heard someone calling my name.

“Skylar!” screamed someone.

            I started running in the direction of the voice.

            “Skylar!” beamed the voice again.

            Then I felt arms grabbing my shoulders and shaking me—it was a dream. I sat up rubbing my eyes.

            “Wake up! We’re leaving!” my sister Lilly screamed in my face.

            “Get out,” I screamed back, “And close the door!”

She ran out laughing and without shutting my door. I threw my pillow at it to shut it, but I completely missed. I lay back down and covered my head with my blanket. Soon enough, my mom came in and started yelling at me.

            “Alright, alright, I’m getting up!” I said back to her.

            “The car’s packed and ready to go. We are leaving in ten minutes.”

            We are going to New York for like the fifth time this month, and I really don’t want to go. We go all the time because we are only an hour away from the city. It just gets boring after going all the time. I knew I couldn’t get out of going, so I decided to get up and get ready, pulling on an oversized sweater and a pair of jeans. I slipped on my shoes, and I was out the door.

            My parents were in the front seat talking about the latest episode of Criminal Minds, while my sister, right next to me, was screaming all the songs on her iPod. I decided not to bring my headphones, and I was immediately regretting it. I tried to fall asleep, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen with loud mouth right next to me.

            “Mom, can we stop so I can get breakfast?” I asked.

            “You didn’t eat?”

            “I didn’t have time,” I said back.

            “Now whose fault is that?”

            I hated when she did that. I didn’t answer, and I just stared out the window. She turned around and looked at me, then went right back to talking to my father.

            “What if I starve and die?” I asked, with an attitude. “I’m going to die of hunger, and you aren’t even going to care.”

            My mom didn’t even stop to look at me. She was definitely ignoring me; I mean it wouldn’t be the first time. We were almost to New York City, and I knew this because Lilly yelled that she could see the Empire State building.  She gets so excited, even though, she has seen it plenty of times. She still sat there looking in awe at all of the skyscrapers and buildings out her window.

            We got to the tollbooth and paid, then drove right through with the other five hundred cars. We arrived at our hotel and got out and grabbed our bags while the man took our car to park it. Our hotel was right in Times Square—that is one of the only things that I like about coming here because my parents let me go out by myself.

            “Skylar, would you go get us ice please,” my father requested.

            So I grabbed the ice bucket and walked down to the lobby. I was filling it with ice when someone grabbed my arm. I turned around quickly, just to find out it was my sister.

            “What are you doing?” I shouted at her. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

            “Sorry. Mom told me to tell you that they were going out to dinner, and that you didn’t grab the right buc…” She was cut off by someone screaming to get out of the hotel.

Everyone was flooding out of the hotel, and we had to go with. I grabbed my sister and started running to try to get away from everyone, but it seemed like we were running the wrong direction. My heart was beating so fast, and I kept tripping over my own feet. I didn’t know what was happening, and my sister was hooked onto my arm, crying. I handed her my phone and told her to turn on the radio to figure out what was going on. She was shaking but she finally found the right thing.

            “There has been report that Times Square has been set on fire. The fire is growing rapidly,” the man on the radio had said.

             I hadn’t even thought to look up, and surely, it was on fire. The flames were quickly setting other buildings on fire—it was like a crazy chain reaction. My breaths were becoming faster and faster.                                                                                                          Pieces of buildings were falling, and soon I realized that my sister was not hooked on to my arm anymore. I looked down to my side. She was lying on the ground with a giant piece of glass in her chest. I just screamed and dropped to my knees. Most people were gone from Times Square—except for my sister and I. I didn’t know what to do. My parents are nowhere to be found, and my sister is dead. Rubble was falling around me, as tears streamed down my face.

            That’s when I heard the voice again and sat up in my bed.