Kennith’s POV

I awoke, shooting up from bed that I twisted right out of it. There was a loud thud as I caught myself painfully, one arm on the floor and the other curled underneath me, against the bed frame. My head hung a few inches off the hardwood floor.

“Ouch!” I exclaimed softly.

“Darling? Are you okay?” my mother called through my bedroom door.

“Yes! I’m fine!” I yelled back.

“Okay! You better not be staying up!” she threatened.

“I’m not!” I assured her.

I pulled myself up with a grunt.

“Okay, Try to go back to sleep then,” she ordered.

Flashes of fear struck at my heart as I lay my head and closed my eyes. My eyes snapped open.

“You know what? Nevermind,” I whispered to myself.

I sat up and silently rocked back and forth. I found that I was faintly shivering.

“In a startling pit of dark

you’ll see what none can find

be careful for you may lose your mind.

A team of three you must take,

For incredibly high you’ll find the stakes.

Rekindle the ire,

light the pyre,

lest you be lost in eternal fire.”

The words echoed in my head, remnants of that horrible dream.

“It’s fine, Keith,” I reassured myself. “No one will come. Why would anyone want to talk to you? Even HER? Why would SHE care?” I murmured.

Kind of sad that my own mother wouldn’t bother to actually check in on me… She hardly goes into my room and rarely ever even talks to me. Well then… What am I supposed to do? I don’t want to see IT again… I shivered and sighed, frowning. I looked around. I don’t have anything to clean… Since I never have anything else to do, I developed a need for neatness. I continued to glance around the room silently.

My gaze fell upon a dust-ridden bookshelf tucked into the corner of the room. I guess I COULD read… Peter Johnson? Haven’t read that in a while… Ugh. I hate doing this, but I have to reread. It was a pretty good book, so I guess it’s fine. I grabbed the book and lay down again.

Reading the first few pages, I began to feel increasingly nauseous. After a while, I raced to the bathroom just outside my door and emptied my stomach. In fact, I ended up coughing up blood when I was finished. Nice… I thought sarcastically. I clutched my aching throat, momentarily silenced.

“Yuck,” I muttered quietly.

As I looked in the mirror, I dimly noticed the blotchy red of my pale face. In addition to that, my hazel eyes were wild and panicked and my black hair was in a ‘stylish’ bedhead. I scoffed. I don’t understand at all how some girls say guys can ‘pull it off.’ I hurried back to my bed and curled up. At that moment, I heard my mother’s door open and her footsteps trailing off down the hall.