Chapter 206: 206. Nightmare

“William, drop your brother to school today!!” a gentle voice sounded.

“Mom!!! A few more minutes, please; I haven’t had a proper sleep in a while.”

Will’s pleas were ignored straight away, and the curtains of the room were opened without warning, bathing William in morning sunlight that fell on his face, creasing his relaxed forehead.

His eyes opened partially, looking at the smiling face of his little brother, who was standing in front of him, closing in on his face near his in an attempt to shock him.

Clearly the attempt failed, and William didn’t even flinch.

William sneered back at that mocking smile. “Tsk, I’ll drop you off on time; go away for now!!” He said, turning over to face the other side of the room, which was a bit shadowed.

He wanted the last bit of sleep in that borrowed time.

“Brat!! Wake up!! Learn something from your little brother; he wakes up early and sleeps early!!” William’s mother complained before leaving the room and leaving the two brothers alone.

William continued his sleep for a few minutes before.

Duck!

Duck!

Ducking sounds, as if a stick was striking the wooden floor, sounded in William’s ears, breaking his peace. The creases of his forehead tightened, and with a hand, William brought the pillow to cover his ears.

Duck!

Duck!

“Miles!! You are such a jerk!! I can’t stand your big brother trying to sleep peacefully.” William spoke loudly, and the ducking stopped, giving him a few moments of peace.

Before he knew something blunt poked his back a bit sharply, making Will yelp.

He jerked off his bed to the other side in surprise; his earlier sleepiness was gone. After falling off the bed abruptly, William stood up from the floor, with bed sheets covering half of his figure.

His sharp gaze landed on Miles, his little brother, who had been poking his back with his cane.

As Miles’s figure appeared in his vision, William rubbed his eyes and yawned; his anger disappeared in an instant when he looked at the frail Miles.

A feeling of protective brotherhood appeared in his heart instead, overpowering the mild situational annoyance.

He always pitied Miles’ frail figure and his special condition that made his brother’s life so hard.

“Ok, let me get ready.” William nodded and turned to enter the bathroom.

“Umm… Jackline had called last night after you went to sleep,” Miles’s voice sounded in William’s ears.

William turned and almost jumped towards his phone on the other side of the bed. He checked the missed calls and saw 15 missed calls from his new girlfriend.

His eyes widened, and then he looked at Miles. “What did she say?”

Miles looked at him with a plain gaze filled with a bit of pity. “She said you should not call her again since she feels that it’s not working out between you two.”

“What??” William’s expression changed for the nth time since he had woken up.

“She said that you didn’t give her enough space,” Miles continued, unresponsive to the meltdown in front of him.

“Bullshit!!” William smacked his phone on the bed and paced around the room in annoyance, as if thinking about the whole situation as a crisis he needed to solve immediately.

Miles looked at his brother and sighed. “I am going downstairs for breakfast; I don’t want to be late again. Otherwise, I will tell Dad to cut your pocket money.”

William glared at Miles for a moment. “Tsk.”

With that, Miles quietly left the room, walking limply with the support of his cane. Meanwhile, William sat on his bed silently.

“Shit,” he whispered to himself.

He had just turned sixteen recently and had finally gotten his first girlfriend; he lacked experience dealing with women, while for Jacqueline, it was already her third relationship.

She had recently started complaining to William about how the lack of experience between them bothered her, but William hadn’t realized that she was trying to hint at a breakup from the start.

It had only been a week since they had entered a relationship.

It was hard to digest for William. After all, he had imagined his whole life with Jackline already.

His grip loosened, and the phone in his hands fell on the wooden floor, making a thud. A few minutes passed, and his thoughts still lingered on his ex; that was until William’s phone rang on the floor, drawing his attention.

The caller ID made his eyes widen.

“Jackline!!”

William muttered and picked up the phone hurriedly; several questions appeared in his head.

Was Jacqueline regretting her decision? Was there some other reason for breaking up?.

Eventually, under the persistent ringing, William picked up the call.

“WILLIAM!!” A hurried and panicked voice spoke from the other side; it was Jackline’s voice.

“William, are you there!!??” She asked in a dread-filled manner.

“Yes!! Jackline, are you alright? Her voice had completely interrupted his thoughts. After all, her voice sounded heavy and panicked.

“William, please save me!!!” she cried.

“I am stuck in the metro station. There are so many monstrous aliens around me. I don’t know what’s happening!!” The voice was low and muffled.

“What monsters? Jackline, are you joking with me right now?” William’s voice flared as he heard her ridiculous statements.

“William, please try to understand I am not lying!!!” Jackline’s voice broke. “People are dying around me!!” she cried.

Before William could reprimand her for the ridiculous prank she tried on him, he heard a soul-piercing cry from the phone, “Aaaaaa!!”

The scream of Jasmine shook his soul, and before he could do anything, the call disconnected with a beep.

William gulped, having second thoughts, yet he couldn’t understand the situation. William tried to open up the news on his phone but realized that the internet was not working.

“What the hell!!” He climbed on the wall and checked the internet router; all he saw were red blinks on every connection point, indicating a massive internet outage.

“Oh dear god!! Was she for real?” he thought.

“Arghhhh!!!!” Suddenly, another scream entered his ears, and this was from her mother.

William’s instincts flared; he burst out of his bedroom and rushed downstairs.

In the living area, he saw his mother sobbing while she held a phone against her ears.

Her eyes were flooding with tears while another sound entered her ears; it was from the satellite television that Miles had just turned on.

He quickly switched to a national news channel, and the figure of a top military general appeared, giving a speech.

“Residents of country X are requested to stay in their homes and not leave the civilian areas at any cost. The military is trying to form protective spheres around these areas, warding off any monsters they can.”

“The appearance of what scientists all over the world are naming ’apocalypse’ was a sudden shock for humanity. At these perilous times where information is limited and humanity is on the brink of extinction, residents are requested to cooperate with the leadership to counter this crisis. Keep yourselves safe and …

Then suddenly the channel went blank. Miles quickly switched to a local channel where a reporter stood outside the local railway station.

“Sources say that an alien portal has opened up inside the premises of the railway station; several weird, never-seen-before creatures have poured out of the portal and are now destroying anything that moves!!”

“The military is trying to contain the monsters; modern arms are being engaged….

Before the reporter could report anything, a massive explosion took place in front of the camera, and only white noise remained on the screen.

At this point, horror and fear were the only things haunting the three of them. William’s mother suddenly came forward and pulled the plug on the television.

With teary eyes and trembling hands, she came forward and put the phone on speaker, and a hoarse voice sounded from the other side.

“William, miles,” the voice called out.

“Father!!!” Miles shouted, and dread settled on William. He realized that his father used to travel through the same metro station where the blast had just happened.

His gaze turned to the phone and Miles’s panicking voice, who right now cried and sobbed, asking about the situation.

Before anything else could be digested by William, a voice sounded from the phone, “William, are you there!!” His father called suffocatingly, as if sharp blades had dug into his lungs, stopping him from breathing.

William came forward and knelt before the phone. “Father,” he called out, heavy and desperate from the sword of realization hanging over his heart.

“William!! I don’t have much time left, my child. The army rescued me, but unfortunately it was too late; I am beyond recovery now. You are the eldest man after me; you have to protect your mother and brother for me. Promise me, my child; I need it to die peacefully.

William listened to those words, and then he looked at his sobbing mother and his little brother who was crying loudly.

This was really happening!! A situation he had never dreamed of; this was now the reality!! It was unbilievable and absurd. Like a dream.

Yes, it had to be a dream.

With a straight face and a lost expression.

Will slapped himself.

Then again, he was trying to wake himself up from the dream.

Then again, then again, then again.

[hos…]

Then again, he slapped again.

“Willia…”

“Wak…”

Then again, then again…

Splash*!

Cold spread on his face.

“William, wake up!!!” Ethan’s voice now sounded clearly in his ears, and with a jerk and heavy breaths, William woke up.

His figure was filled with sweat, and his head was burning.

The cold splash of water that had been thrown over his face and the contrast of his body temperature had woken him up.

He looked around, and the wooden walls of the barrack he was staying in came into his vision.

Ethan, Galeion, and Dino, who shared the barracks, had now woken up in the middle of the night.

Ethan and Galeion stood by his bed, asking whether he was alright.

Dino sat quietly on his bed, witnessing everything cluelessly.

William raised a finger towards Ethan, asking for a minute of breathing room.

With the crack of stiff bones, William sat up on his bed and closed his eyes for a few moments while holding his head, trying to adjust to the sudden change of surroundings.

The Nightmare had felt too real this time.

“Go back to sleep; I am fine,” William said before standing up and leaving the barracks, greeting the cold, moonlit night.

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