Dream Vacation

The ashes fill the sky, and so do the flames. The gunfire explodes my eardrums. Only four of us left. I pull my trigger and send the bullets flying into enemies’ hearts one by one. They fall like dominoes until a bullet drives through my forehead. I can’t see anything but blood dripping into my eyes as I hit the ground.

“Aarick…” I hear an echoed voice, getting louder. “Aarick!”

My hands are still holding onto my controller, but nothing moves. Red fills the screen, then the words ‘You Are Dead’ pop up. I feel a push from my right and I remember.

“Aarick yo, you okay?” says Luka, sitting next to me. “You’re dead already?” He is still focusing on his screen and rolls his thumbs around madly. I peek at his screen and he already got a ‘Triple Kill’.

“Damn! Chill!” I click ‘revive’ and join him on the field.

We sprint past the bridge and then the jet shot it down like a children’s toy. In no time, we end up meeting each other at the end of the bridge. ‘Mission successful’ shows up on the screen. We finally beat the mission. With a sigh of relief, I clap my console down, tilting my head to glance at Luka.

“Boi, we did it.” I raise my fist and he hammers it.

“Damn straight, we did,” he says, also clapping his console down.

I feel a hand resting on my head and simultaneously spot another hand on Luka’s head. I know whose hands they are. Luka’s sister.

I grab her hand. “Hey, Morana. Tell me when you’re ready.”

“I’ve been ready for the last hour. Been waiting for both of you to finish,” scratching Luka’s head. “We’re on vacation. Why were you both playing video games?” Morana asks .

“Ouch, chill. We’re done.” Luka stands up.

“Sunny, we were waiting for you.” I also stand up. “Gatlin waited for so long, he fell asleep.”

“Bro, I’m still here.” Gatlin, Luka’s brother, raises his hand, leaning against the door. “Shall we go?”

The sun is beaming, reflecting itself on the ocean as we exit the hotel. The wind is like sweet whispers in my ears and the smell of salt reminds me that I’m on vacation. Morana wants to go to the pizzeria, so to fulfill her wish, we take her there. Anything for the younger sibling.

As I walk, eyes are on me. Locked on, not even a single blink. My chest feels like it’s on fire, walking past them. A poster of the mushroom cloud on the wall. Change it. The poster glitches into a nicer poster of a romantic movie with ‘Two Hearts’ as its title. I focus my mind on the siblings, seeing them happy. I’m happy.