A Soldiers Life: Part 2

"Daddy!" Rebecca called as soon as my alarm started going off, "Daddy! Time to wake up!". I sighed softly, wondering if she was going to do this every day. Ever since he had returned from duty, she came up to him every morning to get him up at exactly 8:00 AM. She was only 7, so I suppose it made sense. She was happy to see her father again, and for this, I felt very grateful

"Oh alright, I'm coming, I'm coming" I said yawning, feeling the warm sun coming from my window. Looking around, I realized how plain the room was, almost pure white everywhere. It was almost depressing, so life in it at all. Almost like...

I shook my head. "No" I said to myself "it was only a dream". To hear the words coming out of my own mouth, it sounded more like I was convincing myself. I knew it was only a nightmare, a flashback to my days days of the war, but... It felt so real. Everything seemed as if it was really happening. Like once again, he had no way out but to fight, and hope he didn't get shot.

"...Daddy? Are you coming? I made breakfast" said Rebecca worriedly, seeing that I was staring off into the wall.

"Yes sweetie, I'm coming. You know how I am in the morning" I said with a soft smile, pulling myself together. Rebecca smiled back and ran into the kitchen. She loved to cook, even if she wasn't always the best at it. As she left I caught a scent of something terrible, something burnt, and I sighed. Another round of burnt waffles, on the house.

I shoved my body, which seemed to eager to stay on the bed, off onto the floor. The carpet on the floor was a deep maroon, the kind you could get lost in if you stared at it for too long. It was warm to the touch, like a blanket for the bottoms of my feet. As I walked into the kitchen, suddenly transitioning from the radiating warmth of my room to the cold tile kitchen, I shivered softly.

"I need to get more carpet floors for this place" I complained, moving on begrudgingly to the kitchen table. Rebecca smiled wide, putting the pancakes on my plate and the sight of that warmed me up almost instantly. I smiled back and said "They look really good precious, well done!" In actuality, they were about as black as waffle shaped coals, and smelled like your average burned foods, but she tried right?

Her eyes shimmered with pride, "really?" she asked softly, smiling. "Do you really like them?" I shook my head, taking my first, and very likely my last, bite of the blackened waffle.

"Mm, yeah, they're great! You're going to be a real chef one day, huh?" I love her to death, but I can't lie, she wont get into any waffle houses. She giggled, and chimed in a singsong voice

"No silly, I'm going to be a princess" Once again I smiled "You sure are precious, you sure are" I picked her up by her sides and placed her on my shoulder, walking to the couch in the living room. She never did notice that i didn't eat any more of those waffles. You have to love those short attention spans.

Suddenly, she was pointing out the window, asking curiously "Daddy, what's that?" I looked out the window, laughing softly, but when I saw it, my laughing stopped. Time seemed to slow down around me, I could feel my heart begin to race and I began to sweat. A cold sweat, filled with terror. Outside the window, in the sky, flying downwards miles away, there was what at first seemed to be a very large, floating rock. This was no rock, I had seen it before. This was from my dream, this was-

The ground began to shake powerfully as the ship hit the ground, my whole house seemed to lurch, and I flew from the couch. I don't know what I hit, but I hit it hard, and I could feel the blood, running down my face as my vision, just as in my dream, faded to black. The last thing I remember was Rebecca screaming, then everything went dark.



TO BE CONTINUED