I Want An Adventure

It was a normal day in the small chunk of Newtown. Matthew sat on his bed, air pods deep in his ears. He tapped his pencil lightly to the tune, nodding quietly. His friend was skimming a graphic novel he had. He was supposed to help him study, but Matthew paid him ten dollars to let him listen to music in peace for a while. So Matthew's empty homework lay in front of him. untouched. He winced a bit as he heard the stairs creak, knowing exactly who it was.

"Matty!" his little sister, Heather, hollered, practically busting down the door. He turned off the music, and turned to his sister. "What do you want?" he snapped. "Do you want to play make believe with me? Right now Princess Buttercup is kidnapped by Mr. Dragon, and she's going to escape. Oh, and..." she continued jabbering, and in between, Matthew heard his study partner snicker softly, glancing up from the graphic novel.

That's it.

"Is your job to embarrass me?!" he yelled at her, and she paused. "For your information, you're also doing an excellent job at annoying me. Go play your stupid games with Mom or Dad. I'm not a baby anymore. Heck, don't even go to Mom and Dad. You're acting like a baby." Heather's bottom lip quivered, and she fled the room, wailing.

Matthew grimaced, but that must of made his study partner think he was really confident for not playing baby games with his little sister. He turned, expecting to see a huge grin on his face, but...

There wasn't.

He was glaring at Matthew, shaking his head. "Not cool, man. I'm going to leave for now." With a final look of disappointment, Matthew's face twitched into a frown as his study partner left. Ha.

He didn't need any friends.

If he was going to have an adventure, he wanted to have a real one. Not a stupid game with dragons and princesses. He lay down, closing his eyes gently.

***

He woke up in blackness, silence covering the world in a blanket. Suddenly, there was the scream of the monster. That must of been what made Matthew running.

Running, running, RUNNING.

Matthew leapt over transparent obstacles in the darkness, squinting ahead at the blackness. He ran twice as fast - thrice, his legs kicked up air, tripping him now and then. A bead of sweat trickled down his temple.

Run, run, run, run, run.

The transparent platform he was running on slipped closer to the darkness below him, and soon it loosened completely and he fell down, down, down...

He woke up in a jungle. Animal noises echoed through the trees around him. But there was a particular noise that grabbed his ear and yanked it toward it. No, not an animal sound. Perhaps a human whisper..

RUN, RUN, RUN, RUNNING.

Matthew's eyes widened. He was running again. The critter sounds transformed to fierce growls, and once again...

Matthew ran.

Running, running, run run run.

He saw a flash of orange, and a flash of black, but there was a color that stood out most. Green. What predator, especially in a jungle, was green?

The great tyrannosaurus rex answered that question.

It coughed out a loud, vicious roar. A mixture of blood and drool dripped down his greedy mouth, hunger in his terrible black eyes.

Why is there a dinosaur in the jungle? They're extinct!

Run, run, run, RUN.

Matthew tripped over a large brown log, scraping his ankle as the dinosaur lumbered toward him. He crawled into the log, which was surprisingly wide enough for him to fit in.

It wasn't a coincidence.

It took a single blink for Matthew to teleport to a hall of white marble, random lights of color flickering here and there. That scream of a beast made his ears bleed, and he clamped his hands over them. The walls turned to mirror, and in a single one was Heather, shocked, raising a hand at him. Weakly, he rose a hand back. She fell back out of the mirror's sight, and he screamed her name. But he could not hear a thing.

Run before you lose her.

He woke up, panting. He stared at the door, where the crying of Heather was being soothed.

...

Maybe he only wanted the little adventures.

"Mr. Dragon's cooooomiiiing!" he roared, getting up and running down the stairs.