The dragon paced around in it’s castle.

Although he walked around in his human form, as his immense dragon form would destroy everything around him with it’s sheer aura, his mere footsteps echoed throughout the empty chamber. His eyes were red and cracked from the lack of sleep and constant stress, his clothes dirty and tattered, and his beard grew wildly.

A being like him should not experience the stress and worry he was currently going through. He had it all: riches, fame, glory, and power beyond the imagination of any mortal or even immortal being. He had crushed rebellions, destroyed countries with just a thought, and wiped civilizations off the map.

Surely, a being like him should not- COULD NOT- worry about anything, right?

Wrong. Very, very wrong.

The dragon was paced around in his castle, deep in thought.

He was thinking, he was stressed. The thought of the anomaly always plagued him, always loomed over his head. “What do I do? What can I do?” he thought to himself. “I can’t defeat him, that much is clear.” he said to himself. “Why me?” he thought to himself as he walked around. “What did I do to deserve this?” he said to himself again. “I… I just want this to be over.”

He felt trapped, stuck, and sick to his stomach. He couldn’t understand. The most powerful being to ever exist, scared. It simply went against his every way of thinking. Whatever this anomaly was, it had to be purged. It had to be destroyed.

An evil smile crept upon his lips.

This anomaly, this error, had to be eradicated

Before it even starts.

{✦}

I hate waking up in the morning.

It was the last day of school, summer break, and my body did not want to get up. My alarm beeped ear-shatteringly loud but I just covered my ears with my pillow. I could still hear a faint 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘱 through the cushy pillow, which was worse than hearing it fully.

Eventually, I got tired of hearing the annoying little sound and decided to act like a normal human: assaulting the alarm with my pillow. I got up slightly and swung lazily at it until it fell to the ground and turned off. I caught a glimpse of the time on the clock: 5:44 AM. I had 2 hours to get ready.

Satisfied, I slumped back into bed and cuddled with my pillow. I was never a morning person, why start now? Besides, I thought, no one would care if I missed the last day of school anyways. Summer was right around the corner, and I doubted my mom would care.

Well, there was one person that cared.

My door was violently kicked down by a tiny little 9 year old girl, my little sister. She stood in front of my doorway with her hands on her hips.

“Ezra, wake up!” she shouted. “You’ll be late for school!”

It was my sister, Chloe, or as I called her: Mama Bear. I don’t know when it started, but as far back as I remembered she was always very doting and motherly. I tried to pretend I was asleep, making my arms and body go limp. But unfortunately, Chloe was already keen on my tricks and could not be fooled.

Out the corner of my eye, I saw her cross her arms and pout her lips.

“I know you’re faking, Ezra. I can see your eye twitching,”

I am a really terrible actor. Even if I was caught, I wouldn’t surrender.

“It’s the last day of school, Chloe, let me rest…” I said as I rolled around to avoid her gaze. “Mom won’t mind if I miss a day…”

Chloe grunted, she grabbed a pillow and began hitting my head with it.

“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!”

I ignored it once again. She wasn’t really doing much anyways; she was a 4'11 . 10 year old girl who weighs 70 pounds I’m a 5’11 , 17 year old with a decent amount of muscle on me. She was persistent though, repeatedly hitting the same spot on my neck with the same amount of force.

I got tired of being repeatedly smacked with a heavy pillow, so I got and playfully grabbed her by the waist. She kicked and screamed, and even bit my fingers, but I just carried her by my side like luggage. You bet I was giggling the whole time she was struggling to escape my grasp.

“PUT ME DOWN!” she shouted.

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I giggled. “Why should I?”

She stopped resisting and folded her arms. “I’ll tell Mom you tried to skip school! You’d be grounded for the rest of your life!”

It was so cute that I tried not to laugh. “Chloe, do you really think Mom would care that her nearly 18-year old son didn’t want to miss a day of school? I could probably drop out and she won’t care.”

That was half truth, half-lie. I had already been accepted into an IT Tech school, finished and got all my credits, and scored an internship. Dropping out now would ruin these opportunities I’ve worked so hard to achieve.

As I walked to the bathroom, I heard Chloe go silent. At first I didn’t think anything of it, but my curiosity got the best of me. Her head was slightly below my front waist, so I tapped the back of her neck.

“May? What’s wrong with you? May!”

As I called her name, I felt her body go limp. It was like holding a life-sized doll. Panicking, I gently set her body on the wooden hallway floor; her eyes were closed and her mouth was slightly open ajar.

A sign of unconsciousness.

“MAY! SHIT!”

What the hell happened to her?! She was full of life, wiggling and biting my arms; now she laid on the floor limp as a corpse. I put my ear on her chest to check her heartbeat, checked her pulse, and realized:

I was utterly fooled.

A sly smile came to my face. She sure knew how to scare a person, I nearly thought something had happened to her. I decided to play her game for a while.

“Oh no!” I said. “I..I think she passed out!” I faked a sigh so fake I thought she’d notice I was acting. “Oh well… I guess I have to-”

I pounced on her like a cat and began my tickle attack. Like I expected, she tried to resist and keep a straight face. That all changed when I went for her most ticklish spot: her chin! Like clockwork, she burst into a fit of laughter and grabbed my hand.

“Stop! I surrender!” she said in a fit of laughter.

I took my hand off her chin and left her a laughing mess.

“I’m gonna go shower and get ready for school now, you happy?”

“Yes.”

I rolled my eyes and walked into the bathroom to shower. I took off my clothes, and took a quick glance at myself in the mirror. I wouldn’t call myself the handsomest dude in the world, but my mom would pinch my cheek and call me a spitting image of her. The only thing I inherited from my dad was his height.

My mom is a very beautiful woman, and I don’t mean it like “Oh my mommy’s the prettiest!”. No, I mean she was a model and ran for Mrs. America when she was young and before she got married. She and my dad met when she graduated university, with my dad becoming an engineer and her becoming a stay-at-home mom.

And I inherited all of it. All of her looks.

I’m not complaining of course, I’d be an idiot to be saying being blessed with beauty is a curse. But once in a while, being mistaken for a girl and having random guys approaching you and asking you out gets very awkward.

And then they ask you if you swing the other way, or if you’re a crossdresser, and all sorts of uncomfortable questions. I’ve learned to be indifferent to it though, as treating it like a big deal only ruins my mood. But I do have a few funny stories from encounters like this.

As I stared at myself in the mirror, I got a feeling of deja vu. Chills ran down my spine as I moved away from the mirror. I wafted the thought away and stepped into the shower. I could feel something in my gut:

Something big was about to start.

[✦]

“There he is! I was wondering if you would ever show up,”

My mom sat in the drivers seat of our family’s Cadillac sedan. Don’t get excited, my family aren’t rich or anything; it was a gift from my uncle to my mom. Don’t get weird ideas, my mom and uncle are like brother and sister. In fact, he introduced my mom to my dad.

My mom parked the car in front of the driveway with her windows rolled down, and I could see her signature smug smile. I walked over to her driver and tapped her cheek.

“What’s with the smile? You look like you just killed someone,”

She playfully slapped my hand and laughed. “Get in the back, I don’t want to be late for work,”

My mom was a nurse, her job site is a couple of miles down the road. Remember how I said she became a stay-at-home mom after getting married to my dad? Well since he decided he was too good for us and left, my mom was forced to find a job. Luckily, my mom was studying medicine while running for Miss America.

I opened the car and found Chloe gently asleep, her head resting on a vertically long package. Like the caring big brother I am, I gently fixed her head so her neck won’t get sore and closed the door. I circled back around and entered the car.

“So Ezra, last day of high school huh?” my mom asked while adjusting the rear view mirror. “Hopefully you don’t slack around the house and find a job,”

I scoffed. “Me? Slack off? Never. I am a hardworking child, I never slack off,”

“Whatever you say, sweetie. But seriously, I want you off your ass and putting yourself out there. You’re nearly out of high school, you can’t be slacking off. Can you promise me you won’t?”

“I won’t, Mom, I promise,”

“Good. And always remember; I love you.”

I didn’t believe it. It was hard to believe it. She said it to me everyday, but her actions say otherwise. I know our little interaction looked like a wholesome mother-son bonding moment, but that’s all it was: a moment.

The relationship between us is rocky.

Her shouting and yelling, always at me, never at my sister. “Why can’t you be more like your sister?” “What’s wrong with you?” Can’t you do anything right?” “You’ll never amount to anything.”

Her constant words of anger and disappointment are what hurt me the most. I know I’m not the best person and I know there’s always room for improvement, but it was harsh. Nothing I do is ever good enough for her. She’s always so angry, always so furious.

And the worst part: she’s like a bomb. Always ready to go off any minute. I can barely joke or play with her, as her temper and mood could flip like a switch.

“We’re at Chloe’s school, wake her up for me,” my mom said.

“Yes,”

Right then and there, I could feel my mom give me an eye. I froze, did I do something wrong?

“Yes-what?”

“Y-Yes, ma’am!”

Her mood instantly switched to sweet and cheery. “Good, wake that little angel up for me.”

That made my nerves shoot up so much I could feel my hand shake a little bit. I gently but firmly tapped Chloe’s cheeks and shook her. She slowly opened her eyes and rubbed them a little bit.

“Are we here?” she asked, a hint of grogginess in her voice.

“Yes, sweetie, get out of the car. Have a good day!”

Chloe nodded. “Have a good day, Mom.”

I helped open the car door as Chloe took her backpack and hopped out of the car and walked towards her school entrance. I watched as she excitedly skipped to her friend group and saw how happy they were to see her.

“Aww, look at that,” my mom gushed. “My little baby has her own life now. They really do grow so fast,”

“Yeah,” I said softly to myself. “They’ll be gone before you know it.”