Ominous

If I Should Die Before I Wake

Jeremy Gabriel, the son of James and Vivianne Gabriel, cheered as his father made the final turn into the paved driveway. At the end was a great big house made out of red bricks. Perfectly spaced on either side of the dark red door was a window with white sills. The front porch had a smooth tile patio with a roof above it that was held up by four white columns.

It was much nicer than all of the other houses in the neighborhood, and much older too. Mother said on the way there that it was built more than a hundred years ago. He didn't know houses could last that long. Jeremy was very perplexed, but Mother was always right and knew what she was talking about, so he just went with it.

Father applied the parking brake and turned off the car. He clapped his knees and exhaled deeply.

"Here we are at last," he said. "Our new home."

"Aren't we just going to move again?" Jeremy asked with worry in his voice.

Mother chuckled and looked back at her son and replied, "Of course not."

"We'll stay here forever," Father added.

"Really?" Jeremy said.

"Yes,"  Father assured him. "I can promise you that."

"You see," Mother said, "we had to move a lot so your dad could find a job."

"But I thought the last one was good, you said so."

"Well, yes, but daddy got fired again."

"Why?"

"Because I was too good, so they were scared of me," Father said.

"Really?" That didn't make that much sense to Jeremy.

"Yup," Father replied, looking at him through the rearview mirror, "they were scared that I was going to make more money than them."

"That's stupid."

"It is."

Vivianne was laughing.

"Well, don't be too good at this job," Jeremy said firmly. "I don't want to move again."

Father laughed. "I'll try."

And with that out of the way, Father got out of the car and opened Jeremy's door. Mother went to the trunk to get his wheelchair.

When Jeremy was situated, which had the word Berserker painted in big yellow letters on the side, Mother rolled him towards the front door and Father followed. Jeremy gazed longingly at the front yard and imagined himself playing with Edgar, his brown lab. He then looked at how he only had one leg sticking out of his denim shorts. Jeremy would never be able to play with Edgar, he knew that, but it still broke his little heart every time he remembered he was a cripple.

The inside of the house was like nothing Jeremy had ever seen before. The walls seemed to be made of solid rock. Weird and freaky looking paintings were hung neatly on the more naked sections of the wall. It also smelled a lot like Grandma Helen's house, and that wasn't a pleasant smell. The furniture looked like it was from that weird show mother would watch called Downtown Abbey. Jeremy's dog Edgar barked with joy and ran around to explore the house, not bothering to wait for his owners.

"So, what do you think Jeremy?" Father asked.

"It's pretty," he answered. "But...it kinda smells like an old lady in here."

Mother laughed. "We'll fix that soon, darling."

"Okay."

"Shall we go pick you out a room?" Father said.