With a 'woosh', Alex woke up drenched in sweat from head to toe and shivering slightly. The sleep yet again had been unforgiving to him.
"Fuck me…" he said while catching a breath through his nose and releasing it by the mouth.
Reaching his hand toward the nightstand on his right, opened it and took from it a broken pocket watch.
It was a broken golden pocket watch. It had a broken glass, and the dial no longer rotated. It also had some engravings on the backside, but Alex didn't know what they meant.
Still, this was the only thing that was left of his parents before being brought to the orphanage, and it brought him warmth.
"Another day, the same nightmare, all the time, every time, will this ever end, or do I have to suffer all my life from this?" Alex said, murmuring to himself, he is no stranger to the nightmare, after all, he has been suffering this nightmare for as long as he remembers.
Still, this did not mean that he got completely used to it, after all the sensations it gave him were all too real, the pain, the suffering, the despair, the sadness, he felt it all, too well, even. It made him feel that rather than being a dream, it was himself going through it, making the decisions, the attacks, taking the slashes, the magic, and ultimately falling to his death.
It made him not want to sleep at all, but the body needed sleep, otherwise, he would die.
This cycle of nightmare and sleep deprivation made Alex rather depressed.
Still, he got up from this rather run-down yet familiar and warm bed, stored the pocket watch on the same nightstand where he had taken it from, and walked to the bathroom.
Through the window, the sun was starting to show the first rays over the mountains, painting the dark sky with a touch of orange and blue, making it quite the view. After arriving at the bathroom door, Alex opened it and walked inside, standing in front of the sink. He looked up and stood face to face with the mirror.
Reflecting back at him was the image of a teenager, 14 years old, with a head full of ruggish brown hair, long enough to hang over his eyebrows and brush the tops of his ears, clearly not cut for weeks. Beneath it, his hazel eyes had a faint roundness to them, their tired look hinting at nights of poor sleep. His face wasn't particularly handsome, but not unattractive either, a modest jawline, a small, straight nose, and lips a touch too full gave him a quiet, gentle vibe.
Alex furrowed his brows, thinking 'I need a Haircut…' and proceeded to look down at his body after taking his shirt off.
Standing at 151cm, he had a scrawny looking body that was in norm for the kids in the orphanage, with the exception of one. With slight muscles from all the exploring he did around the forest at the outskirts of the village.
After finishing taking off his clothes, he took a shower and started to get ready for the day by dressing up, brushing his teeth, and washing by hand his only set of pajamas so they would be already dry by night.
Exiting the bathroom, the first thing Alex did was open the same window he saw when going to it, and while watching the sun already peeking over the mountain, he hung the pajamas on the window frame.
Catching a breath of the spring air, Alex turned to the left and went to the bed. He calmly made it, and after that, he sat on it with his thoughts going back to the dream.
" What is the reason I'm always dreaming the same thing?" Alex wondered the same thing he had many times before. He stopped paying attention to the things in the dream long ago, but this did not stop him from suffering because of it.
This time around, though, something caught his attention in the dream, a painting in a chestplate.
Alex reminisced on it, focusing his thoughts on the place in the armor where he saw a symbol with the form of a red hand with a black eye in the palm, each fingertip ending in a flame, and from the bottom, what looked like blood trails attached to the end of the hand, giving the armor an ominous and evil feeling.
While he was thinking about that, suddenly a noise came from the door of his bedroom, 'knock, knock', the knocking brought Alex back from his thoughts. Looking up, he saw the door opening slowly and a woman peeking her head inside.
"Alexander?" called the woman by his full name.
"Ah, early bird as always, eh?" she said with a slight smile on her face, seeing him awake.
" Breakfast is almost done, so do me a favor and go wake the other kids, please."
Alex guided his eyes to the woman who had already gotten into his room.
She looked around 30 and had black hair that streched a little past her neck, a pair of black eyes that decorated a well kept face, with the nescesary amount of fat on it, a slightly pointy jaw and slightly thin lips that she fulled artificially with the use of pink lipstick, standing at 165 (5'4ft) she was dressed in a white skirt with yellow flowery print that reached her knees, with a thin body and slight ample bosom she gave a motherly vibe that made kids like her and trust her.
"Yes, Mary." he answered, which earned him a smile and a thanks from the woman before she turned around and left.
Alex gave the symbol in his dream a last thought before putting on his shoes and getting up.
He walked through the door of his room and turned to the left, and walked to the next door. He woke up the boy in the room before leaving and going to the next room, repeating this process several dozen times.
He was used to this since Mary always asked him to do it, in part since he was one of the oldest here, and in part because the nightmares made him wake up the earliest compared to the other children that slept like logs until someone woke them up, Alex in this case.
The last room he walked in last, though, was special since it was the room of his best friend, Marc, so Alex opened it slowly and reached the bed where Marc slept like the bear he was, bare-chested and unfazed by the morning cool. Alex looked down at him, raised his right hand to the air and… *SLAP*.