Doppelganger

Chapter 1: Nightmare

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock. The ring, which was usually loud enough, was soft, almost muted since I like to bury it under my pillow. It was the only way I could get up early without jarring my other family members up at the break of dawn. I slipped my hand underneath the pillow and turned my alarm off.

It was raining outside. The temperature in the room was a bit chilly so i snuggled back into the covers just to get a few more snoozes. Ah, warm. I smiled and closed my eyes, trying to remember what I had dreamed of last night. It was cosy in bed. Cosier than usual. Too cosy. With that last thought, my eyes snapped opened. It was then that I realised that I was near the edge of my twin bed. A wrong turn and I could end up on the floor.

I flipped off the covers, sat up, turned and frowned at what i saw. Kara, my younger sister, had dominated most of my bed and was on the verge of pushing me out of it. Her steady breath told me that she was still sleeping. She was seven years younger than me but having my parents’ genes, she was growing like a giant beanstalk. With my 5'8 build, fitting us both in this tiny bed was a wonder.

I reached to her and started pushing her across the bed to make room for myself. As I was pushing, my mind wandered to the drama our family had over dinner last night. Kara, thanks to her big mouth, broke all hell loose when she told our parents about my breakup with my fiancée. After telling them all the reasons for the breakup, I was already exhausted to do anything else.

Tight lipped and so pissed about what had happened, I didn't realise that I was pushing Kara too far. She fell off the bed.

I was slightly taken aback by the litany of curses I heard on the floor. I raised my eyebrow when I heard quite a colourful vocabulary I have never heard before even from my most vulgar friend. Honestly, this little lady needs soap in her mouth. If you had to ask, she didn’t learn it from me.

"Why the hell did you do that for?" she screamed after picking herself up from the cold floor. With her brown-reddish hair flaring out of place because of sleep, she reminded me of the lion that I saw on Animal Planet. Another similarity was her roar that could wake up the whole neighbourhood on this cold morning.

"Uh, for your information, your bed is in the room next door." One thing I learnt being in this family was that women can be pretty scary at times. It’s better to be safe than sorry when dealing with them.

Kara's pinched up face gave way to sudden realization. Before she could mask it, i saw the mixture of emotions shown in her eyes. She shrugged and gave a out a sigh. "Sorry to bother you then." with that, she turned and headed towards the door.

"Hold it," I said, grabbing her arm to stop her from leaving. "Do you want to talk about it?" I took my role as the older brother and pulled her back into bed. I still love her, for all the brat she is. She accepted the invitation and curled into the covers.

Nightmare.

Kara only needed to utter that single word for me to understand the rest. Kara had been having nightmares ever since Little Nate was born a few months ago. I heard her sniffed beneath the covers. I racked up my brain to say something which could lighten the mood. If this keeps up, I may end up sleeping on the floors of my own room.

"You know, you are always welcomed to sleep here if you want to," I said. I stole a glance at the bundle beside me. There was no reaction. She was probably waiting for the punch line as usual so I continued. "That is, if you are willing to trade your queen-size bed with this gnome-size one, there will be enough room for us to share without having to push someone onto the floor."

There was a snort coming from beneath the covers. "I hate you, Kevin." I smiled at those words knowing that there was no malice in it. "I hate you too, Kara." I replied. there were no more words exchange as we waited for the rain to stop and the sun rays to peek through the curtains hung over the windows.