"Aren't I allowed to hug my parents?"
"..." His father was momentary at a loss for words, scratching his curly hair, a nervous smile spread out his face. " It's not that you can't, it was just sudden as you haven't done it in a while."
Dre couldn't explain it so he chose to remain silent.
"You aren't even ready. Just yesterday you were so eager to see them." He continued concern highlighted on his face. "Now it's like you don't even wanna go.
If there's something wrong you know you can talk to any of us, right?"
This was exactly what Dre didn't wanna arouse, but this was good timing. If he wanted to prevent their deaths then he only needed to come up with an excuse good enough to cancel the trip right this second.
Hesitating for a second, he pulsed his lips and lowered his head. There was nothing Dre hated more than lying but right now it was necessary.
"I just experienced a terrible dream." He paused drawing circles with his feet. "Now I somehow feel nucious and not traveling anymore. Why don't we have a cookout instead?"
His father was a little disoriented by this.
"Do you need a doctor?" He asked. He knew his son all too well and right now he could tell he was lying, however he didn't wanna press him, instead he just chose to entertain him and hoped that he would eventually come out and talk about it. He'd already seen the Wildbeast migration with his wife and this time they only wanted Dre to experience it, but if he didn't feel like going then there wasn't really a problem and they would just postponed
"No, I'll just rest for a bit and then we'll have the cookout." Believing that his father had bought the lie, he raised his head and added with a dejected smile. "I'm sorry for this."
"It's fine, just rest up, I'll inform your mother."
Exiting the kitchen, Dre revealed a victorious smile as he walked back to his room. Completely forgetting why he was experiencing this reality, he just entertained the idea of spending a lot more time with his parents.
Feeling energetic and refreshed, now he just had to wait for about an hour for the plan he believed to have been flawless to come to frourishion.
Entering his room, he collapsed on the bed and began envisioning the feature. He got a second chance to rewrite everything. Spending every waking moment with his parents by his side, telling them about everything he'd regretted not telling them, he couldn't ask for anything more.
An hour later and he still was fantasizing about the future prior to being forcefully pulled back to reality_well more like memory.
*boooom!*
An explosion echoed throughout the house sending a shockwave that jerked him and his beddings off the bed and sent him rearing into the wooden wall of his room.
'Ha ha ha'
His face bloodied from the impact and burns on him, he tried getting up but suddenly let out a yelp that he couldn't quite hear due to the recurring ringing noise in his ears. His whole body felt like needles had been struck in it.
"What happened? Mom, dad." Whispering, his blurred vision cleared as he tried crawling through the sprinters of wood littred in his half collapsed room and headed towards the origin of the explosion.
His heart tightened, his breathing Haggard, he couldn't pinpoint exactly what he felt but every fiber of his being screamed of something tragic.
Brushing off the notifications that popped from time to time, still crawling on his belly, he exited his room_what was left of it at least, and into what used to be the living room though before he could head to the kitchen, his body was suddenly raised and placed on a stretcher and a man dressed in a white coat bent over.
"Third degree burns, a neck concussion, few broken bones and several cuts." The man shouted and immediately after the two men holding the stretcher dashed.
"My...my.." Dre tried to speak but ended up vomiting blood, turning his neck that felt on fire, he gazed at the direction of their kitchen yet couldn't make out anything with his blurred vision that was obscured by blood and tears.
Mounting the ambulance, the man from before squatted near him and placed a ventilator atop his face. Dre tried to struggle, he still wanted to know the state of his parents, however he wasn't nearly strong enough.
The sedative kicked in and he began succumbing to the deep slumber but not before he heard something that made him wish to never wake up.
"What of the parents?"
"The fire didn't spare them."
****
"Dre, Dre get up, we'll be late."
'Ha! Ha!
Sweat dripping down his face, Dre, panting like he'd just ran a marathon, abruptly opened his eyes and sat up on his queen sized bed.
Painting his eyes around the room, his heart elevated and a mixture of emotions, from grief, relief, joy and anger, flooded him.
He was back to the same day, his parents were alive again.
"Dre." Her voice echoed again as she banged on his room door.
Dre got off the bed and reached for the door and there she was, his mother, alive and well.
Not knowing what kind of emotion to show or what to say, Dre stared at her for half a minute before squeezing out a few words.
"I'll be out in a minute."
Steeping back into his room, he walked towards the desk and sat down.
His mind had stopped racing and now only had one thing on repeat.
He got another chance, although he didn't know what happened before, this time he was sure as hell not gonna let them die.