Incandescent

Chapter 1

Astrid was running for her life. She was out of breath and couldn't run any longer. The flames gathered around her, as if they were ready to pounce. 

Then she woke up in a sweat. She wiped the sleep out of her eyes and looked around her room for any sign of flames. Thankfully, there were none there. Astrid didn't pay anymore attention to the dream, since she has had it reoccur multiple times.

The smell of bacon had made its way up the stairs from the kitchen, coaxing her out of bed faster. She groggily walked down the stairs and sat in the dining room. Her mother placed bacon, eggs, and a pancake onto a plate and slid it in front of her with a smile.

"Good morning, Sunshine," she said as she walked back into the kitchen.

"Mornin'," Astrid answered with a yawn. She began to dig into her eggs as her mother brought her back syrup and a glass of chocolate milk.

Her mother laughed. "Are you going to leave your hair like that? It looks like a ball of flames on top of your head."

Astrid felt around and in fact, her fiery red hair was still in the bun from her study session from the night before. "That was the plan," she joked.

"Today's a big day at school, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Astrid replied with a mouth full. "I'm giving a presentation today in my History class."

"Oh, what's it on, again?" Astrid's mother joined her daughter at the table with her own plate of food.

"Just World War II. The holocaust, and what experiments the Nazis did on the prisoners." Astrid was working on her pancake now — her last item to eat.

Her mother's eyes widened. "That sounds pretty gruesome."

"It is, but I—"

"Good morning my pretty girls!" Astrid looked up to see her father waltzing into the dining room, giving his wife a kiss on the cheek. She got her red hair from her father, and bright green eyes from her mother. "I'm just stopping by to see you both before I head to work. Busy day today!"

Astrid smiled. It warmed her heart to see her dad still show affection to her mother. She hoped one day to find a love like her parents had. Even after the death of her older brother, they were still so upbeat and hopeful. "Good morning, Dad."

"Good morning, love," her mother said. "May I speak to you in the kitchen for a second?"

Astrid looked at both of her parents in slight confusion. They never left the room to discuss things. They usually always let Astrid in on the conversation.

They disappeared into the other room, and although Astrid didn't want to eavesdrop, she couldn't help herself. She carefully listened in on their conversation.

"What's wrong?" her father asked her mother.

"It's Astrid."

"Again? I thought— I thought we got it straightened out!" He sounded frustrated and upset. Astrid was confused because she didn't know what her father was talking about. What did she do?

"Well, it came back. The smoke alarms went off last night. Luckily, Astrid didn't hear them. She slept with earbuds in, which I tell her not to do but at least it saved us this time."

Astrid thought back to last night. She was jamming to Beethoven while getting her presentation in order and then fell asleep, forgetting to remove her headphones. She supposed her mom took them off of her, as they weren't in her ears in she woke up.

"Did anything get destroyed? Last time the fire detectors went off her entire room was engulfed in flames, remember?"

"Yes, but that's why everything in her room has the fire-resistant coating on it. But everything was fine this time," she assured her husband. "It was just so smoky that they went off."