Science Fiction: Welcome to my Worlds

“I’ll explain in the morning, Little Miss. It is late now. Try to go back to sleep. I think it will not happen again.”

She started to protest, then shrugged and blinked sleepily and sank back into the covers as Rajiid turned out the light.

The twinge he felt in his head told him he’d done that even though it certainly hadn’t been a conscious thing. He sighed. He supposed he already know it. His talent wasn’t gone at all. Just buried.

The head flew off the madly spinning doll and bounced off two walls before dropping to the floor.

“Missy!!!”

Her eyes opened, squinting at the light. Confused, she sat up slowly and looked at the mess in the room and her father standing over her. “Daddy, what’s the matter? Why’d you wake me? What happened?”

“You were… having a nightmare.” How much should he tell her now? It was a very long story and still the middle of the night.

“It wasn’t…” She stopped quickly, looking embarrassed. “How did…?” Her face flushed bright red and she avoided looking at him.

Puzzled at first, he thought quickly back to his own childhood. “Oh.” Embarrassed, he could feel his own face growing warmer. And, from what he’d read, the sexual tensions were much more pronounced in girls exhibiting the talent. He started to stroke her hair soothingly, then thought better of it and wound up giving her sort of a pat on the head.

“Missy.” He spoke softly and restrained himself from shaking or nudging her. From his own experiences, he knew that was not a good idea. She had always been a heavy sleeper, though, so he might wind up having to shout to wake her. He thought was pretty sure that once she woke the phenomena would be interrupted and she could then continue sleeping normally without the side effects from her wakening talent. As far as he knew this was the first time—or second, he supposed if you counted the occurrence with the intruders in India—that it had manifested. She started breathing more erratically, almost in quick gasps, as a smug-looking smile spread on her face.

“Missy, Wake up!” It wasn’t exactly a shout, but he was glad they didn’t have any tenants in the motel yet. Still she didn’t wake. But apparently she did notice and was working it into her dream… and not necessarily in a good way. The smile faded slowly and a frown took its place.

Still suspended in the air, the doll began spinning end-over-end. Faster and faster until it became a blur. The Hawking picture accelerated abruptly in his direction, still spinning as well. He didn’t have time to raise an arm before it smashed itself to splinters of glass and twisted fragments of metal six inches from his stomach.

Chapter 5

Rajiid was having a hard time keeping his eyes open as he rocked in his favorite chair in front of the wall-mounted HDTV. Some comedian was droning on about something and he couldn’t seem to keep his mind on it long enough to decide if it was funny. Really should get up and go to bed before…

Thump. CRASH!!! His eyes popped open wide. It was coming from Missy’s room! He jumped up from the chair, swiping the half-empty glass of soda with his elbow in his haste, knocking it to the floor and spilling the contents on the carpet. No time for that now.

Hurrying down the hallway, he reached for the doorknob of Missy’s room barely getting it open a crack when something SMASHED into splinters on the wall beside the door scattering fragments of colored ceramic across his slippers. He reached toward the wall dimmer and flicked it into semi-brightness with his fingertip. Continuing into the room, he ignored a rag doll which bobbed and swooped beside a spinning framed photo of Stephen Hawking.

Missy tossed and turned on the bed but, oddly he thought, the expression on her face seemed quite happy. She was breathing heavily and the covers were twisted and tangled around her.