Song of the chapter: Christina Perri - Human

https://youtu.be/oZxdhzdgT1Y

principium

(prɪnˈsɪpɪəm)

noun

Latin:

an origin, beginning

"See you tomorrow, Mili."

Emilia and I parted our ways at the end of the fifth block. The Texan heat was killing me. I wiped off the sweat from my face and pulled the backpack up my shoulder. As soon as I passed Mrs Carla's garden, I could see the brick chimney of my home. I walked up to the porch of the white house, I called home, and opened the door with my set of keys. But before I meet my family, let me tell you something about them.

Let's talk about my brother. Ned is an idiot, to say the least. He's a DC fan(even though Marvel is better) and he accepted Richard. My mother, Elizabeth Voss, and my father, Ben Myer, divorced when I was nine and Ned was seven. After that, mom got married to Richard Voss. As Ned was a child, he accepted Richard in the family. But, I could see Richard as the true a**hole as he was. So, I started calling him sucker. On that note, let's meet them.

I went inside the house and kept my shoes by the door. I was tempted to throw my bag in the trash but instead decided to run off to my room. Mom asked me, "How was school?" I ignored her. I mean, isn't it obvious for a person like me to always have a bad day at school?

I was about to enter the shower until mom knocked on the door, "Ava, come down right now!"

I sighed.

I put the bathrobe on and walked downstairs. Richard and mom were standing in the living room. He had his hand around her waist, with a smirk on his face. Mom glared at me.

"What?" I asked with an innocent smile.

"What's this?" she was almost yelling. My smile dropped.

"Are you blind? I thought you could see things. Oh god, did something happen?" I ask, blatantly. That was sarcasm if you're wondering. I was fed up with her. I might seem rude, but this was my life.

Welcome to hell.

Richard interrupted, "She's your mother, Ava. You should respect her." I wanted to ignore him. But my brain decided to make me do something stupid. I turned to him, with a bored look, "Who the f*** said you can say anything, douche?

"Ava!" This time she yelled, "How many times do I have to tell you not to call him a sucker, or a douche, or an a**hole or anything! Just call him 'dad' or something!" Mom really likes screaming.

"You can say it as much as you want, but I'll never listen to you. You're a horrible human, and I hate you for that. And you know very well why I don't call him that sh*thead my father. So, don't expect it from me. I'll not start behaving like a normal person all of a sudden. I don't live in a normal family." With that, I rushed back up and flung my door shut.

With my back against the door, I started bawling and slid down to the floor. I wished I could see dad. God knew how he was or what he was doing. I don't even know if he was alive. It had been seven years since I last saw him or heard him. He said, "Don't worry, kiddo. Everything'll be alright. You'll have a new home, new things and a new life. Mom will take care of you. Just forget me, okay? Promise me. It'll only hurt you. Be my princess, and please forget me, okay? Now, go." After that, I never saw him or even talked to him.

I couldn't keep his promise. Forgetting him just felt wrong. How could I? No matter what happened, he'd still be my dad, my Iron Man.

~*~

After finishing dinner, I sat down on the couch to watch TV. I was hoping to see a Marvel movie if it was showing. Grabbing the remote, I turned the TV on. Yes! 'Black Panther' was going on. I took the cushion in my arms and started watching the movie. But my luck is sh*tty as always.

"Where's the remote?" Ned walked into the room, looking at his phone.

"It's with me. Why?" I asked, looking at the screen. I was planning to kill him if he wanted to watch some DC movie. I had my fingers crossed.

"Alright. Put it on HBO, Justice League will start in four minutes or so." He was gonna die in my bare hands.

"Nope. I'm watching a movie," He snatched the remote from my hand, "Hey! Give me the remote!"

"It's not yours!" He argued back.

"Well, it's not yours either!"

"Just give up and go to bed!" That little sh*t.

"The f***? I am older than you. You go to bed. And I was here first!"

I emphasized "you".

"Well, I was here second. 2 is greater than 1!" We were arguing at this point.

"Stop it! Just go away!"

"Marvel sucks!"

"DC sucks! Wakanda forever!"

"Batman forever!"

I was so into the argument that I did not realise Richard chanting, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" He really was a douche.

Ned and I were punching each other and kicking each other at that point. We both thought we had the spirits of warriors of Black Widow and Batman.

"Guys, cut it out!" our mom broke into the fight, "Both of you, go to bed right now! None of you are having a movie night!"

"Why do you always favour him?" I was beyond livid and was slowly losing control over the rational side of my mind. I can get seriously angry at times just like Bruce Banner, my second favourite Avenger.

"I'm not favouring anyone! Now go to bed!" she was screaming for the second time that day.

"Listen to your mother, young lady," I could hear his smile in his voice. That cheeky bastard.

"Call me young lady  again, I'm going to put my foot where it's not supposed to be." Let's see if he'll fall for it.

"And where's that suppose to be?" he asked. Richard is really a dumbass.

"Your ass."

"Okay. That's enough, Ava! Go to bed, both of you!" she shouted. I had no choice. So, I grabbed my phone and went off to my room.

My life was a living hell. Peace was almost non-existent except for sleeping. It's the only thing in this vast universe that can actually give someone the peace that people deserve. As a human, living in that hectic and struggling life, I deserved at least ten hours of sleep each night. I had the most arranged sleep schedule in this state, or maybe even the world. People usually sleep using one or two pillows at maximum. But I had a third pillow which I cuddled with it. It was just like a teddy bear. But not.

I didn't use an actual teddy bear as its face was creepy as hell and always creeped me out in the middle of the night. When I went to sleep, I always hugged the third pillow tightly. It somehow took away all of my stress, anxiety, sadness, loneliness and all of the other negativities. In exchange, it brought me bliss and tranquillity, and sweet dreams. It was my favourite object and my best friend.

Just as I was about to open the door to my room, I hear some male voice from inside. He was saying something along the lines of: "Oh god, what is this place? Let's see... ok. This is good. Wait, no, it's not. Oh c'mon! This thing doesn't even have a spine. Where's my AI? AI? AI? Here it is."

We are being robbed! I was damn sure I would die.

I took a deep breath and was determined to bash the person's head with my heavy ass book, which was on my table. Luckily, the table was right by the door. When I walk into the room, I see no one. I look around just to make sure. And then, I see it.

My third pillow was moving. It was trying to turn over, I guessed. It succeeded to do so after a while. I was so stupified that I didn't move. The pillow had a face, and somehow, had managed to develop arms and legs. It had the appearance of a teenage boy, who got stuck inside my pillow. Just like Vision going through walls and stuff, and his systems failed. The pillow (or should I say boy) had a device in his hand. He started talking to the device, "Which dimension is this, AI?" His device, like Google, started talking in its monotone voice, "This is D53."

After a while, the pillow realised that someone else was in the room. He stared at me blankly for some time. Soon, his expressions morphed into confusion. The spell-like feeling over me broke and I shouted, "What the hell!"

I ran down the stairs, almost falling over the stairs and ran to mom's room. I knock on the door rapidly until she opened. Mom had a worried look on her face. She asked, "Ava, are you okay?"

"There's a..." I stammered.

She put her hands on my shoulder, "Honey, calm down. Calm down."

I breathed. I don't know what happened, but I started talking like Yoda, "My talking is the pillow."

Mom was confused, "Huh?"

"I mean, my pillow is talking," I explained.

"Are you on drugs?" She asked.

"What?! I'd never do that!" I exclaimed. I don't know what happened but I think she lost her mind.

"Then how is your pillow talking?"

"How am I supposed to know that?"

"Just go to bed."

"Mom, I'm serious." I was.

"Ava, go to bed. Enough with the show!"

"Just come with me and I'll show you."

"Ugh, fine."

We both went upstairs and then to my room. I still could see the face and the arms, and the legs on the pillow. He was staring at me, still confused. But when I looked at mom, she had a blank expression on her face.

"Don't you see it?" I point towards my bed.

"I'm so proud of you. You're such a good actress. Keep it up and, one day, you become Scarlett Johansson. Now, just go to sleep." She sighed and left.

What just happened? I was beyond confused.

I look back at the pillow and catch his eyes. We stare at each other, awkwardly, as both of us had nothing to say. I came back to my senses. I close the door and try to enquire, "Okay. So, what are you?"

He replies, "Uh, a human being, I guess?" Oh, he talks.

"Let me make this clear for you, you're not a human being. You look like a human inside a pillowcase. Are you an alien? Or a ghost?"

"Alright, I'm not a ghost, and I'm certainly not an alien. I'm alien to you but I'm a human in my dimension."

"Dimension?" I scrunched up my nose. Is he on crack or something?

Shocked, he asked, "Wait, you don't know about the 99 dimensions?"

I shook my head.

He continued, "Okay, well, there are 99 dimensions. This dimension is D53, and I come from D42."

I was fascinated, "There really are dimensions. That's so cool. Is there a multiverse?"

"No, that's made up. There's no multiverse."

"Are you sure?" I was sceptical.

"Yes, I'm sure." He seemed confident.

"But how is that possible? I mean, you're saying that there are 99 dimensions, which means there are 99 universes. So, this reality is multi-dimensional. Therefore, there really is a multiverse which contains 99 universes."

"You're confusing me now. Let's not talk about that."

"Okay. So, you got a name?"

"Jack Jones. What's yours?"

"I'm Ava Myer"

"Is it just Ava, or is it like Avaline or something?"

I never told this to anyone. It's kinda embarrassing. "No, it's actually Avalory Mary Myer. But I like to tell everyone that I'm Ava Myer."

"That's a nice name."

"Thanks. So, how did you end up in my pillow?"

"Oh, you see, I have a brother. During a fight, he mistakenly pressed a button on my transporter. My soul ended up in this dimension as our bodies can't travel. And when we go out of our dimension, we must find something that can carry our soul. Or else we'll get lost in the other dimensions. 'Lost' means death in your language."

"So, to save your life, you entered my pillow?"

"Exactly."

"Was that the only thing you had to enter?"

"I'm sorry, Ms. Myer. I didn't know this thing was so important to you."

"It's fine. And, you don't need to call me Ms. Myer. Just call me Ava. I'll call you Jack, if that's okay with you."

"Sure." He didn't talk much.

"Alright, so, I'm going to have to put you on the chair because I can't have a stranger on the bed with me."

"I understand. It's totally fine."

"Good."

I don't know if it was dumb of me, but I actually believed him. I was always the one to believe in fantasies. But, that didn't stop me from being uncomfortable with a boy sleeping on my chair, in my room.

I couldn't sleep until 3 that night.

Please be a dream. Please be a dream. Please be a dream.

My luck is a serious b*tch.

(2,254 words)