Face Reality

It was a bright summer day on a Tuesday morning. James came out of the kitchen with a large, white plate filled with pancakes. He was really tall with dark hair. As dark as the night itself. He was skinny and pale. He walked into the dining room where a large family sat at a large, rectangular table. There were a total of 8 seats, leaving one empty for James. He took his seat and passed the pancakes around. The first one to get some was a small and elderly young lady named Anne. She had ragged, blond hair and glasses with one lens popped out.

The next person was her husband, who was also elderly and short. He was bald and always squinted. His cane rested beside him. He was rather slow to grab the pancakes and put them on his plate. But sure enough, he did and passed it to the next person. This next person was a young boy, maybe about 17 years old. He was a blond and was medium in height. Maybe about 5 feet 5 inches. His eyes were unlike the others, which was a dark blue. He grabbed his food and passed it to the next person on the end.

"You guys take too long to gather your food" said the girl on the opposite end of the table to James. She was also blond and tall. She was skinnier than James was and has gorgeous, light blue eyes. The smile she casted towards James made him smile back. "I was about to starve here."

"Well don't blame me, sweetheart" James responded, clearly signifying that she was his wife. "Gramps and Grandma are too slow, and Billy took his sweet time."

"Hey!" Billy yelled. "I just like to make sure i get the best piece. The largest piece is always the most delicious piece."

"Can i have the plate now?" said the lady to the left of the wife. She was rather obese, but not too large that it'd be an annoyance. She has short, brown hair and green eyes. She held her knife and fork in her hands, rearing to start eating. "Stop talking and give me the plate, Jennifer.

"Be patient" Jennifer said, grabbing a pancake and finally passing it down.

"Finally. I felt like I was about to starve over here."

"I already used that joke, Carol" Jennifer said.

"It’s mother to you, missy" Carol said. "Watch it or James will lose his beloved. As his mother, it is my job to watch over him."

"Shut up, mom" James said. "Just pass it to my brother already."

Without hesitation, she passed it to the next person, who's James' brother. He was obviously younger than James, but not by much. He was muscular, showing he was the "man" of the family. He had a tendency to show them off to everyone he meets. His eyes were a dark brown, and so was his hair. He stole 2 pancakes instead of 1 and passed it down to the final member, who was James' father.

His father was crippled with a large scar across his face. He also had a cane and what seemed like an artificial left leg. He had a brown mustache and beard. His eyes were brown, well, one of them. The right eye was pure white like the heavens itself. As the plate came around, he grabbed the final pancake and gave it back to James, which was placed in the exact same position it was when it started.

James walked around and poured grape juice in everyone's glass. He went back to his seat afterwards and began to give a toast.

"To and amazing and strange family." James raised his glass and began drinking it, and everyone followed his example. When everyone finished their drinks, they placed the cups back in the same position they were in when they picked them up.

"Bert" Jennifer began, pointing her fork at the grandpa. "How long have you been with Hilda?"

Bert turned towards Jennifer with squinted eyes. "We have been together for about 50 years now. I must say, I do not regret any of it."

Hilda blushed and looked at him with absolute joy. “Thanks darling. I don't regret it either." As they were talking, Billy already finished his pancakes.

"Are there anymore pancakes?" Billy looked around the room, bringing his eyes on a mission for more pancakes.

"We barely even started eating" James said. "Ever since you were born you have always been a vacuum for food. You're lucky you're my son, otherwise I would limit what you eat."

"Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. Where are the other pancakes?"

"There are no more" Jennifer said while stroking his cheek. "But we will make more. Just be patient."

Billy gave out an aggravated groan and slammed his head backwards.

"At least you got to eat delicious pancakes" the father of James said. "In the army, you barely have time to eat. And when you do eat, it tastes like absolute garbage."

"Scott" Carol began. "No need to tell us more of your military life. It makes us feel guilty."

"I am just trying to say that I would have given an eye and a leg to get this food."

"Which you already did" James exclaimed, causing everyone to explode a bomb of laughter.

"I asked for that one" Scott said, laughing with the rest. "Well played son. Well played."

"Why thank you. I try."

The laughter gradually died down and it turned silent. Then James' brother, John, stepped in.

"Do you guys remember that nuclear war that happened a long time ago?"

"Yeah" James answered. "How could we forget it? It left the world in ruins for a long time. God, I can't even remember when it began or ended. But it was quite the tragedy. But everything was rebuilt, so that is all good." He glanced around the table at all of his family members. They were all staring back at him, expecting his to continue what he was saying.

"Are you going to finish your statement?" Billy's question made James chuckle a bit.

"That was all I was going to say. You can't expect me to be the spokesperson all the time, now can you?"

"Yes" Billy said so blunt and with a straight face that it, once again, made everyone laugh.

As they were all laughing, out of nowhere, a small pebble landed on James' head. "Alright. Who threw that? Was it you Billy?"

"Did I do what?"

"Throw this stone at me."

"Nope. That wasn't me. Probably John."

"I swear to you it wasn't me. So shut up."

"Whatever" James said, gripping the rock and throwing it behind him. "It doesn't matter." As the rock landed, an echo was heard throughout the room. The echo lasted for quite a while before it stopped.

"Just because I have beautiful muscles doesn’t mean you can blame me for everything. Don't be jealous." John began flexing in front of everyone and kissed his arms. "So, so beautiful."

"Sit down and stop disgusting us." Carol was facing to opposite direction of John, hoping that he will stop soon. He listened and sat down. She began to sarcastically dry heave, clearly faking it to prove a valid point.

"You are all just jealous of them."

"No we aren't to be honest" Hilda said. "I would rather Bert's arms than yours. His seem more natural while yours look like you injected to barrel of steroids into your body."

Scott stayed silent, unable to think of a clever comeback. He felt embarrassed, but he knew they had a point. He just didn't care.

"Do you remember when we would fight each other just for the fun of it, John?" James asked. "One time we fought over who would be the first to die in the war. You somehow lost that fight."

"I didn't have my gorgeous muscles at the time. I would have won otherwise. So shush."

"You didn't land a single finger on me the entire fight."

"Leave me alone." John bowed his head in disappointment for himself. "Next time we fight, I will win. Mark my words."

"We are too mature for that. I don't believe that fight will be happening anytime soon. Sorry brother."

John was upset about what James had just said, but he felt better once he looked at his muscular arms.

"Good grief" Carol said. "You are way too fixated on your muscles. It is honestly sickening."

John said absolutely nothing. He was too focused on his arms that he paid no attention to anyone.

"At least he isn't an enormous orca whale" Jennifer said rudely.

Carol froze, then slowly turned her head towards Jennifer. "Excuse me? What did you say?"

"It was just a joke. Calm down there. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

"Well you did" Scott said, grabbing his cane, but still not leaving his seat. "You better apologize right now."

"I'm sorry Carol. I didn't mean it." Jennifer began to tear up a little. She always was quite the emotional person. She cried more often than anyone at the table.

"She is right" Billy said. "You're kind of fat."

"Excuse me!" Carol yelled. "You take that back you little punk."

"Everyone calm down now" James yelled, but no one heard him. Everyone was talking over his at this point. Arguing and arguing about anything they can think of. It was mayhem. "This wasn't how this was supposed to be. Please stop this."

Everyone turned back towards James and glared at him in silence. All the fighting had stopped.

"Face reality" Jennifer said. The strangest thing happened after she said that. The moment she said that, everyone seemed like they were getting older and older in a matter of seconds. Wrinkles formed on everyone's body and all their eyes began to fade. Skin began slowly falling off. Suddenly, everything changed. The bright, mansion like room they were sitting in turned into a dark, worn down building with rocks everywhere. Holes on the sides and ceiling appeared. The table was snapped in half and the chairs were gone completely, or were missing a leg.

James looked at his hands and noticed how wrinkled his hands became. He looked back up and saw absolutely no one there. He was the only one in the room. No one was outside. Only the shattered and destroyed land that had been burnt to a crisp.

"This is reality" James said to himself with a very weak voice. He placed his head down and went to sleep.

Author Notes: This was a somewhat complicated story to write. Mainly for how difficult it was to have it all make sense. Tell me your opinions on this and let me know if you are confused with the ending. Thanks for reading.

P.S. I need to rewrite Redemption From Revenge, but it will be here soon...probably. I apologize if it isn't, but hopefully I can find a way to get it published worldwide eventually.

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