Afraid

Flash Fiction

Afraid

“It’s OK Tread,” Sam spoke to the lizard in the glass tank next to his bed. Tread didn’t even look up. Sam was used to it. He’d had Tread for years. Tread never seemed to hear him, nor ever seem afraid. Sam talked to him all the time, the books said it would bond them… Pffft! But it was nice to imagine he was listening, Sam being an only child and all.

“It’s OK, it’s just a storm,” he said. The rain and wind were pounding at the windows. It was probably the worst sounding storm Sam could even remember. And tonight, of all nights, the very first time his parents let him watch himself, no babysitter! Sam was no baby! But right now, he was kind of feeling like one.

It started when he was downstairs watching Handy Gandy Guys on TV. First sprinkles of rain, then more intense rain, then thunder. Then the thunder got so close, and flashes in the sky. And the lights went out completely!

Not knowing what to do, but also not wanting to call his parents and ruin his first “babysitting himself,” he went to his room. Then he started to talking to Tread, the only other being in the house. Pretending he was trying to keep Tread calm, like his parents always did for him when things got scary.

Laying down on his bed, he could still see Tread watching, due to his fake candle night light.

Suddenly he saw Tread looking right at him, looking right in his eyes, and he heard a voice, “It will be fine!”

When he woke, he didn’t even remember falling asleep! The parents were home, the storm over, and Tread sleeping soundly. And somehow, Sam was never afraid of a storm again.

Nor was Tread…