Ian's bedroom.
It was a spacious master bedroom with a bathroom attached to it. Ian purposely chose to place his computer along with his gaming consoles and his other streaming devices in another room so that he would properly get out of bed in the morning. Or at least that's what Mike said, but Ian would still have trouble waking up in the morning. Though separating his work life from his personal life sounded like a better excuse to place all of the equipment in another room.
Anyway, his bedroom consisted of a king sized bed with posters of various movies, shows, and videos games. On some of the walls were sword replicas of double-edged longswords with designs from Medieval Europe and there were even shield props too hanging on his walls. Even his shelves had figurines and exclusive concept art books. All of these material items had one thing in common, Ian's obsession with the fantasy genre. It didn't matter the settings or the different types of fantasies, Ian was drawn to all of it from western fantasy stories to even a few eastern fantasy stories.
His bedroom was his comfort zone yet now it felt unfamiliar.
Everywhere Ian looked, it felt alien to him. The memories of buying these posters and figurines for decoration were there and even the joy of hanging them up, yet it felt like he hadn't been in this room for years. Ian briefly wondered if this was what military veterans felt like, returning to their civilian life after being abroad in another country for months. Ian chose to ignore those feelings and continue to his bathroom to take a much needed shower.
He took a quick glance at the mirror to notice something different about him. His hair dye was completely gone meaning his natural silver hair retook its place as his current hair color. Ian frowned at the sudden change and could only shrug his shoulders before undressing.
Ian's normal everyday clothes were rags now from the truck accident and in addition to the awful body odor from his time in that nightmarish place, it was safe to say that he needed to torch these clothes. He separated his personal possessions from his torn clothes and stepped into the shower. Ian looked down to feel the full brunt of warm water pouring on him. At first he could see clear water at his feet then it quickly shifted to dark murky water. He quickly closed his eyes at the sight trying to forget what he's been through today. But now that he's alone, Ian couldn't forget as his mind wandered through all the events that happened today.
From almost dying to meeting his birth mother then being sent to an abandoned city filled with nightmarish creatures and then told to escape from it. As the memories flash through Ian's mind, he felt his hair raise and his muscles tensing. His body was naturally put in a fight or flight mode forcing Ian to clench his fists as he try to relax himself through deep breaths. It took a while for his body to relax again and when it did, Ian could barely keep his eyes open.
After his shower, he changed into his sleepwear which was grey pajama pants and a black sweater, in a hot summer night. He then stumble his way to his bed where he laid his head on the pillow where everything suddenly turned black and Ian fell into a dreamless sleep.
***
Knock Knock
"Ian! It's time for breakfast."
The knocking sound along with Cora's voice woke Ian from his deep slumber.
At first, Ian was slowly coming out of his hazy state but...
Knock Knock
"Come on Ian answer me or else I'll enter your room."
"I'm up! I'm up..."
...Cora's persistence forced Ian to get out of his bed. Ian did his morning stretch before putting on his indoor slippers.
Then he realized something.
'Wait a minute, I'm an adult. Why the hell does it feel like I'm back in school again.'
Ian wasn't a morning person and being forced awake this early ruined his mood a bit.
Just a bit.
Then he checked the time finding out it was 11 in the morning.
Now Ian could understand why Cora woke him up forcefully prompting his mood to raise up a bit.
Just a bit.
He headed out of his room to the dining room below him.
He walk down the stairs only for the smell of bacon to invade his nostril. It's been a while since he had homecooked breakfast. Cora and Mike probably also went grocery shopping yesterday because Ian didn't have much fresh ingredients to cook a meal like this. Usually Ian would microwave something quick before his streams. But a homecooked meal is refreshing to have now and then.
Ian walk into the dining room with a clear view of the kitchen seeing Cora bringing food to the dining table where Mike was seated. And Mike himself? Well he had a haggard look which was probably from the ghost jump-scare that Cora mentioned last night. His best friend was focused on his phone probably in manager mode currently since Ian missed the convention yesterday so Mike had to do damage control for his fans. Mike notice Ian's presence and look in his direction only for him to raise one of his brows at Ian's new hair color. Ian could only shrug in response since he didn't know when it reverted back exactly but he wasn't in the mood to talk about it. Seeing no verbal response, Mike chose focus on his phone out of respect for Ian's privacy.
Ian then took a seat across from Mike with the plate and utensils already set. He glance at the food seeing most of it was normal American breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, diner-style hashbrowns, and stacks of strange looking pancakes. The pancakes themselves had various colorful dots on them indicating they were fruits or at least Ian assume they were fruits.
"It's a family recipe sweetie."
Ian turned to the source of the voice finding Cora was done setting the table and was about to sit next to him. Cora was currently wearing sleepwear that seems way too young for her current age group but Ian chose to ignore that fact. At least they weren't revealing as Ian took a quick glance at Mike who was still preoccupied with his phone.
Meanwhile Cora sat down and elaborated on the pancakes.
"The recipe originated from one of our ancestors who was a gnome and if you couldn't tell, gnomes love their sweets so this pancake had every fruits and berries that I could find at the local market."
Cora smiled proudly at presenting a family recipe to Ian but his mind was stuck on the fact one of his ancestors was a gnome.
'So that's why my height is like this...'
"Anyway dig in everyone. You too Mike. And no working while eating mister."
"Yes ma'am!"
Mike obediently replied to Cora as he put his phone away and he immediately started putting food on his plate. This earned Ian's attention as he squinted at Mike while also putting food on his plate. Mike was never this obedient around his actual mom, Jodie, but now he's listening to Cora of a sudden.
Then a thought popped up as Ian leaned over towards Cora and whispered, "Did you do anything to Mike while I was gone."
Confused, Cora whispered back, "No, I think he's just grateful that I saved him multiple times yesterday."
Ian frowned at the response but then he remembered that Cora can't lie to him now especially after having that horrifying image of her bloody smile stuck in his mind.
So, he awkwardly cough before whispering a strange question to her.
"Hey Cora, is your hus- I mean my birth father still around?"
It was perfectly reasonable to ask the question as Cora was a beautiful woman and he was curious if his birth father was still with Cora.
Then he turn back to see Cora was wearing a blank expression before replying.
"This is going to be awkward but Ian...I killed your father."
His mind momentarily went blank at the revelation before quickly reeling his mind back to whisper his reply.
"What!? I need some explanations-"
As Ian responded, the third person at the table couldn't resist and chose to barge in the conversation.
"What are you guys whispering about?"