October Challenge - "The alarm wasn't supposed to go off yet."

Sometimes life feels hard, but please ask for help. Nothing is lost.

In “Forget-Me-Not”, a dedicated caregiver navigates the heartbreaking journey of caring for her father, who is slowly succumbing to dementia. As she tends to his fading memories, she learns to embrace her role as a comforting stranger, offering him solace in the shadows of his lost past. When he passes away, she plants Myosotis—his beloved forget-me-nots—hoping to keep his memory alive. 

A short collection of Short Stories based on some of my favourite styles of writing.

The alarm wasn’t supposed to go off yet. Or was it?

In 1943 Hamburg, Sophie Bergmann, a Jewish teenager, finds solace and strength through swing dancing in the underground clubs of Nazi Germany. But one night, a raid led by fanatical Hitler Youth member Klaus Schmidt, shatters that refuge, forcing Sophie and her friends to flee. Just as they brace for capture, a strange, blinding light overtakes them, and they vanish from their own time.

When Sophie regains consciousness, she’s surrounded by the unfamiliar sights and sounds of modern-day Milwaukee. With her are four other teens from the club: Ruth, her best friend and fellow swing dancer; Maria, a quiet but defiant artist; Hans, who wrestles with his reluctant role in the Nazi Youth; and Klaus, who remains as fervent as ever in his radical beliefs. For Sophie, the disorientation is compounded by glimpses of a painful history that, in this new timeline, has already unfolded.

Public Relations professional and favorite auntie Shan is awakened by a middle-of-the-night phone call that makes her rethink some of her life choices.

"The alarm wasn't supposed to go off yet. That's what Sebastian thought when the sharp sound cut through the air. He still had time. He was sure he still had more than enough minutes left. Sebastian blinked a few times at a rapid speed. He pinched himself in his left arm to ensure he wasn't imagining this like you would in dreams. He was pulled out of his slum by the sound that declared the end of this all. How could it be that the timer already had run out? What would happen to him now? He didn’t know the answer. He had never felt so small all his life.

If only he had known this when he got that message on Monday, all this would never have happened. If he had just blocked the number, then his younger brother would still be alive."

A BDSM session gone way wrong, but was it intended go this far off course?

Taz cannot imagine his life without Brailey in it.

But it is starting to seem like he will have to if he and his sister Judith don't navigate the dank corridors of the enemy's fortress in time to find her.