Midas hadn’t even opened his eyes before he realised the sweet, smoky aroma filling the air. The scent was therapeutic to Midas, he hadn’t had his mother’s cooking in a while. He opened his eyes and there he was, in his bedroom in the house they bought right after Midas graduated high school. His brain felt foggy, as if there were key  details that seemed to just be just out of reach, but it didn’t stop Midas from going to the kitchen to get a plate of the breakfast that was most likely awaiting him on the stove. He went to the kitchen and standing there was his mother, over the stove cooking, but it seemed to be just two strips of bacon. Midas only glanced at the pan and realized there was no sizzle or indication of the bacon actually being cooked. Midas dismissed his suspicion with the thought that she only just began cooking. As he shifted his focus from the stove to his Mother something unsettling caught Midas’ attention; his mother was standing over the stove, but she appeared almost frozen. She just stood there with a spatula in her hand about a foot away from the stove.  Her eyes wide with a somewhat unsettling grin on her face as if she had an epiphany or idea of a lifetime. Was she even breathing?  She didn’t even seem to notice Midas standing just a couple feet to her left in the hallway.


“Mom?” Midas managed to whisper.


Less than a  second later  her smile switched from a manic, almost sadistic smirk, to surprised as if her thoughts were so loud if someone heard them she would surely be in for some  trouble, to a smile that would have seemed genuine to anyone but Midas; there was deeper something under the surface, a  darkness of sorts. Midas then remembered the argument they had a few days ago. There was a flash in his head and even though he can recall the intense anger, the sense of malice she emitted in the moment, he doesn’t remember what the argument was about. But after a slight second of deeper thinking, Midas remembered they never really had the best relationship. After a few seconds of heavy, breathtaking silence, Midas’s recalling was cut short when she finally responded.


“My son!” she said with a smile as she clasped her hands together as she tilted her head and continued wearing the smile, “The food is almost ready, your friends are waiting in the living room. Go ahead and hang out with your friends, I will call you guys when it's ready.”


Friends? Midas inner dialogue rang as he began to recall familiar faces. Midas didnt recall having friends, and anyone else he knew lived in different states. He also had some people in the same state but the thought of inviting any of them over didn’t feel like an action he would want to take, but he kept drawing a blank on the reason why. He made his way past his Mother through the kitchen into the dining room where his brother and cousins were sitting. Midas found it strange how his Mother forgot to mention  that family came to town as well. A bittersweet lukewarm feeling of nostalgia filled Midas, but why? Midas always had a deep love for his family, so why wasn’t this reunion the feeling of nostalgic ecstasy he always felt when he seen them?


All of the sudden, Midas saw his Mother flash before his eyes almost gliding past Midas toward them as she whispered something brief in his brother's ear then opened the window  and suddenly the smiles that were on all of his cousins and brothers face almost instantly turned into faces of disgust, surprise, and disappointment. Although he wanted to speak to them, words seemed to be just out of reach and unnecessary, so he just disregarded them for the time being and began to move to the first living room where the people his Mother mentioned were sitting. He could feel the same energy emitting from this room, a blend of sorts. They were all talking so he was unable to make out the voices he was hearing. The dog barking in the distance didn't help either. As he turned the corner, they all simultaneously acknowledged Midas.


“Hey Midas, how's the family?”  a woman asked, smiling the same mask of a  smile. 


She seemed familiar, a friend of a girl Midas recalled a very intimate relationship with. A quick flash of his past karmic  partner appeared for a brief second in front of Midas. He had to be seeing things. He blinked to reassess and suddenly the house, the room and the people were gone. Before Midas could blink and there she was, a few feet away from Midas as they both stared at each other almost completely insouciant of the void they were standing in, that was almost completely engulfed in flames. Midas knew that this definitely wasn't real. Though Midas could recall the emotions of the crash and burn, remembering the whole experience seemed like a chore Midas did not find necessary to recall. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and came back to the living room where the same familiar strangers from a second ago were sitting. 


The room became slightly smoky despite a window being open and the smell grew a bit stronger. Although he felt the smoke slightly effecting his vision and  causing his throat to dry, it didn't seem to affect any of them at all. As he continued to scan the room, none of them seemed to be blinking. And now that Midas was paying closer attention, the men in the room were wearing muzzles and leashes. Midas had a lot of questions, but all of them would be hard to answer in this lifetime. Even then,  he didn’t find it necessary to ask with the internal understanding all of these people would be gone soon anyway. He stood there for sometime taking it all in. All of the sudden they all began laughing as if they knew a secret. Everything about this interaction felt so odd and outdated for Midas. He walked away without spending much more thought on the matter. He walked past them toward the hallway to the next living room. The smoke intensified along with the smell, causing Midas to cough and his eyes to burn. As he gets closer to the second living room a much darker energy could be felt by Midas where he began to hear the voices of other women speaking.


“It’s better this way,” an older woman with a slightly deep voice added.


“He wouldn't know what to do with it anyway, right?” a slightly more squeaky, unsure voice added.


“ We are doing this for the family, I’m sure He would do it for us if we asked. They aren’t capable of thinking for themselves” a much older voice concluded. ”He needs to think of someone other than himself. He needs to die. The plans are almost complete.”


By this point Midas was close enough for him to peek and see who the last remark came from. As he peeked around the corner he saw his grandma with a stern look on her face that quickly switched to the signature fake smile everyone in the house seemed to be sporting as she almost simultaneously acknowledged Midas.


“My Grandson!” she exclaimed.


Everyone else in the room quickly changed facial expressions as well. It all felt so artificial to Midas.


“ We came to see you, but you slept too long we have to get going now”


They all walked past Midas and turned the corner but when Midas turned to see, they were no longer there. He heard the front door slam. After Midas pondered the extremely eerie experience,  he begins walking back toward the kitchen where the smoke has gotten so intense MIdas begins to feel like the smoke will suffocate him if he doesnt turn the stove off himself. He passed the living room and dining room hardly acknowledging everyone was gone. The dog’s barking has gotten louder but he looks out of the window to find nothing out there. When he reaches the kitchen, the two pieces of bacon are burnt to a crisp, and his mother is standing there with a rag in her hand. It appears as though she was waiting for Midas. This time the smile has gone completely and she is now in a full scowl staring directly at Midas.


“Look what you made me do”! She exclaimed, "You're so useless! Just like your father. No wonder she left you! You don’t love me!”


She walks away into her room and Midas looks back and realizes the stove is off but the bacon is still burning. Midas moves the pan and goes to lay down expecting it simmer down after some time. He goes back to bed thinking a nap would solve his problems. Midas is now intensely coughing and his eyes are just about watering from the smoke. The dog is now aggressively growling and barking even louder as if it was fighting another animal outside. He tries to ignore it, then turns around to try to breathe better and sleep it off. It was seconds until Midas felt a wave of pure malice run past his shoulder. He opens his eyes and sees Apollo, his pet dog barking at something standing behind Midas. Midas then realized he got Apollo 3 years ago, and its been 7 years since he left his mothers house. He turns around and opens his eyes. In the dark smoke filled room, he sees a black figure standing over him. Midas could really only make out the shadow of its eyes, a blood red, but the fire that suddenly spread around the corners of the room highlighting its skin and curly black hair, and the knife the figure was holding above its head and its trajectory headed for his heart. As he braced to catch the knife, lightning struck, making the figure clear showing Midas the obvious assailant- his own mother.