😟 worrying

"Wish we could turn back time
To the good old days
When our momma sang us to sleep but
Now we're stressed out"
- Stressed Out, TØP

I'm spending the night at a cozy little inn not too far from my actual home. after doing a bit of studying for an upcoming physics test, I decide to turn in early to get some rest before whatever my parents have planned for tomorrow.

an alarm goes off outside our room.

now, I'm the kind of person who usually assumes the worst when it comes to emergencies. but let's face it, most alarms in hotels/inns are associated with fires.

my parents are out at some event, something I assume is not too far from this hotel. that leaves me to take charge in this possible emergency. instinctively, I hoist my brother over my shoulder, grab my room key and phone, and exit the room posthaste.

the term "ear-splitting" has never made too much sense to me before tonight. the alarm is pretty close to our room, and I'm not sure if the terror is enhancing its volume, but it is louder than anything I remember hearing.

strangely, the only person I run into outside is a man who looks like he's also gotten out of bed to check the source of the disturbance. after wandering around the hall a bit, we track the sound to an emergency exit near our room, which must have been triggered somehow.

the sound stops shortly afterward. relieved, I return to our room and tap the key to the scanner. to my dismay, the door has somehow become unresponsive to my card. I tap it several more times in vain, wondering why the system isn't working.

at this point, I'm pretty frustrated. I'd been freaked out pretty badly by a false alarm. my brother isn't as easy to carry around as he used to be. I had taken extra care to grab the key in spite of my sense of panic and it hadn't helped at all.

dismayed, I lug my brother down to the front desk and pick up new keys. I return to our room, place my brother back in bed, and settle down on the bed to stare at the fireplace.

things like these shake me up pretty badly. right now I'm on edge, flinching at every small sound and worrying that the alarm will sound off again.

hopefully it's just a random stroke of bad luck. I don't need this sort of stress in my life.

but I do need to be strong in emergencies (even those that turn out to be false alarms) and know how to protect myself and my family.

if I can figure that out, it'll be one less thing to worry about.