03:03

He awoke, as he often did, in the middle of the night. His duvet was tangled from the man’s lack of sleep, and his right hand hung off the side of the bed. Groaning, he rubbed his eyes with his other hand and tried to locate the piercing red figures on his LED alarm clock. 03:03.

Exactly three hours and twenty-seven minutes until he needed to be up. Another groan. His dog’s damp tongue rubbed across his right hand, as if for comfort. Not a moment later, he heard his only dog bark, loudly and from the bottom of the stairs.