I've never posted anything this short over here before, but I just like it so much; part of me wants to continue it, but I just don't know how. Hoping feedback will help with that.

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It starts as a tickle, the innocent brush of a feather against the back of the throat. Logically, water has nothing to do with it, isn't even the same tube through the body, but that's what he grabs when the tickle turns to a scratch. Arcs an arm from under the covers, swipes a hand over the lacquered bedside table, grabs the bottle he's kept there since this became a nightly problem when the air turns chilly. Still groggy, half the water dribbles down the side of his face, pools on the sheets before soaking in, but by then, his mind's halfway back asleep, and the bottle almost misses the table before the hand snakes back under the covers, white plastic cap sliding to pale beige carpeting.

Sometimes, he doesn't remember a thing in the morning. It's enough, and he falls back asleep until the alarm clicks on and music pours through his small bedroom, periodically interrupted by childish protests. Six years and he still can't get used to waking up so early; it's worse, now, in the winter, when the sun's not even up. Get that: he wakes up before the sun. It feels unnatural, wrong, but try telling his insomniac boss that one.

But when the air gets really cold, like, below-zero, bone-numbing, get-under-the-covers-and-don't-move cold, the scratch comes back and downing a small ocean does nothing to keep the explosive bursts of air from coming up. He never had this problem before, aside from a few colds that went on a little long, and the experience is new, unwelcome. Launches him out of bed and stumbling for the bathroom and the bottle of tiny round pills, perfect spheres rolling around in his palm – pleas for them to work fast running through his head. Because this hurts, leaves his throat raw and chest tender. Keeps him up until that tiny reflex in his scarred lungs goes numb and leaves him alone.

He goes in to work the next morning bleary-eyed and cursing winter.