Year 2000
Holly Drive; Central City.
The noise wakes him up.
It's the sound of thunder and yet it's not, like someone hit the mute button before it could get really loud. Sitting upright, Barry looks around for the source. His attention is drawn to his fish tank, the water suspended in the air above it, rising slowly like the world was reversing in slow motion. Breathing quickly, he climbs out of bed aware that something is very, very wrong. The air feels hot and uncomfortable and there's a smell of ozone in the surroundings.
With palpitations, he creeps towards the door, there's that sound again, the thunder that was not thunder; he musters up some courage and opens the door and he's almost sent flying by the hurricane in his living room.
There is red and yellow lightning, crackling in front of him, enormous winds buffeting his small frame and shattering glass raging around the room with increasing intensity, destroying everything it touches. It looks like Armageddon has unleashed itself in his living room. Reeling at the scene, Barry wants to shut the door, hide beneath the bed and wait for it all to pass. Then he hears his mom screaming, she's slumped on the floor in the middle of the hurricane, sobbing desperately, looking for an answer or perhaps a way out and something switches in him. He can't run away. Hold-your-ground. Mom needs help.
"Mom!" he shouts, stepping closer to her kneeling form in the storm. "Mom!"
At first she doesn't hear him. "Henry!" she wails. "Henry!"
"Mom!" he repeats.
"Barry?" There is hysteria in her tone. "Barry get back! Run away!" but he needs to get closer to help her. He has to get her inside his room, where it's safe, until the storm is gone. That's all he has to do.
Then dad shows up and puts both hands on Barry's shoulders, shouting, "Run, Barry, run!"
'Mom' he thinks. 'Mom.'
Suddenly there's a stillness like the world temporarily stopped and then a flash of crimson lightning sweeps by him, there's a sharp pain and with a blast of wind, the red lightning is gone. He feels dizzy, he notices the yellow lightning flash, something grabs him – the wind, it must be the wind – but before he can panic, it's gone, leaving him alone. He's outside – it's cold and dark and he's scared – and the night is utterly still.
'Just a dream' he thinks, he feels lightheaded and dizzy and so, so tired. His head flops to the side and he sees a man dressed in a red costume with a bolt of lightning on his chest. The man is screaming something and tears are rolling down his cheeks. As he stares on, the man's body begins to fade away, little by little, like particles floating in the wind until he's finally gone and the night is still once more. 'It's just a dream Barry.'
His eyes feel very heavy. He's so tired. He just wants to sleep and wake up back in his little room with his mother's smiling face hanging over him.
He closes his eyes.
Somewhere in the distance, there's another clap of the thunder-that-is-not-thunder.