The Conspiracy - A Dream SMP Fic

I. Suddenly and Unexpected

"What's the best way to die?"

The three friends fell silent, pondering the question.

The first friend spoke up. "At an old age, quietly and discreetly, after having done all you wanted to do in life."

The second friend shook his head. "But by then, you'd be forgotten. No one would remember you!"

"But you'd have seen all you wanted to see, done all you wanted to do."

"But you'd have lived your last years in misery and disease! I would rather have a glorious, heroic death that would be told for generations. That way, we'd be remembered-"

"Life isn't centered around your legacy!"

The second friend wrinkled his nose. "So you'd rather die in pain?"

"I didn't say that! All deaths end in pain!"

"But a true, heroic death would be much quicker, and the satisfaction of your last act would be enough to cover the pain. You would rather die alone, useless and pitiful, on a bed after doctors tried to save you, to no avail?"

"Yes! I would not give my family the pain of my loss! I would have them understand that there was no other way, that I had simply run out of time! You would rather die knowing that you could have saved yourself, that you could have spared their grief?"

The second friend clenched his fists, but let go, seeing the troubled expression on their third friend's face. "And what about you? You've been uncharacteristically quiet, my friend."

The third friend looked up, his face still contemplative. 

"What do you think is the best way to die?" the second friend urged.

They awaited the third friend's response with apt attention, both friends staring expectantly at him.

The third friend hesitated. He looked up and locked eyes with the first friend, who then looked away. He looked down once more, his eyebrows furrowed in thought... or worry, perhaps?

They would never know, as he would be dead by the next day.

He then said with a long, calculated breath: "Suddenly... and unexpected."

The surprisingly breathless tone of his voice forced the three friends to fall into eerie silence once more. The first and second friends shared a long, anxious look.

The first friend tensed a bit, his face clearly uncomfortable at the third friend's answer. "Let's..." He choked on his own saliva. "... Let's stop speaking of this."

"I agree," the second friend said.

And the third friend was still dead silent.