What If They Didnt Die At The End (tbdate 2)

.｡*ﾟone .*.

September 6, 2017.
MATEO TORREZ
12:22 am
Exactly 24 hours ago, I woke up to news that changed my life, literally. Usually, if you would think of news, you would think of a channel on TV that shows what happens in your neighborhood. Amber alerts, murders, or even people on the run you might need to look out for. This isn't that kind of news. This was more like someone calling you just after midnight to tell you that your life is going to end sometime in the next 24 hours and you can't prevent it, or do anything really. No exact time, nothing else, not even how it will happen. Just paranoia and a pounding headache. Maybe even a tear or two, if you snap out of the shock. But I did more than snap out of shock. I found someone, not just someone, Rufus Emeterio, who helped me live alittle before I didn't get to live at all. I went from an anxious kid to someone who could conquer anything, even death itself, with Rufus by his side. Rufus. God, I miss Rufus.

I don't expect to be alive, and I'm pretty sure I'm not. Last thing I remember was a stove and the last few remaining thoughts of guilt for being too courageous. Seriously though. How can Mateo from September 5 2017 12:22 am, who couldn't even leave his apartment without an excuse to stay in even if it meant chores, have no second thoughts of turning on a broken stove on his death day? God knows. And God still hasn't told him. I haven't met anything people said I would, just a blank mind and a black void. What if I'm not dead? What if I'm still alive?

"-teo?" I hear an older man say, a trace on my arm pulling me to reality,

I open my eyes hesitantly, expecting to fall back into the endless void which I have been stuck in for what seems like forever, but instead of that, I see a rather familiar face I thought I wouldnt see looking back at me again.

"Dad?" I cry out, trying to sit up as the nurse pushes me back down softly.

He smiles. The same smile I've loved since I was a kid. The smile that calmed me down from crying when my grandmother wouldn't wake up at her funeral when I was seven. The smile that calmed me down when I failed my first test. The smile that is finally being seen again in person instead of a photo or video, which i would replay for hours under the covers on his bed on nights I couldn't sleep.

Am I dead? Maybe I'm in the afterlife and my dad has already passed when I was gone. Maybe my mom's here too.

I don't care if I'm dead or not at this point. My father is here, reality or in my mind, and I've missed him a bit too much.

"Where's mom?" I speak, my words hesitant.

"Where's Rufus?" My eyes widen, I scan the room but I see nothing. Just a few empty beds to my left and my father and a nurse to the right. I wonder how the nurse died.

After the questions spill out, a wave of realization captures the two in front of me with a strong grip, and he looks at me with soft eyes.

"Mateo, son. You're not dead."

That's why. I'm not dead, unless this is my subconscious mind, if I even have one anymore is making this scenario to ease the pain of dying. But it can't be. Am I alive? That's impossible. 12:22 am September 5, 2017, was the day I got the call from Death Cast. And Death Cast told me I was going to die and I can't escape it. Key word, can't escape it. No matter what I tried, death would always follow me and I thought the world had made that clear to me by now.

"You're alive." He repeats, this time his eyes tear up.

I'm alive.

"What day is it?" I ask, my hands starting to shake.

"September 6, 2017." The nurse says from beside me.

I'm alive.

I slowly sit up, burns on my back sending a shock throughout my body, making me wince in pain, but I don't care right now. My dad is here.

"Is Rufus alive?" I exclaim, grabbing my dad's hand and holding them tight, even though the nurse recommended that I don't, she knows I miss him and not even a thousand men could break me away from him at this moment. Well, maybe they could, I'm not really that strong, but that's not the point.

The nurse looks down towards the floor.

"I don't know," she says softly under her breath.

The words escape her mouth and caress my ear, the pain in her voice sending shivers down my spine.

"Of course he'a alive. He wouldnt leave me here by myself. He promised," I say, the rims of my eyes threatening to spill tears and my quivering lips don't hide that.

"He promised if we had more time, we would do everything we couldn't. If we had more time, not just if Mateo had more time, or if Rufus had more time, but we. Us. Together. The world can't rip us apart if it brought us together." At this point, I don't care if I'm giving into the brutal cries. The betrayal I feel in my heart needs a way out, before it traps itself inside like how I was for 18 years.

"I will tell you if I hear anything." She says, trying to calm me down.

"No! I'm not waiting for them! I want you to go and find him now!" I yell, my throat burning. I hate yelling at people, but I don't want to be alive if the reason I started living isn't. That's the worst heartbreak someone could feel.

She nods and rubs a circle in the back of my hand to calm me down before taking off to the front desk.

"You have changed." My father says, and I know what he means. He doesn't mean it in a bad way, but I don't need him to smile at me for me to know. I'm not the scared teenager he left behind, rather an adult now. In one day, I've grown more than I have in all eighteen years put together.

"And I know Rufus was a part of that." he adds. I tilt my head gently to the side, being careful not to irritate the burns on the sides of my face. He catches on and releases a breath.

"He left me a note, when you passed." I can hear the pain in his voice. Waking up to see notes that your son died. Even if you find out he is still alive a few minutes later, the heartbreak and shock you get for the seconds before that is enough of a scare to make you wish you never woke up.

"He left a note, and told me how brave you were." He sits down on the bed next to my legs, caressing my face in his hands. They have always been bigger and stronger than mine. They made me feel safe.

"You were so brave," He says again, this time the realization of everything hitting me.

"Dad." I tear up.

Dismissing the sharp pain shooting through my body, I get up and give him the biggest hug I have ever given him. I relax into his arms and he smiles, hugging me back tighter.

"I saw the adventures you two went on for the last day." He says, not letting go to even look me in the eyes,

"The adventures and how much you opened up to the world. How you took the betrayal of the world in your hands, and decided to throw it back to the seas and the grass, the clouds and the sun, the moon and her stars, but this time harder." He went on.

"You showed the world you wouldn't leave without a bang." That's what Rufus wanted.

"You showed your mother." My mother.

"You showed me." He's happy.

"And you showed death, that two could play at his game. You beat him, and you're alive."

I stay up against him, my face tucked in his chest. I felt tight, my arms and legs feeling frozen and my breath was held. He notices this reaction, but he doesn't stop hugging me. Instead of pulling away in concern, he brings me closer and starts humming a song.

"I hope you don't mind"

"I hope you don't mind" I sing along.

"That I put in the words." We sing together, his voice overpowering mine with the flawless melody, but I dont stop.

"How wonderful life is now that you're in the world." We sing together, rocking back and forth. I know he would pick me up and dance with me in the middle of the run as if there was no tomorrow, but he just woke up from  a two week long coma, and I just apparently survived a day of death, burns scattering my body as proof.

We smile at each other before bursting into laughter. We laugh about each other's company, we laugh about how we are alive, we laugh about everything. But most importantly, we laugh because my life has only just begun, when I knew for sure that it was going to end.