Death Doesn't Discriminate •|• Sequel To If You Ever Come Back

6 - Learn To Be Lonely

Dil's POV

My dad was a good man. He always wanted the best for me, even when I didn't deserve it. He gave everything to make me complete.

But he never was. He was alone, and I knew that. Whenever I asked about my mother, he either avoided the question or got mad at me. I figured he must have loved her a lot. He loved her and he lost her.

The idea of me being adopted was never an option for me. I looked so much like my dad that there was never a doubt whether I was actually his son. Only my eyes were different. Instead of the amber coloured irises he had, mine were bright blue.

"You could go swimming in those eyes", he used to say lovingly. It made me smile.

But even though he was lonely, my father was rarely sad. He learned to be lonely, he learned that life can be loved alone. So he kept living that way.

Every day was the same. I'd wake up, we'd have breakfast. I'd go to school, he'd go to work. Then we'd come home at almost the same time, we'd have dinner together. He'd ask me how my day was, I'd say it was fine. Poof, day over.

Until my fourteenth birthday. My friends had thrown a party for me at some disco place. Most of them were older than I was and some of them even had a car.

But they were drunk, all of them. And I couldn't get home on my own so my best friend offered to give me a ride home.

I hesitated. He could barely stand on his feet, let alone drive safely, but I had promised my dad I'd be home before midnight so I agreed.

We stepped into the car and I immediately knew this was a bad idea. We wouldn't get home safely, perhaps we wouldn't even get home at all.

Headlights blinding me, my friend screaming, stars, screeching tires, the night sky, pain, then nothing. Just a white mass.

I'm dead, I thought. It's over and it's my fault. My dad will be disappointed. No, even worse. He will be devastated, heartbroken, empty. I was the last thing he had left and now I'm gone too.

Maybe I'll see my mother now, was my next thought. Now I'll finally know who she is and why my dad loved her so much. I'll finally know if I have her eyes.

In the white mass, I could see a figure walking towards me. I recognised them immediately. It was my best friend from elementary school.

Her name was Summer, and she never got older than ten. She had cancer and died before she had her first kiss. I once promised her that when the cancer was gone, we'd get married. But the cancer was never gone and now we were both dead before we could get married. She forever stuck as a ten year-old. Me stuck as the pubescent shitbag I am.

Her grey eyes started to shine when she saw me, but they soon faded to a frown.

"I hoped you'd live longer, Dil", she said softly.

"Yeah, so did I...", I mumbled.

The corner of her mouth curled up in a small smile. "It's okay. It's beautiful here. Come on, I'll show you."

And she arched her back to unfold the most beautiful pair of wings I'd had ever seen. They were bigger than she was and seemed to glow a little. The tips were slightly grey coloured and they shivered with the smallest gust of wind that touched them.

She was gorgeous. All the angels on the renaissance paintings faded to a pile of ash next to her. It looked like God himself had made her.

So I just stood there, staring, until she took my hand and there we flew. Through the white mass until I had to close my eyes to avoid getting blinded by the overwhelming light.