Final Hour (NateWantsToBattle & MatPat)

21

"You're alive?!"

Brett looked at me, adjusting his hoodie.

"I could ask you the same question." Brett sighed, giving me a look.

"What?" I ask, as he leaned against the wall of the building we were standing by.

"I thought you were dead. Your house burned down." He told me.

"Well, yeah. It did. But Nate somehow knew it would catch on fire, and got us out of there." I explain. "He also told me you were dead."

"Wait!" Brett froze. "Nate's alive?!"

"I think so, I mean.. He was last night, but as of today, I wouldn't know."

"Huh?"

"Nate went missing again last night." I explain. "I have no idea where he went, and he's not in the right state of mind."

Brett narrowed his eyes, looking to his side, before looking at the coffee shop on our other side.

"Come with me." He sighed, leading me into the coffee shop.

"What do you mean, Nate's not in his right state of mind?" Brett asked me, as he ordered a coffee. I remained silent as he got his coffee, and waited until we were seated.

"Now tell me." He sniffed.

"Before I tell you that, please explain to me how you are still alive?"

"I was never dead to begin with." He narrowed his eyes. "What told you that I was dead?"

"Nate said you were dead, and I believed him." I say silently.

"No, I mean, I injuried myself protecting the ladies. I was with my Wife and Morgan and Stephanie. It almost killed me, but I never died." He told me.

"So, Morgan and Steph are still alive?" I ask.

"Yeah, Morgan's tough. She wouldn't go down so easily." Brett explained. "She was fighting for something, but I wasn't sure what it was."

"You mean, you don't know?" I ask.

"Know what?"

He really doesn't know.

"Brett, Morgan's pregnant." I tell him.

Brett paused for a moment, his gaze on me. "Is she really?"

"Yeah, Nate found out three months ago. There was a note on Morgan's end table."

Brett had nothing to say for a moment. "I know where they are." He finally said. "Phoebe is free. She escaped with me, but Morgan and Stephanie stayed behind. For some reason, Morgan thought Nate would end up there, so she waited and Stephanie didn't want leave Morgan alone."

"So they're alive?" I ask.

"Yeah, but I don't know how much longer they'll remain that way. He'll realize Phoebe and I are gone, and he will then realize that Nate is still alive."

"Where's Phoebe?" I ask.

"She's at a store, she wants to buy more clothing. All hers got ruined."

"But --"

"Enough!" Brett stopped me. "What happened with Nate?"

Staring at him, I sigh looking over him. "Nate went insane the other day. He attacked someone at a mall one day, and before he went missing he was acting really weird, like he wasn't even Nate. It was like he was possessed."

"Possessed?" Brett asked. "Is he being controlled or something?"

"I was thinking he had an inner demon." I joke.

Brett looked at me then sighed. "That's a possibility." He said to me.

"Dude, I was kidding." I say to him, as he  sipped his coffee.

"Well, I'm not." He narrowed his eyes.

"Then what exactly do you mean?"

"There's a possiblilty of some people having a dark side." Brett told me. "It takes over completely, and sometimes people never recover from it. In our case, Nate may never come back."

"We don't even know where he is!" I protest.

"Maybe he dipped in to is inner demon, and now he can't come back."

I only look at him, before looking away. After another minute, I look back at him.

"So what do we do?" I ask him.

"Find him. We'll get Morgan and Stephanie somehow, and find him before it's too late." Brett explained to me.

"What will happen when it's too late?" I ask, cautiously.

Brett sighed, turning to me with a worried look in his eyes.

"We'll never get Nate back."