Set Me Free

16. When It Happens

"I need to know something about your death," I suddenly blurted out in the middle of the late morning.

Apollos made an awkward but noticeable smile before he stood tall on his reindeer legs and made his way to the stool I was sitting on by the counter. I was slumped on the plush white seat, slowly chewing on a piece of granola bar. He gave a curious, but instructing expression, almost as if he wanted to know what was on my mind. I swallowed my food and took a sip a water.

"What time did you get murdered?"

"What time?" He repeated peculiarly.

"Yes." I nodded, taking another bite out of my granola bar.

"The fifteenth hour and seventeenth minute," he shrugged, shaking his head to rid himself of an itch. "Why do you ask?"

I paused. Not because I was thinking of an answer to Apollos' question, but for the connection that my brain made between his time of death and the curse. I always wondered how everyone ended up dying on the seventeenth year of every century, and now I knew why. Now it was a matter of when everyone died.

"Did everyone before me die at the exact same time?"

Apollos was silent for a moment, avoiding eye contact with me until I crinkled my granola bar wrapper. I hopped off the stool and walked around the counter to toss the wrapper into the trash bin, staring at Apollos the whole time. He looked up at me again, mumbling out an incoherent "yes" as he nodded slowly.

"At least I know when." I made an awkwardly straight face before heading to the couch to slump down on it. I glared at Apollos, who was still standing nervously beside the counter. "C'mon! You know you want to," my hand waved him over to the couch. There was no hiding it- I knew Apollos just wanted someone to cuddle him with warmth.

     "I think I'm good..." he began to back away once realizing what I wanted to do.

     For fuck's sake, it's just a hug!

     "No. Come here." I stood up quickly and started to walk to Apollos.

     "Hey!" He cried with a smile. "Personal space!"

     "Don't care!" I smirked and wrapped my arms around his reindeer body. "You're getting cuddled no matter what you think of it."

     Apollos made a ticklish smile and began to free himself from my tight wrapping hug. I placed all th weight pressure on my lower body as I heaved Apollos from the floor and struggled to carry him to the rug on the floor of my living room. He kept kicking his legs at me as I fought to hold his heavy body without dropping it. We plopped onto the floor in exhaustion.

     "You're real stubborn, you know that?" I laughed as he nodded eagerly at my statement.

     "So are you," Apollos laughed back and intentionally grazed my cheek with the tip of his antler.

     "You ready to...you know...?"

     "I personally think it's been far too long for me to have kept my happiness for this amount of time. Are you scared, Dan?"

     "Maybe," I began to feel the blood drain from my face as my fears kicked into gear.

     "Hey, at least you're not alone," Apollos pointed out as he dug his muzzle into the crook of my neck.

     15:17.