Death's Feather

Chapter 5: The Carnival

The smell of coffee and something sweet woke up Ignacio.
He was in his bed, like every other morning, in his mom's house.
He got up and let out a yawn, dressing up and going down to the kitchen.

"Hola mijo, eat your breakfast before work." Her voice sounded weird, but warm and happy.

She was moving something in the stove, and a mug of coffee was already in the table, on Ignacio's place. She was humming a soft melody but Ignacio couldn't see her face, only her back.

"¿Where is everyone?"

Her mother finally turned around and walked to the table, leaving two full plates of tamales. Ignacio took one and almost threw it when it burned his fingers. His mother took a seat in front of him and smiled.

"¿Don't you remember? They're at the carnival. It leaves tomorrow so they wanted to visit it one last time."

Ignacio took another tamal and devoured it like the one before. They were so good, he couldn't believe how long it was since the last one he ate.
It was a day like this one, everyone was out to the carnival's last day and...
He opened his mouth and his mother wrinkled her nose.

"Shut your mouth and eat properly."

Ignacio looked around.
It was exactly how he knew it; the kitchen, with dirty dishes piled up in the sink. The dinner table, made of wood and displaying the tiny drawings he and his siblings made ages ago with crayons. And then his mom...
She was wearing the exact same apron and the exact same jeans and blouse from the day of the carnival he remembered...
He got up so quickly his tamal fell to the floor. The cup of coffee was spilled all over the table and his mother got up too, looking at him like he was crazy.

"¿What's wrong? ¿Why did you threw my tamal? What have I told you about wasting food..."

"This isn't real." He said, and she got quiet, still looking at him. "You're not real. I'm still dead; I'm still in the tournament..."

"Well of course you are." She said with a funny chilling noise. Ignacio backed off. "We just changed scenarios to make it a little more exciting. Honestly, Death was making things so easy for you, poor disgusting souls."

"¿What are you?" He whispered.

She smiled even more and picked up the tamal from the floor.

"We convinced him to make this trial particularly exciting. Well," She added, stuffing the whole tamal in her mouth. " exciting for us at least, I doubt you'll feel the same way."

He didn't answer. ¿What could he say? She was clearly a demon or something, disguised as his mother. This was all an illusion and he felt for it like the dumbass he was.
But ¿could someone blame him? Everything had been made and carved just like his old life used to be.

"¿What am I supposed to do?"

The thing smiled again, looking at him with false sweetness.

"You go the carnival, of course. You follow him, and watch how things turned out. You'll live that moment all over again, watching yourself screw it all up. Simple as that."

Ignacio swallowed. He took his jacket and went right through the front door, hoping to not be making a mistake. And then he saw himself.
It was Ignacio—plain and simple—waliking down the streets to go to the carnival. He was alive and dressing up like a gangster. He had a cigarette between his lips and a bored look on his face. Dead Ignacio watched Alive Ignacio go down the street. He followed him.
It was like watching himself in the mirror, or being in a weird TV show where he's the protagonist of his miserable life. He remembered how he felt that day—and also—what he did.
He wasn't too eager to get to the carnival anymore; not if he had to live that day from Alive Asshole Ignacio's perspective.