the only heaven i'll be sent to

1.0

Luis sat cross-legged on his bed with his laptop in front of him, typing up some assignment for his computer engineering class. He'd been working for so long that his mind was practically numb. His fingers were sore and his eyes were glazed. But it was nearing the end of the semester, and since Luis was the definition of a procrastinator, it was cram time.

Minutes flew by and Luis continued staring at his computer screen, desperately hoping for the assignment to finish itself, when suddenly, he saw a man appear in the middle of his bedroom from above his laptop screen. A man... just appeared.

Luis, of course, jumped ten feet in the air, nearly throwing his laptop off the bed. He made eye contact with the tall man, barely catching his breath as he slowly backed up towards the bedroom door. He didn't make a sound.

The man laughed, though it didn't seem malicious. Luis stared bewilderedly, grasping behind him for the doorknob, finally grabbing it and twisting it only to find it locked. And... his door definitely didn't usually lock from the inside, did it? Luis was definitely hallucinating, wasn't he? A man just physically appeared in the middle of his room, seemingly out of thin air. But that's impossible, isn't it? He was hiding under the bed or something, and Luis hadn't noticed him when he first crawled out — that was the only logical explanation. These were the thoughts that quickly passed through Luis's mind as he struggled with the doorknob. The thoughts then turned to silent screaming and bright red exclamation points and question marks flashing across his brain.

Amidst all of this panic, Luis allowed his eyes to briefly wander over to the clock to check the time. His roommate, Kaiya, wouldn't be home for another ten minutes or so. Maybe he could distract the intruder to buy time until Kaiya got home; then he could scream for help. He lived in an apartment building, so his neighbors might hear him if he made a noise. But then again, he did live in New York City, a city with a serious case of the bystander effect.

Luis kept his eyes on the strange — albeit, attractive — man in his bedroom, and that's definitely not a thought that should have just crossed his mind. Attractive? Really? He could be a murderer, or worse. The man kept staring right back at Luis, a smile on his face the entire time. He looked to be in his early twenties and had clear, light blue eyes that shined in the dim light coming from the single lamp in the otherwise dark room. He had chiseled cheekbones and well-groomed stubble. The man had deep tan skin and dark curly hair... and why on God's green earth was Luis even thinking about these things? Call him crazy, but it was like the man had some sort of enrapturing effect, like Luis genuinely couldn't stop his mind from filling with thoughts about the beautiful man — and dammit, he was doing it again.

"Hey. You're gonna die in six months," the man spoke. His voice was deep and reverberated around the room. Luis felt the voice in his chest. Who the hell was this guy?

Luis continued to stare at the man, watching closely for any sign of movement, waiting for the man to start swinging an ax or something. The man chuckled.

"Just a heads up," he said, laughter in his voice.

A moment passed.

"What?" Luis said. Of all the things he could've said or screamed, the only thing he managed to get out was "what?". There was something seriously wrong with his brain. He blamed it on his computer engineering assignment.

"My name's Adrian, by the way," the man said, completely ignoring Luis's weak query. "Nice room. It's very 'broke university student-chic.'" The man — Adrian — laughed at his own stupid joke.

"How could you possibly know when I'm going to die?" Luis managed to stammer out. Why was he even entertaining this guy? He was most definitely hallucinating.