Cronkri: I won't let you down

Chapter 3

Later that morning, the alarm on my phone woke me up around 7:30. I groaned and hit the OFF button, sitting up groggily and yawning, stretching my arms and running a hand through my messy brown hair. I looked around the hotel room and got out of bed, still incredibly tired from the less than 3 hours of sleep I had gotten the night before. I've gotten through school with less sleep than this before, but that's different. In school, you can make it through the day only half-paying attention and have your friends and classmates catch you up later.
This was different. I was supposed to be awake, alert, coherent, and cheerful for the people at this conference. While I still can't remember what the conference was specifically about, I do know that my career and reputation hung in the balance. Important people from different colleges all over the Midwest would be there, judging me based on my performance and content. The content I wasn't concerned about, it was the performance that worried me.
I needed to wake up properly in order to succeed.
After getting dressed in my red turtleneck and some black dress pants, I was beginning to feel a little more awake. I got ready in the mirror, washing my face and fixing my hair so it was less of a monstrosity.
I went down in the elevator to the breakfast hall of the hotel and got some coffee with plenty of creamer to help me wake up. Everyone in the dining area was dressed in casual morning clothes and pajamas, except the employees of course. They were all in uniform tuxedos with name tags neatly pinned to their breast pockets. The employees were objectively attractive and rushing about gracefully, attending to the people in the dining area. Many of them had asked me to sit down and eat something, but I politely refused.
"No thank you, I have to make it to a conference by nine."
Thankfully, they respected my decision and left me alone after a little bit.

The people running the conference had made it very clear in the acceptance letter that there was to be no food or drink in the building whatsoever, meaning I had to hurry up and down the last of my caffeinated drink while running across the busy street if I wanted to make it there on time. I had my note cards in one hand and my half-empty coffee cup in the other. I was shuffling through the note cards as I speed walked across the street, when the light suddenly turned green. The person in the car directly in front of me was talking to someone on the phone and didn't notice me standing there. They drove forward. The car and I met, there was a crash, my note cards spilled out in front of me, then the ground rose up to meet me and everything went black. Thoughts rushed through my mind. Thoughts of Cronus not knowing what happened, of the conference members moving on without me, of Karkat and Dad mourning the loss of yet another family member.....

This is the story of how I died, and all the events leading up to it.