Sign of the Times

Chapter 11

Will knew something was wrong the moment he woke up. Even before he realized Nico wasn't in his arms.

The last thing he remembered was watching Nico kiss his head in a haze of sleep, seeing his smile, falling back asleep again and not waking up until now.

Now. The sun shining through the crack in the tent. His back sore from sleeping on the ground and his body cold from sleeping by himself.

Dread pooled in his stomach and his brain screamed at him, told him he should have seen it coming, but he didn't know what 'it' was and he was too tired to do much but look around the tent for his boyfriend, then weakly call for him to come back.

But he didn't. And that woke Will up.

The first thing he noticed when he opened the tent was how red the sky was. It was always beautiful from the cliff, but today was different. The sun was bleeding at it time it shouldn't. There were no clouds but it drizzled anyways.

It should have made a rainbow, but there was none in sight.

The morning smelled like all mornings in nature do, smelled of dew and grass and the nearby trees. The dirt beneath his fingers smelled like life. 

Where did you go when you died? Did you become life in nature, or did you simply cease to exist? What afterlife was right, if there was any at all?

He didn't wonder until that morning. He didn't think about a loved one as just a soul until it was presented to him.

Because the third thing he noticed was Nico's boots sitting at the edge of the cliff and no Nico in them. Will crawled to them like a man dying in the desert, found Nico's phone and keys and hairpin as if it was any other time in the lake, like they were just going swimming and everything was fine and they were both alive.

But this wasn't the lake. Nico was nowhere to be seen. And the moment Will saw that note, he sprinted to the bottom of that cliff.

 
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He cradled a bloody body in his arms like he once held bloody hands in his own.

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They didn't need an ambulance. They didn't need a life-flight. He was too far gone and an ambulance was towns away.

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Leo screamed and broke the red motorcycle, the red paint stripping away.

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Percy locked himself in his room and didn't eat for two days.

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Hazel moved in with her friend Frank and his mom and never saw her father again.

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Will refused to lay in a bed Nico was once in and refused to sit on the cliff where he died. He laid on the couch in the Bunker, still decorated from Nico's birthday, reading the note and deciding he was at fault.

He should have seen it coming.

He should have read the signs.

He should have paid attention.

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He should have saved his life.
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*large letters, at the very top* for Will's eyes only. Will, you can share this if you want