* * *
Richard was standing in front of the door to room 228, a hand resting on its knob. As he went to turn it, his mind suddenly went blank. “What did I come here for?” he thought, biting his lip in frustration. “I was looking for someone, wasn’t I?” His hands slowly came down to rest at his sides. “No, that’s impossible. I don’t know anyone who lives here. I’ve never seen this room in my life. Or…have I?
He took several steps back and leaned against the wall, rubbing his temples with a sigh. “Room 228,” he muttered aloud. “It has a familiar ring to it.” He looked up at the door, wracking his brain for any connections to the mysterious room. As moments passed, he found that the harder he thought, the less he understood what he was doing there in the first place.
“I…must be lost or something,” he decided. “I must have had lunch at the cafeteria, zoned out while I was walking home, and now I’m lost.” He placed a hand on his hip and nodded to himself. “Yes, that must be it. That must be it.” He turned away from the door and began to walk down the stairs.
* * *
Mari gasped for breath as she ran through the woods, glancing back over her shoulder every few seconds to make sure she wasn’t being followed. Her foot twisted as it hit a rock, and with a cry, she fell onto the ground. As she laid there with her face buried in the dirt, pain coursed through her battered body. For the first time since she set off on her mission, she began to consider giving up.
With a heave, she rolled herself over and looked up at the sky. There would be no more pain, no more fear. It would all be over. “But what about David?” she thought to herself. “If I give up, neither of us stand a chance. Would that be fair for him?” She gritted her teeth together as she began to pull herself up, grabbing onto a tree trunk for support. “No, I can’t give up. Not just yet. I can be strong for a little longer, and then…he’s on his own.”
She let go on the tree trunk and tightened her fists, limping as fast as she could manage. “I have to hurry!”
* * *
As David’s eyes adjusted to the brightness of the room, he glanced around for an empty seat. When he found one, he plopped down with a deep sigh, trying to relax his tense body. He groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. “I need to appear calm,” he thought, though he was feeling quite the opposite.
While he was sitting there at the empty table, memories pounded painfully in the back of his skull. The events that had happened up until that very moment played themselves over and over again, farther convincing him that he needed to take action as soon as possible. Though his desire to begin his plan was strong, he also knew that he needed to wait for the right moment. He couldn’t afford to mess things up, especially not with lives other than his at stake.
It had started about six months ago, a few days after his nineteenth birthday. He had woken up in the middle of the night with a peculiar feeling in his limbs, and as he pulled off his blanket, he found that they had disappeared completely. He couldn’t see them or move them. They were just gone. They reappeared the next morning, causing him to believe that it had been a dream.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The weeks following were filled with strange happenings, such as more of his body disappearing at random times or people close to him briefly forgetting he was. David wondered if he was going crazy. He tried to tell Richard, but his friend simply brushed it off as his mind playing tricks on him. With no one to turn to, he came to the conclusion that he indeed going insane. That changed when she appeared to him.
It was a cold night, marking the beginning of winter. He was walking back to the dormitories after eating dinner out, and decided to take a short cut through a nearby park. As he made his way deeper into the trees, he pulled his jacket tighter around him, noticing how it had suddenly gotten a lot colder. A bright light appeared in front of him, so powerful that it completely filled his vision and temporarily blinded him. As he tried to cover his face from the rays, a small hand touched his shoulder. He opened his eyes and saw a girl who looked to be around eleven or twelve smiling at him, dressed in flowing white robes.
“You’re David, aren’t you?” she asked, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. As she brushed back her long golden hair, a halo flashed above her head.
David inched away from the girl, both terrified and amazed by her mysterious appearance.
The girl clapped her hands together, her smile growing wider. “Yes! You are David, aren’t you? Oh, you are! I’ve been looking for you for the longest time!” She laughed, patting down her robes as she knelt onto the ground. “You have no idea how much trouble you’ve put me through!”
David pointed a shaking finger at himself. “Y-you mean me?”
“Oh, yes! I do mean you.” She scooted closer to David, reaching out and placing her hands back on his shoulders. “David, I know,” she said, the smile not leaving her face. “I know about what’s happening to you. You’re scared, aren’t you?”
David stared at the girl in disbelief. Just who was she? What was she? He nodded dumbly, and allowed her to trail her hands up to his face.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “You don’t have to be afraid anymore. What’s happening to you can be explained, though I must warn you that it won’t be easy to swallow.”
David gulped before stuttering, “I w-want to hear it.”
“I see,” she muttered, her smile fading slightly. She looked into his eyes, his wide and filled with fear and her own calm and glazed over. “For the past few months you’ve been experiencing strange things that confuse you. You don’t understand any of it. Your body has been disappearing and people have been forgetting who you are. As harsh as it may seem, it is only to prepare you for what must happen.”
“What must happen?” Cold sweat dripped down David’s face as he waited for her to continue.
“What must happen is,” the girl’s smile left altogether, and a solemn, icy look filled her expression. “You must disappear altogether. You, David, were never meant to be born.”
She then went on to explain how he should’ve died in his mother’s womb, but for whatever reason, some unknown force had allowed him to live. Having a person in the world who wasn’t supposed to be alive wouldn’t work. The balance of those who were supposed to live and those who were supposed to die would go haywire. So, now at the age of nineteen, David was beginning to slowly cease to exist.
The girl, whose name was Shifra, was a creature sent down from Heaven. It was her job to help David cope with the newly revealed information. According to Shifra, though she was sent from Heaven, she wasn’t an angel. “Shifra is Shifra,” was all she would tell David.
At first David thought that all of what Shifra had told him had been a joke. People didn’t just disappear. If it wasn’t a joke, it was probably a misunderstanding—a big mistake. There was no way he was going to stop existing. He had a family, friends, he was in college—he had his whole life ahead of him. But as time went on, he slowly began to realize that there were no misunderstandings or mistakes. Shifra and Gershon, another one of Shifra’s kind, fully meant what they had told him. He was going to disappear.
It all made sense. It all tied in together. But David wouldn’t accept it. He wasn’t going to let it happen. He yelled and struck out, and even begged on his knees, but Shifra could only smile sadly and tell him that there was nothing she could do. Gershon, on the other head, threatened to end David’s existence early, which left David himself in a farther state of confusion. With such reactions like that, they couldn’t possibly be creatures from Heaven. But…then what were they?
More of the creatures appeared after that, each one taking the form of a human child. Their arrival was just days after his outburst, and as far as he was concerned, that was no coincidence. It was then that he made a very important decision. Friendly or not, he wasn’t going to trust them.
* * *
Cathy stared at the envelope in her hands. Though it was unlabeled, she felt like it belonged to her. Holding her breath, she gently tore open the top, and pulled out a folded sheet of notebook paper. She unfolded the page and gasped. “David!” she thought happily, recognizing his messy handwriting before she even read the first sentence. For a moment she considered getting her husband. It had been months since either of them had heard from their son. However, she was eager to learn of David’s situation, and began to read it by herself.
* * *
David glanced anxiously around the room, feeling the heat drain from his body. The creatures were making themselves known. He sat straight up, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth to keep himself from shaking. He had to stay calm.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, David,” cooed Shifra, smiling casually as she seated herself by David, who was white as a sheet. “We needed to have a private word before the meeting. Are you feeling well?” She leaned in, her normally sweet smile growing quite sinister. “You look awfully pale.”
David forced himself to sound cheerful. “I’m doing just fine. It’s cold outside and I’m still warming up.”
“Ah, I see! The cold doesn’t affect my body so I wouldn’t know.”
David laughed awkwardly, struggling to keep up his fake happy act. He placed a hand on his pocket for reassurance, briefly closing his eyes. He had to be strong. Running away wouldn’t solve anything. No matter where he’d go, he’d still end up disappearing. But it was still his best shot. As soon as the meeting was over, he’d dart out of the back door and retrieve his duffel bag that he had hidden in the bushes. Then, he’d hitchhike to the highway and try to get a ride.
Normally he wouldn’t approve of hitchhiking, but in his current situation, it was all he could do. He wouldn’t last on foot. Not only would it tire him out quickly, it also wouldn’t be fast enough. What he needed to do was go somewhere far away as quickly as possible.
“David, as much as it hurts me to say this, your time is almost up.” It was Gershon, who sat at the head of the table, wearing a deep frown. “Have you said goodbye to your loved ones?”
“Y-yes,” David said, slipping a hand inside his pocket.
“Have you made amends with the people you have wronged?”
“I have.” His fingers touched the cold surface of the item.
“Have you given out your possessions, and prayed for your soul.”
“I have.” As he gripped the item, he held back a sob that threatened to escape from his throat. “I’ve done all of that.”
“Good,” Gershon said with a nod. “Then you’re ready?”
“Wait!” David slammed both of his hands on the table, his face twisted with anger. “You told me I’d have a twenty-four hour notice until my disappearance. What the heck happened to that?”
“We’ve had an unfortunate change of plans. We have to take you now.”
“But, I…” David lowered his hands to his sides. “Don’t say anything else…they’ll become suspicious!” He couldn’t stop himself. “You can’t do that! This is my life we’re talking about here! I’ve been cooperating only because I knew I’d have to time to prepare myself for this!”
“And you have. You said you’ve done everything we told you to do. So aren’t you prepared? You’ve said goodbye to your loved ones, detached yourself from worldly possessions… You should be ready now.” Gershon, who rarely wore anything other than a mutual facial expression glared dangerously across the table at David. “Or are you not ready? Have you planned something else for the rest of your short life?”
“Gershon, I think you’ve said enough.” Shifra looked pleadingly at David. “I’m sorry, David, truly I am. But we have to do it tonight. I know this must be hard be hard for you, but please understand that we’re not the ones that control this kind of thing. We can’t keep you from disappearing. Nobody can, David.”
“But…!”
“Don’t listen to them, David!”
* * *
Cathy stared at the letter in her hands, not taking her eyes off the far too familiar handwriting. She bit her lip, trying to pinpoint the name that danced on the tip of her tongue. For some reason, it just wouldn’t come to her. “S-Steve, do we know anyone named David?”
“I don’t think so,” he called out the next room over. “Why do you ask?”
“I’ve just received a letter addressed to us from someone named David, and it’s kind of concerning me. It’s a very personal letter, and he seems to know a lot about us.”
Steve walked into the room and sat down beside her. He took the letter from her and squinted to read the messy handwriting. “Should we call the police?”
“I don’t think so,” Cathy said, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back. “Maybe to be safe…but I honestly don’t think it’s a big deal. It doesn’t feel like this David person intended us any harm.”
“Are you sure?” Steve asked. “We can call anyway if it’d make you feel more at ease.”
“Oh, I’m fine!” She ruffled his hair playfully and gave a small laugh. “We’ll get this sorted out. Like I said, I’m sure it’s nothing. Maybe it’s just someone we haven’t seen for a while and have forgotten.”
Steve frowned. “Are you sure? We’re not that old yet.”
“Oh, I’m sure it’s nothing.”
* * *
The mysterious newcomer made their way to the table. As they stepped into the light, David gasped. It was girl who looked to be in her late teens, dressed in a ratty school uniform and winter coat. She had brown hair pulled into sloppy pigtails and a pair of glasses which sat perched on her nose. As she grew closer to the table, David noticed that she was walking with a limp. His eyes widened as he caught sight of the hole torn in her tights, which was showing off a rather nasty scrape.
“David,” she said, panting. “D-don’t listen to them…no matter what they say.”
David opened and closed his mouth in surprise, feeling lost for words. How did she know about what was happening to him? Was it happening to her too? “W-what’s she talking about…?”
“Hey, Shifra, it’s nice to see you again.” In a split second, the girl’s composure changed. She glared at the creature in disguise, smirking. “So, you’re back to ruining people’s lives? It doesn’t surprise me one bit.”
“Mari,” Shifra said, clapping her hands together and smiling. “You know we only did what we had to. We had nothing against your brother. He wasn’t supposed to be exist, Mari. People who aren’t supposed to exist cannot live peacefully.”
Mari gritted her teeth together. “You don’t know that… You didn’t even let him try.”
“It would have been useless, Mari. He would’ve just faded away on his own, alone and in pain. The ending we gave him was quick and painless. You should be thanking us. So,” Shifra held a hand out to Mari, who was visibly shaking with anger. “No hard feelings?”
“There’s no way I’d trust you!” Mari laughed. She then turned her attention to David. “David, we’re leaving. You probably have a lot of questions so I’ll explain while we’re running. Come on.”
“But how do I know I can trust you?” David asked, struggling to decide if he should run away with the girl named Mari or stay where he was and avoid the wrath of the creatures. Either way, his plan was ruined. He had Mari to thank for that.
“Go on, David, just run away.” It was Gershon, who remained at his place at the table, calmly watching them with a look of boredom on his face. “You were planning on doing that anyway, weren’t you?”
David gulped, hand beginning to move towards his pocket.
“I thought so,” Gershon muttered, propping his head up with his hands, elbows resting on the surface of the table. “It was your plan, wasn’t it? Just go ahead and go then. I won’t stop you.” He leaned back, lowering his hands to rest in his lap. “However, I can’t say you’ll go unpunished. I’ll give you two choices.”
David nodded slowly, doing his best not to appear frightened. “Two choices…”
“Number one,” Gershon said, holding up a finger. “You ignore the girl and stay here. We’ll end your existence as painlessly as possible and let her go without harm. Number two…” He held up another finger, and furrowed his brow. “You can run away with her and we won’t follow you. However, we won’t let you go lightly. We’ll take something from you, and in the end, you’ll come to us, begging for a painless end.”
* * *
Richard was laying his bed, staring at the ceiling. He groaned, eyes traveling over to the alarm clock sitting on the table next to him. When he saw that it hadn’t even reached midnight, he groaned even louder.
The night was passing by slowly, and not only could he not fall asleep. He also felt like there was something he needed to do, something extremely important. The problem was that he didn’t know what.
He sat up, yawning and scratching his head. Despite his hard thinking, not a single thing came to mind. In fact, it seemed that the harder he thought, the farther it slipped away from him. He blinked. That felt very familiar to the feeling he had experienced earlier that day.
He swung his legs over the side and stood up, stretching out his arms. He glanced back at the clock, which read only four more minutes than the last time he had looked. The night was passing by far too slowly for his comfort. Something didn’t feel right.
The empty feeling of what he was supposed to accomplish and the feeling of uneasiness was bringing him to his limit. Something had to be done, or he felt that he might never get back to sleep.
He hastily pulled a pair of jeans over his boxer shorts and a t-shirt over his head. After he had gotten dressed, he grabbed his cellphone and wallet off of his dresser and shoved them into one of his pockets. He then carefully opened a window, propping it open with a skateboard he found in his closet. The dormitory had a curfew of nine o’clock, and was strict on anyone who broke it. From his point of view, the only way out was to sneak down through a window.
“I better be careful,” he thought as he slipped his feet into a pair of shoes. “It’s windy tonight.”
As the wind pounded at his back and the cold nipped at his bare fingers, he slowly climbed through the window frame, clinging on for dear life. He had done that multiple times before, so it shouldn’t have worried him, but tonight it seemed more real than it had ever been.
He shivered, cursing his bad luck. He had forgotten his jacket. But that wasn’t the worst part. There he was, clinging to a window several stories up, and it was beginning to like to it was going to rain.
His hands gripped tighter onto the jagged bricks which stuck out of the dormitory wall. He had to get down quickly, or else he might lose his footing. The painful realization of his possible fate nearly brought him to tears. Of all the nights it just had to rain… Fate was a funny sort of thing.
The wind grew more intense, violently shaking his form. The night sky grew even darker, and the temperature dropped to the point where he could see his breathe in the air. Fitful gasps escaped from his throat as he crawled down the wall. Before he knew it, it was also raining.
* * *
David and Mari were running through the library parking lot, hand-in-hand. David felt suspicious of the girl who had suddenly appeared with complete knowledge of his situation. Mari, on the other hand, had placed had her complete trust in David, as she was injured and therefore vulnerable. The two broke through the trees of the nearby woods, gasping for breath.
As the two of them continued to run, David spoke up. “Y-you know a lot about this. W-why is that?”
“W-well, it is only natural for y-you to want answers,” Mari laughed, struggling to keep up with her limp. “H-hey, can we slow down f-for a moment? I can’t k-keep up with m-my leg like this.”
“Y-yeah,” David gasped, grateful for the change of pace.
As the two slowed down, they breathed deeply, both momentarily silent as bad memories crossed their minds.
“You wanted to know how I knew, right?” asked Mari, staring off into the trees ahead of them. “Well, I’ll tell you. I have nothing to hide.”
“An explanation would be nice.” David shrugged, trying to not seem too eager to hear her back story. “You can tell me if you want to.”
“But first, I wondering, what exactually do you have in your pocket? Is it a knife?” Mari smiled. “I’m curious.”
David laughed, bringing a hand down to rest on top of the pocket. “No, not even close.” He pulled the object out, unfolding it and holding it up for Mari to see.
It was a picture of a family dressed in their Sunday best, with a mother, father, two sisters, and a boy who Mari immediately recognized as David. He was standing on his knees in front of his parents, with his sisters sitting on both of his sides. He wore a goofy grin, and possessed bright, innocent eyes unlike the ones he had now.
“A picture of your family, huh?” Mari titled her head, continuing to smile. “You guys look happy.”
“We were,” David said quietly. “…though things are different now. They aren’t bad, but we’re not the same as we used to be.” He shoved the picture back into his pocket, shaking his head. “I thought that if I had this picture with me I might still remember who I was in…wherever it is that I’m going after I disappear. It’s pretty stupid, right? A picture isn’t going to change anything.”
“I don’t think it’s stupid at all.”
“It’s stupid,” David grumbled. “And who am I kidding, anyway? I’m not going anywhere. I’m not even supposed to exist.”
“That may be true, but it’s not wrong to hope.” Mari gave him a playful jab on his shoulder. “I’d have given up long ago if it wasn’t for hope, so be careful with your word choice.”
“Sorry, I guess…” David rubbed his shoulder, wincing and wondering how hard Mari’s serious punch might be. “So, you…were saying?”
“Ah, right. I got off track. Sorry.”
“No, it’s okay.” David crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. “You know, you don’t have to tell me if it’s painful for you to remember. If that’s what it’s like, I’d prefer that you not.”
“No,” Mari looked at David, her face bearing a calm, mutual expression. “It’s alright. You have a right to know. Where should I start? How I found out about you or from the very beginning?”
“The beginning, I suppose.”
“That would make sense, wouldn’t it? So that’s where I’ll start.” Mari cleared her throat, and then glanced up at the sky. She laughed slightly, her lips curving into a sad smile. “It’s like you said, D-David, some things are hard to remember.” She took off her glasses and began to rub her eyes with the back of her coat sleeve. “S-sorry, David. This is a lot h-harder than I thought.”
“Don’t worry about it.” For a moment David considered comforting her in some sort of way. Seeing as he was a guy in the presence of a crying girl, it would’ve made sense. On the other hand, he didn’t want her to feel awkward. After all, they were practically strangers. They were connected by nothing but something they had experienced. “W-What am I supposed to do in a situation like this.”
“It was about four years ago, I think.”
David looked up.
“Strange things were starting to happen to me. I’d have parts of my body disappear, and people would forget about me. I was scared. I shared what was happening to my older brother, and he said he didn’t believe me.”
“I can’t say I blame him. That’s not an easy thing to believe.” David sighed, remembering the time he had tried to tell Richard what he was going through. His friend hadn’t believed him either, though David really couldn’t blame him.
“Then one night he saw.” Mari paused to return her glasses to her face. “My head had disappeared. I couldn’t see or hear. I pretty much couldn’t use any of my senses except touch. He came into my room and saw me like that…his option on me changed immediately. When my head reappeared I explained everything again, and that time he believed me.”
“Y-your head disappeared? Then how did you know it was him?”
“I didn’t,” Mari muttered, looking slightly frazzled. “Not until my sight came back. It was terrifying.” She shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself. “I can’t tell you how relieved I was to see his familiar face.” Her tone of voice changed. “It ended badly…my experience with those things.”
“But, you ended up remaining on earth, so didn’t it end well…?”
“No, it didn’t end well at all!” Mari yelled suddenly, causing David to flinch. She stopped walking. For a brief moment she just stood there, starring down at her feet.
“David,” she began. “Did you know…that you yourself don’t have to disappear…? No, you don’t have to because…” She looked back up at him, eyes wide. “You can get someone else to disappear for you!”
David gasped. “Then you…!”
“It was my older brother,” Mari muttered, covering her face with her hands. “I told her it had to be me...that I was the one who wasn’t supposed to exist…but he went anyway! He went to those dirty creatures behind my back and told them to take him instead. He left me a note saying it was his duty as my older brother to protect me…and disappeared in my place…” She lowered her hands down to her sides and glared at David through a single eye, not bothering to brush the hair out of her face. “So David…you’re going to let me disappear for you, okay?”
* * *
As rain poured down from the stormy sky, Richard struggled to keep himself steady. The young man held on tightly to the side on the brick wall, his shaking hands covered in blood and bruises. He closed his eyes so he wouldn’t see how long the drop was, but in his mind he could still see himself fall.
Why had he tried to sneak out of the dormitory anyway? What possessed him to pull such a stunt? Was it something he was looking for? Perhaps something he was trying to figure out? Maybe it was.
Despite the rain slickening the wall and wind blowing around him, he decided he had to continue. If he stayed put in the same spot he’d never make it to the ground. So, with a gulp, he slowly lifted his foot from its hold and began to lower it to a protruding brick closer to the ground. He cracked a smile. It was going to work. He’d be fine.
The wind blew, causing him to lose balance. His foot hit the wall at an angle, throwing it out of its socket. Pain shot up through his legs, coursing through his torso and finally ending up at his hands. His fingers went numb, and he lost his grip. He opened his mouth to scream but found himself out of breathe. There was no one he’d survive the fall.
As he fell to the ground, it felt almost like floating. Everything around him was passing by way too fast, but at the same time he could see all of it. He could see everything, since the day of his birth. He saw his mother and father for the first time; he saw his third birthday, his kindergarten days, his high school graduation party, and everything else. He squinted. There was always near him in the later memories—a faceless figure he couldn’t remember. As his body tensed up before it hit the ground, a single name echoed through his mind.
“David…!”
* * *
“Y-you want to disappear for me?” David could hardly believe his ears, as Mari’s exclamation had seemingly come out of nowhere. “N-no… I don’t…”
“You have to!” Mari screeched, stumbling forward and grabbing onto his shirt. “I’m not supposed to even be here! You can survive and I’ll be with my brother again.” Through her tears, she managed a toneless laugh. “D-doesn’t that work out for everyone?”
“But Mari, if your brother went in your place of his own free will,” David yelled, “then you were meant to live!” He jerked out of her hold and placed his hands on her shoulders, shaking her. “Mari, listen to me! You survived this once already; I won’t drag you down now, even if you want me to!”
“But…that was plan…” Mari sniffed loudly. “I said I’d save you, didn’t I? If I go, I’ll you and me. David, I don’t want to live anymore. Not without my brother, anyway. If I go I’ll see him again…”
David furrowed his brow. Again, the situation had him lost. He couldn’t let a girl younger than him disappear for his own sake, especially not in her current frame of mind. When someone is thinking like that, they’ll make rash decisions that they never would’ve even thought about in a calm state. “Mari… I’m sorry but I can’t let that happen.”
“David, I…” Mari brought her hands up to David’s sides, gripping onto the folds of his shirt. She buried her face on his chest, sobbing quietly. “I c-couldn’t help either you… Y-you won’t even let me help you! Why…? Why won’t you let me…?”
“I don’t want your help,” David said coldly, trying to ignore Mari’s muffled sobs. “I never wanted it…” Despite his words, he wrapped his arms around the girl and held onto her tightly. She might’ve been scared too. Did the creatures tell her what had been happening to her at the time? Had she been kept in the dark? He shook his head, loosened his grip around her. “Come one, we need to keep moving.”
Mari stepped away from David and removed her glasses, rubbing her moist eyes until they were bright red around. She sniffed, and nodded to show that she’d follow him.
“Now,” David began, “it means a lot to me that you’d sacrifice yourself for my sake, but it doesn’t have to happen like that. If you don’t mind, there’s someone I want to say goodbye to…it’s a good friend of mine.”
Mari simply stared at him, dead silent, before repeating: “A friend?”
“Yeah, we’ve been close for a long time. His name is Richard.” David shoved his hands in his pockets, fingers touching the cold surface of his family photo. “He’s my last connection to this world, I guess.” It was true. David had accepted the fact that he wouldn’t see his family again. But he could at least say goodbye to Richard. He smirked, remembering all the things they had done together. They would sneak out of their dorm rooms and cause trouble, and go hang out in the nearby woods. Things had been fun then. “Hey, we’re pretty close to the dorms,” thought David, bringing his pace up to a jog. “I’ll see him one last time, and then I’ll be okay. I’ll go and everything will be fine.”
As the two made their way out of the woods, Mari was the first to see the body. She opened her mouth to speak but found herself too in shock to speak. So, she threw herself in front of David, spreading her arms out to conceal his view.
“Mari, what’s going on? Mari, quit…” Despite her attempts to keep David in the dark about his friend’s fate, he saw anyway. After all, he was taller than she was. “Richard… Richard!”
Richard had fallen from several stories up, and now lay sprawled on the ground. His corpse was twisted at its waist, so that his torso sat facing up and the front of his lower section was buried in the mud. His hands were bruised and bloody, and one of his feet had been dislocated. Despite his grotesque form, the worst was his blank facial expression, complete with dead eyes staring into the distance.
David staggered over to his friend’s corpse and dropped onto his knees. It couldn’t be true. Richard couldn’t have died. His eyes traveled up the side of the wall until they hit the window to Richard’s room, which was wide open. “Oh no…” He slowly stood up, raising his shaking hands to grip the top of his head in terror. “No…” Richard had fallen while he was trying to sneak out of the window, just like he had done many times before. “Why now? Why did Richard have to die this time? He had been looking for me…which means it’s my fault. They said they’d take something away…”
Just like that, David’s final tie to the world had been severed He lowered his arms to his sides and turned to face Mari, who was standing several feet away. He titled his head, a smooth smile beginning to spread across his lips. He laughed, throwing his head back and not caring how loud he was. It felt to laugh. After all the horrible things he had been through, he wanted to laugh just one more time. After he was finished, he sighed, stretching out his limbs. “Sorry, Mari…this must be an awful sight for you. But doesn’t it make you want to keep living?” He frowned. “I sure do.”
Mari took a step back. “David, you…”
“But I can’t because…”
“David!”
As the two of them were engulfed in a sudden burst of light, David closed his eyes, tears beginning to roll down his face. “…my times up.”
* * *
Cathy was lying in bed next to her husband, sleeping soundly. A feeling was beginning to creep over her, causing her to furrow her brow. She had been having a nice dream with sunny skies and pleasant things. As the feeling grew stronger, her dream began to change. The sky was growing darker, the grass was wilting, and her loved ones were fading away right in front of her eyes. A shadow was approaching her; slow at first but gradually picking up speed. She cried out in fear, and tried to run but found that she was stuck. The shadow grew closer and closer until it was barely inches away from her.
She shot up, head jerking around the room, expecting to see the shadow engulfing her. To her relieve, the nightmare was over and she was back in her bed. The feeling hadn’t left her though, it was lingering, causing her to feel easy. It was causing her to think that there was something she needed to do.
She slid her legs over the edge of the bed, peering down at her sleeping husband. His face was contorted into a mask of fear. Was he having the nightmare too? She stood up, breathing a sigh of relieve when she found that her legs were working perfectly. She crept out away from the bed, only stopping to put on her robe and slippers. There was somewhere she needed to go.
* * *
David was slowly coming to his senses. He groaned, stretching out his arms and shaking out his limp hands. He sat up, covering his face and sitting still for a moment. The last thing he remembered was a burst of light. If he opened his eyes, would he go blind? Of course, his sight didn’t really matter to him anymore. He cracked his eyes open, and was surprised to find that instead of being in place of light, he was sitting in the middle of a thick darkness. He looked down at his hands. Despite the darkness all around him, he could see himself clearly. It was strange.
He stood up, and began to look around for something other than the darkness. He looked for what felt like hours, until he finally came across the end of a long table. He whistled. The table continued on far past his vision. He grinned like a child with a new toy. “This might be fun.” And with that, he began to run along its side.
* * *
Shifra looked around the darkness, tapping her fingers eagerly on the table’s surface. She looked down at her watch. David was late. Here she had been kindly waiting for him, and he was late anyway. She let out a sigh. He wasn’t going to accept her invitation.
“Shifra…?”
She looked at the young man who had spoken to her, her lips curling into a smile. “What took you so long, David? I’ve been waiting for you for hours!”
“I had been resting,” he answered, grinning back at her. “Is Mari here?”
“Oh, yes! She’s been waiting too!” Shifra rose from her seat, and gestured to the girl sitting across from her. “You have five minutes. If I were you, I’d use this as an opportunity to make your move on her. Go get her, David!”
“Y-yeah…” David lowered his gaze to Mari, who sat quietly as she stared into her lap. With a sigh, he seated himself by her, and offered a hopeful smile.
“Where are we?” she asked, not bothering to look up at him.
“I don’t know,” David hummed, tapping his fingers on the table’s surface. “But…I think this is where it ends…for me, anyway. I’m kind of surprised that you’re here. I thought I’d have to do this alone.”
“You can’t get rid of me.” Mari laughed slightly. “I was crappy hero, wasn’t I? I talked all big about saving you, but in the end I accomplished nothing. And now, you have to disappear. You can’t see your friends anymore…”
“My friend is dead,” David replied gruffly, turning his head to stare off into the distance. “To be honest, he was all I cared about before this happened…alongside you.”
Mari smiled. “You must have really loved him.”
“He was a jerk sometimes, but he was still my best friend.
“I see…that’s how it is. Sometimes, if you love a person enough, you can look past their crap and see them as the best they can be.” Mari groaned, stretching her arms out. “I guess this really is the end. Is…there anything I can do for you?”
“Yeah, there is…” David reached out, clasping her small hands into his larger ones. With a deep breath, he spoke up, his voice ringing through the empty space of the world they were occupying. “Keep my memory alive, okay? Don’t forget about me…no matter what! Remember my name and remember what we went through together for the rest of your life!”
Mari nodded eagerly, giving his hands tight squeeze. “I will for as long as I live! I will never forget you, David! I will live on for you, and my brother!”
And with that, Mari was gone. David was alone.
“Hey? It was Shifra. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yeah, I guess it’s about that time.”
* * *
Cathy ran out of her front door, slippers scraping on the wet ground. She had left her home based on a bad dream. To her, it sounded like something a child might do. But still, she was feeling rather strongly about it. So she ran with all her might, until she reached the end of her neighborhood.
At first she thought it was a trash bag, or maybe a piece of furniture left outside for too long. But as she walked closer and bent down to study it; she realized it was a human being.
It was girl, who appeared to be about the same age as one of her daughters, breathing heavily and caked in mud. Judging from how dirty she was, she had probably been dragging herself along the road.
Cathy took off her own robe and carefully draped it around the girl’s trembling shoulders. She had taken notice of Cathy and was now struggling to sit up.
“Here, it’s alright. I’m not going to hurt you,” Cathy cooed. “Now, can you tell me why you were lying in the mud?”
The girl twisted her head to look off into the distance, her blank eyes wide and unblinking. “I…don’t remember.”