For My Broken Heart - short stories

It's In There

38 minutes, 14 seconds.

Ryan repeated the number back to himself in his head 3 times. Then a forth.

"Now I know it's a joke," he muttered under his breath. He put his hand on the shop door to leave, but the shopkeeper spoke up.

"Trust me sir, my technology is no laughing matter," he told Ryan.

Ryan chuckled, expecting the clerk to do the same. He did not. He remained as still and serious as he had been since Ryan stepped foot in the store. His eyes burned into Ryan's until he could no longer bear it and looked away.

"Er, well thank you," he said curtly and threw his body out the door into the harsh winter wind. He began the trek down the slippery street towards his college residence.

While he walked he kept his head down and his ears alert. He had a splitting headache, which he had been getting more and more frequently. In high school he had been notoriously harassed and tormented because some of his peers had found out he was gay. After graduation he left town for college and made significant efforts to keep his sexuality a secret. It had done him well so far, there was even a boy he liked whom he thought might like him back.

Ryan's attention was suddenly caught by the sound of hysterical crying. He stopped in his tracks and looked up to identify the source of the noise.

It was a young woman, underdressed for the weather, running towards the busy street whilst screaming and bawling her eyes out.

Oh no, Ryan thought.

"I CAN'T SURVIVE THAT LONG. I DON'T WANT TO SUFFER UNTIL I'M OLD!" the woman screamed over the wind and the traffic. She had gathered a small crowd of onlookers who were standing nearby, Ryan included. Ryan took a step towards her.

"Ma'am, are you-"

"STAY AWAY!" she screamed at him. He was so frightened he stepped back multiple paces.

"Ma'am, please calm down and talk to me," said another woman who had been watching the scene. "You're going to freeze, honey."

The hysteric woman stood still and sobbed loudly without words for several moments.

"We should... We should be allowed... To die... Die if we want to," she managed to choke.

She turned on her heel and dashed into oncoming traffic.

"Ma'am wait-"

The horns sounded after the tires screeched. After she was already gone.

When the fire department arrived on the scene, the found one of the devices that Ryan had just purchased fastened to her ankle.

It read "55 years, 177 days, 2 minutes, 8 seconds."

*

Ryan's hands were shaking violently as he unlocked the door to his apartment. His head pounded even worse than before. When he stepped inside he was immediately greeted by his roommates who were sat around the kitchen table to his right, playing cards. Probably Hearts, he assumed.

"Dude, you alright?" asked on of his roommates, Dave. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I might see one later," he replied as he brushed off excess snow from his coat. He slipped ot off and put it in the closet with the rest before bending down to untie his boots.

"Hey Ry, what is that?"

Ryan's eyes darted to the device strapped to his wrist, not unlike a watch. His face flushed with heat, embarrassed. He didn't want his friends to know that he bought into the local superstitions.

"No way, you've got total balls!" Dave exclaimed with a chuckle. "You really want to know when you're going to die? As if you'll die before 100 you goddamned goody-two-..."

Dave went silent once he was looking at the device display.

9 minutes, 18 seconds.

"What did you do?" he whispered, not a hint of humour in his voice.

"Nothing!" Ryan tore his hand away from his nosey roommate. "I just heard a bunch of girls in class talking about them and I thought I would see what the hype was all about."

There was a lapse of quiet throughout their tiny shared apartment. Ryan's roommates, Dave, Sean and Martin, all exchanged mortified expressions amongst themselves.

"Ryan..." Martin spoke up. "You know those things are... Are legitimate, right?"

Ryan laughed. A short and loud "ha!"

They didn't react, which through him off.

"Guys, stop fucking with me."

More nervous glances.

"My uncle bought one of those things 2 weeks ago," Sean claimed. "Told him he had 6 days to live, so he left my aunt who he'd been with for 20 years, and went off to find a "better life." He ended up drinking himself to death on the sixth day."

Ryan was dumbfounded. Were his roommates seriously suggesting that he was about to die in less than 10 minutes?

"You guys are ridiculous," he decided aloud.

He left them to their card games while he boiled water for instant noodles and turned on the coffee pot. The entire time he was in the kitchen he felt his friends eyes staring into his back. He could feel their nervous energy and he didn't like it. It was honestly pretty annoying.

Ryan left the kitchen to change into pajama pants. The cuffs of his jeans had still managed to get soaked despite his boots and best efforts. Once he had changed he laid on his bed and rubbed his eyes in attempt to soothe his headache. It did nothing. In fact, it was getting to the point where he felt like crying. He kept seeing stars.

In spite of himself, Ryan checked the device on his wrist.

22 seconds.

Fuck, Ryan thought nervously. Why, though? Surely it isn't real, just a-

"Arrgh-!" Ryan shouted when his head abruptly felt like it would split open. He tried to sit up and call for one of his roommates, but his vision turned to blinding white, and the pain in his skull was unmatched.

He fell back into the pillows.

He never managed to sit up.