They Know The End

Matthew Payo

12:59 am

Everyone always assumed that I was perfect. That I had my life together one hundred percent of the time. 

Well, that was true most of the time anyway.

Sometimes, I felt like the world didn't want me to have it easy. It puts me on the lowest of the low, and doesn't even care to check-in. 

Right now, we were right in the middle of moving in to our new house. My parents were getting a new fridge installed, and the bar room where it would be was almost finished.

But even so, I'd already been in several events in the neighborhood already. This place was littered with drama queens. It was warranted through, because if you moved to a new place, you would be the hot topic for several days.

Which was what happened to me. No offense to them, but I dressed more stylishly then them. It made me look sophisticated, so I ended up getting paired up by Yvonne, their most beautiful girl apparently. Not my type, sadly.

It made me anxious when they started talking behind my back. I'd catch them whispering to each other and side-eyeing me. I barely went out after that.

Thank God for Sasha. She was an old classmate of mine, before I changed schools, and now we were coincidentally neighbors. We're still great friends, even after we transferred schools. She kept me company all the time and we became closer than ever.

"I just saw your parents leave," she said in our voice call. It bothered me a bit how her voice was more high-pitched than before. But maybe it was just a side effect of puberty.

"Yeah, that's just my mom, though," I replied, sighing. I fought back rolling an eye.

"Shouldn't she have left earlier? You know, because she's a doctor."

"She took the day off."

"Weird."

"Yeah I know." I shifted position on the bed. Instead of using my elbows as support, I lay on my back and held the phone up to my eyes. "Best not to question it, though."

"I guess." She sounded like she wasn't letting this go that easily.

They were both silent for a while. I could hear the clacking of the keyboard in the call. Maybe she must be doing something else.

"Hey, I'm ti--" I began.

But the phone ringing interrupted his thoughts. He saw a banner notification, revealing the caller ID.

DEATH-CAST.

I stood up from the bed. Immediately, thousands of thoughts crashed into me. My heart palpitated. I struggled to breathe. My hands shook so bad I had to put down the phone and take deep breaths.

I sat down in shock. I prayed that it would go away.

But the phone kept buzzing and it didn't stop.

Many times in my life I thought about how I was going to leave this world. Considering my boring life, I settled for old age. Maybe I would have a child or two to continue my "legacy". Maybe I would have bought a house in thr suburbs or settled in a cottage surrounded by a forest.

Now, as the phone rang, all of that instantaneously became fleeting memories, something that I'll never get to experience.

The phone stopped calling and it returned to Sasha's voice. "Matt? Matt? Are you okay? Is it the new router again?"

For a second, my mind went blank. "No, nothing's wrong," I insisted mindlessly.

A pause. "Are you sure?"