All My Friends Are Dead

Part 2

Ralph was the first one to notice smoke, he turns away and shouts, "guys, come back. Holy shit!"

We all turn and see Kyle, burst into flames. "Kyle! Row on the sand!" I call back.

All of us try to use our backpacks to extinguish the fire, but it wouldn't stop. By the time it calms down, he was dead. We were too late, but at the same time it was like nothing we did could stop it.

"How did he catch on fire?" Cody asks.

"I don't know, we were all walking back to the car to see anything," Orion states.

"Wait, you know what this means?" I raise my voice. "We were right, we knew Kyle was going to die and he did."

"Well fuck, if I knew he was going to die for real, then we could've done more to prevent it," Cody reasons.

"I don't know about that either," Orion melancholy states. "The fire should have put out. Everything we did and the fire didn't stop till he was dead."

"You think some divine intervention happened? Why Kyle?" Ralph questions.

"I'm not agreeing nor denying that. It is just strange."

"Should we call the cops?" I ask.

"I doubt the police are going to believe us. Local boy combust into flames on the beach and all his friends were around him," Cody reasons.

"We can't just leave him. What if we, at last, bury him?" Michael offers.

"Won't it seem like we are covering it up?" I ask.

"We all skipped school, we were the last people to see Kyle, and there was clearly a bonfire here earlier. You don't think we won't be suspects?" Cody states.

"Why don't we bury him in the sand? It's Kyle," Ralph suggests. "Also, his burns are pretty bad, I don't think anyone can really identify him."

"What about his parents, though? They are going to want to know," I say.

Orion was silent in thought. He was the mediator of the group. "Let's just go. If anything happens, we can tell the police that we were just a couple of Seniors who wanted to skip school with our buddy and went home before him. We thought he had gone home and don't know what happened after that. It is partially the truth."

We all march behind Orion to his car and he dropped us off home.

...

I wake up the next morning without any thoughts of death in mind. Part of me is hoping that was a dream or maybe I'm in a coma and this isn't real life. But, I know, it happened. That is undeniable.

When I got downstairs, I continue my routine as usual. I brush my teeth, got my things, ate breakfast with my family, and was dropped off at school.

The first person I see is Jen.

"Hi Nathan!" she exclaims and comes in for a hug.

"Hey," I pat her head, had some small chat, and she went off to her artsy friends.

Michael arrives, and he's the second person here. He usually comes later because his family got him an on-call tutor when they think he's not studying enough.

"You think he'll show up today?" Michael asks softly.

"Hard to say," I reply. I want to say no, but I know he wants to hear that it was a wild dream too.