Vol 2 ~ What if I ain't no Violinist?

4. Twoset Searchers X (Warren's story 3)

Brett noticed the oncoming truck in his peripheral vision. Warren didn't and proceeded to walk ahead.

Brett held his scythe with both hands and took a full swing.

Both Brett and Warren heard the roar and rumble of the oncoming truck.

Warren blinked. He was sitting on the ground. Brett sat right behind him, holding him in his arms.

"...Brett?"

"Yeah?"

"...Am I still alive?"

"Yeah."

Warren shuffled around to face Brett.

"But.. why?"

Brett jokingly rolled his eyes.

"Oh, dammit, I must have forgotten to sharpen my scythe."

In fact, Brett had made a point to use his whetstone to ensure that the whole blade was blunt as a butter knife. He had used his scythe to hook around Warren's waist to pull him back away from the oncoming truck. His scythe had since disappeared.

"..Why Brett?"

Brett shrugged.

"I'm flunking anyway."

"Brett..."

Brett smiled.

"Yesterday you said you wanted to live. This was only days after you had put a noose around your neck.  So here's your second chance. I think you should make the most of it."

"..You did this for me?"

Brett smirked and wiggled an eyebrow.

"I'm not at liberty to say since any of my words may be used against me."

Tears welled up in Warren's eyes. He wrapped his arms around Brett.

"Thank you Brett..."

Brett shrugged as he patted Warren on his back.

"I honestly don't know how much time you've got left now, Warren. Just try to make the most of it yeah?"

"..So.. will I ever see you again?"

Brett pondered over that question for a while.

"Yeah. Hopefully, waaaaay into the future? Like when you're a wrinkly old man. And when I do see you, I expect to hear all the details. Lots and lots of details on all the good stuff that you would've experienced."

Warren nodded.

"Yes.. I promise. Thank you so much, Brett"

Warren heard an alarm go off. He opened his eyes and grabbed his phone to turn off the alarm. He put his phone back onto the bedside table and let out a sigh.

What the heck was all that about?

Warren used to be bullied back at school. Back then, he did contemplate some pretty dark ideas of paying revenge on those who had wronged him and also on harming himself during his darkest times. He eventually felt he just had enough and one day fought back one of his bullies which became a turning point and eventually made the bullying stop. He never did use a prop knife, even though he had fantasied about using one often. Even to this day, Warren, as an adult, could not work out what the foolproof solution was to bullying, which was probably why it still haunted and hurt him so much.

As people around him matured, things did gradually improve and Warren did make some friends at school. However, he was still always too scared to become too close to anybody and never established a friendship close enough to go to the movies with any of them.

Even years after leaving school, those awful memories still haunted him.

Even now as an adult, Warren suffered from social anxiety and struggled to build positive relationships with people around him.

Why were two of my work colleagues appearing in a dream of when I was back at school??

Warren secretly had a massive crush on a colleague at work but didn't know how to go about it, in fact, he had been treating his crush in a terrible manner. He was heartbroken when he found out his crush already had an established relationship with another colleague who was also a really nice guy. It frustrated Warren that he could not be nice or at least civil to these very nice people.

Thinking back about the dream he just had, Warren wished he had encountered Death back then. Death with the name Brett, the name of his crush at work. Warren gave out a wry smile. He also wished he had met an Eddy in his maths class that had asked him out to watch an anime movie together. Having a friend like that back in high school would've made Warren so happy.  The school kid Eddy that appeared in his dream was such a friendly and nice guy, just like the guy with the same name at work.  It was no wonder his crush liked him.

He felt like his dream was trying to give him closure to his difficult past and perhaps even some guidance for his future actions.  The dream had a happy ending yet it was bittersweet, he was so confused, he covered his face with his hands and let out a groan.

A/N: This concludes the trilogy of Warren's story in the Twoset Searchers series.   Hope you enjoyed the story.