"Yes," was all that I could muster through my absolute shock.
I couldn't believe what she was asking me to do. I had 3 months to kill the only person I've ever loved... well the way I love Emelia. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I didn't think that killing her would be an option.
I wondered what mission she had failed for them to do this to her.
Would they really kill me if I didn't complete the mission?
"If you don't have any more questions, you can get some rest and we can head back in the morning. It's best to do it this way so that Emelia and your housemates are under the impression that this was a follow up to your previous punishment. You absolutely can not tell anyone," she said, standing up to lead me out of the room.
She brought me into a room that was a lot nicer than the one I stayed in last time.
When she left me alone, I laid down on the bed and thought for hours.
I was in shock. I wasn't sure what to do. There was no way I could go through with it. I would rather die than have Emelia's blood on my hands. I couldn't live with myself if I killed her. Why are they doing this to me? Couldn't they just get someone else to kill her?
I didn't understand anything. I felt like crying, but I was too numb to cry.
Instead, I laid still for a while before drifting off to sleep.
I awoke to the same official from last night shaking me.
"Get up. It's time to go home," she said, peering over me.
"Okay," was all I responded with.
I followed her out of the room, out of The Center and into an official car.
On the drive home, I remained numb and stone-cold. I wasn't in shock anymore, but I definitely wasn't okay.
The car dropped me off at my house and the official watched me go inside the house.
Upon entering, I saw everyone sitting in the living room with concerned looks on their faces.
Emelia was the first one to get up. She rushed to hug me.
"I thought they were going to do something to you," she said with her arms around me and her head buried into my neck.
I didn't know what to do as I immediately remembered my mission and felt sick to my stomach.
I wrapped my arms around her and hoped she didn't notice that I wasn't hugging her for a while.
She eventually pulled back from the hug and I greeted everyone else in the room.
"What happened?" Emelia asked.
"They were just following up on my previous punishment. It was stupid," I lied just like the official told me to.
"Oh. I'm glad you're safe," she responded.
Everyone else did their rounds of hugs and attempted small talk for a bit.
I was feeling too sick to even look at Emelia, yet alone try to make small talk with the group and her. So I told everyone I was tired and excused myself to go to bed.
They asked me if I needed anything and I just told them that I wanted to be left alone to rest. They all graciously accepted my request.
When I walked into my room I immediately put my face into the pillow and began thinking about how I would get out of this mess.
After only a couple of minutes of thinking, I realized that I actually did not want to have to think ever again, so I turned on some music and drowned out all of my thoughts.
I'm not sure how long I laid on that bed listening to music, but eventually Emelia walked in to get me to come out to eat dinner with everyone.
I didn't eat much of my meal. I wasn't hungry. I lied and told everyone that I had a lot to eat when I was at The Center, but the truth was, I hadn't eaten all day. I should be hungry, but the idea of actually being able to throw up anything because of the thought of the mission, was enough to keep me away.
Once the meal was over, I retreated into my room to take a nap.
Emelia and Andrew tried to engage me in conversation during the meal, but I was barely able to respond. I couldn't look at Emelia without thinking about all of the ways I'd have to lie to her. They probably figured I was just tired and eventually left me alone to do my own thing.
I ended up excusing myself at the end of the meal to go take a nap.
When I woke up from my nap, I checked the clock to see that it was 11 pm. Emelia had fallen asleep next to me. She looked so peaceful sleeping. The thought that she would look like that when she was dead entered my mind, but I quickly rushed it out of my head.
I began forming a plan on what I would do.
There was no way I was going to kill Emelia. I loved her too much to do that. Honestly, even if I didn't love her, there was no way I could hurt someone else like that.
At some point, I came to the conclusion that I would just have to accept that I would die soon. There wasn't any way around it. Maybe I could tell her about the mission and we could run off somewhere, but there's no chance of living somewhere that The Center wouldn't find us. There was no other option. I would live out these last three months with Emelia and I would make them the best possible months. Hopefully, they would let her live if I sacrificed myself. I was going to let The Center kill me.
Content, but not happy with my decision. I turned towards Emelia and wrapped my arm around her. If I had to die, at least I would get to spend the days leading up to it with her.
For the next couple of months I kept the mission hidden, hung out with everyone a lot, and pretended like everything was normal.
Emelia even continued her work at The Center, so I'm guessing she was completely unaware that they were out to get her. I guess it was also better that she didn't know that or even why I was going to die very soon. If she never found out why even after I died, it would be easier for her to move on.
Emelia did notice that I was more interested in spending time with her and that I was "more romantic" as she said.
We went on more dates, I was more spontaneous and we even began making plans for our future together. It's kind of silly when we are forced to live together to make plans, especially since I knew I was going to die, but I humoured her ideas anyways.
She was honestly the brightest and most amazing person I had ever met in my life. As the days grew closer, I got sadder. I couldn't believe that I would be leaving her, Andrew, Josie and Jeffrey all behind.
I didn't have a choice, but it didn't suck any less.
One night Emelia and I were just cuddling in bed and listening to our favorite songs together.
I was honestly getting very sleepy when a strange idea came to my head.
"Do you want to get married?" I asked her, shifting my tired voice into a more up-beat tone.
"What?" she giggled.
"Do you want to get married?" I repeated.
People didn't actually get married because The Center didn't establish any official process for it, but it was an 'underground' tradition of sorts. It was something that people used to do hundreds of years ago. We had learned about it in our history studies.
"You mean like people used to do way back when?" she asked, still laughing.
"Yeah. Do you want to?" I asked again.
"Yeah," her tone grew more serious. "Yeah I do. I would love that."
She smiled.
"How would we do it?" She asked.
"Well, maybe in like a week we could hold a little ceremony here. You know, like a mock of weddings that they used to have," I responded, playing with her hair now.
"Okay. That sounds fun," she said laughing once more.
She stopped laughing and turned around to look me in the eyes.
She kissed me softly and then pulled back to look into my eyes again.
I looked at her for a second more and her smile dropped. Her smile always drops when we are having a happy moment. I never understood why, but I always chalked it up to her being scared of intimacy.
She smiled, kissed me again and then turned back around to snuggle herself into my arms.
After that we began talking about our plans for the mock wedding. We were treating it like a joke and it was, but we also both knew that it meant way more than that.
The night that we got 'married' was a lot of fun. We all dressed up in our best clothing and stood in the living room. Andrew married us and I kissed the bride in front of everyone like people used to do. We had a little party and everything was happy and light-hearted.
When I went to bed that night, I remember feeling heavy and sad because I knew that moments like these would not last very long. In about a month from that day, was the time that I was set to either kill Emelia, or die.
As that day grew closer, I began planning what I would do with Emelia on our last night together.
I had already figured out that I would spend time with Andrew the night before, and then Josie and Jeffrey two nights before, but I wanted Emelia's night to be very special.
I knew that they would come for me at exactly 12:35 am, so I had to make sure that Emelia was on her way home for whenever we went before that.
It wasn't actually our day to go out, but I decided that I would take the risk of sneaking out with her. The Center wanted me to kill her in a discreet location, so maybe they would let it slide. They don't know that I'm not actually planning to kill her. For all they know, I could just be waiting until the last possible moment to do it.
I had found a nice beach where we could go to watch the sunset and then admire the stars together.
My nights spent with Josie and Jeffrey, and Andrew passed quicker than I would have liked.
I ended up taking Josie and Jeffrey to a nice restaurant on our day out. We had a really nice time and ate some really great food. I also told them about how much I appreciate all of their help and how they cared for everyone in the house so much. I might not have spent as much time with them as I did Andrew or Emelia, but I really did love them a lot. It was bittersweet for me, but I got through the night and enjoyed myself. In just two days, I would never see these two people again.
My night with Andrew was spent inside the housing unit since I spent my night out with Josie and Jeffrey. We ordered pizza and built a large fort in the living room. It was a lot of fun. We revisited a lot of the stuff we used to do as kids and recalled a lot of memories. It was nice to just pretend like my world wasn't coming to an end soon. I could be a kid again. It could be just me and Andrew having fun like we used to; not a care in the world. Of course, Andrew didn't know that I was going to be leaving, but I made sure he knew just how much I loved him. The night ended too quickly, but I tried my best not to be sad about it. His smile was contagious.
The morning of my last night alive, I packed all of the stuff Emelia and I would need for our surprise date.
I had noticed within the past week that Emelia had sort of withdrawn from things and she was often found fiddling with the case that she got from The Center.
My best guess was that they were cracking down on her for failing the mission. I doubt they would have told her that someone was sent to kill her though.
I told Emelia where we were going that night, and she seemed genuinely happy to be able to go somewhere with me. She wasn't super keen on the sneaking out part, but she was excited nonetheless.
Before we left, I looked at the vial that the official had given me. I thought about taking it just in case I wanted to kill myself and not give The Center the satisfaction, but I decided against it. I didn't want Emelia to find it and figure out that I had it, She did work at The Center after all. It's possible that she might have known what it was if I brought it and she saw it.
"You ready to go?" I asked her, holding the backpack full of blankets and food that we would need for our date.
"Yep. Let me just get my shoes on," she responded, walking back into our room to get her shoes.
I stood near the doorway while I waited for her.
"Okay. I'm good to go," she said, emerging from our room.
"Alright," I smiled.
We walked out the door and began our walk. We tried to stay behind the buildings as much as possible. We didn't want to risk taking a vehicle and getting caught since we weren't supposed to be out.
On the walk there we talked a bit.
"You know, I've noticed a change in you recently," she began. "You seem to be full of a new energy. You were never really the type to want to sneak out on a day that wasn't a day to go out. It's not a bad energy, but I'm a bit worried about you."
"Nah. Don't worry. I just... I realized what was important to me," I responded back, trying to stick to the truth as much as I could.
She didn't want to press the topic any further, so we mostly walked in silence and she followed me to the beach.
It was about 6pm when we left, which meant the sun would be setting soon.
We quickly set up our stuff and by the time we were done, the sun was beginning to set.
I laid down on the blanket and Emelia followed my lead.
This is usually a time where I would have gotten very emotional and sad, but I decided to just take life as it was right now. I was watching the sunset with a gorgeous and amazing girl. It was my last day alive, but I had learned to accept it over the last couple of months. I just needed to breathe in this moment right now.
I smiled and cuddled Emelia as close to me as I possibly could.
I noticed that when I squeezed her tighter to me, the case that her job gave her fell from her person.
I knew that she carried it with her wherever she went, I just wasn't sure how necessary it was to take it on a date.
"Hey. What's in your case?" I asked.
"I'll show you later, okay? Let's just watch the sunset and enjoy this moment now," she said, placing it in her bag.
She wasn't rude about it or condescending. She just seemed to want to be in this moment along with me. I appreciated that, honestly.
Emelia reached into her bag and pulled out a tiny canvas and some painting supplies.
"What's that for?" I asked her.
"I want to paint you in the sunset," she said. "Is that okay?"
I smiled at her and spoke, "Yes. Of course it is."
She sat a bit behind me and began painting the outline of my face against the backdrop of the continuously setting sun.
I watched her paint for a while. She was really cute when she concentrated so hard and kept getting nervous when she caught me staring at her.
"Please turn around," she giggled. "I can't paint with you staring at me like that.
I didn't say anything back to her. I just turned around and admired the setting sun.
Being in her presence, in this moment, watching such a beautiful thing unfold in front of us, was all I needed to feel content with my decision.
Even after the sun had gone down, Emelia was still painting. I eventually got up to sit behind her to watch her paint. I let her sit in between my legs and I cuddled her as much as I possibly could as she painted.
After a little over an hour of painting, Emelia finished and showed me the final product. It was gorgeous and not to be cocky or anything, but it made me look beautiful.
"Wow.," I said. "It's really breathtaking and I think you captured the moment beautifly."
She turned around to smile at me and leaned in for a kiss. I kissed her back.
When the kiss broke, I grabbed for my bag so that I could get the dinner that I packed out. It was nothing fancy, just some sandwich subs, watermelon and a chocolate cake that I baked since chocolate was Emelia's favorite.
"I hope you don't mind that I didn't pack anything extravagant. I did bake you chocolate cake though," I said, hoping that she was okay with that.
"I don't mind. I love chocolate cake and watermelon," she beamed at me.
"Good," I said, giving her the serving of food that I packed for her.
We began eating our food and talked a bit while we did so. It was dark out, but we had the light of a fake torch so that we could see. I was able to see Emelia clearly, but I couldn't see anything past her.
Judging on the amount of time that we had been out, I guessed that it was about 8 pm now. I didn't want to check my phone, but that was okay because I knew we still had a couple of hours before 12:35.
After we finished all of our food, we picked up the fake torch and walked along the beach. We held hands and listened to the waves in silence. It was relaxing and a really nice experience to share with Emelia.
At some point she stopped us once we were pretty far away from our original spot, took the torch from my hand and set it down on the ground.
At first I was confused, but then she reached out her hand.
"Dance with me," she said, smiling.
"What?" I asked.
"Oh, come on. Dance with me," she repeated.
"I can't dance," I responded.
"I don't care. Come on. Please," she pleaded.
"Okay," I said, cracking a slight smile.
I took her and she led me through a slow dance. With the sound of the ocean in the background and the warmth of her body at this moment, I didn't want to have to leave it all behind.
When she stopped swaying with me, she looked up at me and spoke through a giggle.
"You know, for someone who is a bad dancer, you're a pretty good dancer," she laughed.
"Well, if I had been the one leading it, it would have been a different story," I said, placing kisses all over her face.
She giggled and ran out of my grasp in the direction of our stuff.
I chased after her as she ran, laughing wildly.
She kept running until she made it to our stuff.