When the end is nearing, I get an urge to stay close by.
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Warren looked across the breakfast table at his mother who was sipping her coffee.
"..Mum?"
"Yes Warren?"
"Would it be okay if I go to and see this anime movie with a friend from school tomorrow? He's in my maths class and his name is Eddy."
His mother looked up from her coffee cup and smiled.
"Of course you can Warren. That sounds like a lovely idea."
Warren smiled back.
"That's great. I.. I'm really looking forward to it. Thanks mum...!!"
Warren got out of his seat, went up to his mother and gave her a hug.
"..Warren? This is rather unusual..?"
"I.. I'm just really happy... I.. I haven't made.. that many friends at school this year so I'm really excited that I made a new friend that I can share interests with."
His mother wrapped her arms around her son. She sensed school had been difficult for her son this year. Her son talked to her less and less and in the last 6 months or so she had not heard her son talk to his friends on his phone or tell her about going out with them.
"Well, that sounds fantastic. I'm really happy for you Warren."
"Thanks Mum.. so.. I suppose I should get going to school... bye."
"Yes, I'll see you later Warren, have a lovely day."
"Thanks you too... love you."
"I love you too, Warren."
Brett was invisible to Warren's mother. He stared at the mother and son break away from their hug and part. Brett furrowed his brows as he fought the pain he felt in his chest. He then quickly followed Warren out the front door.
When the end is nearing, I get an urge to stay close by.
As Warren walked to his bus stop, he wiped his tears with the back of his hand. Brett whispered to him from behind;
"Warren, .. I thought.. that was very ..touching."
Warren replied between soft sobs.
"I.. I think I ..did the ..right thing. I ..think ..she'd want to ..know ..that I was ...happy. Maybe... she'll try to contact ...Eddy and ...tell him about me....?"
"Yes, I agree. And yeah perhaps she would."
They walked up to the main road where the morning rush hour had already started and the amount of traffic seemed to be picking up. The bus stop where Warren caught his bus to school was just across the busy main road. Warren was walking a few steps ahead of Brett when Brett noticed what he had been dreading to see.
When the end is nearing, I see my scythe materialise in front of me.
With shaking hands, Brett reached out and grabbed his scythe. Warren was just about to cross the road as the pedestrian traffic light had turned green.
When the end is here, I use my scythe to detach the soul from the body.
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.