Chapter 2

“What… did you say? How do you know my name…?”

But I knew how.

I knew it.

I don’t know how I knew.

I can’t explain it, but I felt it.

I gulped down my fear, then uttered something unthinkable.

“............Nolan? Is that you?”

The kid’s eyes opened big like saucers.

“Ah…”

……..…He reacted.

He seemed at a loss for words, but he reacted!

I immediately crouched down and grabbed his shoulders, looking at him with desperation as I shook him in my tight grip.

“Nolan!? Nolan is this you!? Nolan!?”

My violent shaking seemed to have snapped the kid out of it, because the next moment…

He started crying.

“Weeehhhh!!! Mammaaaa!!!”

It startled me so much that I released my grip, and he quickly ran away from me towards a woman that was on the phone not too far from us.

She shot me the angry look of a mother bear protecting her cub, so I quickly stood up and raised my palms to show her I meant no harm, bowed down, and made a quick getaway.

I ran away scared for my life.

My knees were shaking, and my stomach felt like it was about to turn itself inside out.

This kid had reached for Nolan's favorite drink, and the way he reacted when I called his name…

What the hell was that!?

I went back home, scared out of my mind, hyperventilating.

I think I heard my mother ask if everything was alright but I ignored her, running past her into the bathroom where I slammed the door shut.

Something tells me she wouldn’t know about Nolan, either, so I didn't even ask her.

I puked my guts out as tears streamed down my cheeks nonstop.

***

That night I had a dream about him — about a conversation we had a long time ago, when we were morbidly talking about the worst ways to die.

“I think being buried alive must be the worst, for sure,” I said.

“Really?” Nolan shrugged. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Are you out of your damn mind!? You’re all helpless, conscious about your own death, just choking or… asphyxiating or something!”

“Haha, you don’t even know what happens and you’re scared, Ray?”

“It just sounds slow and awful!”

“Okay, okay. Then, what do you think would be the best way to die?”

I scoffed at his stupid question.

“Obviously it would be dying in your sleep, right?”

“Boo. Everyone always says that.”

“Well, why wouldn’t they? You’re all cozy and tucked in, and you rest so much you never… un-rest.”

“Bahaha! I just don’t think that’s how it works! Ray, you really don’t know anything, do you? You’re as dumb as they come.”

“Hey!”

“No, the best way to die is something dramatic, obviously. Like falling off the tip of the Eiffel Tower, or throwing yourself down the window of a sinking ship, or your bungee line ripping…”

“Those are all horrible!? And they’re all about plunging to your death!”

“Well? It’s like… quick and painless, right? Lickety-split! But also a lot of people would witness it, so it’s like an easy way to get famous.”

“You’re sick, Nolan. Also, it’s definitely not painless.”

“Hahahaha.”