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Halloween. Time was running out. In thirteen days, the entirety of the Unus Annus YouTube channel would be deleted, and all that would be left are the memories. However, Mark and Ethan were quite unprepared for the end, to say the least. Both of them wanted a chance to make the channel even better than what it could’ve been, but that wasn’t the deal.
Unus Mortem and Annus Fini, the two deities that proposed a deal to the mortal men said that in exchange for the success of the channel, the message behind the entire project would have to be that death is inevitable and inescapable, and Mark & Ethan’s end of the bargain would be to delete the entire channel once the year was up to further move the message along. However, the mortals were having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that the moment to give their end of the bargain was coming closer and closer as the clock ticked.
So, to remind the pair of what was yet to come, Unus and Annus decided to pay a visit. It was a harsh reminder of a harsh reality.
While standing in a void of spiraling walls along with a view of the two humans, Unus and Annus held walkie talkies as they watched Mark and Ethan film in a spooky looking house. They had rented it to film some Halloween related videos and use it to promote the new merchandise that was coming out. It was a great idea, the deities thought, but they were having a little too much fun reaching the bitter end.
“Annus,” Unus stared down at the walkie talkie in their hand. Annus gazed over to them. The sound of Mark and Ethan talking amongst themselves was soft in the background.
“I don’t want to do this to them.”
“Unus,” The god clad in white stepped closer to the other, caressing their cheek. “Are you really worried about the mortals right now? The Clock isn’t merciful, my dear. If we don’t do this, we’re going to be the ones punished for it. You don’t actually want to risk our eternity together for them, do you? They get to come back to the mortal dimension, we don’t. You understand that, yes?”
Unus nods. Annus presses a kiss to their forehead.
“Everything is going to be fine, my darkness. I promise.”
The entire team involved with the channel knew about the otherworldly doppelgangers and were understandably off-put by them, but they had only shown up once before to introduce themselves and said they would eventually be back, but never said when. Unus had visited Ethan several times on their own, and they had actually grown close in their short time together. Annus was more interested in themselves than they were interested in Mark, which made sense.
Unus pressed the button on the side of the walkie talkie to speak. It had made a noise, catching Ethan’s attention. The deity watched him pick the device up and speak into it.
“Hey! Hello?”
There was a pause, and some static coming from the device.
“It’s time.” Unus said, regretting it immediately, but they had to continue.
“Mark?”
There was a bit of hesitance coming from Unus, but eventually, they spoke.
“Time’s up.” With a swipe of their finger, all of the lights were turned off.
Ethan picked up his flashlight, starting to cautiously walk out the bathroom that he was in.
“...Mark?” he sounded more worried.
“It’s been quite a year…” Unus hated this, but it needed to be done. There was no going back now.
“...hasn’t it?” Annus continued without any hesitation.
“And now it’s over.”
Mark spoke into the walkie talkie, sounding more defensive than Ethan was.
“What’re you talking about? We’ve got all year. We’ve got so much time. It’s a year! We’ve got all of the time in the world…” Reality began to set in. “...right?”
“That is…
“...wrong.” Unus latched on. I’m afraid that’s very…wrong. A year is many things to many people, but it’s not forever.”
“No, that can’t be right.” Mark was starting to get worried. Anyone could hear it in his voice. He loved to act stoic, but reality was that he was just as scared of the end as Ethan was. “We have all year. You can do so much in a year. We have done so much in a year! Okay, maybe we didn’t spend every second wisely, but if we just had a…”
“...little more time. Just a little more to make the channel what it really could be. This year was not what we planned for at all. It was all over the place and completely out of control. If we just had a little more time and we’re given one last shot, we could really—”
“No.”
As Annus said that word. That simple, yet so meaningful word, Unus clenched their eyes shut to hold in their tears. Hearing Ethan desperately ask for more time broke them a little bit. That’s all they wanted to do was give Ethan more time, but the goddamned Clock had rules and severe punishments for breaking them.
“There are no second chances. There are no do-overs. You had your one year, and you did the best you could. That’s all we could ever really hope for.”
Unus didn’t understand how Annus could be so snarky and unaffected by how the mortals felt. Well, actually, considering their relationship, and Annus’ god complex, maybe they did understand.
“This is bullshit!”
“Just...a little more time. Just... A LITTLE MORE FUCKING TIME!”
Unus crouched to the ground, unable to watch Ethan anxiously rocking back and forth. Annus continued to watch as if it was an entertaining television program.
“No.” Unus wiped their tears, finally gathering enough strength to look at the screen in front of them both. “Many have begged. Many have pleaded; none have succeeded.”
Ethan stood up, emotionlessly beginning to saunter.
“Some have more…”
“Some had less.”
Unus stared at their soulmate for a moment as they continued to speak.
“You...had one.”
“And now it’s over. It’s finally time to accept the truth.”
Ethan and Mark walked up to the opposite ends of the adored black and white split coffin, then ran their hands over the lid as they stepped closer to each other. They gazed at one another before deciding to open it.
Unus and Annus stepped into respective spiral portals, and out they came from the coffin. It seemed like they came from nowhere.
Mark and Ethan jumped back in fright. The deities levitated out of the coffin and onto the ground. Unus had tears still running down their face, but Annus remained as cold as ever. They held out a hand to each of their mortal counterparts.
“No, we can’t—”
“Mark…” Ethan nodded. “It’s okay.” He didn’t take Unus’ hand. He embraced them tightly.
“Oh, Ethan…” Unus hugged the other as tight as they could, but Ethan started to fade, temporarily combining with the deity for the remaining days of the channel.
Mark hesitated, but eventually had taken Annus’ hand.
Unus let their hands drop to their sides as they wipe their tears and sniffle.
“We’re all going to be okay. I promised you that already, my love.” Annus brought their partner into their own embrace before turning to face the coffin.
They both closed it shut, revealing themselves to the others and to the camera. They adjusted their suits, gazed at each other, then walked to the front of the coffin on opposite sides.
“It’s...time to say goodbye.”
“Memento mori.”
“ Unus Annus .”
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