Chapter Text
September 5, 2017
MATEO TORREZ
8:43 p.m.
After your herald from Death-Cast calls you to inform that you will be dying within 24 hours, you somehow sink into this delusion that you'll be ready to accept your time when it comes by.
Currently engulfed in flames that burned so hard I couldn't even scream, the only thoughts that swarmed my brain were as follows: I'm not ready I'm not ready I'm not ready I'm not ready I'm not ready I'm not ready I'm not ready
Even when you know death is coming, the blaze of it all is still sudden.
I blink a few times, letting my eyes try to take in my surrounding with as little panic as possible. I was strangely comforted when my ceiling stared right back at me, instead of the dreadful, red flames that had engulfed me entirely. The flames that burned my skin, piping hot, until eventually it simply felt like cold water running on my body.
It must have been a nightmare.
I sigh in relief, sitting up on my bed until I notice Rufus is gone, my thoughts stirring into a panic. Where had he gone? Could he have left? Right after that talk about our Island? Did he... die? What time is it? As I was about to get up to go look for him, I hear my phone beside me vibrate, getting a notification. But the notification is not what had me in shock. It was the clock.
12:00 a.m.
I couldn't believe it. I stared, blinking many times until I watched it turn into 12:01am. A smile crept onto my face. I made it. I made it to the next day. I beat Death-Cast. I beat-
My thoughts were interrupted by my eyes reading the date right below the time. September 5th. The smile on my faded within a few miliseconds followed by a face of confusion, and fear. It was almost exactly like when my herald called me Timothy instead of Mateo, until she corrected herself, making me lose all hope. I didn't understand. That was today- or, yesterday. My Last Day. September 5th, the day Death-Cast called. The day I should've died. But here I was.
Was it just a dream? A really, really long dream, where I said goodbye to my dad in the hospital and my best friend Lidia and my goddaughter Penny and met a boy named Rufus and kissed him and told him I loved him and took him home?
But everything was so realistic, I remember the taste of the french toast at the restaurant Rufus took me to, and I remember the pain of the explosion at the gym, and I remember the hug from Lidia when I saw her again, and I remember Rufus' lips pressed up against mine, and I remember the flames horribly burning my skin at the end of it all. How could a dream feel so real? My face went red in confusion.
Okay, I lied. It went red because my mind lingered at the second last thing on the list for a little too long. But that doesn't matter right now.
Wait, Rufus had an instagram right? I remember him talking about it. Theres no way I'd be able to know the instagram of some guy I've never met before.
@PlutoRufus? @RufusPlutos?
Wait, @RufusonPluto!
I quickly open instagram and begin typing in his username, my fingers fumble and I end up having to restart a few times, but in the end, I got it. And the black and white pictures on his instagram tugged my memories of him showing me the pictures. How I told him how he should take them in color, and then let me take a picture of him.
I felt a smile find its way to my face before I shake my head. The pictures we took weren't there. He didn't delete them, right? Maybe he did, and this was all some sort of sick joke pulled by my best friend and she's going to come out of my closet to laugh at me.
Except she doesn't.
If I know Rufus, this can't possibly have been a dream. It just... doesn't make any sense at all, how would it have? Did I somehow like.... restart the day or something? But how is that possible? But that's the only situation that lines up, although it denies every bit of logic I've piled up throughout my life.
There's only one way to find out. At 12:22am. That's when I got the call. From Andrea. My herald. Or, was my herald. Or my soon to be herald- whatever, you know what I mean. Until then, what do I do?
Well, stalking Rufus' instagram seems just about the only thing that makes sense to do right now. Actually, it didn't make sense at all. But nothing really made sense at all either, so to be fair it had to cancel it all out, right?
I stare at Rufus' profile, my finger tracing his username, before my finger slips and I follow him on accident. Shit. And when I say shit, I mean shit. You wouldn't hear me cuss in my household even if I stubbed my pinky toe on a metal ladder. If it's true I restarted the day, then Rufus has to have no idea who I am. He'll probably think I'm some weird stalker trying to get his location to beat him up and-
Oh my god he followed me back.
He followed me back? He followed me back? Why did he do that? Who follows some random stranger if they have no clue who they are? (I say as I did that to whomever stranger decided to pop me a follow)
Before I got to figure out why on earth he would follow me back, I get a message in my DMs.
@RufusonPluto: Call me.
My hands shake. Is he mad? Is he going to scream at me for being a stalker? I mean, if someone was stalking me I'd be a bit upset too but does he need to go out of his way to call me?
@RufusonPluto: Right now.
Suddenly I'm getting a pop-up on my phone, an incoming call from Rufus slash user @RufusonPluto.
I don't know what to do, I'm staring at the interface praying to a god if it exists to tell me what on earth I should do in this situation. I decided to screw it, and put on a face and answer the call as chill as possible.
"Hey man." I say shakily, definitely not chill at all as soon as I pick up. Our cameras are off but I can almost picture his face staring into the camera right now, although I can't guess his expression.
"Mateo? Mateo, is this really you? Where are you?" Rufus' voice says through the speaker, and surpisingly he sounds less upset and more... desperate. I can hear slight panting in his voice.
"At.. my home." I reply. I could almost see his eyebrows furrow through the screen.
"Send me your address, I'll be there soon." And just like that, he hangs up.
Okay, maybe I overreacted. Of course no ones going to think you're a stalker if you follow them for the first time, and most definitely won't go meet you to beat you up, I think. And Rufus wasn't a bad guy at all.
But him wanting my address made no sense at all. And going to my house? He said it so casually, like he's done it before. Could he too have...? No way, that's too crazy. I don't even know that I've gone back in time, let alone Rufus. Maybe he had an old childhood friend named Mateo, although he never told me anything about him.
No, I shouldn't overthink.
I know Rufus wouldn't do anything bad to me, even if I knew him for only two thirds of a day. He's just not that type of guy. I think.
@RufusonPluto: Hurry.
Rufus texts me when I took too long to message him. I gulp, and then type in my address, and hit send. He inmediately saw my message but didn't respond. Was he rushing here? I don't understand why. I don't understand a lot of things today.
I pace through my room back and forth, my eyes on my phone on my desk while I watch the clock go by minute by minute. My head is only filled with confusing thoughts. Actually it'd seem more logical if Rufus changed the time to mess with me and then come back. But then again he wouldn't do that.
I try to prepare myself for him to arrive at my door. Okay, when he knocks, I'll make sure it's him and then slowly open it, as to-
And then I hear three aggresive knocks at my front door. I look at the time on my phone, over ten minutes have already passed just from my overthinking. God I'm a walking time racer.
I quickly scrambled out of my room and made my way to the front door. I was about to check to make sure it was Rufus before three more knocks follow, then the sound of Rufus' voice.
"Mateo?"
I couldn't decipher his tone, if it was anger or desperation. Was he angry? Did it really upset him when I followed him? Did he- oh my god, get yourself together Mateo! Just open the door already, think later.
I unlock the door, and slowly open it with a gulp.
"Hey, I'm sorry about the instagra-"
When it was fully opened, Rufus launched himself at me, and I fell backwards onto the floor, him following on top of me. I thought he was trying to kill me, until I felt his arms wrap around underneath me in a tight embrace. I didn't know whether to be flustered or scared or worried- but I soon got my answer when I stared into Rufus' eyes, and saw his expression.
His eyes were teared up and he had the softest expression I've ever seen him wear. His brows were furrowed not out of anger, but... worry?
He let go of me and cupped my face with his hands, caressing my cheeks with his thumbs.
"Is that really you, Mateo?" He asked me, it sort of looked like he was convinced I was a ghost.
He remembered me. He knew who I was. It wasn't a dream, it was real. He was real. Everything was real.
"Rufus." I say, not saying his nickname but his whole name because it felt stronger.
I melt into his touch (which was quite ironic), my thoughts fizzing away. It was a bit embarrassing, him holding me like this, kind of like we're lovers or something. I ignored the burning feeling on my face.
"I'm so glad you're alive." Rufus said, letting go of my face to hug me like before, but even tighter, to the point it kind of hurt, actually.
"You're gonna suffocate me.." I say, to which he immediately pulls back and sits up.
"Sorry."
He had this grin on his face as he wiped his eyes. We were in an awkward position, him sitting on me while I lay on the ground. I pulled my legs out from under him and stood up, and then reached out my hand to help him up. He grabs it, pulling himself up as well.
There was a moment of silence until I finally cleared my throat, speaking out.
"Did we go back in time?
I asked him. It was a question you'd hear people ask each other in popular novels and cool movies, but never in real life. He looked hesitant to reply, but he did.
"I think so."
And then the silence hit again. This time it was louder than our voices were. I mean, what could we say? Although my dad told me to live my life as the main character, It was supposed to motivate me. I wasn't expecting some weird main character phenomenon to actually happen. I mean, who would?
"But... how? I mean, thinking rationally it doesn't make sense."
"And thinking rationally, Death-Cast knowing whos going to die every day does?" Rufus replies. I get his point.
"But this is... it's just, it's out of a comic book, these sort of things don't just happen. It's the sort of thing you'd say happened to you and people would laugh in your face and call you delusional."
He grabbed my face, and pulled me close to him. This time, I could see he was actually upset. Not at me. At what happened, unlike me who was frustrated figuring out whats happening.
"I watched you die, Mateo." He said, staring into my eyes, and I felt my heart sink. "Or maybe you were already dead, when I found you on the floor all burned up."
His voice was shaky. The burner, I thought, that stupid burner. It set everything ablaze.
"I held your lifeless body in my arms, I carried you out, and I watched them put the body bag over you and man, I had never felt so dead in my entire life."
His nose scrunched up, it looked like he was doing everything he could to not tear up. But it was bound to happen. Two deckers together, one was bound to watch the other die. It just happened to be Rufus.
"I'm sorry, Roof." I say, this time I felt my own face tear up. "I'm so sorry. I wanted to make us some tea and I switched on the burner without thinking."
"You left our island." Rufus told me, he was still staring into my eyes, with the same expression. Maybe he blamed me.
"I know. I'm sorry, and I won't leave it again."
He hugged me again. This time it was soft and loving and warm. I lift my arms to wrap around him as well, hugging him back.
"Welcome home Mateo."
I let out a chuckle, holding him closer.
"You're in my home, idiot."
And then it was 12:22 a.m.