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Mateo wakes up to the sound of a car honking outside. It’s still the dead of night, almost no noises other than the car. Rufus’ arm is still draped over him, and he could hear his soft breathing. It would’ve been comforting if he didn’t know that they were going to die any minute now.
Mateo stayed in bed. Their “safe island” as he had called it. Although he tried to stop himself, the longer that he laid in Rufus’ arms, the more he wanted to see what time it was, see how much longer they had with each other, or if they had somehow survived Death-Cast’s prediction.
He was sure that they didn’t, Death-Cast was never wrong after all. But, the thought that they may have miraculously survived certain death still excited him, no matter how much he knew that it wasn’t happening. They weren’t special, they were just two teens that were going to die by midnight. A hundred percent of deckers died after they got the call, they weren’t going to be the ones that made that percent go down.
Despite that, Mateo still reached for his phone to check the time. Just as he was about to pick up, the ever so familiar Death-Cast ringtone erupted in the room. Death-Cast wasn’t supposed to call you twice. They call you in the middle of the night, and by midnight the next night you died, simple as that.
The loud siren-like ringing shook Rufus from his sleep. He was still somewhat dazed as Mateo picked up his phone.
“What’s going on?” Rufus asked in a drowsy but concerned tone.
“I- I don’t know,” Mateo answers honestly. Mateo picks up the call and puts his phone to his ear, unsure of what he is about to hear.
The voice on the other line starts to talk almost immediately. “Hello, we here at Death-Cast regret to inform you that there was a mistake at Death-Cast yesterday where we called some who were not dying yesterday, you are among one of them. We extended our utmost apologies to you and your loved ones that thought you weren’t going to be here today.”
What.
Mateo stills in disbelief, they survived. Death-Cast made a mistake. Death-Cast never made mistakes, but they had yesterday?
Death-Cast had made a mistake.
Mateo had to keep repeating that to himself, it just didn’t sound real. The company had been around for over seven years now and they had never made a mistake, but on his and Rufus’ end day, they had.
Mateo ends the call without a word, he couldn’t form any, or at least he couldn’t form a coherent response. A million questions filled his mind, how did any of this happen? Why did it happen to them? Why hadn’t it happened before to other deckers? They were just two teenage boys, why did they get to survive while the millions of deckers that came before them didn’t? They weren’t special.
Rufus could tell that Mateo was spiraling. Despite not having a clue as to what was going on, he puts a hand on Mateo’s shoulder. “You’re okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”
Mateo leans into Rufus’ touch, finding comfort in it even when almost everything that he had learned in the past twenty-four hours was flipped on its head. It sounds stupid, but he’s almost thankful that Death-Cast made a mistake. If they didn’t, then he may have never met Rufus, may have never taken the risks he always wanted to.
When Mateo seems to have calmed down a considerable amount, Rufus finally asks the question that had been nagging him since he woke up to the sound of Death-Cast calling. “What was the call about? Death-Cast doesn’t call twice.”
Mateo tries to collect everything that he heard over the phone into one coherent thought. “Death-Cast made a mistake, we survived.” He finally gets out.
Right as Mateo stops talking, Rufus’ phone rings with that signature Death-Cast ringtone. Neither of them care to answer, already knowing what the herald on the other line will say.
After some time, Mateo finally asks, “How are we going to tell everyone that we survived? They all think that we’re dead.”
Rufus doesn’t have an answer for that, just a few hours prior he had thought he was going to die at seventeen years old. After hesistating for probably too long, Rufus finally says, “Let’s worry about that tomorrow, it's still the middle of the night.”
Mateo nods and lets Rufus pull him back into his arms. This time, he actually felt safe. They weren’t going to die. Maybe they weren’t special, but they were the first to survive Death-Cast.
