Prologue: Death Day
PROLOGUE
Death Day
If you’re reading this, don’t stop. Today is important because it’s the day that Nova died. When he awoke that morning, he had no idea of what was to come. Nova is a seventeen-year-old guy with a sculpted, brilliant face and gleaming emerald eyes, and short chestnut hair that hangs lightly over his face. He got up early the next morning to go to the dining hall and get breakfast. He doesn’t need to drive because he lives in an apartment just a few blocks from the High School.
It’s a beautiful day outside; the sun is high in the sky, and the birds in the trees are chirping happily. On his way to class, he stopped at a Starbucks and bought a grande mocha to drink. He couldn’t risk falling asleep in his seat during a tedious lesson.
Of course, traffic is congested in the mornings, as everyone tries to get to work on time so they don’t irritate their bosses. Everyone in this town is usually in a hurry. He hadn’t expected anything to go wrong on the short walk to the English building. He came to a halt at a crosswalk and waited for the signal to turn green.
A brunette woman stands nearby, straining to make the ATM function properly. A ball was held by a small brown-haired girl with blue eyes and a pink dress. With a lovely grin on her face, she’s bouncing it up and down. It eventually goes out of her control as she gets it to go higher and higher.
The ball rolled down the street after bouncing off the grass. The small girl dashed to retrieve the ball, her mind on the ball rather than the road. A car approaches the girl, and Nova leaps into the road, pushing her out of the way and back onto the sidewalk on the spur of the moment. Nova had intended to get out of the way himself, but it was too late.
The next sensation he has is misery. He’s in excruciating pain throughout his body, and he’s having trouble breathing. Many spots on his body were dripping with blood. As he contacted the hospital and sought to explain the issue, a middle-aged man leaped out of the car and hovered over him. Nova couldn’t understand a word he said. The mother and the little girl were also present.
When the girl’s mother learned what had transpired, she bolted from the ATM. She had been concerned about her daughter at first, but when she discovered that she was unharmed, she had to kneel to check on the kid who had saved her daughter.
All of them looked concerned about him. Given that they’d never met him, he couldn’t see why. He was starting to feel better, and he was falling asleep. That’s not a good sign. The person gets sleepier as they die, according to hospital shows that he watched. His life seemed to be flashing before his eyes. He told his parents he was going to visit them the following weekend, but he would be unable to do so.
Nova couldn’t help but wonder what they were up to right now. His mother is most likely caring for someone in the hospital where she works, and his father is most likely booking someone for some crime and incarcerating them. Can parents tell if something bad is happening to their child, or will they be surprised when they get the phone call?
Around the corners of his eyes, a darkening occurs. The last thing he saw before he died was a tiny girl peering down at him, tears streaming down her cheeks and a ball in her eyes. Her eyes were filled with bewilderment and anxiety. She appeared to be rather young. Death is too abstract a notion for a child to comprehend. She’ll have a fantastic life. He had a feeling about it. She’ll attend prom with a nice guy, graduate, enroll in college, and have a family. She’ll be content.
He believes it was worthwhile.
