CHAPTER 1 Dead Man Walking

A LOVE is something worth living for. Ironically, it's also something worth dying for

A very nightmare happened to me. I have to fight like hell just to live literally. But in that nightmare I met lance. And because of him, the nightmare didn't seem so bad anymore. It's a very beautiful and magical nightmare indeed.

I hugged him tightly. Both of us closed our eyes while we couldn't stop the flow of our tears. Lance and I know that we can't do anything about what is set. But in my heart, I don't want to give up the hope that we can cross together and live happily

This is the last time Lance and I will be together, the last time I will touch and see him.....the last time I can say I love him. I prayed that you would be allowed to be together. But our prayers can't reach the heave. We have to part ways and never see each other again.

I hugged him even tighter, but at the same time I felt him gradually disappear from my hugs. And at the back of my head, I heard his last goodbye.

I don't think there is a love story like ours. We met on a very unexpected time, unexpected place, and unexpected event. And sure enough, we felt in love unexpectedly.

I love him. I will always love him. But it's all over before life let us begin to live our love story.....

LANCE'S eyes hurt when he woke up. He was dazzled by the light that appeared in his eyes. He rubbed his eyes to adjust to the light.

“Sun? Why is there a sun” he asked himself. He got up from lying down, but he groaned with pain all over his body.

“Where am I? ” he could see nothing else around except for grass, plants, trees, and a wide field. The surroundings he lived in were very beautiful. He did not know where he was. And why he was there. He couldn't remember what happened before he landed in that place. All he remembers in Mara- ISA hanging out with her classmate at nursing school. But he couldn't remember where they left.

Hoast Beer Matters

He walked around, looking for people who could ask for help or ask where he was. His cellphone was not in his pants pocket

so he couldn't call his parents. But even though I have a cellphone, they are busy with their own families. He felt bitterness at the thought.

Lance was young when his parents separated. They have their own wives and children. Since his parents remarried, he and his twin Dean have been living with his grandparents.

Dean and him weren't just twins, he was also his best friend. They always go on walks together, they have the same friends, and she is his partner in pranks. So he wondered why he wasn't with Dean these days. He was worried because he knew that his partner would never leave him alone.

Lance was cleansed because all he could see were weeds and plants. No matter what kind of animal he sees around. The only noise he could hear was the sound of the breeze.

"Is there someone here!" Lance shouted. The buzz his voice created was loud. He repeated the shout several times but no one answered.

"Is there someone there!" he shouted again.

Charles Fred Agustin

"I'm not a bad person! I just want to know where I am!"

He heard a rustling from behind him so he immediately faced the direction it came from. A small white bird appeared before him. He was disappointed because he thought he was going to see a person. He turned his back on the bird and started walking again. He shouted again and again but still no one answered. "Robi! Nel!" He shouted his friends' names. "Are you kidding me? It's not funny anymore."

Once again Lance heard a rustling sound from behind him. He immediately turned to the source of the rustling and was shocked to see that he was being followed by a white bird perched on the ground.

"Shoo!" He pimped the bird, but instead of leaving it just stared at him. "Shoo! Get out!" "He just wants to help you," he heard a voice say from behind him.

Lance faced the source of the voice. A man in white exposed himself. It was tall, he estimated slightly older than him, and had a very calm face.

"Don't be afraid. Maya just wants to help you."

"M-Maya?" He was confused by what the man in front of him said. "Who's that?... And who are you?"

He smiled and approached her. "A friend," it said. "We're your friends."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Peter by the way. And the bird behind you is Maya, my pet sparrow bird."

"Sparrow? Is there a white sparrow bird?"

"In this place, yes," said Peter. "He was alone."

"Can you tell me where I am?" He just smiled and walked away. That only added to his annoyance.

"Wait! Tell me where I am. Are you with Nel and Robi? Tell me where they are?" he asked one after the other.

"You are in the place where heaven and earth meet, where everything is between life and death," he replied continuing to walk. "And I'm the keeper of the tunnel. And I'm not with your friends."

"What are you talking about? Could you please explain what you mean?" He was really tired.

"Don't you remember what happened to you?" Peter asked turning to her.

"No," he replied. "The last thing I remember is that I was taking a breather and I was with my classmate Mara."

"I can't help you with that," he said. "Follow the chain that connects you and the flesh you left behind. Through it, the questions that trouble you will be answered."

"I don't understand what you're saying!"

Lance shouted angrily.

Peter smiled and approached her. It pointed to his chest. "Can't you see the chain on your chest?"

He bent down and was shocked to see the chain attached to his chest. The chain attached to it was big and thick.

He sat down on the grass, trying to get away from the chain that couldn't be removed from his chest. He pulled it away from his chest but felt a lot of pain.

Peter stopped him.

"Your demise will be accelerated because of what you are doing," it said.

"What are you talking about? Get this thing off my chest!"

"If you want to die I will let you. But I believe that is not what you want and it is not yet time to open the tunnel for you."

"Are you crazy? What are you talking about?"

"Follow the chain attached to your chest. It's the only thing that will show you where to start. Hurry because your enemy is time."

Lance's gaze followed the chain from his chest, reaching as far as his eyes could see. He stood up and grabbed the chain. It's not as heavy as I thought. The truth is that I don't feel anything,

he whispered to himself. "Isn't there a taxi here?" he asked Peter, but when he turned around he was gone. "Peter?" he called the only person he knew could answer his questions. But no one answered, even his pet bird Maya was gone. Again he was left alone and didn't know where to go.

"PESTE, I've been walking for a while now but this chain seems to have no end," Lance muttered annoyed to himself as he followed the source of the chain. "There's no one to ride with. If I find out that Nel is the one who started this nonsense, they'll really hate me. Even Dean won't be here."

The trees around him were growing noticeably. What used to be a vast grassland gradually turned into a dense jungle. He was surprised because he didn't feel tired, all he felt was pain in his whole body, especially in his head. My head is about to cry, he groaned in his mind.

He continued to follow the chain attached to his chest. It shortened with each step he took toward the end, and lengthened each time he retreated. He had a hunch that what he had entered was no ordinary thing. He was already thinking about the possibility of fairies or alien abduction. He didn't know what to think.

"Kwak!"

Lance was surprised to hear a noise from behind him. When he turned around he saw a crow perched on the branch of a tree near him. The crow didn't move, it just stared at him.

"Run now." He heard a familiar voice.

"Peter?" He was surprised to see the man again. "W-how... you weren't there earlier..."

"You shouldn't be here," Peter said to the crow in the tree. "People like you have no right to come to this place. Leave."

But the crow did not move. It just stared at Peter.

"Why are you talking to the crow?" Lance asked the man. His confusion deepened.

"He's not what you think," he replied. "He is no ordinary crow. A vulture is in front of you. He eats wild souls like you."

Lance Kaluluangu's eyebrows meet... wild? "Whoa! What are you talking about? Are you kidding me? Well, I don't have time to talk-"

"Run," he interrupted what he was saying. "You're near the end. Follow the chain because that'll bring you back to where you belong."

He didn't know why he followed what Peter said, but this was the only person

present He is slowly realizing what is happening and what should be done.

Eating a wild soul... Am I dead?

He ran and ran. He doesn't feel tired. He was confused and didn't know what was happening, until he got out of the dense forest and the city where he lived was revealed in front of him. The forest he came from disappeared. He was in the middle of the road and

too many people crossing. "Am I back?" he asked himself. Maybe I'm haunted, he concluded.

He went along with the people walking. He grew up in that city so he knows where he's going even with his eyes closed. He tried to hail a taxi to go home to them, but they just passed him.

What is...? Why don't they seem to see me?

"For!" He raised two hands and was about to jump when the last taxi he saw stopped to pick him up. He was very happy when it stopped in front of him. But a man opened the taxi door first and

get on there immediately. "What the... Hey! Earlier

I'm better than you, ah."

But neither the man nor the driver seemed to hear him. The taxi drove away and he was left feeling annoyed. That's when he noticed the chain on it

his chest. What the... Is this really true?

"Follow the chain," again he heard Peter's voice in his mind. He immediately did what he ordered. He walked again to adjust the end of the chain.

Soon he arrived at a hospital. Inside that building in front of him was whatever was at the end of the chain. He went inside, and like the people outside, no one noticed him. No one seemed to see him.

That hospital was familiar to him. There she was on duty as a student nurse because it was the base hospital of their university. He was often at that hospital to sign case slips and templates with the staff nurses in the operating room and delivery room. He needs them so he can graduate and get his license.

"Cheska!" Lance was very happy to see a familiar face. She was younger than Cheska. It was sitting next to a vendo machine and was just stunned on the floor. "Hey, what are you doing here?" he called her attention when she got close to him.

It didn't move. He didn't seem to hear or see her at all.

"Are you okay?" he asked. He waved in front of Cheska's face but she still didn't react.

He remembered again what Peter had told him. Wild soul... place between life and

death... Couldn't it? He seemed to be forming in his mind what was happening. He ran after the chain attached to his chest. As he got closer and closer to the end, the pain he felt in his whole body got worse.

Lance reached the third floor of the hospital. There were a lot of people there.

This is a surgical ward, he thought. He passed in front of the nurses' station. His batchmates were there and on duty. Most of them have been his classmates since he was a freshman. Also there was the clinical instructor he hated-Mrs. Floresco. Like the people outside, none of his friends at the station could see him. He looked carefully at Mrs. Floresco is angry

to a female student nurse-Mara! "Where is your brain, Miss Ramos? Could you bring it tomorrow when you go on duty? Is that what I told you to do?"

Mara and Mrs. Floresco of the people. Lance felt furious. He already knows that no one will see what he does. Because if there is, he will be in big trouble. He raised his hand in front of Mrs. Floresco and dirty fingers. "Eat this!" he shouted.

He breathed a sigh of relief when no one saw him. He knew what he had done was wrong.

Lance continued following the

chain Not far from the nurses' station is the end of a room. SICU?

His body trembled when he saw the door of the room where the end of the chain was.

He approached the door and read the writing next to it. Surgery Intensive Care Unit. And below that is written the name Vallejo, Lance Robert A.

His hands were cold. It was shaking when he tried to open the door. He didn't expect his hand to slip through the door!

He sat on the floor in shock. He was confused by what was happening.

Little by little, he remembered what happened before he woke up and found himself on the grass. I'm with Mara... I'm dizzy... wind... alcohol, cigarettes... bonfires... pipes...

He stood up and entered the room. He just entered the door. The chain immediately disappeared as if it was an indication that he had reached the end.

He fell to his knees at what he saw inside the room.

An unconscious man was lying on the bed. There is a tube in its mouth that is connected to a mechanical ventilator. Only the noise of the cardiac monitor could be heard in that room. The whole body of the man was full of bruises but...

he...

Is this really my body? he asked himself still in disbelief.

Lance approached her body. He couldn't say anything. He was depressed by what he saw. His head was wrapped in a bandage. Did they do brain surgery on me? he asked. He walked towards the nurse who was at the small nurses' station inside the ICU. He was talking to someone on the phone while the chart was open next to him.

This is my chart, he thought. He read the open page. Hemicraniectomy, burst lobe temporal area, left. Looks like I've had surgery.

"No, Doc. Our patient doesn't have a poor prognosis, but he doesn't have a good prognosis either," the nurse said to her on the phone. "It's surprising, Doc. The patient was one week post op."

"One week?" Lance was very surprised at what he heard. He weakened. That's how long he was unconscious and in the hospital.

He remembered the last events. It was Nel's birthday the night they went to the bar. They were accompanied by his twin Dean, their cousin Robi, and friends Cheska, Nova, and Mara. It started with simply letting them finish their class. He shouldn't come because he doesn't like to drink but he knows Dean wants to come, and their grandparents won't let him if he doesn't.

He doesn't want to remember what happened at the bar.

He seemed to relive every blow and blow he received that night. I was drunk only once, it was my first time and this is what I reached right away? he thought dejectedly. "Comatose immediately? If you're lucky."

"Now you know why doctors say that even when a person is comatose he can still hear the people around him." Peter reappeared like a mushroom behind Lance.

"Can you not be surprised?" he said clearly while holding his chest.

"You'll be surprised," he commented with laughter.

"No. Just now because I don't know if

what's going on," he said. "Well I'll tell you what's going on..."

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***