Life but Thankfully the End?

"Who gives a damn about life? High School is meaningless. Where am I gonna use these numbers? Am I supposed to use algebra in making a baby? How do I find a job? Pay taxes?

Damnit, find a girlfriend? Sh(redacted), I can't even find people to love me." I muttered as I walked the busy roads of the downtown city.

Failures in life can be lessons? Losing is how I learn? Ha! Then I'll have fun learning! Pretty sad of me, but hey, that's life.

"Pretty nihilistic of you." My inner conscience whispered. "Hey, wanna grab a MgRonalds?"

I kicked my shoes together and pulled my hoodie down. "Nah," I muttered. "My wallet won't forgive me."

I'm pretty hungry. I don't know how much time passed ever since I started walking blank-mindedly... In case you didn't know, this is my average Thursday afternoon.

Until it wasn't.

I made my way across a dimly-lit alleyway, jostling through the crowds that gather every afternoon. I made a left a few streets away from my apartment, and turned to catch the traffic light before the red light caught me, but then I realized something.

"Whoa, where am I?" I said to myself as I tried to recognize my surroundings. "I got lost?" I stared blankly at the afternoon sky, wondering how I managed to lose my way on a road I've taken many times before. "So this is why you don't walk absent-mindedly."

I tried walking back. I couldn't remember the path I took. Oh well, I should just find my way home using my phone. I try to reach back home using a map from my phone. No signal. Then suddenly I spotted a girl in a white dress.

She looked to be a wide-eyed foreigner, about my age, or maybe slightly older. Her eyes were bluer than the sky, maybe sapphire-blue. She had fair skin, long, blond hair, and when I saw her smile, time seemed to slow to a halt.

I squirmed in my pants. I suddenly became conscious of my messy hair, my height, my beat-up shoes, not to mention, my empty wallet.

*

"Hey there, sugar." She drawled in a thick Southern American accent.

"You alright?"

"J-just lost is all." I stutter out.

Just lost, is all? How wimpy can I get-

"You there. Hey, you!" She called.

"Wh-wha?" I froze. "Me…"

She winked at me. The gaze from her eyes took my mind's eye to a frozen lake, overshadowed by smoky mountains and evergreen trees. Even if I've never left the country, much less the cities, for a second, no, for that short moment in time, I was living, and breathing, in the cold air, feeling the howling wind and the sea-spray on a cliff overlooking the waters below me.

"It seems like it's not time yet." She snapped her fingers, and I was pulled back into my shoes. I was pulled back to my body... No wait, it's weird.. because I was always inside my own body.

And for that one moment, I wasn't. "Who are you?" I asked, chills running down my spine.

I felt a rapid tapping on my shoulder. Unnerved, I spun around, expecting to get jumped, or something.

When I turned around, an old man stared back up at me. He adjusted his glasses and asked:

"Are you ok son?" I was shocked; I tried to get a glance at the girl but she wasn't there. "Are you ok, can you hear me?"

"Oh, did you see a pretty foreign-looking girl in a white dress on the street?" I asked. I scanned my surroundings, looking for hints as to where she might have vanished to.

"All I saw was you dozing off standing like your soul was sucked out." He replied.

"Oh… I see. Sorry for making you worry. Also, is there a bus stop near?" I smiled to keep him at ease. Don't need strangers thinking I've added myself to the dozens of deranged has-beens out there.

"Take the left, right over there, and walk straight until you get to the MoonBucks." He still seems to be worrying about me. I think I like this old guy, not gonna lie.

"Thanks."

It seems like I was daydreaming but was that all just a dream? It felt too real. The azure skies, the green forest, and even the crystal lake. I could even feel the cold sea breeze as it passed through my hair. Every sight I saw, every smell I inhaled, every breath I took, everything about it felt too real to be a dream.

I took my phone to check out my notifications. No calls, no texts. I wonder why my parents never call me back anymore. Is it because I'm too old? I miss how being with them made me feel so real, back when we used to be a family.

Well, I can't even tell when I'm awake, or when I'm dreaming, so maybe all's well that ends well.

Maybe everything should be treated as if in a dream.

"Take care, kid!" the old man hollered at me.

I threw my hand up into a thumbs up. I threw my hood up, fixed my beats on my ears, and set my playlist on shuffle.

And when I clicked play, I heard a rapid beeping and tons of panicked screaming.

"Kid, I just told you, Watch-" The old man called.

I slid off my headphones, turned my face, and saw a middle-aged man with a face filled with horror as he tried to bring his truck to a halt.

And then everything went dark. Can't feel my body. The hell is this nauseating sensation? My head rings out. I feel something spilling out from my chest, flowing to the floor. I felt warm, then cold, am I dying?

Nah. I don't feel pain. Isn't death supposed to hurt?

I feel someone shaking me. My vision blurs and conks out from time to time. I see a stretcher for one second, then the insides of an ambulance the next, then some men in coats looking down at me as the ceiling moves from light to light.

Weird. It felt like I experienced this before. Like this isn't the first time this happened. If I'm dying then where are the flashing scenes of my life? Was my life meaningless to recall what I've been doing in the past?

I guess this is the end-

"Wake up!" Someone screamed and jumped on me as if it was trying to kill me.

"Ouch! Hey, can't you see I'm a dying ma-. Wait who are you? Where am I?"

"Hello. Human kid." She smiled as I instantly recognized her.