Sunday August 6th, 2056

[I can't sleep. It's already five and I haven't closed an eye yet. I'm way too curious about what it'll be.]

Andrew's eyes close. After he opens them again, light is suddenly shining into his room.

[Looks like I was able to sleep after all… for… uh... three hours.]

Sounds can be heard from the kitchen.

[The dishwasher is getting emptied. Melissa is awake already.]

He gets up and out of bed, takes out clean clothes from the closet and puts them on. Before going downstairs, he goes to the bathroom to brush his hair. He looks at himself in the mirror.

[My hair is getting longer, it's already down to my shoulders. The lack of gel has removed the shape it had too. How didn't I notice these things while at Hulive?]

After combing his hair and washing his face, Andrew heads to the kitchen.

"Couldn't sleep?" Melissa says.

[Odd of her to start a conversation.]

"Not really." Andrew replies.

"Here's your breakfast." Melissa says while giving him his plate. "Eat up, so you don't have to wait any longer."

"Can't you tell me now?"

"No, we have to go to the place first. Now eat up."

[She's really pushy suddenly. Maybe she understands that I'm impatient too? Or is she impatient for something? Ah, whatever…]

After Andrew finishes his breakfast, they head outside. Melissa closes and locks the front door behind them.

"Let's go." Melissa says, and Andrew starts following her. Melissa doesn't say a word, and Andrew doesn't start a conversation.

[This is the final stretch, the final minute or two without an explanation. It will all be made clear in a few moments. Where mom and dad are, where Connor and my friends have gone, and where May is. Everything.]

They arrive at their destination, and Melissa unlocks a large, weathered and rusty metal gate.

PERIGOWINKLE COMMUNITY GRAVEYARD

Letters in a dominant font are written on a sign right behind the gate.

"Remember how I wanted to tell you something, but you ran away?"

Andrew nods.

[It was last week, it was in front of this gate too.]

"I'm the town's mayor." Melissa says. "Mayor Hillton of Perigowinkle."

Andrew turns his head to her, and gives her a bewildered look.

[She? A mayor? She just joking ri…]

"I don't like the title." She adds. "I don't like how it has my last name in it."

[Sorry, what? I don't understand why that would be a problem. It doesn't seem like personal preference, and the Melissa I know, well, knew, would love to have a title like that.]

Melissa starts walking, and Andrew follows her.

"Not a single response? Well, I was guessing that would've been the case." She continues. "Here, you wanted to read it right? You can do so when we get back." She gives him the notebook. The notebook that Ben wrote in every weekend.

[Now you're just giving it to me?]

Andrew looks at the notebook and back at Melissa, a few times over.

"I'm only giving it to you now, because you wouldn't understand otherwise."

"What do you mean?" Andrew asks. Melissa stops walking, and peeks her left eye over her shoulder, giving Andrew a menacing stare. Andrew stops in his tracks.

"You wouldn't understand what's written in there, without the information I'm about give."

Andrew turns his eyes to the notebook.

"Such important stuff… is written in here?" He says, sluggishly. Melissa turns her head back and looks in front of her again. She enters the burial area, and Andrew follows right behind her.

"In 2020, I got a boyfriend, Steven. And only two years later, we got engaged." Melissa starts. "It was a bit early, I know that. We got engaged on July 30th, 2022, and decided to go on a trip with Mom, Dad and Connor the week after." They take a turn left. "But, it wasn't all that fun." She continues. "When we were about halfway there, we were driving through a forest. The road wasn't all that bumpy, it was pretty well made, actually." They take another turn left, walking onto a slimmer path, with old, weathered gravestones. "We heard a creaking sound in front of us, and just moments later, a tree fell on top of our car. Steven was killed. He got buried in his own hometown."

Melissa comes to a stand still, and turns her head right. She looks at a single tombstone, covered with moss and vines. "Mom and Dad… were killed by the same tree." She says. Andrew looks at the tombstone. The letters are weathered and indecipherable, but he feels it. This is where Ben and Gabrielle Hillton lie. His chest cramps up and is breathing becomes louder and heavier.

[I expected this. I expected this. But then why… is it so tough to accept? To comprehend?]

He clenches his teeth, and feels his emotions building up.

"This is a lot to handle, I understand." Melissa says. "But that wasn't all yet, sorry." Melissa looks at Andrew.

"Please… continue…" He says.

She turns her head back to the grave. "Connor is down there too." Melissa says. "He committed suicide after I told him about the accident on the phone. When I returned home, I found him on the couch, with the bottle still in his hand. He couldn't…"

"Stop… please…" Andrew cries out. "I've heard enough. I… understand." His legs are shaking, and tears are welling up in his eyes. His pupils are as small as ants, while he tries to keep his tears to himself.

"That's all." Melissa says, while a tear wells up in her eye too. But, it is not a tear of sadness, more a tear of regret, or anger. Andrew walks away from the grave. When he gives it a final look, the word 'Hillton' can becomes visible. He clenches his teeth even further and flees the graveyard, headed for the beach. Melissa looks up at the sky, with a vile expression on her face.

"This is all your fault. All of it… so why are you crying?" She says, as she moves her hand to the remnants of stitches on her neck. A tear rolls down her cheek and falls onto the grave.

His footsteps are loud. Passing trees, bushes, houses, and a few elderly citizens, Andrew runs towards the docks. Towards his dad's store.

[Where am I going? Why am I going there? He's gone. They're all gone. They didn't get that second chance like me. They didn't sign up for it, so why didn't she just sign them up?]

Andrew arrives at the store. The weathered, abandoned building that was once a store. He places his hands and lower arms on the beams which block the entrance, and lowers his head.

[…what is it… why can't you think clearly… you weak, weeping fucker… you shouldn't cry.]

Andrew is crying. He lets out tears and noises of sorrow and follows it up with a scream that covers the whole town. None of the residents get up. Everyone ignores him, as if they knew, in advance, that this was coming.

"I can't do this." He says through his tears. "I can't do this. I can't do this. I shouldn't be here. This future… is not how I could've ever imagined it to be. It sucks. Why am I here?" He continues whispering and talking to himself, while letting out horrifying sounds of misery and heartbreak.

The white clouds that have covered the morning sun turn grey, and it starts raining. It turns into pouring rain shortly after.

[Rain… of course… what else would be a suiting weather right now? The cliché fucking rain is here…]

Andrew starts laughing out of mental anguish. The combination of events overwhelm him, and his arms slip away from the wooden beams. He looks up at the sky, letting large droplets falls straight into his mouth, open with a large, twisted, maleficent smile. A large droplet of water falls straight into his right eye, dropping him to the ground. He lays there unconscious, in front of Ben Hillton's store.

Andrew opens his eyes. The first thing he sees is a familiar ceiling. The ceiling of his own room, inside Melissa's house. His eyes have reddened and the skin around the sockets has dried slightly. As he gets up, sand falls from his arms onto his bedsheets.

[Did Melissa carry me here?]

He gets out of bed and wipes the remaining sand of his arms and clothes. He looks at the desk, and notices Ben's notebook laying in the center.

[Should I give it a read? No, I've got to clean myself up first.]

He goes into the bathroom and looks at himself in the mirror. Not even the slightest shock runs through him, as he is completely emotionally drained.

[I look hideous.]

With the water running out of the faucet, he makes a small puddle in his hands and splashes his face with it. A good portion of the water misses his face and falls onto the ground behind him. He dries his face with his towel.

[Melissa can suck it if she cares about the spilled water.]

After drying, he looks at himself in the mirror again.

[Not even slightly better. I give up.]

Andrew returns to his room, and settles down behind his desk. He picks up his dad's notebook, and opens it on the first page. Reading through it, most of the pages are uninteresting. Ben's weekly life is written in there, but sometimes a week got skipped. He flips over to the last few pages. In the first to last one, Ben writes about how happy he is that his daughter got married. In the last one, he writes about going on vacation with his family and daughter's husband. The pages after that, are all empty. Andrew closes the notebook, and places it on top of his own.

[I don't really see why she didn't let me read this earlier. Maybe I wasn't 'allowed' to know of it before the day of, but I'm not sure… I can never be sure, as it is something only she knows.]

While tapping his pen on the desk, he picks up his own notebook from under Ben's, and opens it on a new page. He writes the date of the accident on top.

[August 6th, 2022. Guess I'll write the events in a third person perspective, that'll be an interesting read. Though, I probably won't get it done today.]

Andrew's phone vibrates. It was laying on it's screen on the desk, so he turns it around and checks the message. A message from Melissa. He reads through it hastily.

"I will not be home tonight, so prepare your own dinner. I'll see you tomorrow, good night." He reads aloud.

[Why though?]

Andrew replies with a 'Good night' and nothing else. He looks at the time.

[Already seven p.m. I don't think I even had lunch.]

He closes the notebook, which has it's pages filled with the events of August 6th, 2022, at least according to what Andrew knows. Afterwards, he heads to the kitchen.

[I'm not really hungry, so just a quick snack is fine.]

Andrew opens the refrigerator. There are vegetables and fruit, cheese, butter, a few sauces and some meat products.

[A salad. I think she had some nuts too somewhere. Cashew and walnut.]

After taking the lettuce, tomato and salad dressing from the refrigerator, he looks in the cabinets for the nuts. He finds both the walnuts and cashews, and places them on the counter. He starts by washing the tomatoes and lettuce, after which he cuts the tomatoes into small cubes and the lettuce into strips. With the nuts and dressing added the salad is done, and he fills up a glass with tap water as a drink. Instead of going to the living room, he heads to his bedroom and settles down behind his desk.

[This'll be enough for today. My appetite will return tomorrow, and if it doesn't… well… whatever. It doesn't matter.]

Andrew eats up his salad in silence, while rereading the story he wrote in the notebook.

[It's trash. Absolute useless unreadable trash.]

He rips out the papers and throws them under the desk. He continues on his salad in silence.

After his salad is done, Andrew quickly washes his face and heads to bed. Covered by the cloths, he lays there, facing the wall with opened eyes.

[I don't like this future. I don't want this future. I never wanted this future.]

As much as he wants to cry, Andrew's eyes are completely dried out. Dark circles have formed under them, and his hair has lost all of its shape.

[I should not be alive.]