Last Day to Live (The Rewrite) - www.baileythompson.ca

What if someone said,

You had one last day

Before you were dead

What would you say?

What would you do?

Who would you see?

Are you happy to be you?

What would your last words be?

I promise, it will be yours tomorrow

But you’ll have known it all along

There will be no need to feel sorrow

It won’t happen if you just pass this on.

Nicole sat at her computer desk in her bedroom, outlined by the ray of light coming off her computer screen. She held her giggles in for a second, before exploding into a loud laugh. It wasn’t that the e-mail was funny, because it wasn’t. She just found it amusing that her friends had actually fallen for it!

Nicole had never been superstitious and in her opinion, the only purpose of chain letters was comedy and humour.

She closed the e-mail window and glanced at her clock; it was 3 in the morning – bedtime. That’s how it was for all her friends. The wee hours of the morning were the best time for instant message socializing, but at three everyone hit the sack.

Careful about not waking her parents or 10-year-old brother, Nicole made her way to the bathroom to brush her teeth. As she turned on the light, she could feel a chilling breeze rub against her. She twirled around the room in fear, but no one was there and the window was closed. Speedily, she brushed her teeth and rushed out of the bathroom, closing the door behind her so that whatever had caused the breeze wouldn’t follow her out.

She walked down the hallway on alert, wondering if someone was up. The floor creaked under her step and she found herself frightened. In her mind, she decided that the house was only breezy and creaky because of the age, but somehow she knew she was wrong.

She hopped into bed nervously and fell asleep the second her head hit the pillow. Had she kept her eyes open a few seconds longer, she would have noticed the man in black in her door way with a wide grin spread across his face. Had she saw him; she still wouldn’t have noticed what he held in his hand.

It was 4:35 a.m. when Nicole woke up from a deep slumber, confused and agitated. She looked around the room in wonder about what woke her up, but there was nothing there. She glanced at the clock again, thinking she may have read it wrong, but it still said 4:35 a.m. Even for a school day, it was much too early.

So she let her head fall easily to the pillow and her eyes close as she drifted to sleep. In the back of her mind, she could hear footsteps walking into her room, but she didn’t know. She was in a deep sleep when he sat on the edge of her bed. Then he disappeared.

***

The sun was pouring in the windows of 217, math class. Although Nicole was in class, she wasn’t really paying attention to the teacher. Instead, she was concentrating on the clock, waiting for the class to be over.

Suddenly the door to the classroom opened with speed and power. A man in black stood in the doorway, grinning at the class.

“How may I help you sir?” The emotionless math teacher asked.

The man ignored him and walked straight for Nicole. Somehow, she knew when she saw him that it was her he was coming for. For some reason, she felt immediately that she knew him from somewhere.

Her classmates had curiously turned to look at her as he pulled something from the pocket of his long black coat. He held it against her head and she knew what it was; a gun.

Her classmates’ faces all looked fearless and the teacher remained frozen, Nicole wondered why.

“Do you want to die?” The man’s deep voice roared.

“N-no!” She stuttered.

“You want everything else to be over! You’re always watching the clock. Why don’t you watch it some more? Watch it until the end of your life. You can keep wishing for that to be over too. Stare at it! Count the minutes, right down the very second until I take your life!” He yelled.

“Please, don’t kill me. I’m not ready to die!” Nicole begged.

“I’m not going to” he hesitated, “YET!”

Nicole stared into the man’s dark eyes and waited for him to say more.

“Nicole” he continued, “You have 24 hours left. I suggest you watch the clock. Only this time, you’ll be wishing the time went by slower. Here’s a tip, make it good! It’s the last 24 hours you’ll ever have!”

It was lightly raining and the covers had been kicked off the bed when Nicole awoke instantly as the dream came to an end. Her heart was racing and she felt overwhelmed.

“It was just a dream, Nicole” she convinced herself aloud, but she didn’t know – it felt too real, almost as though it meant something.

She dismissed the thought and scrambled towards her closet. She noticed the pile of laundry that was lying on the floor and the lack of clothing on the hangers.

She started to scream to her mother and cause an argument over her mom not doing her laundry, but she instantly stopped as she remembered the dream; it was her last day, she needed to make it good.

The second the thought crossed her mind, fear ran through her body and she froze, ‘just a dream’ she repeated over and over in her head.

Sprinting down the creaky stairs wearing some clothing from last year, she reached the kitchen where she found the milk was empty. Her brother came into the room and apologized and she started to say something rude to him, but the thought that it could be her last day crossed her mind, so she said, “it’s okay, little brother”

He looked confused, possibly surprised that his sister would actually treat him with some respect.

The rest of the day, for Nicole was filled the best she could make it. Although she had imagined her last day to be an exotic outing, she knew that was unrealistic.

She spent the morning and mid afternoon with her best friends, at the mall. They’d done this often enough, but Nicole wanted to spend a few hours together – without instant messaging.

At home, she helped her mother with chores around the house. Not only did they get a lot of things done, it was a great time for bonding. Nicole had begun to regret how much she’d made her mom do for the family. Not only that, she missed talking to her mom, and was beginning to feel bad for all the mean things she’d said to her mom in the past. She knew now that it wasn’t worth it.

She helped her father wash the car, something they used to do together when she was younger. She was beginning to enjoy herself and was reminded of all those times she’d turned down helping her father.

Throughout the day, the words of the man in black replayed in her head. Although she was still sceptical that the dream meant anything, she followed the words and spent her day doing the things she enjoyed, or just spending time with her family.

When her grandmother called that afternoon, she didn’t immediately hand the phone to her mother; instead she made an effort to converse with her grandmother. She never did realize how much she missed her grandmother.

Her boyfriend called her that night as he usually did and she did little more than tell him how much she truly loved him.

When it was dark outside and time for her brother’s bedtime, she tucked him in and told him goodnight before heading downstairs and planting herself on the couch next to her mom. Although she’d never like watching The News, which is something they always watched, she sat with them anyways. She made sure to tell them she loved them before heading upstairs for bed.

She had one last thing to do; she buried herself in the blankets of her bed with a pen and pencil and began to write.

She wrote letters to her friends, telling them how much she loved them, and letters to her enemies apologizing for whatever happened between them. Her family came next, as she wrote a letter to each cousin, each aunt and uncle, grandma and grandpa, writing about time spent together filling each paper with memories, love and apologies. She wrote to everyone she could think of before stacking the pile of paper on her desk with a sticky-note instructing her parents to give each letter to whom it was addressed to.

She lay silently in her bed, filling her head with thoughts. Thoughts of what she’d never get to do in the future and thoughts of what she would have done had she known she’d die at 16. Yet, somehow, she was satisfied, she’d done the best she could on her last day and left no one forgotten.

She let her head fall to the pillow, her eyes fall shut and drift off to a deep sleep. Had she stayed awake a few minutes more, she would have been able to greet her visitor as he walked heavily, yet silently into her bedroom. This time, she would have known what he held in his hand. She would have been surprised to see him disappear into thin air.

The sun was shining brightly into her bedroom, the rays of light waking her from her deep sleep. Nicole opened her eyes and looked around the room.

She stood up out of bed in surprise and examined her body.

“I’m not dead!” She yelled, “I’m not dead”

From the other room she could hear her brother yell, “Shut up sister, I’m trying to sleep!”

She looked at the clock; it was only 9:30 a.m. She smiled to herself as she trudged down the stairs to greet her mother for breakfast.

Her mother was baking pancakes in the kitchen and humming a tune when she walked down the stairs.

“Good morning, Nicole!” She exclaimed, “I’m surprised to see you up so early.”

“I know Mom, it’s just that kind of day,” Nicole responded, as she kissed her mom on the cheek.

“You’ve changed… over night!” Her father said from the table.

Nicole sat down with a pancake and drowned it in syrup as she chatted with her father.

She happily chatted away as her mom watched them in awe and happiness.

As Nicole chatted, the dream of last night came back to her in a flash.

The man in black was standing there, the gun in his hand. She’d sat there quietly, ready to die. Instead, he told her he wouldn’t kill her, she didn’t deserve that. All he said was, “You learned your lesson,” and Nicole woke up.

She knew what her lesson was, and she knew why it came to her.

The man in black was no ordinary ghost. He was an Angel that had come to guide her. Someone who had come to teach her the biggest lesson she had to learn. It was a simple lesson about life.

His words, “Live each day like it’s your last” replayed in her head as she finished her breakfast. She could feel him in her heart as he celebrated another lesson learned; live each day like it’s your last.