Jumpstart

**Authors Note** Magic words are in Latin.

In the year 2023, on the eve of Sky's accident, a person in a hooded jacket was outside of the apartment. This person seemed like he was waiting for someone.

When Sky was running out of the apartment building, this person followed him. Looking at this person’s body build, you can easily tell that it’s a guy.

He just followed Sky silently, while observing. When Sky fell down the stairs, he was calm and just kept staring at the unconscious body. Finally, he reached out from his back pocket and dialed 911 for an emergency. 

While Sky’s lying in the hospital bed. The person who came with him filled out all the hospital-needed information. This person knows a lot about him.

But what was he doing outside of the apartment, and why didn’t he call for an emergency and wait for a long time just staring at him out in the rain? Is this person a friend or a foe? After talking to the nurse, he went back to Sky’s room and just sat there, staring at the moon. He is contemplating if he should help him.

Then Sky suddenly started shaking his head. He seemed to be having a nightmare and kept saying, “No! Stop! Please! Don’t go!”.

Seeing this, the mysterious guy decides to abandon him. He turned his back and took three steps towards the exit, but he suddenly made a stop. One word was all it took to make him stop.

He heard him calling out the name “Earth” like it was a magic word. Hearing this name from Sky gave him a lot of emotions: anger, and guilt, and made him confused.

After a few minutes in his nightmare of a dream. Sky woke up screaming, and kept clutching his chest to stabilize his breathing. He looked like he'd been running for hours drenched in sweat and out of breath. Then he saw in his peripheral vision a person standing on his right side.

“Aahhhh!” Sky screamed in shock.

“Who are you?” he asked the person curiously and continued, “Where am I?”

 The guy just stared at him for a good ten seconds. He also stared back at him, wondering who this person was, as he looked suspicious just standing there and not saying anything and dressed in all-black clothes.

“Are you Death? Am I dead?” he asked, trying to get some answers.

“You wish,” the guy said unexpectedly with a sarcastic tone.

He thought that this voice sounded familiar. He couldn’t see the face, as the guy was against the light and it was dark in the room.

The only light that you can see is the moonlight coming from his window. When the moonlight cast upon his face. That was when he finally recognized the person and couldn’t believe it was him.

“You? How?” was all he could say as he was out of words and he heard him saying.

“Do you remember what happened?” The other person asked.

“Sadly, yes” he reluctantly replied.

Then a moment of silence. The atmosphere was so awkward that both of them didn’t know what to do or say. To break the ice, the guy took a deep breath and made a sigh.

“Do you want to go back to him?” he asked, and this would be the moment whether he would help Sky or not.

“What for? I’m already a fool for making a blind eye. I just want to disappear,” Sky said while his head was down, ashamed of what happened.

“I can help you,” he said, and took out something from his pocket and threw it at him.

“What’s this, a coin? How can this coin help me with my situation?” Sky asked, wondering if this was a joke.

“You want to escape from this reality, right?” He asked and continued,” this coin can bring you to the future, exactly 10 years from now. Everything will be in the past and you can start a new life “.

How absurd is that? Sky thought that he could help him. After all these years he has been missing, and is this the help he will get from him?

To say that he wasn’t disappointed was wrong. He just couldn’t believe him.

But what happened next made him shut his mouth.

He saw him grabbing the coin and tossing it in the air and saying, “Reserare”.

Then the coin became brightly illuminated and expanded, looking like a big alchemy sign. Then he saw him offering his hand to hold, and he wasn’t sure why, but he took his hand calmly.

He has no idea of his future and what awaits him ten years from now, but one thing that he is sure about is that this person can be trusted.

“Are you ready?” He asked after grabbing Sky’s hand.

“Just tell me one thing first. Will he be there in the future?” Sky asked curiously.

“That’s for you to find out,” he said in reply, with a mischievous smile.

“Then I guess I’m ready,” were the last words that he said when everything went bright after he heard him saying, “Ascendere”.

…

After the blinding light disappeared, Sky opened his eyes and the first thing that he noticed was a painting.

Looking at the place, it looks expensive and modern. You can simply tell that you are in an Asian house by the style of the walls. This could be either a Japanese or a Chinese household. But one thing that caught his attention was the painting, an 18-inch-sized face portrait divided into 3 frames.

The painting showed an exquisite face. Upon closer look, the painting is kind of peculiar as it seems like it’s alive. 

Taking a closer look, he felt that the person in the painting was looking at him. To be exact, it’s those eyes that were looking at him that gave him shivers. Realizing that it was true, as he saw the eye wink at him, it made him stumble down upon taking one step back. 

Not sure what was happening and where exactly he was, made him question his sanity.

Then he heard footsteps. He got scared, as he had no idea who was coming. After waiting for a few agonizing seconds, he finally saw the person.

He released a breath that he had been keeping in as he was afraid and made a sigh of relief, knowing that the person was the guy he saw in the hospital.

“Here you are, it took some time figuring out where exactly you landed after we departed from the hospital. This place is like a maze for its size. I could even get lost”, Sky heard him explaining. 

“What exactly is this place?” He asks the person.

“Somewhere in the afterlife” the guy replied bluntly.

“T-the-a-after life?” Sky asked, unsure if what he heard was correct.

“Yes, and I’m the grim reaper,” said the person, with an evil look and a smirk.

After Sky heard the reply, he couldn’t react and there was a moment of silence. Then he saw him laughing, then started shaking his shoulders, and eventually made a roll on the floor while laughing.

Realizing that it was just a joke, it made him mad. 

“Ha, you thought that was funny? Keep on laughing then.” Sky said and tried to ignore his laughing, but his laughs were contagious and eventually, he started laughing as well. 

“Ha, Ha, hooo, stop, hoo, I can’t anymore, a hahaha” was all he could say to try to stop laughing, but it just made it worse and both of them laughed more.

This brought back memories, good ones. Those were the days when they were all still together since all they did was have fun and laugh.

“Dang, you sound like a monkey while laughing,” The guy said after he calmed himself.

“And you sound like a dying donkey” Sky replied in defense.

“Touché” was the only word that the guy could say in reply.

“I guess we both needed that laugh. I felt relieved from all of the stress that I have been feeling”, the guy said after he calmed himself from laughing.

“Yeah, thanks, I haven’t laughed like that for ages, ever since you guys left me” Sky replied, despite knowing that it would cause an avoidable issue, he still said those words.

“Everything happened for a good reason, you can blame us for eternity. But I would still make the same decision if given another chance”, the guy answered truthfully.

“I believe you. But why? Aren’t we friends? Was I disposable, like trash in your eyes?” Sky said, knowing that it wasn’t true, but still said those words because that was what he felt.

“YOU DARE SAY THOSE WORDS?!” the guy said fumingly while pointing his finger at Sky’s face.

“If you just listened to him and believed him. You wouldn’t be in that situation. Rather, I should say those words to you. Weren’t we friends? Aren’t we important to you?” the guy paused for a second to control his emotions.

“I know you love that retard of a senior. But to be blinded by love”, he paused once more, unsure if he should continue.

“I guess being blinded by love is a common thing for us. I can’t blame you. I even went thru that phase. But I was different. I looked at both sides. Remember the day before we left? I asked for your opinion and side of the story”, the guy explained to Sky.

“Yes, I remember, you asked why I can’t trust the things Earth said to me. It’s because I loved Chris and I love Earth. I loved him and that made me believe in him, yet I couldn’t accept him, afraid that I would lose him when we crossed over.” was Sky’s reply.

“As I listened to you back then, I realized how unfortunate it is to love you. He loves you so much, that he willingly loved a bad person. He took it upon himself to take all the pain of betrayal. Yet, you betrayed his trust and he forgave you easily. He told me that he was going to leave for good. I can’t stop him. How could I stop him from leaving, knowing that he is feeling hurt every time he sees you?

“That was when I decided to follow him. He wasn’t aware of my plans to stay with him. He needed someone beside him and I took it upon myself to be his rebound. I sacrificed myself because I love him.” after the guy explained, he turned his face away from Sky.

“Thank you, Gun. Thank you for staying with him for all these years.” Sky said apologetically while thanking him.