ear 2030 of the calendar - five years ago from the present time - whether it was by mistake or on purpose, no one really knows. It was the year where South Africa cracked the life expectancy code which allowed humans to know when they would die.

It sounded preposterous at first, yet it had happened.

The code was experimented upon for two years and the results were more astounding than it was originally thought they would be. Information was released to the public that it was found that the minimum number of days the code gave a person was ten days, found from a patient who died in a car accident, and the maximum was only a year, found from a patient who died of leukemia.

It was something that a number of people soon believed that God bestowed upon them a gift while others believed that humans should not temper with the original laws of life. So while some fell in line like lambs, believing what the government offered, there were those who questioned the motives of the government for introducing a discovery of such magnitude to humanity and were against the code.

No major discovery was without awe and impressive conspiracy theories. It was a tug-of-war type of debate that did not have a clear winner even in present time.

But who am I to judge their views? As long as my loved ones are happy, I’m okay with anything. Linda thought, his brown eyes gazing at his ceiling. It was early in the night, the light of the wainous moon filtering into his room through his curtained window to illuminate his room just enough for him to see.

But what was Linda's actual stance on the debate?

I think it would be better to know when a loved one would die instead of them being whisked away without warning.

The thought brought him back to his mother who died eight years ago.

If the life expectancy code had existed back then, he believed that his family likely would have let him spend his mother's last moments with her. But he could not, because his family believed she would get better.

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In the end, his mother died alone, without even knowing that her only son loved her.

At least now, with the code, he believed he would get the chance to say goodbye if the worst were to come to be. That's what he believed.

But why am I even thinking about this? He rolled to lie on his side, facing away from the light.

He knew why of course. Well, he knew a part of it. The part he knew was that he had not seen his friends the whole weekend because of... well... because of the part he did not know.

So in an effort to avoid stress, he dug up even more stress.

This sucks.

#

When Khwezi closed the door to his dark room, his back collided with the door with a soft thud.

He slid down to the floor as his knees finally gave out. He did not know how, but he had managed to stand the entire weekend of going through countless procedures and signing documents pertaining to the number that was on his left wrist.

But now... now that he was alone and had the time to actually think, swallow, and digest his situation, his mysterious power had left him.

He sniffed lowly and clenched his teeth shut to keep his cries from escaping as he held his arm before his red and puffy eyes, his wrist having a bold "6" on it.

Dammit Khwezi, stop crying!

He tried to stop the dams that were breaking free from his tear ducts, to no avail.

It was hard. Too hard. He didn't even know how to begin to deal with the pain. How does one deal with the pain of knowing that their days were numbered, and quite literally at that?

He did not know.

Then he felt soft arms wrap about him. They were the arms of a woman, a friend, his greatest treasure.

They wrapped him up in a soft embrace, bringing him close to a body of warmth that chipped away at the cold that had started to reside in his body. It was like a reminder that he was not alone.

For the briefest of moments, he forgot about some of his pain as he whimpered and cried, sinking even deeper into the embrace. He let her touch, her presence, and her embrace comfort him.

Amanda held the embrace. Even despite the anxious heartbeats that shook her to her core, her teeth digging into her lower lip like daggers with the desire to tear through flesh, and her own desire to just break down and cry then and there, she held on gently and lovingly.

She had the resilience to fight many things in that moment, but fighting back her tears was not one of them.

A body of water heavy with emotion left her eyes. She was crying. Crying because her best friend was soon going to die.

She did not want Khwezi to go. That instinct made her tighten her embrace.

It's a dream, Amanda, she tried to convince herself, a bad dream.

Too bad the bad dream was their current reality.