* You can read the prologue if you like, but it is not really essential to the story that follows.

It was a normal day like any other in my meaningless life.

I woke up at 6:00 am to the annoying sounds of the alarm clock.

"Beep"

"Beep"

"Beep"

"Ah, let me sleep a little more." I mumbled in a half asleep, half awake state.

"Beep"

"Beep"

"Ahhhh!" And with that roar I woke up completely and slammed my hand down on the alarm clock to turn the damn thing off.

"Fuck! I shouted, because now my hand was hurting a bit and I was even angrier than I already was.

After a few seconds of calming down, I pushed the covers aside and got out of bed.

I went into my small bathroom, as there was no room in my small three-room flat.

I lived alone because my parents died young, leaving me no inheritance, and with my meagre income I could only afford this small flat.

I took my toothbrush and started brushing my teeth, looking in the mirror above the sink.

I saw the image of a slightly above average looking man with black hair, about 17 years old, with a sleepy face. This was obviously me, because who else would I see in the mirror if not me?

After brushing my teeth, I went back to my room and quickly put on my work uniform.

I looked at the clock on my wall and it was already 6:10.

Shit! I have to hurry or I will be late for work again. I thought as soon as I saw the time.

I rushed out of my flat, almost forgetting to lock the door.

I had to be at work at 6:30, so I only had twenty minutes to get there, but it would be a matter of luck if I got there on time.

To get to work I had to take a bus from near my home and walk the rest of the way as there was no direct bus service to my workplace.

I was lucky enough to arrive at the bus station just as the bus was stopping, so I had no problem getting on.

It seems that I was lucky today because there was almost no traffic and I arrived at my destination within a short time.

From there it was just a few minutes walk and I was standing in front of a McRonalds.

I looked at my mobile phone and it was exactly 6:30 am, so I was lucky to be on time.

I pushed open the front door and walked quickly into the building so that my boss would not find fault with me if I was a minute late, as it had happened before.

When I entered the building I could only see two of my colleagues, but not my boss, which I was glad about because I hated him.

One of my colleagues was a male and the other was a female.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The male was called Kai, he looked really buff and you would think he was playing in the NFL instead of working as a cook at McRonalds and I was on pretty good terms with him.

The girl was called Megan and she was also my crush.

She had a perfect figure, mesmerising deep blue eyes and silky black hair.

To be honest, I don't know why she doesn't work as a model with her looks and instead works here at McRonalds.

I don't know what feelings she had for me because I had never told her, but I had made up my mind to tell her what I felt for her today after work.

Although we were not yet romantically involved, we were still on good terms and got on well with each other.

"Hi, good morning, guys!" I greeted them when I saw them, and they greeted me back: "Yo, good morning, Thiago!"

After greeting each other, we didn't linger and went to the kitchen to prepare everything for the customers.

Time flew and it was now the end of the working day, I walked out of the building with Megan and Kai, where we usually split up because each of us had a different way home.

But today was different because I asked: "Megan, do you have a few seconds?"

Kai, who seemed to know what was going to happen, didn't linger and walked away, leaving the two of them alone.

' I, who saw his actions, was touched. This is what good brothers should do,' I thought to myself.

Megan, hearing my question, did not seem to think much of it and stayed behind to hear what I had to say.

When she was only a metre away, I began to speak: "Ahem. This may come out of the blue for you, but I have liked you for a long time now and I would like to ask you if you would like to go out for a coffee or something?"

She seemed a little stunned by my sudden question, as she had not expected such a question either, but she quickly collected herself and spoke: "Yes! I would love to."

"You just said 'Yes'?" I asked her incredulously, as I couldn't believe that such a beauty would agree to go out with me.

"Yes, I said yes. Hehe" She replied, chuckling slightly at my incredulous expression.

"Ahem, do you want to go now or later?" I asked her.

"Let's go later. I need to get out of my work uniform and freshen up a bit." She replied.

"Ah, yes, that's a good idea. Then let's meet at the Black Hat Coffee Shop at six o'clock, shall we?" I asked.

"Yes, that's fine with me. See you then." Megan agreed and then walked away in the opposite direction to where I was going.

"Bye!" I said as well before heading home.

I still couldn't quite believe that Megan had agreed to a date. It was so unbelievable to me and I couldn't be happier right now.

Unfortunately, my happiness wouldn't last long that day.

When I got home, I went through my rather limited arsenal to find the best outfit I had.

I decided on a slightly old but still good looking pair of jeans and a clean white polo shirt.

I looked in the mirror and noticed that they fit relatively well.

When it was finally time for the rendezvous, I took the bus and arrived a few minutes' walk from the café.

The pavement was full of people at this time of day and when I almost reached the café I saw Megan coming from the opposite direction and waved to her through the crowd. When she saw someone waving at her, she looked to see who it was, and when she realised it was me, she picked up the pace until she had almost reached me.

But suddenly some people started shouting: "Stop the thief!"

"Ahh! He has a knife!"

After hearing these shouts, I looked into the crowd and suddenly saw a person running towards Megan.

I immediately shouted. "Megan, look out behind you!"

But with all the commotion and people screaming, she did not seem to hear me.

I acted quickly without thinking about the consequences of my actions and started running towards Megan.

She seemed surprised by my actions, as she hadn't noticed the armed man running towards her from behind.

I reached her almost at the same moment as the thief, and just as he was about to plunge his knife into her slender body, I leapt forward and pushed her out of the way.

When I hit the floor, all I felt was a sharp, stabbing pain in my chest.

People began to panic and cry out for help.

"Ahh! Someone's been stabbed!"

"Call an ambulance!"

"We need help!!"

My only thoughts at that moment were full of anger and helplessness. I just couldn't understand why a random thief would try to murder Megan.

There was no reason to kill her, he could have just run away instead.

Ahhh! Sometimes I really hate people! Why do we kill each other for no reason?' I thought.

Suddenly, a stunningly beautiful face appeared in front of my vision, so I asked weakly: "Are you an angel?"

"No, it's me, Megan! Stay with me, Thiago!" Megan replied.

"Hehe, so it's you Megan. I mistook you for an angel, haha!" I said, coughing up mouthfuls of blood.

"Don't talk anymore. Help will be here soon." Megan tried to comfort me, but to be honest I didn't think I would survive this mortal wound.

I could already feel myself getting weaker by the second.

I decided to say one last thing to her: "Cough, cough, even if I die, I will try everything to see you again somehow, if there is an afterlife.

The last thing I want to say is that I don't know how you feel about me, but I love you. Cough"

"No, you will not die! Hang on!

No!"

After I finished my sentence, I lost all my senses and everything went black.

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