Kenopsia - Chapter 37: Chapter 37

I had woken up when it was still dark, that blanket nailed over the window helped with that too.
I rolled on my back with a sigh and stretched.
I reached for my watch and rewound it, meaning my day was starting.
Tho I stayed laying a while more, enjoying the silence, I closed my eyes again.
I imagined myself lazing around a Monday morning, still procrastinating doing my homework due for today in math class, I always hated math and how hard it suddenly got, I liked it before all the letters. Maybe I should get out of bed and make myself a coffee, text my friends... We always wanted to hang out in the new park that opened to the right of the city, it was said to be beautiful, maybe we should go today? After the lessons, I bet they'd say ye--Husks.
I opened my eyes, broken out of my imagined morning and back to the real word as that one dreaded word came to my mind.
I sighed, flipping to my side, I'd never see any of my friends again, I forgot about them in sake of survival but I will never see them again, I am the only one to have survived and even if they did survive there is no chance they wouldn't have come to meet me, even if by accident, in this city of mine... I hope you survived guys, even if you are far from me, even if the chances are low.... I hope you did...
I sat up and turned to my father, how long was I daydreaming? Did I accidentally fall back asleep? Because I could slightly see and that meant morning.
"Dad hey." I said gently, grabbing the hand shape I saw but it was cold and rigid. "You need to be careful, you'll get colder like this." I grabbed his wrist and gently bent his arm to his chest as I lifted the blanket and put his arm on his chest.
I halted there, my hand still holding his.
I dropped the blanket and pulled him hand away, laying my other on his chest.
"VIC!!" I yelled, going from zero to ten in a moment.
"What?!" The woman jerked from her sleep.
"H-he.." I said, scared of what I was feeling. "Help me warm him up! He is freezing to death!"
She stood up, albeit a bit sluggish, kneeling near as I wrapped the blankets tight around my father.
"Andie."
"Why are you not doing anything? Help me!"
"Andie." She grabbed my hand. "I can guess what you noticed too.... I am sorry but there was nothing to do."
"No! Help me!"
"Andie." She grabbed my hand and set it over his throat and I felt nothing. "There is nothing to help with and there was never anything to do."
"Never anything?" I looked at her. "Never anything?! You knew there was something and you couldn't tell me?!" And now Hope was crying but I didn't care, I was trying to understand.
"Andie, he was out in the cold for god knows how long and unconscious, my guess is hypothermia."
"But he stopped shivering."
"Those suffering from hypothermia start feeling warm after a while and might even try to undress in their confused state of mind to get colder, he was already too far gone for us to be able to help him in this world... I didn't tell you so he could pass in calmness and you could be with him truly without the constant fear of when he'd take his last breath." She was rocking Hope now.
"You bitch!! How dare you choose how I deal with this!! I had the right to know!!"
"I know... I know... But I chose for you and him to have a bit of rest, that smile of yours was worth it, truly happy in that moment..."
"This is not supposed to happen." I shook my head, looking at my father's face. "This isn't how he was supposed to die." I cupped his cold face in my hands, the absence a heartbeat haunting. "He survived this long.... He was supposed to die fighting, being the man of the house, looking out for us, a self sacrifice.... Or he was supposed to die on a run, overwhelmed and fighting until he could no longer move.... O-or in an accident like falling off a bridge, trapped in a burning building, electrocuted to death.... Not from the cold.... He doesn't deserve such a death."
"I know."
"No you don't!!" I yelled. "He was always a strong man, strict and set in his ways, we always fought, he was strong.... He was not supposed to go down to a stupid thing like this!!"
"He slipped, sometimes the smallest of things can bring death."
"But it was just a slip.... Just a slip.... He doesn't deserve this... He was meant for a heroic death dammit!! Not a losers death!!" I pressed my forehead against his. "Not like this."
"The world can be unfair." I felt a hand on my shoulder, the tears fighting more to escape but I tried to keep a hold on them. "I heard of people drowning on a spoonful of water, their airway closing up, and even in the old world, people slipped on ice and fell, dying like that... His death is normal."
"He was always meant to be a hero.... He'd have hated himself to die like this and not to a husk.... Vic, he walked a whole year, across a whole country, fighting to live, to find me with the hope I stayed in this city.... I did stay for him and he found me... God did he find me... And now he lost me, I lost him..." Tears spilt out. "I lost him... God, I lost him... To a death that he'd hate as it wasn't a death to protect anyone.... Dad..." I sobbed softly, hugging his head but there was nothing to do.
My father was gone.