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"Yeah." he said, shortly, his heart still filled with despair. "Every night, I've been having these two seperate visions. One where I'm in wolf form, running from a light source in a forest. Another is like...these ******** abstract paintings you'd find in an art gallery, except they're flashing before my eyes, and they're...real. But recently, it's like these two dreams have...intertwined. And for some reason whenever the explosion comes into my mind, this vision intensifies."
Alex sighed. And all of a sudden, when he realised what he had just said, he couldn't believe he'd just revealed all this about his life to someone he barely even knew.
In all his life, he'd never known someone he could trust in that way. Whenever he had been asked about himself, he had always just bullshitted. But what he had just said to Desina was completely truthful.
So...why? Is it because of the urgency of the situation? Or is it because deep down this girl is the person I've been looking for my entire life to confide in?
Certainly, whenever during the handful of times he had encountered Desina in the past, she had seemed...right. Like they were good friends, or more; when in reality, they barely even knew each other; their encounters purely incidental or out of necessity.
But, thought Alex, were they?

"Thanks." Alex said after a long pause. "Look, I'll be going home now. I need some sleep, what with all that's been going on. I guess school would be cancelled now, at least for the time being, but..." he hesitated, before pulling out some loose paper and a pen, and then wrote something down, handing her the paper. "Here's my number, if something important or whatever comes up."
I have a feeling it will, he thought, that this, terrible as it is, isn't the end of it all.

"Thanks." said Alex, taking the paper and putting it in his pocket. "I just hope that next time we meet ..." he sighed, and took a moment to look out at the golden sun setting on the horizon. In spite of it all, it was a beautiful day. "It'll be under better circumstances."

He turned around, and walked away. The wind was beginning to pick up as Alex walked, leaving the girl he had so recently met, and already she had become something like the most important person in his life.
He felt like he should be remembering those who had died on this day, but as he trudged on home to wait endlessly for whatever would happen next, all he could think about was Desina. He wondered if he was developing feelings for her.
But he knew what it was like to be in love, and this was not it. This was deeper.

Alex returned home, smiling.
What the hell? People I know have just died. Show some goddamned respect!
At that thought his face went back to the default, almost gloomy neutrality. But in spite of all the death, he could not help but feel a glimmer of happiness amidst the pools of despair.
It hadn't been like that the last time I lost someone, he recalled, lying down on his bed, trying to relax, but his heart pounding. Last time, there hadn't been sadness, or melancholy, or joy; there had been nothing. Nothing at all.
But this time, and although tears were still falling down his cheeks and onto the bedsheets, he felt so much, quite a lot of it now being some emotion he couldn't identify. And that something was not sad. Not at all.
In desperation to feel what felt familiar to him in grief, Alex slapped himself squarely on the face.
"You b*****d!" he yelled to himself, making blow after blow to his tear-ridden face. "Why did I..."
After that he said nothing, for not even he knew the end of the sentence.

Then, after a few minutes of deep thought that led to nowhere, Alex Taverner decided to have a shower.

Alex washed himself frantically, to cleanse himself.
Of what?
He sighed, and leaned against the bathroom wall. He really was a mess. So too was the rest of the world, for that matter.

I sat up suddenly, and sprinted my way out of the door. Wait, what? It would seem that I had turned wolf. Without even realising it. This was getting to be a problem. As I ran through the street, I had an idea. Maybe I should find the other wolves around here and see if they sensed any change, or had experieced any visions.
Being careful to avoid detection from the humans who lived here, who were probably all asleep anyhow, I made my way to the forest, in search of answers.

In the forest, I saw a glimmer of something in the distance. Curious, I ran towards it, only to find that there was nothing, only bright, peircing light.
Wait a minute, I thought, this is strangely familiar.
Then I remembered the dream. In wolf form, my human thoughts were hard to destinguish, but this was clear in my mind.
It was about to expand, this light source, and then try to envelop me in it's shroud of nothingness.
Just like I had seen in my dreams.
So was this true? Could I see the future? And if so, will the other things I predicted come true?
Unless I try to stop them, I thought, and instead of running, I waited for the light to find and then embrace me, and just hoped that that would not mean the death of me.

Alex turned around. It was Desina. He had been so preoccupied with his own thoughts that he had forgotten about everything else. Even her.
"No." he breathed. "I'm staying. Remember how I told you about that dream I'd been having?" his voice was beginning to rise in a strange mixture of uncertainty and rigidness. "I saw this happening. But I ran away. This time I have to stay. I just..." his voice trailed off.
My argument, he thought, is less than convincing. I don't even know why I'm staying myself. I just know that this is destiny, and that I want to change it in any way possible.

The light was coming. Now it was blinding his eyes, and deafening his ears. All he could see now was white, and all he could hear was Desina's thumping heart.
There was nothing else.
"Is this death?" Alex asked himself.
If so, he thought, then it really isn't as bad as everyone would think. If not, then...then where the hell are we?
"Are you still there, Desina?" he asked, hoping that she was still present. Eternity would be too unbearable an existance if he had no companionship.
Though, he still wasn't totally sure this was eternity...