The sharp burn of the last drop of whiskey in the bottle hit the spot just right. My head tilted back, eyes closed, the first two buttons of my shirt undone like I needed the world to breathe for me because I literally needed the world to breathe for me!
I kept tilting the empty bottle up, hoping for one last miracle drop. Nothing came into my mouth. The glass tapped softly against my lips.
'Pathetic.'
Jeremy, half-drunk, slouched against the fridge, hand holding onto the slanted surface of fridge door. A lazy grin tugged at his lips as he drowned himself in more whiskey. "Do you want more?" He asked, words slightly slurred but still carrying that teasing glint.
I exhaled, long and tired. "Nah… I feel disgusted already."
Letting the empty bottle drop to the counter, I leaned forward, resting my head on the wood, my forehead pressed to the cool surface. The silence buzzed faintly — that kind that seeps in when alcohol has dulled the edge of everything called pain and left one without worries.
Then — a hand touched my arm. A small shiver crept up my spine like ice threading through skin. I jerked up instinctively, eyes flashing to my left. "Damn, you scared the shit out of me!" I snapped, heart skipping a beat. "I thought you were some sort of zombie."
Jeremy chuckled, unbothered. "Can a zombie look as handsome as me? C'mon. Imagine me undead… Living life, eating off people's gooey brains, doing absolutely nothing. No taxes. No medical bills. Just vibes."
I scoffed, rubbing my face. "Be careful what you wish for, Jeremy. Any day from now, the world might actually turn into a zombie apocalypse."
He threw his head back and laughed out loud, the kind of laugh which didn't believe the world was close to ending. His hand let go of the whiskey bottle by accident and it came crashing onto the ground.
The glass shattered against the floor, fragments of its peiece scattered around the bar stand. One bounced off and I felt it prick my leg. Lazily, I pulled it out from my legs, tossing it to the ground unbothered.
Jeremy stared at the mess, still grinning, still slightly swaying his hips to the music playing in his head. "The world," He took a drastic pause, then chuckled, "is already in a poverty-stricken apocalypse, my friend. What else can be worse than this?"
I stared at the broken glass, the blood on my leg and knew somewhere deep inside me, I had the creeping feeling that whatever I witnessed in that dream was real.
I glanced at Jeremy who was half wasted and sprawled on the table. He was muttering something and shaking his head. I smiled, and flickered his forehead with my thumb jerking him out of that drunken state.
"Dude the fuck? I was just this close to dying!"
"Don't say that. Some words aren't just good to be said when the world is ending." I spouted out and Jeremy's head rose from the counter. He was confused and half conscious, pulled out his middle finger giving me a fuck. "I am serious bruh."
"Arthur, be honest with me... Did Elysia do something to you? Like poison your mind with that statement 'the world is going to end.' Did you read it from a sci-fi novel or research paper?" Jeremy pulled in close to where I was, resting his head on his wrist.
My head lowered for a bit as I swung to and fro on the stool. "I had a dream. A nightmare obviously of the world about to end. You weren't in it, but Elysia was. Well not Elysia but a monster that was her."
"Dude, the fuck do you dream? Dreaming while sleeping is for losers Yoh, tough hardcore men don't dream! You've lost my respect."
I let out a faint, dry laugh at Jeremy's ridiculous comment, the corner of my lips twitching. "Shut the hell up." But then I went quiet, my fingers curling around the edge of the counter as I tried to put the right weight into my words — enough to make him listen, even in his drunk haze.
"This dream… it wasn't usual."
Jeremy snorted, already preparing a retort, but the look on my face must have sobered him up a notch.
"I don't know how to explain it," I continued, my voice lowering. "All I know is… it's not normal. "I was standing on a rooftop… maybe 25 feet above the ground. It was a building I didn't recognize. Below me… there were crowds. Not people. Not anymore. Hundreds of them—shoulders hunched, skin gray and torn in places, mouths agape. They were growling, snarling… like wild animals but even worse."
"They weren't just moaning like in movies, Jeremy. They were screaming like they remembered being human but couldn't get back. Some were crawling up the building. Some had bones sticking out. One of them—God—it had no lower jaw, just this mess of tendons flapping as it tried to bite through steel."
I rubbed my palms over my jeans, the friction not doing much to calm the goosebumps rising on my arms.
"I've never had a dream that made my heart keep pounding after I woke up. Not like this. And… the worst part is…" My voice faltered a bit. "The worst part is that it didn't feel like the end of a dream. It felt like a beginning."
Jeremy stared at me, quiet for once. The last smirk had slipped from his face.
"I'm not crazy," I added quickly. "At least I don't think I am. " I rubbed at my temple, the memory too vivid to dismiss.
"And then there was Elysia."
I looked up at Jeremy. His brow rose slightly.
"She was standing right in front of me on that same rooftop with no eyeball in her socket and her bones breaking until she became like that." I stopped, unconsciously reaching for whiskey in the empty bottle.
Jeremy leaned back slowly in his seat. "Damn… You sure you didn't watch a horror trailer before bed?"
I gave him a sharp look, but he threw his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay. That's… intense, man. I mean, I've had my fair share of bad dreams, but yours sounds like Netflix should pay you to turn that into a mini-series. Dude… that sounds like something out of The Conjuring and The Last of Us had a baby."
"Not funny man..."
"Um, I thought you were trying to be funny because such shit doesn't happen in any real life. That's movie and nothing like that happens. Chill bruh, you almost freaked me out."
"That's how it all starts in the movie. A premonition of how the world is going to end begins and they laugh it off like some sort of joke until it starts with the one who laughs it off."
"Dude, don't curse me. I was trying to liven it up. Do you believe your mere nightmare is going to change the world to an apocalypse and even if it happens, what makes you think that you won't be the first to die?"
"Because the male lead in every movies never die. They are the survivors.