Second Chance

Heather quietly sat back thinking about her life as the moon shone down on the dark grass outside the window. Her house seemed oddly cold and melancholy despite it being brand new. She had turned 21 a few weeks ago and her parents bought her a new house, partially to celebrate, but mostly to get her farther away from them; it was s fairly large house with a few acres of woodland, and the property as a whole rested a few miles away from town.

She had finished high school a celebrity thanks to Total Drama, but she was eager to escape that life. It haunted her. She hated that show, the stupid people she met, the crazy challenges she did for money, she hated it all. She didn't appear on the show again after Season 4. She was done…fed up. A few others took their own stands and refused to go back, most notably DJ, as he didn't want to be away from his mother and refused to allow himself to hurt animals any further.

Her life felt so much more empty since she left it all behind though, and she knew why. Sure, she hated the contest, Chris and Chef, and a lot of the other contestants, but she mainly hated herself because of what happened in season 3, because in her heart she knew that she had yet to forgive herself for what happened to Alejandro.

His accident, or rather his attack by the stampeding contestants, left him weak and vulnerable to the approaching lava. It burned him, scarred him and left him in a robotic suit that was cheaply manufactured and used to keep him alive and avoid a large hospital bill. Typical Chris Mclean tactic.

He was in bad shape for a while, and although he ultimately did pull through from his injuries, he was never the same again. How could he be? Two years later, he got out of the machine and was turned into a laughing stock. He had to wear long leg braces, his head was slightly deformed and his hair didn't grow back properly. His arm was tweaked out of place and he couldn't speak without a slight searing pain in his throat and he never managed to escape the lisp that came with his injuries.

He didn't bother showing up for another season either. Not many from the original cast did. Their day was over, their loves were moving on. Chris had to pick more people to torment, and torment he did. The last of the originals to fold was Ezekiel; he wanted one last shot to win, and he finally did last more than one episode. He made it to 4th place that season, and his achievement was great, but overshadowed by one event: Alejandro. He was dead.

Reports varied, but the common assumption and official report was suicide. He was found on his bed, laying in an endless sleep. Even in eternal rest, he seemed to be in pain. He was great at so many things before the volcano, but rendered almost useless in comparison afterwards. He killed himself because he was no longer able to go on like he once did, because he was no longer the great player he once was. His future was sealed when Heather threw his dummy in the volcano. Sure, he won, he beat Heather and was the first contestant in Total Drama to win and never be voted off. To date, he still is. But does it matter? Not really, he won, good for him. He also spent two years in a robot suit, was maimed beyond repair, and ultimately killed himself because Heather made a bad choice.

Worse, she finally discovered that she really did love him. Her heart was a perfect match for him, everyone was right all along, she was into Alejandro big time, but she never got the chance to be in that relationship. Now, she never would. He was gone. He was in a Burromuerto crypt down in his hometown, laying in the quiet sleep of death while everyone else was enjoying their future.

Bridgette is a surfing T.V. show judge, Beth is a college student, and Harold is a software designer for a big company. Duncan is in a rock band with Gwen, and Trent has become a big musician as well. Lindsay is a model and DJ is now a vet. Courtney will soon start her own law firm and Tyler is the assistant coach of the Calgary Hitmen. Everyone has a future, except Alejandro. He was robbed of happiness by Heather four years ago.

She wanted to say she was happy, but she was not. She was tormented. She was alone. She had a nice new house, a decent car, she even had a career as a critic for a local newspaper, but she was not content. She wanted a relationship too, but Alejandro was the only man that she ever loved, the only one she truly cared for.

She sat alone in her woodland house and listened to the rain outside. Her house was cold and the fireplace was dark and wet, there were no lights on in her house, and the rain was complimented by her sobs. She was miserable. The rain pelted the trees in the distance and the cold air leeched into her house as she sat in her sofa and cried her heart out. It was so unfair. Life was cruel, and she used to think she had to be too, but now she regretted it all. Everything she ever did, she was sorry for and she was filled with sorrow when she remembered her past.

She sat in self-pity for a good 10 minutes longer and walked over to the kitchen. She warmed up a plate of pepperoni pizza and sat at her dining room table, sorting through her mail. She got the usual bills and advertisements, but one letter in particular caught her eye. It was from the very same address that recently occupied her mind. It read as follows:

Please come to the Burromuerto Cemetery in three weeks exactly. At Midnight, go to the Crypt of the friend you once knew, Alejandro Burromuerto. He requested that you specifically visited him one year exactly after his death. That was his last wish. If you at all cared for him, be there and meet with him.

Signed

A friend

Heather couldn't believe her eyes. Was this a joke? She wasn't about to go to the Burromuerto's Cemetery down in Mexico. Well, not if it was a joke, but…if it was real…then how could she resist?

It did say to go to the cemetery, and he was in the crypt there; and it mentioned going on the day of his death, his anniversary. Three weeks would be…November 2. Wasn't that the Day of the Dead? Although a bit eerie and starting to make some wild, horror movie sense, she was almost sure that this was someone's idea of a sick prank or gag.

Then again, if there was the smallest chance of seeing him…then she wanted to go. She wanted to meet with him…and talk. If it ended up being a gag, then she could always find out whoever set it up, and she was miserable living like this. She wanted to find him again, and if she couldn't go back and change time, then she wanted to apologize and confide in him. She needed to do this. She needed to find him, even if it seemed impossible by ordinary means, she would find a way to make things as right as she could if it was at all possible.

And if things ended up turning out badly, then she could come home and figure it out from there, but in all honesty, she really wanted things to work out. She left her half eaten pizza on the plain brown table with her mail and went to plan out her trip. She couldn't believe this was true (though she didn't really know it was…). She actually could be getting the opportunity to do what so many people could only dream of. She could go and find her lost love…and make this one night into the closest thing she could to a relationship.

This was her moment, the chance she wanted and had been hoping for. She set aside a trip and rushed in her room to pack her things. The meeting wouldn't be for a few weeks, but she wanted to go that very night. Waiting would be a hard part of this, but when the moment finally came, she would know that it hadn't come soon enough.

…

Finally! The wait had been a long and rather boring one, but she was ready to embark on this journey, wherever it led her. The Mexican town was not pretty. The forest was its right neighbor and the desert wilderness lay to the left, just outside of the cliff range.

The Cemetery was out by the forest, but the part of the forest that held it was full of dead trees. No leaves gave the scene life or color, but harsh and jagged branches swayed in the cool night wind. Graves were present all around the place and the nighttime atmosphere made the environment cold and hostile. It wasn't raining, but the sky was gray and looked as if it might begin to cry at any moment. The Burromuerto Crypt was located in the very rear of the North Eastern side. Heather had to walk at least 10 minutes to reach it.

The Burromuertos were rich; that was to be sure. They had their own little spot fenced off with their family name over the iron gate that opened into the enclosed sacred yards of the family's dead. A few graves stuck out of the barren ground, but the majority of the dead were probably in the underground crypt. Heather did wonder why the gate was unlocked, and for that matter why the crypt door was slightly open, but she didn't care, she was beginning to believe that she was going to meet him again after all those years.

The crypt door was a little hard to get open, but she did it and walked down the brown stone steps to the main hall of the skeleton prison. There were rooms to the left and right with dead bodies, well, skeletons or small piles of old bones, and a room straight ahead that was probably another small hall. Many ancient bones laid here and Heather read a few markers that indicated some of these people died over 100 years ago.

She went into the left and right rooms, but didn't find what she was looking for, so she went on the next hall. It had another few doors in it. There were four doors ahead of her and two on both sides, each door, opened, led to a specific body. The most valued of the family were laid to rest here. Alejandro's room was straight ahead and as Heather entered she felt goose bumps along her arms. This was by far the craziest, creepiest, and macabre thing she had ever done, but she was intent on finding answers and seeing him again if she could.

The room ended up leading to a small set of stairs that went up and into a small room. The small room had a skeleton laying on a memorial slab and a plaque on the side of the table facing the door with the inscription: "Alejandro Burromuerto, Beloved Son". The only other decoration in the room was a small window that let in a ray of moonlight. The white light shone down on the skeleton and filled Heather with a sense of tragedy.

Alejandro's body was even more damaged than she knew. His skull was truly deformed and was missing its jawbone. The ribs were brittle and one side was condensed in a little more than it should be. His right arm was quite misshapen, but his left arm seemed normal enough. His legs were badly damaged and the left leg was missing a couple bones.

Why was his crypt so easily accessible and why had his corpse been so badly neglected? It filled Heather with horror, shock, and anger at the same time. It was approaching midnight and the skeleton laid in agony as Heather looked on and waited. In a few moments she would finally see if her trip was worth it, if he was really here. She stared at the skeleton and wondered how such an amazing man had ended up in such a place and so early in his life. He was very similar to her; what if she was the one to die and end up like this? The thought scared her deeply, but not as much as what happened next.

"Hello Heather."

The voice was unmistakably his. The tone was cold, faint, maybe a little too weak, and certainly distant, but warm and welcoming as well. The moment she had been waiting of had finally arrived. He was here; he had shown up after all.

"Alejandro…how…"

She turned and met Alejandro as he had been before the volcano, like how he was before she had hurt him. And derailed his life. His normal looking figure glowed with a green aura to it, but it was unmistakably the same young, handsome, and charming man that she saw for the first time at the Celebrity Manhunt Special.

He smiled a genuine smile when he laid his eyes upon her and she stared at him in disbelief.

"I'm glad you got the letter. I had it set up for you, knowing this night would eventually come. Thank you for making it."

"I wanted to be here. I wanted to see you again…there's a lot I need to tell you."

"Yes, I too have many things that I want to say, but shall we go somewhere a little less…creepy?"

"I think I'd like that. What happened to your body anyways?" Heather asked and followed Alejandro out as they walked through the crypt halls and into the cemetery where they stayed under a small tree at the top of a hill. The moon was over them, and it's white light gave the scene a spotlight appearance. Nothing in the world was more important than this conversation.

"My brother Jose and his friends…they defied my remains and defiled my corpse. I didn't make peace with him before I died…I didn't make any friends at all with anyone after Total Drama and I never made up with anyone I hurt. I lived a pathetic life."

"No, you were great at so many things and so wonderful at…"

"At manipulating and toying with people. I was a fool. The only reason I was laid to rest in the crypt, and in my father's spot no less, was that my mother and grandmother fought for me, and convinced the family that I deserved to be respected in death."

"…I'm sorry that no one cares…"

"It's not your fault."

"No, but I do care…and I need to know…did you commit suicide?"

"…No. I was contemplating it, but I never did. I wanted the pain to end, and I almost took my own life to do it, but just as I had decided not to take all my sleeping pills, I felt an unimaginable pain in my chest and died in my bed. My body finally gave out. I had ingested two pills, so the contents were found in my body and made it appear as though I had overdosed by the time my family noticed the next morning."

"Wow…I'm sorry to hear that. That must have hurt knowing that you never got to reveal the truth, that everyone thought you…committed suicide like that… Wait, if you died so suddenly, then how was your last wish seeing me?"

"I was able to have the letter written before I died because…well, I've been waiting for a long time for this night."

"Yeah…me too. I wanted to say a lot, but I guess first thing is sorry. I'm sorry I had you turn out this way. I'm sorry I acted the way I did on the volcano and I'm sorry you turned out like this. I wasn't thinking," Heather drawled on as tears left her eyes and splashed down on the smooth skin of her legs.

"I know I acted like a fool as well," He comforted, embracing her as best his ghoulish figure would allow, "I manipulated you and the others and I did whatever I wanted in order to advance. Living life like we did all those years ago, it isn't right. It isn't fun, and it doesn't end well. I'm proof of that."

"You didn't deserve all this."

"I think I did. I toyed with Bridgette, Leshawna, Courtney, and even you. I broke the trust I had with Noah, Owen, Cody, DJ, and Duncan among others. I acted out of greed and a desire to win more than anything else. I deserve everything that I have gotten."

"No…that isn't true…that isn't true at all. You deserved a far better life. You deserve one at the very least like mine."

"And how is your life? Is it as empty, as cold, and as sad as mine was? Do you have any real friends? Any hopes or dreams to live out? Any happiness at all? Or is it rotten and full of despair and loneliness? Empty lives with rich coatings aren't what anybody wants. Is that what you have?"

Before she answered the tears became strong again and she put her hand up to her eyes to wipe them away.

"…Yes…I don't think I've been happy since I heard you died. Even before that, I wasn't as happy as when we were in Total Drama World Tour. I don't feel joy or peace at all. It's empty, just like you said."

"I'm sorry to hear that. If you ask me, you have it worse than I do."

"How? How can I possibly be worse off than you?"

"I'm dead. I don't have to worry about such things as friends and making myself happy. I can't commit suicide or kill anyone else. I'm stuck in that skeleton all year, tonight being the only exception. I lay all day and night, all year. I think; I contemplate. My only pain is that things are left unsettled with you and that I never got to make things right."

"That's my biggest pain too. I never told you…that I love you."

"…I love you too," He admitted, his ghostly eyes seeming to sparkle, "At first, I was doing everything out of that selfish desire to win, but I soon found myself wanting to be with you. Now I can't go back and re-do things. I have to be content with the life I led, not an easy feat. I always wish I could go back and say that, and let things be."

"I wish I could have admitted my feelings too. I wish I could be more like you are now. More loving and caring, more intent on making things right."

"You can be too. Turn away completely from a life of deceit and trickery. Turn away from the desire to be the best, and be who you are, and make love and kindness key parts of your life. You can find happiness that way. I know thinking like that has at least made me content enough to deal with my situation as well as I have."

"I would like that. I would like to live in a happy life and make friends. I only wish my heart could be content with anyone except you. You are the only guy for me Alejandro, and I wish I could satisfy the desire in my heart to be with you."

"Well, maybe you can have a second chance at that too."

"Huh?"

"Well, every November 2nd, I can see you. Here, at this cemetery, I can be with you. If you will be here to meet me, I will gladly spend every November Second with you. So, should we make it our anniversary?"

"…Yes! I'm so sorry for everything that's happened; I love you!"

"I love you too, Mi Amor…"

They hugged and Heather let out another tear, as the night wind blew in her face. It was not a tear of sadness, but of hope and joy. She was getting a second chance at everything. Alejandro's love, her own life, and she had finally faced down the fact that she wanted to make up with him. Even in death, Alejandro was not too far for love to reach, and more amazingly, even in life, she herself wasn't too far for his love to reach. She was glad and thankful for that, and she had already committed to setting aside time every year to see him on their new anniversary. Her life had changed for the better, and it was all because the man she had loved since she first met him four years ago gave her this second chance.