Nothingness.

That's all that surrounded a man who was grieving his own death that hadn't even happened yet.

Unus watched as the timer slowly went down, he was alone in an endless black void, the only light coming from a ginormous timer that always seemed to follow him around, standing over him like a dark shadow and refusing to let him forget that his time was slowly running out.

The numbers on the timer would mean very little to you if you were to glance at it. But to Unus, it meant everything, it meant that had less than an hour until he was going to die. It was so soon, there was so much more he wanted to do, ideas he wanted to put into action, places he wanted to go and things he wanted to see. A small sniffle escaped him as his eyes began glistening with tears.

"Unus?..."

He looked behind him and saw his friend Annus watching him silently, he was wearing his usual white suit and despite his calm expression, sweat matted his black hair to his forehead.

"Hey Annus," he said wiping his eyes, not wanting to seem weak in front of his only friend, although his death was also approaching at around the same time.

Unus's stomach twisted in knots and he heard his heart smashing against his chest loudly as he thought about it. They were both going to die, not just him. He was going to lose his own life and his best friend in the same day.

Annus sighed before walking over and standing beside him. His brown eyes were immediately focused on the clock and a strange expression danced around inside of them. Unus noticed the man bite his lip but decided not to bring it up.

Unus stared at his feet and listened to his friends soft breathing, it was comforting in a way. It showed that they were still alive, they weren't dead yet, they still had time to say anything that they wanted to say and plan out their final goodbyes.

He decided to break the silence between the two men, it was agony for him to sit in silence while his time was running out. He had to make the most of the time he had left, even if it was just by filling it with small-talk and meaningless words.

"Time went by quicker than I thought," he mumbled quietly, letting out a small humourless laugh. It was no use pretending that he was okay, he was going to die, and he had never felt so terrified by anything else in his life.

"I know. But it's because we had so much fun along the way," Annus replied softly, ripping his eyes away from the clock and studying his friends expression.

"Time always seems to move faster when it's running out." Unus whispered, his blue eyes sparkled with tears once again.

"I suppose," Annus chuckled, trying to lighten the mood despite the darkness they were surrounded by, both physically and mentally.

Unus looked at Annus and a small smile finally appeared on his pale face. His mouth opened and closed a few times as he attempted to translate his feelings into words.

"I loved being your friend," he said, fiddling with his brown hair as he always did when he was nervous.

"As did I," Annus smiled back at him, he had always picked on Unus, but he didn't really mean it, It really pained him to see his friend so afraid.

The two friends stood in silence, watching the clock for a few minutes, neither of them knew what to say. Unus tried to imagine what came after death but it scared him, nobody could tell him what he was about to experience, he would have to find out on his own. He glanced over at Annus and saw that he had still had that annoyingly calm look on his face. Unus felt foolish. Was he the only one who felt scared?

"A- Arent you scared?" Unus asked after a long pause.

"A little, but we knew this was going to happen," Annus admitted with a sigh, his hands were trembling slightly as he spoke.

Unus nodded as he thought about all the memories they had made. Cooking with the most unlikeliest of tools, the disclaimer song, the dance of Italy, being pepper sprayed and attacked by a fully trained guard dog, memories they had made over this year ... all would be gone in a short while.

"Its hard, but we have to accept it," Annus said, there was something in his voice that Unus didn't recognize and he realised with a jolt that his friend was just as scared as he was, he was just putting on a brave face as he always did.

"I know," Unus's voice cracked but he didn't care.

Annus gave a small sigh before hugging his friend. Who knew a simple hug could say a million unsaid words? Unus broke down into quiet sobs and clung to his dearest friend. He began trembling violently and Annus rubbed soothing circles on his back, making soft "shh" noises.

"I don't say this enough but..." Annus's eyes travelled back to the clock, he seemed to struggle with what he wanted to say, "I love you buddy,"

"I love you too," Unus choked out, "Thank you..."

"For what?" Annus asked, confused.

Unus broke the hug and stood back a few steps, he wanted Annus to see his facial expressions, he wanted him to understand that he really meant what he was about to say. His tear-stained face broke into a smile as he took Annus's hands in his own.

"For letting me have this experience. You have made me so happy this year and I'm so lucky to call you my friend," Unus smiled, his eyes were filling with tears at an annoyingly fast rate every time he blinked.

Annus stepped back, his eyes filled with shock. He blinked a few times, confirming that he wasn't imagining what he was seeing in front of him.

"Unus... you're fading... y- you're fading away."

Unus looked down, and sure enough he was slowly fading away. His fear began evaporating, he was ready to accept this was his fate. Maybe he would see Annus again one day, perhaps in another life, the thought brought another small smile to his lips.

"You won't forget me, will you?" He asked softly, a few tears leaked out of his eyes, but he wiped them away with the sleeve of his black suit. He knew it was stupid, Annus didn't have much time himself and couldn't promise to remember him. He just needed the comfort he knew the words would bring him.

"Of course not," Annus said, a few tears finally cascading down his cheeks, a part of him felt betrayed by Mark and Ethan. They had created them only to be alive for a year, it was a short amount of time, it was their fault that he had to watch his best friend die. Another part of him wasn't actually sure if their creators knew that they were alive or if they thought of them as mere fiction, but he didn't care about that now.

"Goodbye Annus," Unus said, he was almost gone, "See you when you fall asleep ,"

"Goodbye old buddy," Annus sobbed.

He rushed forward and threw his arms around Unus, holding him close in one last hug, he kept the hug going until Unus was gone and Annus was left completely alone until his own death came to claim him in whatever time he had left.

Annus looked at the clock and saw that he had ten minutes left. Tears began slipping down his cheeks once again and he fell to his knees in sorrow as his emotions overtook him. Fear was an icy-cold hand that held him captive in an iron grip, refusing to let him go and tightening with every breath he took, Sadness was a spirit, taking over him and controlling his every move, thought and the words that left his mouth, whereas happiness was a distant friend, sitting just out of reach and waiting for him to finally catch up to them and hug him until the world split in half.

The ticking seemed to become louder in Annus's head as his ears started ringing and his breathing became shallow.

"Shut up! Please just shut up!" he screamed at the timer that was still ticking loudly, "Please... I want to forget. I want to pretend I'm not... how can I change the story when the ending is already written in ink?"

He wiped his watery eyes, got into a sitting position before holding his knees close to his chin.

"Come on," he whispered to himself, "Unus wouldn't want this, he- he'd want you to be happy."

He slowly got to his feet and took a few deep breaths in an attempt to clear his thoughts and take control of his emotions. The grip fear had on him loosened, but never left.

"I'll never let go of the memories we made," He smiled putting a hand over his heart and closing his eyes, remembering all the good times he had experienced with Unus.

He really wished the clock would stop ticking, with every quiet tick, he knew it was closer to the end, it was almost mocking him as he anxiously awaited his own death.

He sighed and then stood, watching the clock and thinking about all he and his friend had done this year until he felt a strange sensation and realised he was fading, just like Unus had.

"I hope we made people happy with our short time here," He said quietly, a small smile appeared on his lips, he remembered all the comments and posts, people said that they had saved them or brought them joy in such a strange year. He felt a sense of comfort, he had made people happy throughout the year and he was going to see Unus again, that was all that really mattered.

He stood fading away for a few moments and a sick feeling suddenly spread throughout his body as he realised he was actually dying, this was really it. He tried to keep back the tears that were dangerously close to falling again.

"Memento Mori," He finally choked out. Although he would never admit it, he wasn't ready to go. But he knew didn't have any choice, the clock doesn't stop ticking for anyone, time is something that can't be bargained with or manipulated, you just have to make the most of whatever time you have, until it runs out.

Annus wiped his tears before closing his eyes once more, he was drifting into eternal sleep and a calm feeling finally washed over him as his last smile spread across his face.

And with that he was gone, leaving nothing but the memories and the ticking of the clock that haunted his dreams behind.

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