Life is full of unpredictable variables, like a surprise party, a date with your crush, your grandparents dying due to some disease. We have little to no control over such events, you can think you're going to live and die old, but you can also die the next day due to some accident.
This was what Daniel thought throughout most of his life and it holds true. On impact Daniel was knocked unconscious, the fact that he even survived initially is a miracle. It started as a school trip for his freshmen year of high school, he was going to go to a museum to look at old medieval relics for a school project.
He's thinking of asking out his crush once they're there as she loves history and may improve his chances; Scarlet, a name that was given to her by her parents when she came out with bright red hair and had a rare genetic defect that gave her red irises. There was no mistaking, Daniel was absolutely sure she was one of the most beautiful girls to ever exist.
Scarlet has many secret admirers, with Daniel being one of them. He is confident that he's smart and good-looking, but compared to her is like comparing a firefly to a sun. She's always on his mind, and he decided to act upon it. Whenever Daniel looked at her, especially today, his heart would feel like it would almost beat out of his chest. He hope's she would say yes, but he as a realist knew he didn't have very high chances.
Today was the day for the field trip to the museum, everyone was assigned a seat on the bus, how long such order would last is unknown with freshmen. But Daniel was completely fine, beyond fine, as he got a seat right next to the most beautiful flower to exist. 'Does such luck exist? I'm not dreaming am I?' These were Daniel's main occupying thoughts. He didn't really realize that he had a stupid-looking grin plastered on his face, which she noticed but tried to ignore.
"H-hi my name is Daniel, nice to be with you." He stuttered a little, but still flashed a small smile. He inwardly cursed himself for sounding like an idiot, but it's really the best he could do right now. She replied back with, "Hello Daniel, I'm Scarlet as in like your cheeks right now you goof." That's it, Daniel now wants to bury himself in a hole and hide from the world.
"Haha...ha, I'm sorry I didn't mean to come off as weird. I just find it hard talking to cute girls... oh." Daniel now wants an even deeper hole, he really is borderline retarded like his friends have said. Daniel sat down and turned his head away towards the floor of the center alley of the bus in an attempt to hide his burning face.
"...it's fine, but I'm a little tired since it's still so early. I'm going to take a small nap, wake me when we get there. You won't do anything weird will you?" She asked flashing a smile bright enough to burn a hole into anyone's heart. "No, of course not! I'm no pervert haha... yeah I'll wake you up." He replied hastily. Daniel received a thank you and she was fast asleep, or at least appeared to be asleep.
'Well, I mean I didn't do horrible, I didn't do well either. But at least I'm in the green-ish zone.' Daniel turned his head to look back at Scarlet and cracked a small smile, 'Still cute up close too...'
***
Daniel and the freshmen came to stop at a junction due to a kid in the back projectile vomiting on somebody due to motion sickness.
Waiting outside Daniel was doing some small talk with his friends in his class, the thing about Daniel is he's a transfer student, he only came to this school for about 3 months so he still doesn't have any good friends to rely on. Scarlet was also outside chatting it away with her group of friends, but he couldn't hear what they were talking about.
"That kid who puked really got his high school career laid out for him, haha!" Sam cried out, he was one of Daniel's friends. "Yeah, I know right? That other kid who got most of it on him is probably crying right now; I know I would be!" The other friend laughed off, Richard.
"Well life is unpredictable sometimes, I guess that's what makes it fun?" Daniel stated while reigning in his gaze from Scarlet. "Hey bro, you have to be more low-key about liking somebody; you were looking at her for a while now, they're probably talking about you." Richard pointed out to Daniel.
Richard would be right about his statement, they were talking about him. "Hey, they know very well I'm not the only admirer, but I'll be the first to ask." Daniel said confidently; "Ask? Ask what?" a voice Daniel could recognize from a mile away came right behind him making chills crawl up his spine.
"Oh, you scared me! How did you end up behind me so fast, weren't you over there?" Daniel pointed to a spot not far away. His heart was thumping out of control at the moment, but he tried his best to control it. "Oh, so you were looking at me?" Scarlet replied with a mischievous smile.
"Uhhhh.... n-no, yes? I don't know?" He was stuttering over himself and when he turned back to look for his friends to help him out, he only saw a breeze of what was once there. "You don't know? Then, do you know what you were going to ask me?" Scarlet played.
'This is dangerous, I'm in the red zone now. What to do!?'
"W-well like I said, I have a hard time talking to pretty girls. So I don't think I could answer..." Daniel tried to escape and defuse the current situation, pretty badly too. "Eh? Why is it pretty now and not cute?" She replied, 'Is there even a difference?' Daniel retorted in his mind.
As if saved by the bell, "Get back on the bus! We're leaving!" this ordeal left Daniel out of breath. 'Wait, I sit next to her... shit or maybe it's great? I'm not sure.'
***
Back on the bus, there was an awkward silence between them. 'Does she like me back? Is this some kind of play of fate?' Daniel silently mused to himself, but he quickly rid that thought of his mind as there was no chance that was the case.
"H-hey, you like me don't you?" Scarlet finally broke the silence. But Daniel still remained silent, how could he answer? This could be a trick question he wasn't sure if he wanted to risk it.
But he ended up speaking anyway, "...yeah, was I that obvious?", she thought for a moment and replied with "Do you see that mountain?"; Daniel looked out the window but didn't see any mountain in general that stood out... "I see many mountains, why?"
She didn't need to answer that as it soon dawned on him what that meant. "Damn then, haha" That felt like the only reasonable response he could give. Just as he was going to apologize and leave her alone she began to speak; "I... like you too. I have for about a month now..."
It was like a bombshell went off in his head as he stared absentmindedly at her. "Would you like to go check out the museum with me then?" He asked half-jokingly as the bus came to a stop at a railway stop.
"Yes, I would like that." She replied in a shy voice but while showing her brightest smile yet. Daniel was so happy that he wanted to embrace her, in that he did. Not because of the original reason though, but because outside the window behind her was a train coming straight at them. They somehow drifted onto an active track and the impact was imminent.
This action obviously took her by surprise and when she tried to push him away she stopped because she sensed the atmosphere was way too tense.
***
'Life is truly unpredictable...' Daniel thought to himself after he woke from his daze, everything in his body felt... wrong... misplaced. He couldn't move, he couldn't talk, his senses skewed, he couldn't cry at the scene in front of him.
The body he once embraced was now a mangled mess on top of him, she was likely instantly killed. Scarlet was covered in crimson blood, he couldn't look anymore, but his body refused to listen; he could only helplessly stare at the scene in front of him. Daniel knew he didn't look much different right now, he knew he was going to die soon, he knew. The impending sense of doom was only getting closer, he felt his body slowly dying as if the vitality was slowly draining from him; it was suffocating.
He never felt so scared, confused, and so many other emotions as he did right now. He didn't know what to feel, and he never will. As his brain started to shut down and the fear he was feeling was slowly numbing, he ceased to exist like the rest of his schoolmates.