It happened when I was in our living room helping my younger brother cram the alphabet.

My mom had left the house to buy some groceries for dinner and she returned a quick five minutes later.

It was, quite oddly, an eerily silent night. I called it odd because the city we lived in had never been that silent as early as 7:07 p.m.

Looking back, it may have been a premonition of what was to come only half an hour later at 7:37 p.m.

Before it happened though, my ridiculously drunk father staggered in. He did not bother to take off his boots and ended up dirtying our carpet.

One thing I took to notice though, was the strange filth of his boots. They were muddy and grassy. Had he passed through a park?

He was a regular at a certain sommelier's bar known as Mr Han.

I knew the place because of the enraging number of times that that sommelier had called for someone to pick him up as he was heavily drunk to a point of unconsciousness.

I mention this because the nearest park from our place was nowhere on any of the routes from the bar back home.

Most of the city was cemented so mud and grass were not a typical sight and the park was really the only exception.

I shrugged it off though. After all, a drunk man was capable of drawing the strangest of routes.

"Honey!"

My already fed up mom came to the living room leaving some soup brewing in the kitchen once he called.

"What is..." she stopped and her expression went from annoyed to disgusted as she stared at her carpet.

"How dare you step on my carpet with those..." she stopped once again.

Even my brother and I stopped reading the alphabet. Not to exaggerate, but you would too if your father began sobbing so unexpectedly. My jaw dropped to the floor.

"What is wrong with you? Have you finally gone mad?"

Madness was the only befitting explanation because the man went on to engulf our fuming mom in a sudden embrace.

I instinctively covered my brother's eyes. I don't know why, I just did.

Mr. Rian, our father, usually put up a show whenever he was drunk but nothing he had done before beat this.

"Release me this instant you old man," she tried to shrug him off of her but he wouldn't let go.

It seemed to me that she was actually loving it but our presence there stopped her from reveling in it. Then again, hugging a drunk and sweaty guy is not the most wholesome of events.

"I love you honey!" he suddenly announced.

I let out a laugh and Austin, my younger brother, laughed along. What was going on was utterly hysterical.

Our laughter announced our seemingly forgotten presence. Dad turned to us and let go of mom. He came towards us, his arms wide open.

I pushed Austin forward, not willing to be part of whatever was coming. I am sure he felt betrayed for sacrificing him like that.

"I love you guys so much. Come here Cameron," he summoned me and Austin pulled me into the hug.

"Will you stop and tell us what this is about?" our mother snapped, and we were freed from that hug.

He sat on a rather worn out white armchair in a corner and wore a solemn expression. That chair was reserved solely for him. He once said it was a family item passed down generation after another for centuries.

I knew he was about to drop another bombshell upon us and sure enough, he did.

"This world might end today. I just wanted you to know that I love you. I always have and I always will."

Mom sighed and immediately went back to the kitchen evidently deeming his words nonsensical.

Before I went back to Austin's textbook, I heard him mutter, "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. I failed, even in this universe." With that, he shut his eyes rocking in his chair.

There was then a knock on our door.

"Cameron get the door."

I went to answer the knock. Much to my surprise, our guest was the sommelier from the bar my dad frequented.

"Mr Han, what brings you here?"

"I'm here to drop Mr Rian. I didn't want to trouble you to pick him up again."

Before I could weave my confusion into a question, Mr Han helped a man with the exact appearance of my dad walk forward to our door.

"I'll take my leave now. Good bye."

"Uhh... Good-goodbye."

I watched this man that had been delivered to our doorstep. I was stuck in a daze. If this was my dad then who was the man sleeping on his chair?

I didn't even notice him walk past me into the house until he was already inside.

My brother was quicker in his reaction and ran to the kitchen.

"Mom, come see two dad," he reported in the most comprehensible way that he could.

"What?"