Our pace was slow as we walked from path to path, recognising places from our youth as we continued to reminisce, remembering the time we played tag in a nearby park and Sam scraped his knee or when we played ding dong ditch across the entire street.
"That is so not true." Sam spluttered, his face covered with a deep red blush.
"Yes, it is." I laughed. "I swear, if I wasn't there with you, you would have pissed yourself and run away as fast as you could." I once again broke out into a chuckle, remembering the time we explored a run-down house on the edge of town when we were young.
"You alright now? Not feeling as if a ghost might pop out from behind?" Sam, realising that no matter what he said, I was going to tease him, simply let out a huff in reply as he held his head high up in the sky. At least until we heard a sudden sound come from behind us.
"Caw, caw!"
Hearing such a sound echo from behind us out of nowhere, the two of us instantly jumped in fright. Quickly, I spun around in a panic, silently praying that it wasn't a ghost behind us. That was when, as I looked up to the roofs where I believed the noise had come from, I felt my mouth hang open and my jaw hit the floor. There, to my complete shock, in front of my very eyes, was what could only be described as a sea of crows, numbering in the thirties at least, all loitering around on top of a nearby building and staring in our direction; their eyes unblinking in their focus.
I could feel Sam's breathing hitch as he too noticed the birds above, causing both of us to completely freeze in place as if the birds were going to swoop down to attack us at any moment. There we stayed in complete silence, until, just as I was contemplating making a run for an alley not too far away, I suddenly heard the screeching and hissing of a cat nearby. Immediately, the birds all flew away in a panic, blanketing the sky and moon for a few moments in absolute darkness during their hasty retreat.
In a matter of seconds, the sky soon cleared with not a crow in sight. I turned back around to Sam, seeing his gawking face still looking towards the sky in a stupor. An expression that had me exploding in raucous laughter, breaking Sam out of his trance in the process.
"Your fucking face." I managed to wheeze out in between gasps of laughter.
"Mine?" Sam said in mock outrage a few seconds later. "What about yours? Your mouth was open so wide you could have fit all those bloody birds inside it." I couldn't stop laughing, my face was ablaze, a bright red coating it in its entirety. So lightheaded from laughter, I needed to rest my hand on the side of the lamppost next to us in order not to collapse.
"Damn right it was! For a second, I thought those birds were going to swoop down and attack us! I was shitting myself." Hearing my reply, Sam let out a loud chuckle, joining me in seeing the amusement of what had just happened.
"Right, let's continue walking," I said after finally catching my breath. "The last thing I want is to still be here in case those crows come back." A shiver ran down my spine at just the thought. One that Sam seemed to share, if his nervous expression was anything to go off of as he scanned the sky rapidly.
The rest of the walk back was thankfully uneventful, to our utmost relief. I doubted my heart could have taken any more stress. Throughout it all, very little was said between us, on account of the fact that we were too busy scanning the alleys and skies above and jumping at even the smallest of sounds.
"Phew. That walk couldn't have been longer if it tried." I said with a smirk, standing outside the door to my house. A house I had never been more thankful for.
"Speak for yourself. I still have to walk all the way back home alone." He replied with a shiver, still continuously looking up at the sky.
"You'll be fine. Just make sure to hide anything shiny and screech like a cat if you see anything, and you'll be golden." Sam merely gave me an unimpressed stare in response.
As the two of us stood there, neither one of us saying a word, an awkward silence soon descended. The reason for this was how every time I tried to say goodbye, I found myself unable, my mouth opening wide with not a single word escaping.
Seeing that I wasn't saying anything, Sam broke the sudden silence. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Talk to you then." And after a small wave, he turned around and began walking away. Or at least he started to.
However, before he could take more than a couple of steps, I reached out my hand and gripped Sam's own as tightly as I could, halting him in place. An action that left Sam with a confused expression as he looked back towards me in silent question. Yet I didn't say a word, mainly because I had no idea why I had stopped him. All I knew was that the moment I saw Sam start to walk away, a deep sense of foreboding and dread welled up in my stomach, along with a voice in the back of my head. A voice that told me not to let him go, at least not yet.
"Adam, what's up? Are you okay? Are you feeling alright?" Sam rapidly asked in concern as he turned back around.
I wasn't sure what to say, at least not until he asked me how I was feeling. At first, I simply wanted to say I was fine, the same as normal. However, it was then that I realised that wasn't the truth. The burning pain that sporadically appeared in my lungs, unlike normal, hadn't gone away since it had started at the oak tree. Not only that, the sense of fatigue and tiredness that permeated my body and mind felt even worse than usual, as if I could fall asleep at any moment, and my legs and muscles felt as if they were doing everything they could just to keep me standing. It was then, at that moment, with startling clarity and a sense of certainty, that I realised what that foreboding feeling I had felt throughout the day was. It was a sign of the end that today was the day. The day that I would die.
Upon such a realisation, I was surprised by how well I was taking the discovery. I wasn't sure whether I had simply come to accept my death or whether a part of me still didn't believe it was truly happening, that this wasn't the end. But even if it wasn't the end, despite what I believed, even if the sense of dread and foreboding I felt was all in my head, it didn't matter. As long as there was even a chance for this to be the last time I ever saw Sam, to see his smiling face or witness his caring attitude, I wouldn't let him go before I said everything I needed to. Everything he needed to know.
"Adam, you're scaring me mate. Should I call the hospital? Do you need to lie down?"
I looked back up at Sam, seeing the worry and no small amount of fear hidden in his eyes as I did so. "No, I'm fine mate. I'm good." An answer that did little to placate him as he continued to stare worryingly at me.
"Really, I'm fine." I repeated, with far more strength and conviction, finally releasing his hand from my grip.
"Thank god," Sam muttered in relief, the tension in his body disappearing as he did so. "Don't scare me like that mate. What did you need?"
I didn't immediately reply, not wanting to rush what I needed to say, only beginning to speak after I had taken as deep a breath as I could without going into a coughing fit. "I just wanted to say thank you."
"Adam, stop. You have nothing to thank me for." He replied while scratching his head, looking up and away from me in an abashed fashion. "I just did what any oth-."
"No." I interrupted loudly, to his surprise. "You did far more for me than any other person would, or should, ever be expected to do. And I need you to know it." I could tell that upon hearing me that he wanted to deny it again, but thankfully, whether it was the earnest expression on my face or the tone of my voice, he didn't, allowing me to continue.
"You have always stuck with me no matter what. Even after I was a massive prick, you still kept trying to contact me, constantly messaging and calling me, wanting to fix what had happened, despite it not even being your fault. And in these past weeks alone, you have all but put your life on hold, just to spend as much time as you could with me during my last moments. Something I can't put into words, how thankful I am for." At this point, my eyes were beyond misty with full-blown tears streaming down my face. Something I maybe would have been embarrassed about if Sam wasn't in the exact same situation.
"Sam. You are the best friend and brother a person could have asked for." The moment I finished, I felt myself almost crushed in the vice-like arms of Sam as he wrapped them around me, pressing his face into the side of my neck. A neck that started to feel wet as I began to hear him sniffle quietly. An action which I copied.
It was only as the tears began to run dry that we pulled apart. As we did so, I looked back at Sam's face, noticing his eyes were red and puffy, just as I assumed mine were. "I will always be your brother." He said in his now raspy voice. To which I just smiled, doing my best to stomp the second round of waterworks that wanted to begin.
"Well, I think now I really should head back home. Got to make sure I get back before those crows can track me down and attack me." He joked, adding some much-needed levity to the atmosphere as I chuckled with him.
"Sure, sounds good. See ya Sam." I replied, knowing, if I was right, that this goodbye could be our last.
"See you, Adam. Talk to you tomorrow." And with that, Sam walked away, his figure becoming smaller and smaller as he walked down the street, before eventually disappearing out of sight altogether.
Yet even after he had completely disappeared, I continued to stare off into the distance as the frigid winds battered my body. I did so for minutes on end, simply remembering Sam and everything he had done for me. It was only after I was all but shivering that, eventually, after a long, deep sigh and after wiping away the few stray tears that still clung to my eyes, I turned around, opening the creaky door to my home and stepping inside.