In the Season of Scorching Lies

I woke up feeling parched.

My mouth was dry as a bone, and my throat hurting.

I sprang out of bed, dashed to the fridge, snagged a can of ice-cold cola, and chugged it down in one go.

"Burp… ahh…"

After a satisfying burp, I felt cool relief.

As I enjoyed the fridge's chill, a sudden knock on the door startled me.

I closed the fridge, grabbed a baseball bat, and peeked through the peephole. It was my lifelong best friend Gavin, looking nervous.

I set aside the bat, pretended to be half-asleep, and opened the door.

He looked at me, his eyes wide with shock, as if he had just seen something horrifying.

"You show up at my place in the middle of the night, someone after you for money?"

I let out a yawn, pulled him inside, and poured him a glass of cool water, placing it beside him.

Gavin grabbed the glass and drained it in one go, even licking the last drops from the sides.

After a long pause, he finally asked, "Wesley, do you believe someone can be reborn?"

"You must be dreaming," I said.

He took a deep breath. "No, I'm serious. There is a scorching apocalypse on the way, and Jennifer... she was with someone else!"

I gave him a nudge. "Stop talking nonsense."

Gavin tried to calm me down and continued his story with great emotion.

That night, I had the ring ready and had set up a romantic scene with Gavin's help, all set to propose to my girlfriend Jennifer.

However, the scorching apocalypse hit out of the blue, with temperatures skyrocketing to fifty degrees Celsius and climbing.

Jennifer and I were stuck at home, and before we knew it, we had no supplies left.

Jennifer tapped on my chest with little strength, her voice raspy as she cried out.

"I can't take it anymore! Wesley, didn't you promise to look after me? I need water, water!"

Despite the heat, I dashed into our neighbor's place, grabbed the last of their food and water, and hurried back.

It was not right, but I would do anything for Jennifer.

Yet, she cozied up to another guy just for a cold drink.

When I tried to talk to Jennifer about it, she and her new friend shoved me out the window.

"Wesley, just die!"

The fall did not kill me, the building was not tall enough.

However, the hot ground melted my shoes and burned a huge hole in my clothes.

My skin hit the pavement, sizzling, and the smell of roasting meat filled the air.

I screamed, but before I could finish cursing, the sun's heat took me.

Later, Jennifer and her guy went out of their way to get my body and ate it, savoring every bite.

I shivered, panting hard, shocked that something so awful had happened to me.

Eating a guy who's been cheated on felt worse than the horror of eating one's own kids to survive a famine!

I grabbed Gavin by the collar. "You knew Jennifer betrayed me, why didn't you help? You live right below us!"

Gavin gripped my arm, his eyes brimming with sincerity, as he tried to explain. "I was so affected by the scorching apocalypse too! I could not even open my door!"

He sighed.

"Seeing what happened to you, everyone else lost it. That's why I got a second chance at life.

"However, now that I'm back, we've got to face this end-of-the-world mess together, brother!"

I nodded with determination.

I kept thinking about how Jennifer had betrayed me and plotted with her boyfriend to end my life. I knew I could not just let it slide.

I grabbed a kitchen knife and confronted Gavin, "Where's Jennifer?"

"Um... I actually only saw where you landed. I did not see exactly where you fell from."