"Man no way you're still a virgin!"
Zeke couldn't just believe it.
Nath sighed heavily as he dumped the blocks of concrete on top the pile and tried to catch his breath;
"What really matters to me is that I want to do it with someone who I actually fall in love with" Nath muttered with a dreamy expression.
Zeke shook his head;
"Somehow I just can't believe you bro... aren't you like a certified perv or something?" He eyed Nath contemptuously as he arranged the blocks.
Nath rolled his eyes;
"I am not a perv! And besides being a pervert does not automatically mean you've done the deed, I want to be committed to my future girlfriend, so I'll wait for her...I mean you of all people should know what I'm talking about... you've been with Stacy for a couple of years now...-"
"Don't slack off!" The foreman called out gruffly.
Nath strutted over to the vehicle and received a block from the distributor and hauled it away.
The air at the site was dense with concrete and dust.
Nath dumped the block and wiped the grime off his forehead with a gloved hand.
21 years old with a muscularly lean build, average facial features and a pathetic, predictable life, Nath was not the toughest or the most agile worker on the site.
But he was very fast and very, very alert.
That's why he noticed it first.
A metallic ping distinct from that of machinery and a horrible scraping sound.
"ZEKE MOVE!!" Nath screamed.
About forty feet above them, a secondary support cable on the crane had snapped. It whipped through the air like a decapitating wire, sending a three-ton pallet of steel I-beams into a sickening tilt.
Zeke didn't hear him, and when he did notice the danger, he remained frozen, fixed to the spot...his face a study in terror. The shadow of the falling steel engulfed him. He didn't scream; he just stared, his boots seemingly glued to the wet cement.
Nath didn't reason. If he had, he would have realized the physics he attempted was impossible.
He lunged across the gap, his work boots skidding on a slick metal plate. He slammed his shoulder into Zeke's chest, the force of the tackle sending the other man sprawling into the safety of a reinforced concrete pillar.
Then, the world turned into a roar of grinding metal.
A deafening *crunch* as the beams hit the floor, vibrating through the entire skeleton of the building.
Nath was overwhelmed by a sudden, cold numbness, he didn't feel pain yet—just a terrifying lack of weight, as if the ground had simply ceased to exist.
Dust rose up in the air and several screams erupted all at once.
"Nath!, Nath you idiot speak to me, please...!" Zeke's voice sounded like it was coming from the end of a long tunnel.
Nath tried to look down, but his neck felt stiff, locked in place. He saw the edge of a steel beam resting across his midsection. He couldn't feel his legs.
Strangely, his only thought was that he'd forgotten to turn off the rice cooker in his cramped apartment.
"Is... Zeke..." Ren coughed, and a spray of crimson flecked the grey dust on his safety vest.
"I'm here, Nath. I'm right here. Don't you dare close your eyes!" Zeke's face appeared in his blurring vision, streaked with tears and filth.
Nath felt a bizarre sense of lightness.
The cacophony of the construction site—the shouting foremen, the sirens in the distance—began to fade into a rhythmic hum.
He looked up at the patch of blue sky visible through the girders. It was a lovely day to die, he thought to himself.
"Take care of her...Zek..." He interrupted himself with a throat-jerking cough erupting from his mouth.
"No...no Nath, don't you also want to have a girlfriend?... don't shut your eyes please"
Nath blocked his ears from the pleas.
He knew it was practically over.
-I guess this is it. No more double shifts. No more debt. I hope that 'Insurance' my mom insisted on actually pays out-
His vision flickered like a dying lightbulb.
The blue sky deepened into a shimmering, abyssal violet. A cold wind that didn't belong in the city brushed against his cheeks, and the heavy weight of the steel beam simply... disappeared.
Nath took one last, shallow breath, and the world went pitch black.
---
[System Initialization...]
[Scanning Soul Compatibility...]
[Host: Nath Ruphus | Status: Deceased | Act of Valor| Lustful Virgin| Alert Speed| Detected...]
[Reincarnation Protocol: Engaged.]