I'd had my previous doubts about playing together with Jack and Evan, but when you put us together, it was beautiful. It was art. That's all I  can say. We played off of each other and used each other and enhanced each other. It was...perfect. There was some kind of connection running  between us, something that nobody else could interfere with, something that nobody else had. It was like we weren't individually just 1 human, but each of us represented 1/3 of something bigger, something that unified us.

If I was our opponent, I would be scared.

In fact, I was already a little bit scared of the power we were wielding. Our influence was frightening, our precision spot-on...

So we won. Duh.

We left immediately after, not waiting for a chance for things to turn bad. While we were walking aimlessly, Evan suddenly stopped just ahead of me and turned around to face me.

"What is it?" I asked, dead serious as I read the hesitance on his face.

He sighed, knowing that he had to get it out but clearly reluctant to do so. "Card...Misa..." I gave him a warning glance, but he was already shaking his head. "They changed it to 21."

Without even asking, I knew what he was talking about. He was saying that I was going to have to live like this for a few more years. Not just a few more years, I cried out inside. A few years is a lifetime in a life destined to be as short as yours. How long have you already been doing this? And how much longer can you  continue?

"They passed the bill in Congress yesterday," Evan  continued, staring at the ground. "It's been under question for a while. I only caught rumors here and there, but...I didn't want to bring it  up, not when we'd just found each other again..." He paused and looked up at me, seeing the pain, the suffocation, the overwhelming uncertainty in my eyes. Without hesitating, he closed the gap between us and hugged me, even though he knew I wouldn't hug him back, even though he knew that I wouldn't break down or cry (although I did drop my briefcase). "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he whispered over and over again.

Trying to handle the only things I could, I said in a soft voice, "When did I give you permission to hug me?"

"I'm your brother, you idiot. I don't need permission."

We stayed like that for a few minutes, no doubt making Jack uncomfortable, but he just turned and looked away, giving us a moment of privacy that I  was grateful for.

Then I pushed Evan away. "Ill be fine," I reassured him. Not I am fine, because I wasn't. But eventually, the feeling of loss would fade and I would go back tot he life I'd already been living for so long. "I'll be fine." I slowly bent down and picked up my briefcase and took a few  steps backwards. "Don't look for me. I'll find you tomorrow. Night," I said, nodding at Jack as he turned to watch me go.

"You're going to show me that tattoo sometime," he declared, and I knew that despite his curiosity, it was more of a You and I- we'll meet again kind of a thing.

"Don't worry, Jack. I'm not going to go home and accidentally drop a knife on  my wrists." Not bothering to attempt a smile (partially because they'd definitely know that something was wrong if I did that), I turned and walked away, just barely hearing Evan punch something solid and start swearing.

A few blocks after our parting, I noticed someone shadowing  me, so I slipped into one of the extra hotels I'd booked a reservation for and checked in. After she gave me my card, I took the stairs up to the second floor and entered the room, immediately locking, bolting, and chaining the door and turning on all the lights in the kitchen, bathroom, and living room. Then I turned on the TV on to an obnoxious  volume and turned on the sink in the bathroom before shutting the door (leaving the lights on) and making my way to the bedroom. Once there, I went to the window and looked at the street, checking for any suspicious  shadows before opening it up. If they weren't outside, then chances were that they were in the hotel lobby trying to get access to my room.

No time to lose. I tossed my briefcase out the window...

and...

...jumped.