The First to Die at the End (Death-Cast #0)(49)
Maybe Gloria should raise their nine-year-old to develop some practical skills sooner rather than later so Pazito doesn’t grow up to be “distracted by big dreams” as she once accused Frankie when he forgot the anniversary of their loveless marriage.
He’s too upset to even focus on the news anymore. He gets out of bed, leaving the remote, and carries his phone back to the kitchen to see if he can reach Rolando while treating himself to another beer.
Frankie knows this End Day is his ticket out of debt and—if he’s lucky—this family.
Gloria Dario
5:19 a.m.
Death-Cast did not call Gloria Dario because she is not dying today, not that she should even be reachable, since her husband doesn’t want this family registered for this service, but Gloria signed up everyone behind his back anyway.
All her life, Gloria has been a planner.
Every morning she wakes up and knows what she’s preparing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Every night she checks the weather and lays out her clothes for the next day. She keeps running to-do lists in tiny spiral notebooks that she purchases from the ninety-nine-cent store to stay on track, and practically lives for that thrill of checking off her tasks, no matter how small. She arrives to every appointment at least forty-five minutes early because the subway can be so unpredictable. She preps Pazito’s Halloween costume in August with fittings in September and final dress rehearsals in the first week of October. (Thankfully Pazito never changes his mind at the last minute, though she has a bin of fabrics and crafts in the closet just in case.) And even though it’s grim business and she doesn’t have much to leave behind, Gloria prepared her will during her first year of motherhood and pushed Frankie to do the same to ensure that Pazito will be taken care of after they’re gone.
Planning her life has always helped Gloria feel in control. But death has never been something she can plan as accurately until now.
Gloria had cried the entire time she was filling out the Death-Cast registration form, tempted to click out after answering each question in fear of Frankie finding out and hurling insults—maybe even more—for providing private information that has already been shared freely to other places, such as hospitals and even their cable provider. She could tell he was recycling conspiracies from third parties, and she’s long given up on trying to get her husband to see reason. All he does is lash out whenever they’re in disagreement. Which is why Gloria was crying while registering for Death-Cast. Yes, she’s devastated whenever she thinks about how she’ll spend her End Day with Pazito, knowing that even a master planner like herself can’t possibly squeeze in everything she hopes to do with her son before dying, but more than that, she was heartbroken because she knows that her husband is primed to be the one who kills her.
She discussed this with Rolando—her best friend in this life, and her lover in another—who very understandably hates Frankie and only plays nice to keep her safe.
“Why not just leave him?” Rolando had asked a million times over the years, most recently when she confided in him that she registered herself for Death-Cast. “It feels like you’re accepting he’s going to kill you.”
If Gloria put herself first, she likes to think she would’ve walked away years ago. Just packed all her things while Frankie was out and left, the only evidence that she was ever there being a signed note about what a monster he is. Who’s to say if she would’ve actually gone through with this. She’s known many strong women, her mother included, who have stayed in marriages like this for their own reasons. For Gloria’s mother, it was the financial security that was necessary while raising Gloria and her sisters. For Gloria, she stays because her son doesn’t see his father as a monster. How could she tear Pazito away from Frankie, especially at a young age?
Over the years, the time to leave has never felt right.
First, Gloria thought things would change when she was pregnant.
She was wrong.
Gloria thought things would change when her son was born.
She was wrong.
Gloria thought things would change when her son slept through the night.
She was wrong.
Gloria thought things would change when her son started speaking.
She was wrong.
Gloria thought things would change when her son began preschool.
She was wrong.
Gloria thought things would change when her son booked a movie.
She was wrong.
Gloria thinks things will change.
She hopes she’s not wrong.
But she’s planning to be, thanks to Death-Cast.
Moments after Frankie leaves their bedroom, upset at Rolando again for some new mysterious reason, Gloria is struggling to fall back to sleep. She listens in on the news, which is still covering the fatalities from Times Square tonight. She had stayed up with Pazito watching the celebrations when she heard the gunshots. Quick on her feet, Gloria switched off the TV and told him those were fireworks, and when he asked to stay up just a little bit longer to watch them—that boy loves him some fireworks—she apologized and sent him to his bed. She wants to keep her son as young as she possibly can and not force him to grow up too soon. Who knows what traumatic thing he could’ve seen if she hadn’t turned off the TV?
Now she has her answer. The camera teams present to capture the night managed to get some disturbing footage, including one man being shot in his neck by someone in a skull mask. Then there was a close call as a teen boy bravely tackles another to the ground, saving his life. What a hero. The reporters cut back to an image of the assailant in his mask, sharing that he has not been identified or caught at this time.