Disclaimer: I in no way, shape, or form own Digimon. I merely abuse it's characters in my fics.

"Well, Happy New Year, everyone," said the young man dryly, but the comment went unanswered. With an unreadable expression, he looked again at the countdown on the TV in front of him. In another seven minutes the year 1999 would be over and the new millenium would begin.

The blonde looked around the room, a sad look in his eyes. He saw what he saw practically every minute of every day: a TV, a couch, a table, and no people. His dad was at work and all of his so-called friends were at a party somewhere. He had received an invitation to go as well, but he was too depressed to attend.

With a fumbling hand, he eventually found the bottle he was looking for. The alcohol was his dad's, but he had taken it, hoping it would make him feel better. In reality, though, the young man only felt worse. It showed him just how alone he was. What kind of family wouldn't even be around for New Year's?

He sighed and glanced back at the TV screen. Five minutes left. Why did time have to move so slow? Why couldn't the year be over already? He was tired of living the worst year of his life. Not only had he lost all contact with people, but he had lost his soul as well. He learned that when you lose your own soul, you lose everything. All feeling, all knowledge, all hope.

Right after it happened, he was so depressed that he had quit the band and dropped out of school. His grades had actually been improving, but he didn't have the strength of will to even care anymore. As for the band, he hadn't even picked up his guitar in almost four months now. Just looking at it made the young man so upset he wanted to cry. It would remind him of the songs he used to compose on it before a part of him disappeared forever. But no matter what happened or how sad he felt, the tears just wouldn't fall. He desperately wanted them to, in hopes that it would let some of his pent up emotions out, so others could see what he was really feeling. But for some reason, no tears were ever found in his blue eyes.

The blonde shut his eyes, trying to forget all of his unwanted memories, the worst of his life. In another three minutes, he would start anew. His life would change for the better because he knew he wouldn't be alone anymore.

His eyes were glued to the TV screen as he watched the second's slowly tick away. Everybody in the city seemed so happy. He envied them. Why couldn't one of them have lost a piece of themselves? Why him? Hadn't he suffered enough during his lifetime?

"It doesn't matter anymore," the young man said to no one.

As he watched the clock start its one minute countdown, he slowly stood up. He drank some more alcohol before surveying the room, looking to find the only foreign item. His blue eyes rested on a metal object lying on the table in front of him.

The clock was approaching the thirty second mark as he reached down and picked up the gun. He looked at it briefly before aiming it at his head. The crowd began to shout the ten second countdown.

"10, 9, 8,..."

The blonde closed his eyes and drew in an unusually calm breath.

"...7, 6, 5, 4,..."

"I'm coming," he whispered.

"...3, 2, 1!"

The alcohol bottle he had been holding fell from his hand and shattered to pieces on the floor, spilling its contents everywhere. There was a thud as a limp body fell next to it. In the background, the cheering of thousands could be heard.

At exactly 12:01 am, the phone rang. It kept on ringing until the answering machine at last turned on.

"Hi," said the blonde young man's voice, somewhat lacking enthusiasm, "We're obviously not here so just leave a message, and if we are ever home, we'll see what we can do." After the beep, a cheerful voice spoke.

"Hey Matt! I just wanted to call and wish you a Happy New Year. I wish you would have come to our party, but I guess you're still not ready yet, huh? I know it's gotta be tough, I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to Kari," the boy sighed, "Look, we all miss TK, but he wouldn't want you to let it take over your whole life. We all miss you and hope that you'll be okay. Well, Sora wants me to dance with her, and you know how I hate to disappoint! I'll see you later, okay? Bye!" With that, the boy hung up the phone with a click.

A/N: This was for a New Year's contest. Indeed, it is rather short, pointless, and, well, morbid, but I think it came out the way I wanted it too. I hope you were smart enough to read this before the prequel. It fits better that way. If not, that would be my bad... I mean, ok, it DOES say what happened before, but you aren't meant to read it that way. Which is dumb, but that's how I did it. Besides, it IS labeled with a "DON'T READ THIS YET!" type thing...