Tear Jerker / They Both Die At The End

• Natrurally, the idea of getting a call that tells you that you have less than 24 hours to live.
  • The book begins with Mateo getting a call from Death-Cast, panicking and realizing he's wasted his life.
  • The other shoe drops in Rufus' first scene.
  • While the Heralds come off as rather callous, with Andrea getting Mateo's name wrong, it's indicated that they have to be that way in order to stay sane at a job like this. This is evidenced by Andrea noting how other Heralds have gone to company counselors and/or washed out, while Victor briefly loses his patience when Rufus accuses him of being callous.
  • Victor's anecdote about the woman he called to tell her about the death of her four-year-old child, and how he then had to call the police just in case the mother was responsible. Not only is the woman going to lose her child, but she could end up in serious legal trouble, deservedly or not.
• The simple fact that Mateo's father is in a coma, thus denying Mateo the opportunity to say goodbye to him. What's more, Mr. Torres will have to deal with learning about his son's death when and if he wakes up.
• Rufus' family got calls for three of their members- his father, his mother and his sister- back-to-back. Rufus' father took it about as well as you'd expect, breaking down crying... and that's when he thinks his wife is the only one getting the call.
• Rufus' desperate and horrified reactions to Mateo's death, unable to accept that Mateo's dead.
• Immediately after Mateo's death, Lidia gets a call from Mateo's phone. The fact that Rufus is the one on the other end is all she needs to realize that Mateo is dead.
• Rufus' last dream is about Mateo blaming Rufus for his fiery demise. Rufus knows Mateo's not the kind who'd say that, but is still haunted by it anyway.