Disclaimer: I own neither "The Dead Zone" book or tv-series nor Being Human. Just playing around with other peoples' toys ;)

Author's note: Since this is a crossover it would be best if you knew at least a bit about both fandoms. If you don't watch Being Human and the Dead Zone, both are great series ;), or read the book "The Dead Zone" by Stephen King.

Random Strangers

That's my luck for you, all the tables are taken, Johnny Smith thought take-out cup of coffee in one hand and his cane in the other. He should have told Sarah that he didn't feel up to this but he didn't want to miss an opportunity to spend time with his son. And that's why he was searching for some place to sit in the less then inviting café at the Castle Rock railway station while he kept an eye on the platform exit. JJ was due back from his summer camp in less then half an hour but that time felt like an eternity to Johnny on days when he could hardly walk on his bad leg let alone stand. I should have told JJ I'd be waiting in the car outside but that just felt too impersonal.

Johnny slowly walked between the tables leaning heavily on his cane and doing his best to look like he was in pain, not that this required any great acting skills on his part. Today he didn't feel bad about playing the invalid-card but none of the café's patrons gave him a second glance or offered their seat. That's what you get for 6 years in a coma, headache inducing visions and the experience that your fellow human beings are selfish assholes.

When he reached the last table in the row he realized that only one of the two chairs was occupied. Keeping his fingers crossed that the young man in the other chair was not keeping the seat for a girlfriend or wife Johnny hobbled over and cleared his throat. "Excuse me, is this seat taken?"

The man lifted one finger in a Just-a-Moment-gesture while he stabbed around on the screen of his smart phone with the other hand never even looking up. Johnny was about to give this guy who looked too young to be wearing a suit a piece of his mind about his treatment of other people when the green eyes suddenly left the phone screen and met Johnny's. They regarded each other for a second until the man nodded and invited Johnny to sit down. Not a man really, more like a boy, when did everyone become so young, thought Johnny. Or rather when did I become so old? Great, now I sound like my dad.

As soon as Johnny had sat down the young man returned his attention to his phone. Johnny put his coffee cup down, leaned his cane against the table and folded his hands in his lap. He didn't mean to be nosey but his eyes kept returning to the stranger he was sharing a table with. The man didn't seem to notice since he was still furiously typing something into his phone which gave Jonny the opportunity to stare at him unabashedly. His suit looked expensive but he seemed not at all comfortable in it even with the tie loosened and the top button undone. Could he be working in a bank? Or maybe he was a salesman? Not a lawyer surely? It was hard to tell his job by his clothes alone but surely he was too young to have finished any kind of university education? He looked hardly out of his teens, 25 at the most.

Johnny was itching to shake the man's hand just to sneak a little glance at his life, his past or his future. Curiosity killed the cat, he thought grinning slightly, good thing psychics aren't a type of cat then. Johnny slowly lifted his cup to his lips and took a sip of the coffee only to pull a face as he burned his tongue. "Ouch, too hot," he said hoping for some kind of reaction from his table companion. When the other man didn't react Johnny tried a different tactic.

"Could you pass me one of those sugar sachets, please?" The psychic pointed at the sad looking half empty basket beside the smart-phone-man's arm and gave him an apologetic smile. "I'm not as nimble as I used to be."

Without looking away from the screen the man pushed over the basket and just nodded at Johnny's thank you. Awkward silenced descended on the table again while Johnny fiddled with his take-out cup to get the top off without the coffee ending up all over the table. When he finally succeeded in pouring the sugar into the coffee without spilling any of it his leg accidentally knocked his cane over. The head hit the other man's foot which finally managed to pull his attention away from whatever fascinating message he was typing. "I'm terribly sorry," Johnny started to get up to retrieve his cane when the other man waved him back. "It's alright, I've got it." He leaned down and picked up Johnny's cane to give it back to the psychic. When Johnny reached out to take it back he felt a vision coming on and was hit by it -as soon as he touched the cane.

Everything was tinted red, like Johnny was looking through a red pane of glass at a black and white movie. He was in a prison, at least it looked like a prison, and the young man was standing opposite him trying to order a stack of papers he was carrying around. He looked exactly the same but also slightly different, somehow, hair slicked back, different suit, dishevelled and nervous, talking to a sinister man in a mobster-suit. Then the scene changed, the mobster guy was suddenly attacking the young man and if Johnny didn't know there was no such thing as vampires he'd have called mobster-man exactly that. Scenes changed quickly after that like somebody was fast-forwarding the man's life. Smart-phone-man in court talking to his client, burying a body in the woods, crying over a dead woman in a white dress, drinking with mobster-man and his henchmen, killing a woman in a suit by biting into her neck and many more scenes flashing by too fast for Johnny to remember more than that the young man stayed exactly the same throughout it all, like a photograph. Only the last scene burned clear as day in Johnny's mind: The young-looking lawyer standing over a baby with a knife in his hand while somebody seemed to have driven a stake through his chest from behind.

When Jonny came out of the vision he found the lawyers eyes on his, both men still holding on to the cane. The man –vampire, Johnny thought- lifted an eyebrow. "Are you alright, sir," he asked in his English accent. Johnny could only nod, he was still overwhelmed by what he'd just witnessed. Johnny cleared his throat. "I'm fine, just a bit of vertigo." While they still looked at each other, smart-phone-man suspicious and Johnny nervous, the announcer called out the imminent arrival of JJ's train. Saved by the bell, kind of, Johnny thought as he said a hasty goodbye and fled the table. Later, when he and JJ walked past the café on their way to the exit smart-phone-vampire was no longer at their table and Johnny breathed a sight of relieve. Wouldn't want him to see me with JJ. Only on their way home did Johnny start to feel slightly guilty that he hadn't warned the Englishman about the danger he'd seen in his vision.