He had read about the freak deaths, the massive accidents, which one of them had "seen it coming" but he never believed it. After all, the media always made up theories like that, didn't they? He read about flight 180, about the car crash and a host of others but he didn't believe in it. No, he was much to "normal" for that. He played video games, went to parties and worked hard at school. His life was as mind numbingly normal as any other 15 year old boy. "Cal? Are you ok?" A sweet voice penetrated his thoughts; he turned and smiled as he saw his 7 year old sister holding out a doughnut for him. Cal picked Jessica up, took half the doughnut and gave her the rest. He loved Jessica more than anything else in his life; he didn't know what he would do without her. She kept him sane from what had happened. The more he thought about that terrifying night the more he realised it followed the 180 pattern, but was this just his mind tricking him? Cal shook the unwanted thought from his head and put his favourite song on and started dancing with Jessica.
Cal had had to tell the police exactly what had happened. He told them all about how his friend Lala had a "vision" that they were all going to die in gunfire at school so they, along with Andy, Jessica, Alice and Jordan had told the headmaster and convinced him to send people home. The headmaster however was indifferent; he didn't believe them and thought it was a bad attempt to get off school. He told them to get off school grounds immediately as they were all excluded. They headed to a coffee shop to discuss if what Lala had seen was real, or just a figment of her over used imagination. Cal hadn't noticed Jessica had followed them to school that day, why had she? They shared some doughnuts and saw it. The explosion. The gunfire had started. The screams were deafening. Lala took Cal's left hand, Jessica his right. Alice gasped, Jordan wore a look of pure horror and Andy let out a moan of terror "that was meant to be us!"
Alice was crying, the silent crying when you just can't stop. Her twin brother Dean was in that rampage. She had lost him forever. She ran out of the coffee shop, tears streaming down her face. Andy shouted to her "Alice! Stop!" She stopped, "what?!" she screamed from the middle of the road. Then it hit her. The truck that had hidden the criminals. Andy was crying now, he had always loved her, he had never told her and now he never could. He held her mangled body sobbing, not caring who saw or heard his anguish. Cal was glad Lala had the sense to cover Jessica's eyes; he was fixated in horror at this gory death. Jordan went to pull Andy away, he whispered something in his ear and he stood up, pulled out a knife and started cutting off his fingers. "Is this proof enough for you?" he spat at Jordan. He walked away playing with the knife. Jessica looked up at her big brother with a pitying look of pure terror on her young face. "I don't want to die" she whispered in his ear, "I'm not going to let you" Cal whispered back.
Lala hugged Jordan, Cal and Jessica then muttered to herself "told them so". She seemed so bitter about the whole situation that she was almost unrecognisable. Jordan took her hand and led the other three to his old mustang. He was the only one who seemed calm so Lala and Cal followed. Only Jessica held back, she told them not to, that the car would crash into spikes. Jordan just laughed and said he would drive extra carefully if Jessica was scared. Cal couldn't leave his little sister! He apologised to Jordan and told him that they were going to get ice cream. He turned to Lala, "you want to come?" a hopeful smile played on his lips. How could she say no? "Sorry Jordan, that ice cream sounds too good to miss".
You could tell this really annoyed Jordan, why didn't they trust him? He was sure that they hated him, after all the whole world already did. He self-harmed to get away from it all, to escape his past. He thought to himself. To hell with it! He was going to die anyway! Why not make it on his own terms? What did that dumb kid say? Spikes? He knew where to find them! He sped over there as fast as he could, not caring who else got hurt. He hated himself. He hated his life. He was ending this once and for all. The past couldn't stop him now. The spikes hit him at 130mph. He had crashed into the sculpture where his life had changed forever and where it ended.
Lala looked up from her ice cream and screamed. It was all over in the blink of an eye, too fast to cause him pain. This time, Jessica covered her eyes. She didn't need to see this; she wouldn't be able to cope with this. Her boyfriend and best friend were still in school when the psychopaths broke in and slaughtered everyone. Lala pulled her hand away from Jessica's and ran. Just running till she couldn't breathe. She stopped for breath next to a delivery truck, panting. She couldn't hear the hiss of hot tar behind her; she never saw the first droplets drip behind her. She only knew what was happening when it was too late to do anything. The hot tar was burning her skin, cooking her alive. Andy watched her screaming and writhing in agony with a look of pleasure on his face. She begged him for help! BEGGED! He would never beg.
Cal found out that Andy watched Lala die and didn't help her. He hunted him down; he didn't want to hurt him. Only talk to him. "How could you watch her die?! She loved you! You were like her brother! She trusted you more than anyone else in the wold!" Cal screamed at Andy, but he was indifferent to the screams of abuse. "Surprise" Andy muttered. He pulled out a gun and shot Jessica straight in the chest. Cal dropped to his knees sobbing; all his life was rushing away from him. He clutched her in her arms begging her not to leave him. He couldn't imagine life without her there. She was the only family he had left. He was so distraught and in such agony that he stopped paying attention to Andy, stopped paying attention to his surroundings, shut the world out. He never saw Andy put the gun to his own head. He never heard Andy apologise. He never heard his goodbyes.
The police officers didn't care that he was in tears, they just wanted to know what had happened. They didn't care his little sister was dead, she was just another case to them. The more he thought about her the more he tried to kid himself that she wasn't really dead. He kept saying to himself that all he needed to do was wish for her to come back and she would walk into his room holding out a doughnut and put their favourite song on. He wanted to hear her laugh and smile one last time, he couldn't bear this misery. People told him he lucky to have escaped death! Lucky!? He didn't want to be lucky…
He went out for a run, hoping that it would clear his head. He never looked where he ran now. He left life to chance. Not caring how much he got hurt. His headphones turned up full, his feet slamming against the concrete. He was pushing himself, going as far and as fast as he could. He ran past the post office, the police station, the bakers, the superstore and the bank. He stopped for breath. Music pounding in his ears, heart racing like a boy driver. He couldn't hear the screams of panic or gun shots from the bank. He saw the explosion then nothing. He hadn't seen the shards of glass coming straight at him. Never felt the pain of getting sliced in half.