Back to the Theme Park

Brian is dead.

I kept repeating this horrible message in my head, to see if my body could accept the fact that I was never going to see him again. He was like a close friend to me, and my future brother-in-law. The more I thought of it, the more I felt like it was my fault. If I'd stayed at Aunt Lily's, they wouldn't have gone to the café, and Brian would still be alive … or would he? I closed my eyes and felt wholly responsible. Suddenly, a creeping thought came into my mind in a voice completely unlike my own. It spoke with a greedy sneer "…if Kerry wasn't so determined to boss me about, she wouldn't have gone looking. If she hadn't gone looking, Brian would still be alive …" I felt sick at the disgusting thought. How dare I blame my sister for this? After all, I was the one who had this vision … I swore out loud and kicked the bedside cabinet.

Kerry had stopped crying out loud in Aunt Lily's other spare room for a few days now. The first week was, almost, unbearable. We stayed here all week mourning.

Mom and dad phoned us the night it happened and decided that they would bring us home after the funeral, which was going to take place in a week and four days, this Wednesday. I looked out at the garden through the window. It wasn't raining, for the first time since the incident at the café. I hadn't heard from Julie since last Saturday, when she left me a message apologising for our loss and telling me that more had to come. I hated her for it, but she was right.

I didn't understand why she was still alive. I felt ugly for thinking it, but the truth was that it was her turn to die next, but she hadn't. Not yet … I thought about it. If she hadn't contacted me in a while, maybe she was dead. But a thought nagged in my head. Something she had said before about the boy in the padded cell: Kevin. "But the thing is, until he dies, nothing can happen to me. I'm safe …" And I wondered. As long as she is alive, maybe death won't chase us? Does this mean that we're all relying on Kevin? But another thought came. Julie died in the premonition, which meant she was going to die nevertheless. But I prevented her death there.

I was confused. Maybe death decided to start anew. Maybe it skipped Kevin because there was no chance of him dying other than a natural cause; after all, there are no physical dangers in a padded cell.

I shivered.

All this thought of death and padded cells made me feel sick.

The phone beeped. I had another message. I clicked the "open" button to see it was from Julie. She was alive, after all. The message read: We really need to talk. This is urgent. Lives depend on it. Meet me around the corner of your Aunt's house if you can. Text back. Julie.

She was panicking.

I replied "See you there." And left the house. Nobody had bothered speaking to me properly since Brian died. They wouldn't care if I left the house. Kerry was ruined and mourning, whilst Aunt Lily kept herself to herself.

I walked around a corner to see a familiar dark blue car swerve around a later corner. It stopped and a door opened. Julie came out looking panic stricken.

"It's been some time," she said, out of breath. I nodded. She caught her breath.

"How's your sister been?" She asked.

"She's had better days." Was my reply. There was an awkward silence that I broke. "What do you want?"

"We need to find out whose next. The sooner we do, the better." Julie said.

"It's you." I said.

"No it isn't." Julie said. I frowned.

"How the hell can you be so sure?" I asked sceptically.

"Because I … I stopped it from happening. At the café." She said.

"Then it's my sister. Does that make you feel better?" I snapped.

"No it isn't." She said again.

I was getting extremely frustrated. It was me who had the vision, not she. Why was she bossing me about? She sighed.

"Look," she started, "That day at the café, when the coffee machine exploded I pushed you and your sister down. If I hadn't, your sister and I would have been caught in the explosion. You have no idea what could have happened." She said looking, almost, satisfied. I grinned.

"One problem with that theory. In the vision, Brian died before you and Kerry."

Julies face dropped. She looked annoyed.

"Has it not occurred to you that he might have still been alive, in the vision, when she died?" Julie hissed.

"You mean 'we' it wasn't just my sister. You died too." I growled. "Now, if you just wanted to piss me off, you've happily succeeded, now leave me alone." I turned around and was ready to set off back to Aunt Lily's.

"Wait!" Julie called. She turned me around, "There are still people who are going to die. And you. You can still prevent this!" She blurted. I wanted to hit her, but it wasn't in my nature.

"So what do you expect me to do? Draw a diagram of whose next?" I joked.

"It would help." Julie said with gritted teeth, "look, the people who are in danger have families just like Brian did. Do you really want them to suffer the same pain you have? Don't think I haven't felt it too … Wendy was my sister." Julies' eyes watered. She was realising it all as she said it, and looked hurt.

"Ok." I said. There was an understanding pause as our eyes met once more. "The only person I can remember seeing … after- Kerry." I thought hard. All I could see was the image of Kerry falling. It made me feel terrified and sick. If what Julie said was right, she was safe. Suddenly, a pretty face appeared in my mind, with blonde hair.

"A girl" I stumbled, "a girl with blonde hair, I don't know her name but she was holding onto a handbag and she -" I stopped. An incredibly icy chill suffocated me for the first time in ages. Everything went white. I felt my knees buckle. Before my eyes came an image. I saw the image of Julie with her middle fingers up at the camera, and her friends at the theme park. The image seemed to flicker and turn into something else. It was blurry as if it was moving. There was writing. "High Di e" written vertically in bright lights on a large ride. I could see a dark "v" having blacked out in between the "i" and the "e." There was a rush of wind and an echo of old, joyous, screams and cheers as the ride flew upwards and downwards. The image was moving. Then something exploded and I saw Brian's face before me looking shocked as he flew his arms to protect himself from the hot coffee and shards of glass. I heard Kerry's scream as his dead body formed in front of me in a white mist.

"Sam! Sam!"

I opened my eyes.

I was lying on the hard pavement with Julie leaning over me looking horror stricken.

"High Dive," I gasped as I was helped up off the floor, "A ride called High Dive, have you heard of it before?" I asked Julie in a hurry, "Come on you must have seen it before!" Julie nodded quickly.

"It was one of the rides at the theme park the high school went to – why?"

"It has something to do with the girl, I know it. I think it's the cause of her death." I said, sounding confused and looking shocked at what I was saying.

Julie looked about as if seeking a random post with an arrow telling us where to go. She looked at me.

"We need to go the theme park, now." She said, "It's a few miles from here – get in the car, come on!"

We both ran to the car and as soon as we slammed the doors and buckled our belts in tight, Julie slammed her foot down on the accelerator. The tires screamed against the road and the car jolted off.

The car sped down the road as fast as possible. Now and then it had to stop at traffic lights behind other cars, when, finally, we came to a motorway and Julie stomped even harder down on the accelerator. The car flew down the motorway. Every five minutes I found myself looking down at my watch, wondering if this girl was still alive and whether or not we were wasting our time. Inside my heart, I knew that she was definitely at the theme park. It was as if I'd known it for a long time, like it was a date we'd made. I was panicking more and more.

A large rollercoaster track came into view. I heard Julie's breath quiver when she caught sight of it. We'd arrived at the theme park in just over an hour. Julie parked the car awkwardly in the car park and we wasted no time in sprinting up to the paying desk.

Julie threw her purse down on the desk without opening it. The worker behind the desk look at her with disbelief; he was probably wondering if she was mad. Suddenly, I caught a flash of blonde hair flicking passed and heard a tittering laugh. Walking passed a large merry-go-round I saw the pretty, blonde girl. She was with two other girls, one with very short brown hair wearing a cream coloured fleece, and another girl with blonde, short, curly hair who held a sporty looking rucksack.

I ran after them, ignoring the worker shouting after me. Julie shut him up by thrusting a handful of dollars at him and then ran after me.

A massive crowd of people bustled around me, and I lost sight of the girls. I span around and caught sight of Julie who was calling for me, looking in a different direction. Then, I saw it … HIGH DIVE.

It was a monstrously tall tower with seats crowded around it. The seats were lifting high in the air and dropping, then lifting again, and dropping. The people riding it were laughing ecstatically.

I ran towards it and saw the girls in the queue nearing the front. I yelled out as loud as I could, but my voice wasn't loud enough to over power the crowd laughing and the riders cheering. The ride slowed down and came down slowly. The safety belt holders flew up, letting the riders get off.

Then the people in the queue got on, including the girls.

I waved my arms and shouted at them

"DON'T DO IT! GET OFF! LISTEN TO ME! GET OFF OF IT! PUT THE BELT BACK UP! GET OFF!" The blonde girl with the short hair had put down her bag and looked up, right at me. She grimaced, and then looked away.

"YOU STUPID BITCH YOUR LIFE IS AT RISK HERE!" Julie had found me. The crowd became denser as they watched the riders pull their safety belt holders down and click them locked, nice and tight. The blonde, pretty girl was giggling. The girl with short brown hair pulled a face and removed her hand from the side handle on her safety belt holder. Her hand was covered in chewing gum. The other girls laughed at her as she flapped her hand about, trying to get it off of her hand.

A coldness came over me. I knew what was going to happen. An image flashed before my eyes quicker than any other image. I saw a young boy doing exactly the same, flapping his hand with a wod of gum stuck to his fingers on a rollercoaster. The image disappeared and I saw the ride had already started. It was lifting really fast and the girls were screaming with joy. Julie hadn't seem me blank out, she was flaying her arms and shouting at the ride attendant in the box.

Suddenly, a noise so similar to the drawbridge clanking deafened everyone. I jumped and span around. Above us, the ride was wobbling uncontrollably. The girl's high-pitched screams were no longer full of joy, but fear. From what I could see, as the crowd ran, pushed and screamed, the safety belt holders had come loose, and the riders were cascading from the ride and plummeting. One fell into the crowd and I heard a huge uproar.

Julie was staring, horrified, at the whole incident, her eyes wide. Suddenly, with a loud bang, a large section of the ride came swinging into the side crowd. There was a sickening splat as half of it was flattened and silenced.

The ride continued to jump up and down.

The ride assistant was smacking buttons but they made no difference.

"Stop the ride please!" The blonde, pretty girl screamed. The friend with the curly, blonde hair was no longer on the ride. The brunette friend was gripping on to her safety holder with all her strength.

The ride stopped. The crowd gasped.

The ride started to raise very, very slowly. The girls were struggling to hold on. It raised higher and higher and, finally reached the top of the tower. The girls were crying. The crowd was screaming at the ride attendant who ran out of his box, cowering.

Then the ride fell down the tower. With a flick, a twist and a blur the brunette swung out of her seat and shot up in the air. The ride wasn't going to stop. The pretty, blonde girl held on for her life and screamed her last scream as the ride collided with the solid, cold ground with a deafening smash.

She opened her eyes.

She was sweating.

The ride hadn't started.

I was gasping for air. I'd just had another vision! Julie was yelling up at the girls. The brunette was flapping her hand. The chewing gum was sticking her fingers together. It hadn't happened yet. I opened my mouth to scream once more, but the blonde, pretty girl did it first.

She struggled with the safety belt and screamed louder than ever, as if she was having a fit. Everyone looked perplexed, including her friends. Julie looked at me quizzically.

"-gonna crash, we're gonna die." I heard her sob. I shook my head in utter disbelief. We'd shared the same vision … but she must have seen it from her own point of view.

The ride attendant rolled his eyes and slapped a button. The safety belts in the row in which the pretty blonde girl sat in flew upwards. She jumped out, shaking and sobbing. She pleaded to her friends.

"Get off it! It's going to crash!" The friends grimaced at her. She turned away and fled, crying hysterically. The belts came back down and the ride started. I turned around and watched as the pretty blonde girl stopped in her tracks, span around and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"STOP THE FUCKING RIDE!"

The ride flew upwards and, just as she and I had envisioned it, it clattered and clanked, and the belts flew upwards, and people fell.

The blonde girl ran to the side crowd and screamed upwards at her friends with grief. But something happened. Something that sickened me as I realised what was about to happen to the side crowd. I screamed over at her and she noticed me.

"GET AWAY FROM THERE! RUN!" I shouted at her.

She looked at me with her pretty, but tearful eyes and the large, metal piece of the ride cracked off and flew in her direction. It happened too soon that she couldn't move in time. It flattened her in one swift movement and dragged her crumpled body with it across the other people in the side crowd, leaving behind a scraped carpet of blood.

Julie swore. I gasped. The ride stopped.

It didn't move. It was still. Something had happened.

I looked over at the ride to see the brunette girl slip out of her seat and run screaming and crying hysterically towards the crowd. She tripped and hit the floor, swearing and crying.

Death had skipped her.

The crowd screamed for ages. People were tended too by the numerous ambulances that came, and the remainders of the bodies were bagged up and taken away. The brunette girl was being seen too. I didn't approach her.

Julie held my hand. She was shaking uncontrollably.

"Let's go," she said.

She led me to the car and I sat down. My throat was burning.

"Death skipped her," I whispered. Julie nodded.

"It happens. But it'll find its way back. It always does." She said.

"She had a vision." I said. "The blonde girl had a vision."

"I know," Julie said.

"We had the same vision," I said. Julie looked at me abruptly.

"What?" She looked worried.

"Me and the girl, we saw the same thing." I said, looking at her concerned.

Her expression softened.

"Oh … how was that possible?" She asked. I shrugged.

"But it doesn't make any difference. She died." I choked.

"It couldn't have been helped. She was stubborn-"

"-so that makes her unworthy to live?" I snapped.

"No!" Julie breathed, "God, no. I didn't mean that! I meant she'd never had listened to reason. Her stubbornness would have gotten the better of her."

There was a painful silence as I tried to absorb all that had happened.

"Is it my fault?" I asked, "Is it my fault these people are dying? Every time I'm there, they die!"

"No, Sam don't think like that! It happens whether or not you're there! Death happens. It's an everyday thing. It's just happening now, more often, because …" she stopped, "… we need to fight this. You're not stubborn, you have an open mind! You can beat this!" She was crying.

I hugged her and cried. I was so scared.

"Thank you," I whispered to her, "Thank you."

She let go of me and, somewhat, threw me away from her. She cried into the steering wheel. I looked at her, taken aback.

"What?-"

"I can't believe I'm doing this to you." She sobbed. I wiped my eyes.

"It's not your fault-"

"But it is." She snivelled, "I've been lying to you all this time." A shuddering silence. She took a breath.

"What?" I breathed.

"The bridge – all the deaths – the premonition. You weren't the only one." Her eyes glittered at me. Her face was tear strewn and her arm was quivering on the steering wheel. "I was in that car, when the pole went through the window. But I didn't die. I jumped out of the way in my seat. It caught my leg. It was shattered. I stayed in my car and eventually crawled out. I saw you get killed. I watched it all happen, too. I saw Brian die after your sister. When he fell he latched onto a pole sticking out of one of the construction lorries. When your sister fell, the pole fell out of its grip and Brian fell with it. The coffee machine explosion at the café was meant to kill your sister first, but I prevented her death. I just couldn't help Brian." I felt numb. I stared at her in complete disbelief. I found my voice.

"So that's how you knew for sure it wasn't you or my sister next." I said.

Julie nodded.

"Why didn't you try to stop the bridge accident like I did?" I said. Julie snivelled and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"I wanted to. I was frightened. I'd been through it two times already but from Wendy's visions. Now it was my turn. I felt terrified to think my fate was the same as hers. I couldn't act fast enough. I saw you running and I watched as you stopped us from getting caught in it all. I felt responsible for not moving first. I needed to help you. That's how I felt."

I hated the silence that fell.

I hated the car I sat in.

I hated the pitiful girl who sat beside me.

She had left me to think I was responsible for the bridge accident.

She was going to let me fall into a pit of confusion and tragedy.

"I'm here to help you, Sam. Please don't hate me." She said as if she'd read my mind. I looked deep into her eyes and felt warmth that I hadn't felt for a long time. A comfort that had long been lost for so long. The word "sorry" wasn't enough. But she was in the same position as me, after all. She'd been through it all two times before, and I couldn't imagine how traumatising that could have been. I gave a weak smile and nodded, and held her trembling hand for comfort.

She gave a weak, teary smile and snivelled.

That one moment in time I felt a happiness I could never had believed would have occurred. I wasn't alone anymore. I had someone to help and understand me until the very end.

She turned the keys and the car started and reversed. As she drove I realised something that killed the warmth and happiness immediately. Something that frightened me to the extent of letting out a small gasp as cold, frozen hands seemingly grasped my throat.

I was next.