Chapter 2 – The First Victims
"So you say you had a premonition?"
"Yes." John told Officer Burke, who was now questioning him.
Officer Burke glanced thoughtfully. He knew he'd come across this somewhere before. But where? And when? Then it struck him. Him, and his new wife, Kimberley, who had only got married and moved to England so they could protect each other and have a fresh start, had been in the exact same situation. In fact, it was Kimberley who had had the premonition of a devastating car crash moments before it happened.
"Oh God." Officer Burke muttered. "It's happening again."
"What is?"
"You're not safe, in fact, no-one whom you saved from that train crash is safe. Not one...single...person is safe."
"Why not?"
"You were meant to get on that train, John."
"Oh, so now you're saying I was meant to die? Thanks a lot..."
"No, let me explain it a bit better. You see, Death has a design, we're meant to die, when we're meant to die. If someone screws up that design, then Death has to come up with a new design, and a new way for you to die. And now, Death is slowly moving towards all those people you saved, and all those people you stopped from getting on the train in the first place."
"So, what you're saying is that I'm going to die soon?"
"Yes."
John was gob-smacked. He'd heard cases of this before, in fact, that was why he hadn't gone on the train in the first place.
"H-How do you know all this?"
"Well, I was in a situation just like this, only one year ago."
"You mean that huge car accident in America?"
"Yep. I was actually meant to die two years ago, but if that kid hadn't gotten of off Flight 180 I would have died that very day. Instead, I'm still waiting for my time to come"
"You and me both, buddy." John joked.
"This is not a laughing matter, this is a very serious situation!" Officer Burke snapped "You and your friends are in grave danger!"
John stayed still. He'd never been shouted at this badly, not even by his parents.
"Maybe I'd better not send you to a nice, warm, safe jail cell, and let you face this alone, then you'll see that I'm telling the truth."
"Maybe you should."
"You may leave."
John got out of his seat, and quickly left before he changed his mind, and went back to his friends.
"He just let you off?"
"Yep!" John told them. "No charge or anything!"
They all cheered in celebration.
"Well, I don't quite know what you were thinking yesterday, but I hope you're back to normal." Laura said.
"Yeah, but the officer was really weird. He said something about Death's plan, and that we were supposed to die in that train crash. By not dying then, we've screwed up Death's design, and that he'll come back to get us."
"Yeah, right. What a weirdo."
"Count yourself lucky, you didn't have to be interrogated by him."
"Goodnight, mum." Harry Patrick called to his mother.
Mrs. Patrick came and sat beside her son, and kissed him goodnight.
"Mum?"
"Yeah?"
"I miss Jodie."
"I do too sweetheart, I do too." She sniffed, hugging her son.
Outside, their dog, Jasper, barked frantically.
Mrs. Patrick sighed. "What's wrong with him now?"
She looked outside and saw that he'd somehow gotten tangled up in his lead that was tied to the tree, and was struggling to breathe.
"Oh my God!" She cried, running downstairs.
Harry looked out of his window to see Jasper struggling frantically to get his lead off. Then, without making a sound, Jasper fell to the ground.
"Jasper! No!" Harry cried, running downstairs to join his mother.
"Death's design, my ass!" John cried as he chugged another pint of beer. He looked up towards the bar TV.
"And in local news, it seems that the Patrick's, who, in an unfortunate rail accident, lost their daughter Jodie just a few days ago, when she was cycling across the crossing and got hit by the train causing her bicycle to derail the train, have now had to withstand another loss. Of their family dog, Jasper." The news reporter droned.
"That's odd."
"What is?" Bobby asked.
"In my vision, there was a dog too. In fact, there was a boy, a girl and a dog, and it was the girl's bike that got lodged in the train somehow, causing it to derail."
"Whoa, what a freaky coincidence."
"Yeah. And it's just made me think about what that police officer said, about Death's design."
"What about it?"
"Well, the boy and his dog were both killed instantly by the train when it hit them, but they were clearly safe from it."
"So?"
"So, going by the police officer's logic, they should be next, and it seems to be going through in that order."
"Don't worry about that, it's just a coincidence."
"Just seems odd, that's all."
"Yeah, well, enough worrying."
"Yeah, I suppose. Pretty weird though."
The funeral for Jasper was the next day. Mr. and Mrs. Patrick laid him down into the ground on a shovel, then started to cover the ground with dirt. A few of Harry's friends had turned out for it, as they knew Jasper quite well.
"We're sorry for your losses." Harold Jenkins, a friend of Harry's told the parents.
"Why thank you Harold. That's But I don't think you'll be going to another of our family's funerals for a long time. We're taking extra precautions now that two close family members have died." Mrs. Patrick managed to stop herself from crying for a few moments, before succumbing to tears once again.
"How?"
"Well, for example, I just got the kitchen windows double-glazed."
"That must be expensive."
"Well, it's a small price to pay for our family's safety."
They got on with the funeral, and everything was going swimmingly, until Harry decided to get a glass of water. He went into the house, and reached up to get a glass. He managed to get one, but it fell to the ground, smashing onto his foot. His fingers wrapped around the glass, and he brought it down from the shelf. He brought it to the tap and poured water into it. He rested it on the tabletop, failing to notice the crack that ran down the side of it, allowing the water to flow through it, onto the floor.
Harry opened the fridge to get out some ice cubes; he reached up, but couldn't reach. He turned round to get a chair, but slipped and hit his head on the inside of the freezer.
"Ow!" Harry cried.
The wind howled, and the back door slammed shut. Harry was trapped in a room with no ventilation, slowly getting colder and colder. His ankle was sprained, and his foot was in pain so he couldn't easily move away from the freezer, without causing major discomfort. He was slowly, but surely freezing to death. He screamed to his parents, but to no avail.
John threw his shoes into his apartment and slammed the door behind him. He had been out drinking again with his mates, and just wanted a long rest, tired from a hard days drinking.
He lay down in his bed, and switched the TV on.
"Harry Patrick was found dead in front of his freezer last night, as somehow he had slipped and landed in front of it, and quite literally, froze to death. The family was attending their dog's funeral at the time, and said they could hear no screams coming from the kitchen whatsoever."
"Oh my God!" John cried.
Officer Burke had been telling the truth. Death was coming for him, and his friends. He had to warn them. He ran out of the house, and to his friend's house. He had to warn them before it was too late. But first he wanted to talk to Officer Burke.
"Where's Officer Burke?" John cried as he barged into the police station.
"He's at a meeting, sir. Do you want me to schedule an appointment?"
"I need to talk to him urgently. Which room's he in?"
"He's on the second floor, room 18."
"Okay, thanks."
John ran upstairs and into the meeting room.
"May we help you?"
"Er, can I just talk to Officer Burke for a moment please?"
"Well, I don't know, Officer Burke, do you want to reschedule?"
"Not really, but it could be urgent."
Officer Burke got up, realising it was the same man who had the premonition, who'd probably come back for answers.
"What can you tell me about Death?"
"I thought you'd ask something like that." Officer Burke smugly told him. "You see, Death moves in mysterious ways. When our time's up, our time's up. And we can't avoid it. Easily. But when we do avoid it, we screw up Death's design, and he has to make a whole, new one. So when you don't die when you're supposed to, you're going to die some time later."
"Why haven't you died then?"
"I don't know, I was supposed to die three years ago a few days ago, but nothing's happened."
"I could have guessed that."
"You and your friends are in grave danger, you need to be careful. You, and all those people who you stopped getting on that train are doomed. They will die in the order that they were going to die, unless you save on of them, in which case it skips past that person and moves onto the next."
"Then what?"
"Then it starts all over again."
"Not if I can help it."
"You can't."
"Maybe not, but I'll give it a damn good try."
"Good luck. Try to not disrupt Death's plan too much. Oh wait, you already did."
"Yeah, whatever. Thanks, anyway."
John left the building, and ran down the stairs, and into the street. He had to get to his sister and her friend, Jess. They were the next victims.
But they weren't. There were other people other than his friends who hadn't gotten on that train, whom he'd forgotten about. The people that didn't make it through the barriers on time.
For example there was Simon Baron who was going to go in the first class carriage right at the very front, and be one of the first victims of the awful crash. But now Death had a new plan for him, as he walked across the street, to his home in Bakers Street. Simon opened the door, and went in. It was quiet, as it usually was. He'd just divorced from his wife, and was recovering the only way he knew how. Drinking and smoking. He sat down and switched on the TV; more news about death. He switched it over to find a horror film on, nothing interested him, and so he just switched back to the news. He thought he might as well know something about the world around him, if not important.
"Why the hell is there never anything good on?" He mumbled to himself, lighting up a cigarette, and pouring a 36% alcoholic drink.
"The horror of this awful train crash is devastating. Families are mourning the loss of their loved ones, and sympathizing with the people who lost friends or relatives, in this awful accident."
Simon stared at it in shock. He could have been on that train, if it weren't for the ticket barriers being screwed up, and him having to be delayed by around a minute, making him just miss the train. He was severely shocked. He didn't take his gaze from the TV, as he lifted the glass to his lips.
The next thing he felt was a vast burning sensation around his facial area, then he collapsed, dead. He had lit himself on fire, being too absorbed by the TV to take out his cigar, burning himself upon impact.
"And in local news, Simon Baron was found dead in his apartment, with severe burns to his face. Police are investigating this, although they seem to be convinced that it was suicide, as they have no suspects. Simon was a reserved man, recently divorced from his wife, who, apparently had cheated death before, as he was supposed to get on the 8:29 train that crashed last week, but never made it as the barriers were broken. It seems as though the train station equipment not working was a good thing for once."
John gasped as he heard this. Of course! How could he be so stupid? He'd probably stopped 2 or 3 people, and he had no idea where they came in the pattern of Death. He had to get their records of where they were going to sit. But how? He could go and ask them, but then why would they tell him? He was just a nobody. A pathetic nobody who'd happened to get caught up in one of the most bizarre phenomenon there ever was. He would never be able to find out where they were going to sit. At least he knew that one person was out of the way.
He knew the order in which his friends were going to die, but he didn't know the order in which anyone else was. Everyone was at risk as far as he was concerned. He had to be careful not to change anything, as that could affect everything.
He ran outside and to his Jess's house. She was the next to go. He saw it in his vision. Then it would be his sister, Laura. He gulped. He couldn't bear to see his sister die, so he had to stop that at whatever cost, even if it meant the others dying, he would not let his sister go.
He ran into the streets and searched for number 25. He couldn't find it. He ran up and down the road for at least five minutes before he finally found it. He banged heavily on the door, waiting, waiting for an answer. Any answer.
The door creaked open, and Jess was standing there. He immediately embraced her.
"Oh thank God, you're okay!"
"What are you doing, John?"
"Look, you're in great danger!"
"Why? What are you talking about?"
"I need to come in to explain it to you."
He entered the house and sat down, and started explaining it all to her.
"So, what you're saying is...I'm going to die soon?"
"No, what I'm saying is you're going to die next. I don't know when you're going to die, I just know that you're going to die next."
"Why me?"
"Out of all the people that got off that train, in my vision, you were the first to die. Therefore, you are the first to die in real life, as Death tries to seal up the rips in his design."
"John, that's stupid."
"It may sound stupid, I know, but it's totally real. Jess, you're the next to die."
"You're right that does sound stupid, now if you don't mind, I really have to get some sleep."
"But-"
"Just go."
"Just be careful, okay?"
"Yes, I'll be careful, don't worry, and now leave me to sleep!"
John left the house, but started to turn back, then thought against it, as it would only anger her. She'd be careful, she was that sort of person, and it was his sister he was worried about. And he had to protect her, no matter what...
Jess trudged back upstairs to her room, but stopped when she heard a noise coming from the attic. She turned round and looked upwards to see whether she could hear anything else. Then there was a slight clang. Her first thought was that someone had broken in through the attic window, and was tripping over the many piles of junk she had up there. But it was something worse. Much, much worse.
She reached up to open the attic door, and pulled the handle, unlocking it. The door fell open, and she peered upwards into total darkness. If someone was in there, then they wouldn't have been able to see much. It was pitch black.
"Hello, is anyone up there?"
There was no answer, and no more noise coming from the loft. Jess tried to get the ladder down, but it appeared stuck. She went into her bedroom and got a chair to stand on, so that she might be able to reach the ladder, and gain access to the loft. She stood on the chair and peered up. She switched the light on, and saw that it was just a box with her old TV in, which she meant to get rid of, but, like most things in her loft, she hadn't gotten round to shifting it yet. It had gotten stuck, preventing the ladder from moving.
She reached up and grabbed the box with both hands, and started to shift it. But then, she tripped, and the ladder gave way, pushing her to the ground, and trapping her in-between the last rung and the ground, choking her. She tried to remove the ladder, but the box had got lodged in-between the ladder and the loft opening.
She struggled in vain, but to no avail. She gave it one last shove, and it moved upwards, dislodging the box, causing it come crashing down on her head. She was killed instantly.
John ran down the street, towards his sister's house. He had to stop her death, he just had to. He would never forgive himself if anything happened to her. John arrived at his sister's house. He just prayed it wasn't too late. He opened the door with his spare key, and ran in, calling for her.
"Laura! Where are you?"
"John? I'm in the living room. Why are you here?"
"Laura, you're in great danger!"
"What are you talking about?"
John ran into the living room, and saw his sister there, watching TV.
"John, what're you doing here?"
"Laura, oh thank God you're okay!"
John embraced his sister, and sat down beside her, then explained everything about Death's design to her.
"So, what you're saying is that me, you, and all of our friends who didn't get on that train the other night, are going to die?"
"Yes."
Laura looked shocked, she didn't know what had gotten into John, but something was going on.
"If it's all the same to you, I'm going to carry on watching TV." Laura told her brother.
"Yes, okay. I'll stay here to protect you."
He sat down beside her, and watched the TV with her.
"And in local news, Simon Baron sadly passed away last night, due to excessive burns to his face. Police are still baffled by this bizarre occurrence, and urge anyone who knows anything to come forward. It seems that he was due to get on the 8:29 train last Friday, which unfortunately crashed, killing several people, and injuring more. It seems that he would have actually made it onto the train, but for the fact that the barriers were getting fixed at the time. Other people who just missed it are George Dufway, Mary Jenkins, Jane Murdoch & David Wilkins."
John gasped. There were more people that Death was going to come for. His friends weren't the only ones. He started to think back to his premonition, but was distracted when the TV went fuzzy. Laura got it up to see what was wrong.
"Oh, a cable's come loose. I'll just put it back."
John rushed up, and stopped her.
"No!" He cried. "I'll do it, don't you worry!"
He attached it back to the TV, and it went back on. They both went to sit down again.
"John, I think you're taking this a bit too far."
"You can never take something like this too far."
John started to relax now. He might have saved her from certain death, but he wasn't sure. Then it struck him. He had to either stop her dying while she was about to die, or he wouldn't know whether it had skipped her or not. He didn't even know whether it had skipped her now. He either had to wait for her to nearly die, then try and stop her, or see whether it had already skipped her, and was going for someone else.
He had to be more careful in future. He had to be.
"I'm just going to get a midnight sandwich, do you want anything?"
"No, thanks."
Laura went into the kitchen, and got a knife out of the drawer, and some bread out of the bread bin. She reached into the fridge, and got out the butter, but accidentally dropped it onto the floor. She reached down and picked up the lid, which had spilt butter all over the floor. She put the bread in the microwave, and started defrosting it, then rested the knife horizontally on the microwave. She started the kettle boiling, and started to clear up the butter, just noticing that she'd put her knee in it.
"Goddammit!" She cried.
John rushed in immediately.
"What's wrong?"
"I just spilt some butter, that's all."
"Oh. Okay."
John went back into the other room, still cautious of the danger that could happen. Laura finished cleaning up the butter, and got up, to pour her cup of tea. She sipped at it, and went to check on the bread. It hadn't quite defrosted yet, so she had quite a bit to wait yet. She put her cup of tea on top of the microwave, and peered in through the dark screen to get a closer look at the bread. She started thinking about her brother, and how odd he'd been acting recently. The microwave beeped, startling her, causing her to cry out and knock into the microwave, spilling her tea into it. John ran in.
"What's going on?"
"I just spilt my tea into the microwave, there's no need to be so paranoid about everything."
Laura turned around to get a cloth, when John grabbed her, and pulled her down to the ground. The microwave exploded, sending shrouds of glass and plastic across the room, as well as the knife which lodged itself firmly into the wall opposite.
"Oh...God." Laura said, stunned.
"It's okay, Laura, it's okay." John said, hugging her.
"You...were right."
"Yes."
"It's coming for the others."
"Yes. We have to save them. We have to make sure there are no more victims."
THERE IT WAS, THE SECOND CHAPTER! HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT, PLEASE READ & REVIEW!
"So you say you had a premonition?"
"Yes." John told Officer Burke, who was now questioning him.
Officer Burke glanced thoughtfully. He knew he'd come across this somewhere before. But where? And when? Then it struck him. Him, and his new wife, Kimberley, who had only got married and moved to England so they could protect each other and have a fresh start, had been in the exact same situation. In fact, it was Kimberley who had had the premonition of a devastating car crash moments before it happened.
"Oh God." Officer Burke muttered. "It's happening again."
"What is?"
"You're not safe, in fact, no-one whom you saved from that train crash is safe. Not one...single...person is safe."
"Why not?"
"You were meant to get on that train, John."
"Oh, so now you're saying I was meant to die? Thanks a lot..."
"No, let me explain it a bit better. You see, Death has a design, we're meant to die, when we're meant to die. If someone screws up that design, then Death has to come up with a new design, and a new way for you to die. And now, Death is slowly moving towards all those people you saved, and all those people you stopped from getting on the train in the first place."
"So, what you're saying is that I'm going to die soon?"
"Yes."
John was gob-smacked. He'd heard cases of this before, in fact, that was why he hadn't gone on the train in the first place.
"H-How do you know all this?"
"Well, I was in a situation just like this, only one year ago."
"You mean that huge car accident in America?"
"Yep. I was actually meant to die two years ago, but if that kid hadn't gotten of off Flight 180 I would have died that very day. Instead, I'm still waiting for my time to come"
"You and me both, buddy." John joked.
"This is not a laughing matter, this is a very serious situation!" Officer Burke snapped "You and your friends are in grave danger!"
John stayed still. He'd never been shouted at this badly, not even by his parents.
"Maybe I'd better not send you to a nice, warm, safe jail cell, and let you face this alone, then you'll see that I'm telling the truth."
"Maybe you should."
"You may leave."
John got out of his seat, and quickly left before he changed his mind, and went back to his friends.
"He just let you off?"
"Yep!" John told them. "No charge or anything!"
They all cheered in celebration.
"Well, I don't quite know what you were thinking yesterday, but I hope you're back to normal." Laura said.
"Yeah, but the officer was really weird. He said something about Death's plan, and that we were supposed to die in that train crash. By not dying then, we've screwed up Death's design, and that he'll come back to get us."
"Yeah, right. What a weirdo."
"Count yourself lucky, you didn't have to be interrogated by him."
"Goodnight, mum." Harry Patrick called to his mother.
Mrs. Patrick came and sat beside her son, and kissed him goodnight.
"Mum?"
"Yeah?"
"I miss Jodie."
"I do too sweetheart, I do too." She sniffed, hugging her son.
Outside, their dog, Jasper, barked frantically.
Mrs. Patrick sighed. "What's wrong with him now?"
She looked outside and saw that he'd somehow gotten tangled up in his lead that was tied to the tree, and was struggling to breathe.
"Oh my God!" She cried, running downstairs.
Harry looked out of his window to see Jasper struggling frantically to get his lead off. Then, without making a sound, Jasper fell to the ground.
"Jasper! No!" Harry cried, running downstairs to join his mother.
"Death's design, my ass!" John cried as he chugged another pint of beer. He looked up towards the bar TV.
"And in local news, it seems that the Patrick's, who, in an unfortunate rail accident, lost their daughter Jodie just a few days ago, when she was cycling across the crossing and got hit by the train causing her bicycle to derail the train, have now had to withstand another loss. Of their family dog, Jasper." The news reporter droned.
"That's odd."
"What is?" Bobby asked.
"In my vision, there was a dog too. In fact, there was a boy, a girl and a dog, and it was the girl's bike that got lodged in the train somehow, causing it to derail."
"Whoa, what a freaky coincidence."
"Yeah. And it's just made me think about what that police officer said, about Death's design."
"What about it?"
"Well, the boy and his dog were both killed instantly by the train when it hit them, but they were clearly safe from it."
"So?"
"So, going by the police officer's logic, they should be next, and it seems to be going through in that order."
"Don't worry about that, it's just a coincidence."
"Just seems odd, that's all."
"Yeah, well, enough worrying."
"Yeah, I suppose. Pretty weird though."
The funeral for Jasper was the next day. Mr. and Mrs. Patrick laid him down into the ground on a shovel, then started to cover the ground with dirt. A few of Harry's friends had turned out for it, as they knew Jasper quite well.
"We're sorry for your losses." Harold Jenkins, a friend of Harry's told the parents.
"Why thank you Harold. That's But I don't think you'll be going to another of our family's funerals for a long time. We're taking extra precautions now that two close family members have died." Mrs. Patrick managed to stop herself from crying for a few moments, before succumbing to tears once again.
"How?"
"Well, for example, I just got the kitchen windows double-glazed."
"That must be expensive."
"Well, it's a small price to pay for our family's safety."
They got on with the funeral, and everything was going swimmingly, until Harry decided to get a glass of water. He went into the house, and reached up to get a glass. He managed to get one, but it fell to the ground, smashing onto his foot. His fingers wrapped around the glass, and he brought it down from the shelf. He brought it to the tap and poured water into it. He rested it on the tabletop, failing to notice the crack that ran down the side of it, allowing the water to flow through it, onto the floor.
Harry opened the fridge to get out some ice cubes; he reached up, but couldn't reach. He turned round to get a chair, but slipped and hit his head on the inside of the freezer.
"Ow!" Harry cried.
The wind howled, and the back door slammed shut. Harry was trapped in a room with no ventilation, slowly getting colder and colder. His ankle was sprained, and his foot was in pain so he couldn't easily move away from the freezer, without causing major discomfort. He was slowly, but surely freezing to death. He screamed to his parents, but to no avail.
John threw his shoes into his apartment and slammed the door behind him. He had been out drinking again with his mates, and just wanted a long rest, tired from a hard days drinking.
He lay down in his bed, and switched the TV on.
"Harry Patrick was found dead in front of his freezer last night, as somehow he had slipped and landed in front of it, and quite literally, froze to death. The family was attending their dog's funeral at the time, and said they could hear no screams coming from the kitchen whatsoever."
"Oh my God!" John cried.
Officer Burke had been telling the truth. Death was coming for him, and his friends. He had to warn them. He ran out of the house, and to his friend's house. He had to warn them before it was too late. But first he wanted to talk to Officer Burke.
"Where's Officer Burke?" John cried as he barged into the police station.
"He's at a meeting, sir. Do you want me to schedule an appointment?"
"I need to talk to him urgently. Which room's he in?"
"He's on the second floor, room 18."
"Okay, thanks."
John ran upstairs and into the meeting room.
"May we help you?"
"Er, can I just talk to Officer Burke for a moment please?"
"Well, I don't know, Officer Burke, do you want to reschedule?"
"Not really, but it could be urgent."
Officer Burke got up, realising it was the same man who had the premonition, who'd probably come back for answers.
"What can you tell me about Death?"
"I thought you'd ask something like that." Officer Burke smugly told him. "You see, Death moves in mysterious ways. When our time's up, our time's up. And we can't avoid it. Easily. But when we do avoid it, we screw up Death's design, and he has to make a whole, new one. So when you don't die when you're supposed to, you're going to die some time later."
"Why haven't you died then?"
"I don't know, I was supposed to die three years ago a few days ago, but nothing's happened."
"I could have guessed that."
"You and your friends are in grave danger, you need to be careful. You, and all those people who you stopped getting on that train are doomed. They will die in the order that they were going to die, unless you save on of them, in which case it skips past that person and moves onto the next."
"Then what?"
"Then it starts all over again."
"Not if I can help it."
"You can't."
"Maybe not, but I'll give it a damn good try."
"Good luck. Try to not disrupt Death's plan too much. Oh wait, you already did."
"Yeah, whatever. Thanks, anyway."
John left the building, and ran down the stairs, and into the street. He had to get to his sister and her friend, Jess. They were the next victims.
But they weren't. There were other people other than his friends who hadn't gotten on that train, whom he'd forgotten about. The people that didn't make it through the barriers on time.
For example there was Simon Baron who was going to go in the first class carriage right at the very front, and be one of the first victims of the awful crash. But now Death had a new plan for him, as he walked across the street, to his home in Bakers Street. Simon opened the door, and went in. It was quiet, as it usually was. He'd just divorced from his wife, and was recovering the only way he knew how. Drinking and smoking. He sat down and switched on the TV; more news about death. He switched it over to find a horror film on, nothing interested him, and so he just switched back to the news. He thought he might as well know something about the world around him, if not important.
"Why the hell is there never anything good on?" He mumbled to himself, lighting up a cigarette, and pouring a 36% alcoholic drink.
"The horror of this awful train crash is devastating. Families are mourning the loss of their loved ones, and sympathizing with the people who lost friends or relatives, in this awful accident."
Simon stared at it in shock. He could have been on that train, if it weren't for the ticket barriers being screwed up, and him having to be delayed by around a minute, making him just miss the train. He was severely shocked. He didn't take his gaze from the TV, as he lifted the glass to his lips.
The next thing he felt was a vast burning sensation around his facial area, then he collapsed, dead. He had lit himself on fire, being too absorbed by the TV to take out his cigar, burning himself upon impact.
"And in local news, Simon Baron was found dead in his apartment, with severe burns to his face. Police are investigating this, although they seem to be convinced that it was suicide, as they have no suspects. Simon was a reserved man, recently divorced from his wife, who, apparently had cheated death before, as he was supposed to get on the 8:29 train that crashed last week, but never made it as the barriers were broken. It seems as though the train station equipment not working was a good thing for once."
John gasped as he heard this. Of course! How could he be so stupid? He'd probably stopped 2 or 3 people, and he had no idea where they came in the pattern of Death. He had to get their records of where they were going to sit. But how? He could go and ask them, but then why would they tell him? He was just a nobody. A pathetic nobody who'd happened to get caught up in one of the most bizarre phenomenon there ever was. He would never be able to find out where they were going to sit. At least he knew that one person was out of the way.
He knew the order in which his friends were going to die, but he didn't know the order in which anyone else was. Everyone was at risk as far as he was concerned. He had to be careful not to change anything, as that could affect everything.
He ran outside and to his Jess's house. She was the next to go. He saw it in his vision. Then it would be his sister, Laura. He gulped. He couldn't bear to see his sister die, so he had to stop that at whatever cost, even if it meant the others dying, he would not let his sister go.
He ran into the streets and searched for number 25. He couldn't find it. He ran up and down the road for at least five minutes before he finally found it. He banged heavily on the door, waiting, waiting for an answer. Any answer.
The door creaked open, and Jess was standing there. He immediately embraced her.
"Oh thank God, you're okay!"
"What are you doing, John?"
"Look, you're in great danger!"
"Why? What are you talking about?"
"I need to come in to explain it to you."
He entered the house and sat down, and started explaining it all to her.
"So, what you're saying is...I'm going to die soon?"
"No, what I'm saying is you're going to die next. I don't know when you're going to die, I just know that you're going to die next."
"Why me?"
"Out of all the people that got off that train, in my vision, you were the first to die. Therefore, you are the first to die in real life, as Death tries to seal up the rips in his design."
"John, that's stupid."
"It may sound stupid, I know, but it's totally real. Jess, you're the next to die."
"You're right that does sound stupid, now if you don't mind, I really have to get some sleep."
"But-"
"Just go."
"Just be careful, okay?"
"Yes, I'll be careful, don't worry, and now leave me to sleep!"
John left the house, but started to turn back, then thought against it, as it would only anger her. She'd be careful, she was that sort of person, and it was his sister he was worried about. And he had to protect her, no matter what...
Jess trudged back upstairs to her room, but stopped when she heard a noise coming from the attic. She turned round and looked upwards to see whether she could hear anything else. Then there was a slight clang. Her first thought was that someone had broken in through the attic window, and was tripping over the many piles of junk she had up there. But it was something worse. Much, much worse.
She reached up to open the attic door, and pulled the handle, unlocking it. The door fell open, and she peered upwards into total darkness. If someone was in there, then they wouldn't have been able to see much. It was pitch black.
"Hello, is anyone up there?"
There was no answer, and no more noise coming from the loft. Jess tried to get the ladder down, but it appeared stuck. She went into her bedroom and got a chair to stand on, so that she might be able to reach the ladder, and gain access to the loft. She stood on the chair and peered up. She switched the light on, and saw that it was just a box with her old TV in, which she meant to get rid of, but, like most things in her loft, she hadn't gotten round to shifting it yet. It had gotten stuck, preventing the ladder from moving.
She reached up and grabbed the box with both hands, and started to shift it. But then, she tripped, and the ladder gave way, pushing her to the ground, and trapping her in-between the last rung and the ground, choking her. She tried to remove the ladder, but the box had got lodged in-between the ladder and the loft opening.
She struggled in vain, but to no avail. She gave it one last shove, and it moved upwards, dislodging the box, causing it come crashing down on her head. She was killed instantly.
John ran down the street, towards his sister's house. He had to stop her death, he just had to. He would never forgive himself if anything happened to her. John arrived at his sister's house. He just prayed it wasn't too late. He opened the door with his spare key, and ran in, calling for her.
"Laura! Where are you?"
"John? I'm in the living room. Why are you here?"
"Laura, you're in great danger!"
"What are you talking about?"
John ran into the living room, and saw his sister there, watching TV.
"John, what're you doing here?"
"Laura, oh thank God you're okay!"
John embraced his sister, and sat down beside her, then explained everything about Death's design to her.
"So, what you're saying is that me, you, and all of our friends who didn't get on that train the other night, are going to die?"
"Yes."
Laura looked shocked, she didn't know what had gotten into John, but something was going on.
"If it's all the same to you, I'm going to carry on watching TV." Laura told her brother.
"Yes, okay. I'll stay here to protect you."
He sat down beside her, and watched the TV with her.
"And in local news, Simon Baron sadly passed away last night, due to excessive burns to his face. Police are still baffled by this bizarre occurrence, and urge anyone who knows anything to come forward. It seems that he was due to get on the 8:29 train last Friday, which unfortunately crashed, killing several people, and injuring more. It seems that he would have actually made it onto the train, but for the fact that the barriers were getting fixed at the time. Other people who just missed it are George Dufway, Mary Jenkins, Jane Murdoch & David Wilkins."
John gasped. There were more people that Death was going to come for. His friends weren't the only ones. He started to think back to his premonition, but was distracted when the TV went fuzzy. Laura got it up to see what was wrong.
"Oh, a cable's come loose. I'll just put it back."
John rushed up, and stopped her.
"No!" He cried. "I'll do it, don't you worry!"
He attached it back to the TV, and it went back on. They both went to sit down again.
"John, I think you're taking this a bit too far."
"You can never take something like this too far."
John started to relax now. He might have saved her from certain death, but he wasn't sure. Then it struck him. He had to either stop her dying while she was about to die, or he wouldn't know whether it had skipped her or not. He didn't even know whether it had skipped her now. He either had to wait for her to nearly die, then try and stop her, or see whether it had already skipped her, and was going for someone else.
He had to be more careful in future. He had to be.
"I'm just going to get a midnight sandwich, do you want anything?"
"No, thanks."
Laura went into the kitchen, and got a knife out of the drawer, and some bread out of the bread bin. She reached into the fridge, and got out the butter, but accidentally dropped it onto the floor. She reached down and picked up the lid, which had spilt butter all over the floor. She put the bread in the microwave, and started defrosting it, then rested the knife horizontally on the microwave. She started the kettle boiling, and started to clear up the butter, just noticing that she'd put her knee in it.
"Goddammit!" She cried.
John rushed in immediately.
"What's wrong?"
"I just spilt some butter, that's all."
"Oh. Okay."
John went back into the other room, still cautious of the danger that could happen. Laura finished cleaning up the butter, and got up, to pour her cup of tea. She sipped at it, and went to check on the bread. It hadn't quite defrosted yet, so she had quite a bit to wait yet. She put her cup of tea on top of the microwave, and peered in through the dark screen to get a closer look at the bread. She started thinking about her brother, and how odd he'd been acting recently. The microwave beeped, startling her, causing her to cry out and knock into the microwave, spilling her tea into it. John ran in.
"What's going on?"
"I just spilt my tea into the microwave, there's no need to be so paranoid about everything."
Laura turned around to get a cloth, when John grabbed her, and pulled her down to the ground. The microwave exploded, sending shrouds of glass and plastic across the room, as well as the knife which lodged itself firmly into the wall opposite.
"Oh...God." Laura said, stunned.
"It's okay, Laura, it's okay." John said, hugging her.
"You...were right."
"Yes."
"It's coming for the others."
"Yes. We have to save them. We have to make sure there are no more victims."
THERE IT WAS, THE SECOND CHAPTER! HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT, PLEASE READ & REVIEW!