"The…the boat…" John stuttered. "You…were right."
"I saw it, it felt so real…then it…it just happened."
"But…how?"
"I don't know John, all I know is I just wanna go home…I won't be going on another boat in a long time. Not after what just happened."
"Me neither. Come on, let's go."
All the students piled back onto the bus, all murmuring about George, and about what just happened. None of them knew what had just happened, or what was going to happen. All they knew was that they were extremely fortunate to have escaped Death…for now.
"I-I'll drive this time, George." John said nervously.
"No, I can handle it."
"A-Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm just a bit shocked at what just happened that's all…"
"Well, we all are…"
"Yeah…well, let's get going."
"Who's going to tell Billy's parents?"
"I
will…it only seems right that I do."
"Okay, just try and
let them down gently…or as gently as you can."
"Yeah."
George got into the driver's seat and sat there for a few seconds before doing anything, thinking about what just happened. Was it just luck he was having a dream about a boat crash moments before it did, it was it something more sinister. It must have been more sinister than just a dream, it felt so real…almost as if he was actually there. But what they didn't know was that Death was going to seal up the rift, once and for all, making sure no more got out.
George put the bus in gear and started off – everyone just wanted to get home to their families though, and to mourn the loss of Billy Hector, all except for one person.
"All I can say is thank God we got rid of that jerk, Billy – am I right people?"
"Nathan, shut up, okay?"
"Hey, did you see the way his face 'lit up' when he saw those flames? Looks to me like he was glad he was going to die…he's not the only one."
"Nathan, I'm warning you."
"I tell ya, Satan will have some tough competition."
"Alright that's it, Nathan we are all scared about what just happened, we don't know how or why I had a vision and stopped us from getting on that boat, all we can do is consider ourselves lucky. Now if you have no consideration for Billy then I suggest you take your black heart somewhere else and go play on your computer or something." George shouted back to him.
With these remarks, Nathan sat down – he knew when to stop, but it was the fact that he started in the first place that made him so unpopular. He was extremely clever for his age, many people thought he was too clever so they started avoiding him and calling him names. But he wasn't a bad person, just very, very misunderstood and careless at what he said. He didn't fit in anywhere, yet tried to immensely and always failed.
Without warning, images started to burst into George's head, he started swerving all over the road – John ran up and grabbed the wheel, the images were of a man and what appeared to be his wife hanging off a cliff edge. George didn't know who these people were, but they seemed to be in danger, he regained his senses and rubbed his face. John was driving now.
"George, what happened? I told you you weren't up for this."
"I…had another vision."
"Another one?"
"Yes. This time of a man and a woman."
"Who?"
"I don't know, I didn't know them."
George started having another vision – this time of the bus rolling over onto its side after being hit by a truck, then colliding with another car, destroying it and the bus instantly.
"George, are you okay?"
"…I
just had another vision."
"Another one? What was this one
about?"
George was just about to answer when he noticed the truck on the other side of the road coming down the hill, not looking as if it were going to stop. He put the brake on.
"George, what are you doing? The light's green."
"There's going to be another accident…caused by that truck." He said, pointing to the truck going down the hill, and ignoring the hoots of the car behind him.
"George, I think you're taking this too far-"
"Hey guys, that's the crazy guy who stopped us from getting on the boat!" The guy in the car, belonging to a group of people who had stopped to hear out John and missed the boat, who's car was now next to them said "Look we're grateful for you stopping us from getting killed dude, but you could at least learn how to drive! Green means go, asshole!"
They started off their car again, laughing as they had been before George stopped the bus. One of the guys in the back turned and gave George the finger, but as he turned back to face the road, the truck that had been aimed for the bus of college students hit their car. All of the people in the car were killed instantly, and the truck rolled over onto another car…the same car as in George's vision.
"Y-You were right again."
There was a lot more murmuring now. People were starting to get really freaked out by what was happening.
"I…I think I have the ability to see the future. By changing it I caused those people behind us to die instead of us."
But George was wrong. Dead wrong. He wasn't seeing into the future at all. Death was just toying with him, it had gotten bored with just killing people naturally and so moved onto disasters. But that wasn't enough. Death decided to give people the chance to save themselves, giving them false hope, then slowly pick them off, one by one in the most creative ways it could think of. But Death had also grown weary of that, so it decided to take it one step further and make the victims actually cause their own deaths. Yes, Death was just toying with them, and now it was their turn to play with each other…
George slumped down on the sofa. It had been an odd day – he had saved his friends lives, yet caused the deaths of the other teens, and the people in the car that got crushed. He didn't know how he had had those visions, nor why he had, but he considered himself lucky to be alive. One thing he couldn't figure out though was who the people in his second vision were, the man and the woman on the cliff.
He decided to phone up John as he needed someone to talk to, and was starting to get more and more stressed out being all by himself. He picked up the phone and dialled John's number, but in his haste and worry he dialled the wrong number…instead he dialled Jessica Stevens number. Jessica was the mistress of Matt Ecclestone who had been seeing her for eight months now without either of their partners finding out. Jessica was just driving Matt back from their weekend getaway up in the mountains, and they were driving carefully down a twisty road.
Jessica picked up her phone and answered it, putting it in-between her head and her shoulder so she could still drive with two hands.
"Hello? Who is this?"
"Er, it's George – is that John?"
"No, this is Jessica Stevens."
"Oh…sorry, I must have the wrong number."
"That's okay."
George put down the phone and tried again, not realising what he had just done. Jessica failed to hold her phone in-between her head and her shoulder any longer and it fell down to the side of the seat. She peered downwards, in search of her mobile. She clasped it when Matt shouted:
"Jess, look out!"
Jessica swung her head round and saw a truck coming for them – she grabbed the wheel with both hands and swerved to the left, driving over a rock, and narrowly missing the truck and the edge of the cliff. The car rolled to a stop as it now had a burst tyre – they were on the middle of a hill, stranded. Jessica took the keys out of the ignition and went to inspect the damage. Placing the keys on the bonnet, she started to dial for some assistance.
"No signal."
"Damn, try again further down the road. Maybe it's just the location."
"Okay. It's started raining, I'll have to take my umbrella."
Jessica grabbed her umbrella from her bag, and threw it down, the strap wrapping itself around the handbrake. She went down the hill to the edge and started dialling again. This time she got an answer. She called Matt over as she wasn't sure where they were entirely, and how far from the nearest town they were. It would take up to half an hour for help to come for them.
Suddenly, lightning struck the car, causing Jessica to step backwards in shock, slipping and falling over the edge. Quickly thrusting her arms out she grabbed onto the edge.
"Matt, help!"
Matt held out his arm to Jessica, but lightning struck again. This time just behind Matt. He turned round and slipped, also managing to hold onto the edge. They were both now hanging over the edge, struggling to hold on. Then, it started to hail. Hard. Death was toying with them, having fun at watching them squirm in peril.
"Oh great, now what?"
Below them was a drop to certain death – there were no nearby rocks to grab onto, and no footholds in the drop. They were going to be stuck there until help arrived. Or so they thought.
"Well I guess we have to wait until help arrives-"
Matt was cut off by the sound of lightning again – this time striking the car keys, igniting the car and sending it up into the air – it landed with a thump, the right way up – in the middle of the road. The jolt had caused Jessica's handbag to gently slide off the seat to the ground, pulling the handbrake down with it.
The car was now in motion, alight and heading straight towards Matt and Jessica, them unable to do anything.
"Quick, shuffle to the sides – maybe it can just fall between us!"
They both shuffled to the sides, eager to get away from the hastening vehicle. The car rolled towards them, and they just managed to get out of the way just in time before the front wheels rolled over the edge, thumping the bottom of the car.
"That was close-"
Matt was cut off by the car doors slamming both him and Jessica off the cliff edge. There was no chance they could have survived. Once again Death had claimed another victims, but he wasn't satisfied with just two…he had a whole bus to kill before the rift was sealed up once and for all…