PROLOGUE

"Death is the destiny of every man;

The living should take this to heart"

Ecclesiastes 7:2

Just as the first leaf from the Maple tree glides subtlety on the pavement, it was a sure sign that autumn started to commence. Autumn is known as the season of the end of life, the beginning of death, luckily though this cycle of life and death is something that only affects nature, not humans. Anyone who sees a leaf slowly turning yellow knows that it would be a matter of time before that leaf would simply be blown off by a small gust of wind and be forgotten as if it never existed. We never pay attention to these details; after all we do have a life to live, we never have the time to take notice of these things. But what we fail to realize is that in so many ways we are that leaf, oblivious to the fact that in a higher element of existence we too would be separated to the branch of the tree of life, we too would one day cease to breathe, we too would know that we are not forever. It is after all, the only destiny that all of us human beings share, we die.

But what if we had a chance to see our death?

Would we change our fate?

Should we save ourselves?

After all when we have to die we will die, so why should we interfere on a grand design much more superior to our own understanding?

But a deeper question is this:

Why should we even get a chance to see our end if that was the purpose of a higher power?

Shouldn't we have just died and let the world go on living without any interference whatsoever. So we are left to ponder if our death is for the greater good or just a game of a playful devil who intends to ruin an original design intended. And if that's the case maybe that higher power sends us warnings in forms of omens to tell us about our impending doom, our only chance of survival is to see the signs, just as Travis Bava has been warned.

We will see the signs

A teenage boy somewhere between 17 and 18 with inky black hair, lay motionless in his bed drifting somewhere between being asleep and being awake, his sleep (though he would barely consider it sleep) was on and off. Caffeine wasn't the reason to as why he couldn't really doze off, but fear and anxiety were the perpetrators. It wasn't as if he never was uneasy every time there was a long trip, any long journeys made Travis nervous, so therefore Travis wasn't about the journey however he was about the destination. He always had a sickening feeling inside. Maybe it was the fact that his mother had died on a flight disaster when he was still young which psychologically traumatized him.

That's why he wasn't really anxious two weeks ago, when his history teacher told the class that they were taking a field trip to Philadelphia for the entire weekend. At first he was just as excited as the next guy until Mr. Franco informed them that they would have to take the train. Though it didn't matter to the other students but Bava's case was different. So for the next two weeks he lost no time trying to make subtle but obvious comments that he wasn't even that interested to take that trip. Unfortunately his father knew him too well and knew his real reasons. He tried to take his fear to his therapist (who he was allowed to call Maggie) hoping to agree with him, but instead told him that the trip could help him. His friends knew that he was freaked out about the trip though they didn't know how serious it was. So now Travis lay in his bed with his half-opened brown eyes, sleepless and restless.

But that night he felt something else aside from fear, he felt malignancy, something he never felt for a long time, trying to avoid his fear evolve to paranoia, he was now desperate for a cure for his insomnia. He at last gave up trying to sleep and walked around his bedroom hoping to tire himself out. But as he walked around he started to notice things he wouldn't ordinarily notice, like a magazine on his study table with its front page almost fully obscured with a book showing only a subtitle that should've read PROTECT YOUR EYES WITH SHADES, but instead it only showed the final word excluding the first letter HADES. Travis stared emptily at his desk for what seemed to be like a minute before he exited his room to take some pills to mentally soothe him. He walked quietly from the hall, careful not to disturb his Dad and stepmother in their own bedroom, toward bathroom to take some sleeping pills.

He swallowed two pills then returned the vial in the first aid cabinet. However before he could shut the cabinet his eyes were drawn (for no apparent reason) to the warning: OVER USAGE COULD RESULT TO NERVE DAMAGE AND EVEN DEATH. With his eyes fixed only at the last word, he thought to himself Just have fun, tomorrow. However another omen was shown to him when he was back at his bedroom. It happened when he touched his way around his dark room accidentally knocked off his model train from his study table and fell over a pile of clothes. He turned on his table lamp and saw that the train on top his Iron Maiden T-shirt with the image of the GRIM REAPER showing its scythe.

After five minutes of lying in his bed and waiting for the effect of the pills to kick in, Travis was still awake but now with a throbbing headache (from the non-effective pills). He finally decided to watch television until he dozes off, which is usually his last resort. Careful not to creak any floorboards, he headed down to their living-room where he immediately turned on the TV, grabbed the remote and lied on the couch. Lowering the volume as much as possible Travis started to flip through the channels, finding nothing remotely interesting (channel 176 – late night comedy, channel 177 - rerun sitcom, channel 178 - Spanish soap, channel 179 – war documentary…)

Channel 180 showed the cartoon "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" and with the cartoon Grim saying "It's time for me now to harvest your mortal souls…" And with that Travis quickly turned off the television and tried his best to fall asleep, though very disturbed at the chain of events that happened that night.