A/N: So that's one down...
The afternoon sun cast an amber glow over Garfield Park. Harry, Lucy and Jenna were sat around a picnic bench. A partially stripped tree, despite it only being the middle of summer cast a finger like shadow alongside them.
"Hey..." Darren greeted Harry as he sat down opposite him, taking the final space.
"Hi," the other three responded, none of which were particularly enthusiastic as all three were still reeling from the notion that Death was hunting them.
"Look, just because that businessman actually died, doesn't mean that what that Ed kid said is true, besides that was over a week ago now... perhaps what happened to those others isn't going to happen to us."
"Perhaps," sighed Harry, not really believing it.
"He did in a freak accident though, just like those others..." said Jenna, trembling.
"Maybe Darren is right. Let's stop worrying for now at least," Harry said, just to put Jenna's fears to rest more than anything, "now, lets catch that movie."
The four stood up and walked out of the park, but before leaving Harry couldn't help but notice that shadow. It had a curved piece and next to it was an oddly straight line for a tree branch. It looked remarkably like a noose and a spike...
Maria Hernandez was watching the news on television. She wasn't really playing attention to it, instead she was replaying the day the train crash had occurred in her mind, and how she would have been on it had Jonny not stopped to shout at that kid. Her fiancé, sensing her troubles put his arm around her.
"Hey, we didn't get on it and we're fine, and that's all that matters," he reassured her, "I think we should go to Ty's party, perhaps it'll take you mind of that."
"Yeh, okay..." she accepted.
"I'll go fetch our costumes," with that he left the room and returned a few minutes later brandishing two outfits. Maria's was a witch and he had a skeleton costume, "Okay, could have been a better theme, I admit, but the offer still stands." Even though it was summertime, Jonny's friend, Ty, had decided on a 'spooky' theme for his birthday.
"It's fine, let's get changed."
Harry was at home, flicking through the TV channels, when there was a knock at the door. His parents, now back from their holiday, were at work and Jenna was away at a friend's house who she had met after leaving the cinema, which meant he had to see who it was. Opening the door revealed Officer Gibson.
"Mr Murphy, I need to speak to you, may I come in?" He asked.
"Sure..." Harry replied, moving out the way to admit the Officer.
A few minutes later, they found themselves sat opposite each other at the dining table. Spread out on the table were photographs of all the survivors. Michael Letterman's photo had a large red cross on it.
"As I understand it, you saw had a premonition, so you avoided getting on that train. By doing that you saved some others by accident. Now they're going to die unless we intervene," Officer Gibson stated, in a serious tone.
"How do you know about this?" asked Harry, surprised at the Officer's knowledge of the situation.
"Right after you lot left that day, I received an e-mail from an old friend; Thomas Burke. He's been through this before. I took him a week to persuade me that he wasn't talking nonsense," he explained then paused for thought, "How do you know about this?"
"That Ed King kid, he owns a blog on the internet all about this, after we left the station he showed us it ."
"You didn't think to inform the police?" asked Officer Gibson.
"We were rather distracted of the fact that we have been chosen to die, if I'm honest," Harry rationalised.
"Fair enough," Officer Gibson accepted.
"You said 'unless we intervene'... what did you mean by that?" asked Harry.
"Ed's blog didn't explain that then, according to Burke, if you intervene, like he did with his now wife Kimberly, death skips them and puts them at the end of the queue, so to speak."
"Wait..." a thought formed in Harry's mind, "There's two people that survived? How?"
"He didn't say," replied Gibson, looking glum, "Right now though, people's lives are at stake and I need to know who is next. Can you rearrange these photos into the order this died in your premonition?"
"Sure." Harry set about placing the pictures in the correct order. Starting by putting him at the end. Michael's was already at the beginning, so it was just a case of filling in the middle then. He wasn't quite sure which of the couple had died first, so he placed them on top of each other, followed by Ed then the ticket collector, Dave, Jenna, Lucy and finally himself, "There."
"Thanks," Officer Gibson stood up, sliding the photographs carefully so that they formed a pile whilst keeping the order intact. He had walked all the way to the door before Harry rushed after him.
"Wait! If I can help, I will. Let me come with you." Harry pleaded.
"I can tell that you're not going to take no for an answer are you...?" He paused for a second, "go on, then," He replied. Harry scrawled a note saying he was out and left it by the phone, before closing and locking the door behind him.
"So, how do we save them?"
"I don't know, push them out of the way or something like that. First we've got to find them."
It was just gone midnight when the final few stragglers left Ty's house. It was a fairly large house, with a homely feel too it complete with white picket fencing.
" Hmm, I must have lost my noose at some point," perused a departing guest, who had come as a hanged man, "Oh well... It was a great party mate."
"See you sometime," Ty said, shutting the door behind the guest, he turned around to find Maria stood there, in full witch costume.
"Have you seen Jonny?" She asked.
"Out back, I think, probably still swimming," he replied pointing at Jonny's costume that was hanging on a coat peg, they had all been asked to bring swimming gear just in case they wanted to use the facilities, "I've just gonna help the wife tidy up."
Meanwhile, Jonny was indeed enjoying a late night swim when a branch snapped and fell off one the trees in the yard, it landed on a switch; the switch that operated the pool cover. As a result the cover began to close. Jonny didn't notice until it was over half way close and when he did attempted to climb out the pool. However, the noose that the hanged man had misplaced during the night was in fact trapped in the pool filter and as Jonny tried to get out, the noose wrapped around his ankle. Unfortunately it wasn't just a prop noose, and as he struggled, it only tightened more. All the while, the cover was nearing ever closer until it connected with Jonny's neck. The motor driving the cover began to work overtime as it attempted to finish its journey, crushing his windpipe in the process, and choking him. Then, with a sickening crunch, it completed its job, decapitating Jonny Rockwell in the process, the headless body staining the pool red as the head bounced onto the poolside. If it was any consolation, he died from the lack of oxygen just a moment before he lost his head.
It was unlucky that at moment, Maria decided to check on Jonny and promptly screamed at what she walked in on.
Outside, a police car pulled up and Officer Gibson with Harry in tow got out. Simultaneously, they leaped over the picket fence and ran to the front door. Upon hearing an extremely loud scream, burst through the door and hurried straight through to the backyard, just in time to watch Maria rush over the her deceased fiancé's head and slide on the water, now mixed with blood, that he had splashed over the side. As she slid, one of her heels snapped and sent her pirouetting round so that when she fell down, she was facing the night sky. That was the last thing Maria Hernandez saw before she was impaled on the picket fence, the point sprouting through her neck. Her head lolled over the other side and the witch hat fell to the ground. Blood trickled down the pristine white fencepost.
Harry then knew that Death was going to let them off easily.
A/N: I'm going with the theatrical releases as the canon for this story. Basically, Kimberly and Thomas are alive... that's about the only major difference.