Chapter 6

"I hate children," Katarine muttered, waiting outside the room of her apartment's pool. That was Katarine's passion-swimming. She and her parents lived in one of the nicest apartment building in Mt. Abraham with probably the biggest indoor pool, and the most terrifying waterslide, and relaxing hot tub that you could imagine.

Unfortunately for Katarine, however, Jana Browning lived in this apartment building, too, and it was her birthday. That meant forty 6-year-olds all jammed into the same pool, yelling and screaming and splashing. As far as Katarine knew, that also meant there was a good chance these kids would be spitting, sneezing and peeing as well, and she got their leftovers.

Katarine's mom, Lor, agreed to help Jana's mother, Trish, supervise the party, but this was only to instead convince Trish to stop the party earlier than intended. Lor wanted Katarine to practice as hard and often as she possibly could if it meant her getting better at it.

"Mrs. Browning told your mom they'll only be five more minutes, then it's all yours," Alec told Katarine, rubbing her shoulders.

"They'd better be," said Katarine with a glare toward her mother.

"Five more minutes, guys!" Mrs. Browning announced to all of the kids in the pool.

"Wait mommy, one more time on the water slide!" Jana begged.

"You have five minutes."

"I wanna get on the slide, too!" shouted a little boy.

"Me too!" shouted a little girl.

"Well then come up!"

"I missed you guys more than you believe," Justin told Seb and Gen, taking a seat next to Morgan. He held one mug in each hand. "Here," Justin handed one to Morgan.

"Thanks," said Morgan.

It wasn't till then that Seb had even noticed that it was the first time he'd actually heard Morgan's voice. When Gen heard him speak, she was automatically drawn back to the only other time she had heard his voice.

Jesus! Genevieve, we gotta get out of here. Come on!

"Who sits around watching the news all day?" Justin laughed, nodding toward the TV. It had been on the last few times Justin had visited, and they had all sat in front of the TV the entire time, not moving from their spots. No one bothered to discuss it before then.

"Seb," Gen sighed. "It's all he watches now. He's like, obsessed over Andrea."

"With good reason," Seb slouched forward and stared into the coffee mug in his hands.

"What's going on?"

Gen rolled her eyes. "He thinks we're all gonna die."

"Why?"

"Because Andrea died. And now he thinks since we were supposed to die in the collapse, we're all gonna die anyway."

"Bullshit."

"Exactly."

"Just because she died, it doesn't mean anything."

Seb lifted his head. "Sam Lawton died on Flight 180."

"Who?"

"Sam Lawton."

"Am I supposed to know who that is?"

"He survived that bridge collapse from a few months back."

"And?"

"He wasn't supposed to. He told all the cops that he 'saw it in his head'. So he got eight people off of the bridge, and now all eight of them are dead."

After a long silent moment, Gen let out a loud but short sigh. "I'm calling bullshit."

"Why?"

"Because that's not possible."

"What's not possible, Gen? You're saying that it's not possible for this guy to see the bridge collapse before it happened? Because last I checked, you did. And Andrea's dead. So who's to say the same won't happen to all of us?"

"Because it's not like Death is gonna waste whatever time it has chasing after us. This is stupid."

"Gen, these people have died in ways that are barely plausible, but they did. What're the odds of the only survivors of a freak disaster dying in barely plausible accidents within just a few months after it? One girl died during laser eye surgery. The machine started before the doctor prepared her. She lost one of her eyes, slipped on a button, and fell out a window."

"So?"

"One guy died getting acupuncture. A massage. The table broke, the room set fire, and a statue of Buddha landed on his head."

"Get to the point," Gen demanded, teeth clenched.

"One girl was a gymnast. She was on the bars. Another girl landed her foot on a screw that was point-up on the balance beam. The girl fell off the beam and knocked the chalk bowl over as the girl on the bars jumped. She got the chalk in her eyes, couldn't see, and she ended up landing wrong. Her spine snapped."

All Seb was trying to do was pound the ideas into her head to freak her out, and Gen knew that. "What're you trying to say?"

"Katarine," Morgan muttered, pointing to the TV. It broke the tension immediately, as everyone turned their heads to look at what Morgan was pointing to. Justin turned the volume up.

"And this collapse resulted in the death of nineteen-year-old Katarine Hart, daughter of Alec Hart, who both just survived the Mt. Abraham Parking Lot Collapse only a month ago. Hart has decided against suing the family who threw the party, saying that no money in the world could buy his daughter back."