Chapter Seven

Ruby's Declaration

"I-I saw a crash… a…" Tanzi put her hand to her head, thoroughly disoriented. Her eyes were wide in shock and, Ruby saw in dismay, horror. "On that bridge up ahead. There… There were racers and one of them crashed… it… it caused a chain reaction… people died…" Tanzi turned to Ruby. "I… experienced it, Ruby. Each time, I-I…"

"I understand." Ruby ran a hand through her hair. A small part of her was screaming as loud as it could but Ruby forced this deep into her chest. This wasn't like last time. She wasn't ignorant of the facts and no-one was withholding information from her. "When did it happen? Tanzi!"

Tanzi was still trying to get her thoughts together. She could still feel those feelings in her mind – the nine distinct minds of the people she had seen, no, had felt, die. Tanzi could still feel the twisted mind of the man under the bridge, could sense the euphoria of the street racer as he drove, could taste the blood in that male student's mouth…

"We don't have time for this!" Ruby seemed uncharacteristically distraught, staring a hole into Tanzi's eyes. "Please, Tanzi, tell me how it happened!"

Her friend's voice was nothing but a buzzing in her ears as Tanzi focused in on a minibus across the road, recognising it instantly. "That bus… that was…" Tanzi pointed as she spoke. "It caused the bridge to collapse when it exploded…"

"How did it explode, Tanzi?"

Tanzi looked to Ruby. For a moment she was back in the driver's seat of the minibus, drumming her fingers in beat with the music, listening to the student's chatter. Then she could remember looking across the road, seeing Tanzi's own Celerio and then seeing the… "The Volkswagen!" Tanzi exclaimed all of a sudden in realization then shook her head as if clearing spider webs. "But we were moving and I used the—I mean, he, the driver, he used the horn to warn us. But we're not moving this time and—"

"Tanzi!?" Ruby's voice was high with panic.

Tanzi didn't realise what Ruby was yelling about until she saw that the Celerio was moving forward. Tanzi found that she had pushed down on the accelerator pedal without realising it and had started turning, just like in her vision.

Then the two of them heard the deep honking of the minibus' horn and Ruby twisted in her seat to see the Volkswagen roaring up towards them. "Brake, Tanzi!"

However, instead of braking, Tanzi found herself taken by an unexpected urge. She could remember sitting upside down in that Volkswagen when it had gone off the bridge. That feeling of absolute fear when the train had bore down on her – on him; Tanzi knew that she could not let that happen.

So she turned the wheel and the car tilted to the left where the racer was planning on undertaking them.

The bonnet of the Celerio slammed hard into the boot of the Volkswagen, acting almost like a pitting manoeuvre. The Volkswagen lost control, skidding with a squeal of rubber on tarmac. The driver slammed on the brakes but couldn't stop himself from spinning in a complete circle before coming to a complete stop.

"Jesus Christ, Tanzi! Are you okay!?" Ruby immediately looked over to Tanzi.

Tanzi nodded hesitantly, completely pale. She couldn't believe she had just done something like that. She had just acted on instinct but… but now that driver wouldn't hit that sight, wouldn't hit that minibus. Tanzi looked over to the minibus across the road and saw the male driver look concerned as he passed over the intersection. Then he drove off and Tanzi found herself feeling oddly relieved. What she had saw wouldn't happen now – couldn't happen now.

Ruby looked at Tanzi for a long moment before she heard a very loud shout coming from the direction of the Volkswagen. She turned and saw that the door had swung open and a very angry looking little man stepped out and started towards their car. "Stay here, Tanzi, take a moment, okay?" Ruby stepped out of the car herself just in time for Jay Scythe to get right in her face.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing!?" He shouted, doing his best to stand his full height but only managed to reach Ruby's sternum. "Who the hell taught you to drive, you bitch! If I didn't know any better, it looked like you swerved into me but that would be fucking crazy now, wouldn't it!?" Jay's nostrils flared as he yelled at her. "You better hope I don't call the police for this shit. Do you know how much this is going to cost me!? You better believe I'm going to get you to pay for it!"

As Jay paused to take a breath, Ruby crossed her arms, looking down at the little man. "You're full of hot air. One, I wasn't driving. Two, you were clearly driving illegally. Three; you're not going to call the police if you know what's good for you."

This seemed to fluster Jay enough to calm him down somewhat. "E-Excuse me? What did you just say?"

"You're a street racer," Ruby pointed to the lack of license plates on Jay's vehicle. "Look. You call the police I think they're going to have some questions about that."

"Y-You…"

"And let's be real. There are enough eye-witnesses around here to report exactly how erratically you were driving and-" Ruby motioned to the road and as if on cue five more cars drove past, the driver's barley even glancing at Jay's crash. In fact, Ruby could have sworn she saw one of them laughing gladly. "Oh look, there are your friends. So I think I'm going to call the police. What do you reckon? Can I take your name, Napoleon?"

"Don't—" Jay flared up again.

"Stewart little?"

"You—"

"Mad Hatter?"

"It's Jay Scythe, for Christ's sake!" Jay breathed heavily after his outburst and saw Ruby's smug expression. "Shit."

Ruby had already reached into her pocket to get out her mobile. "Jay Scythe, eh? And what's that, a Volkswagen? Heavily modified… I think I have all I need to—"

Red-faced and now extremely worried, Jay sprinted back to his car. Moments later he reversed from his sprawled position on the road and drove off as fast as he could. Triumphantly Ruby put her mobile back into her pocket.

"We… We should call the police, right? I mean, I just crashed into him and we… we ought to report him…" Tanzi asked from behind Ruby. She had gotten out of the car but was still looking shaky on her feet. It looked like the vision had taken more out of her than Ruby initially thought. However it did seem like Tanzi's attention had managed to focus again.

"No," Ruby shook her head. "We need to go back home."

"But… what about work?" Tanzi asked weakly. Those feelings she could remember from whatever she had just seen were still in her heart. She knew that it wasn't just a daydream – it couldn't be. She had never had nor ever heard of a daydream that was so realistic.

"We'll call in sick. This is more important." Ruby ran her hands through her hair, letting the red ponytail trail through her fingers. "We need to talk about what just happened to you… and what is going to happen."

"…What… is going to happen?" Tanzi looked lost.

"Not now. Let's get back home. We should have a little time to work with before it starts."

The journey home had been a strange one. Ruby had gone quiet and seemed lost in thought as Tanzi drove them back home – the damage to the front of the Celerio was only superficial. They had rung work to tell them that they weren't coming in – which resulted in a disappointed exchange with their manager. Luckily for the two of them, they had worked near perfect hours since they had started so the situation wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Tanzi pulled into the driveway and shut off the engine, glancing to Ruby. She just got out of the car and made her way into the flat. Alone in the car, Tanzi found her thoughts starting to grow. Just what had she seen in that… what did Ruby call it, a vision? She had never experienced death in her life before but the ones she had seen… they had felt so real, so visceral. She could still smell the acrid smoke that had come out of the minibus, still hear the roaring of the train before it hit Ruby, still feel the chill on her skin as the train had crashed into her and the girl…

Shaking her head quickly before the thoughts overwhelmed her Tanzi got out of the car and entered the flat. She walked through the hallway to see Ruby standing in the kitchen, holding a glass of water. She seemed completely lost in thought, staring down at the swirling water as she gently moved her hand.

"…Ruby?"

Ruby looked up to Tanzi slowly. "I've told you about Sabrina Holland before, haven't I?"

"Yes. You… You spoke to me about her a year after her death after we…" Tanzi crossed her arms. "You cared for her very much."

"I loved her," Ruby said without needing to think about it. She leaned back on the counter, placing the glass down on the side. "She had her flaws… she made her mistakes… but I loved her. She killed herself to save me, you know?"

"She…" Tanzi wasn't too sure what to say to that. "…You never mentioned how she died or… or why."

"I don't think there's an easy way to say it so I suppose I'll just… say it. That vision you had… it was a vision of the future, at least that's the way I've come to think of it. In that future you saw a number of people die… including yourself. We prevented that future and so… Death… will come to gain those lives that were stolen from him. He doesn't seem to like being cheated."

"I didn't just see them die, Ruby, I did die. Each time." Tanzi didn't mean to sound so firm but Ruby didn't seem offended. However, she wasn't too sure how to take Ruby's words but looking into Ruby's eyes she saw firm resolution and knew with certainty that Ruby believed what she was saying without a doubt. "…So you had a vision before?"

"Not me," Ruby shook her head, the red bright in the sun cast from the kitchen window. "Sabrina. But… in order to protect me, Sabrina withheld vital information. Tanzi… do you still remember everything that happened in the vision? The order of the deaths?"

Tanzi nodded. There was no way she was going to forget, not for as long as she lived.

"We're going to need to write down that order. That's the list. It's the order that accidents will happen in an attempt to kill those that we saved. There were eight of us on the first list… well, nine, if you count Lily… though she was an anomaly… I never did understand that. There's such much I still don't know." Ruby frowned. "But of those eight, I'm the only survivor. I mean, Bridge and Jason were unaccounted for… but how could they have survived, when the cost of living was so high?"

"…And what is that?" Tanzi asked.

"The life of the one you love," Ruby said with a slight tremble in her voice. "Sabrina… was torn. She had a bleak past and a fragile mind. I believe she intended to kill me initially but… something I said or something I did changed her mind. Instead, she used me to… to stab her…" Ruby drew in a slow, deep breath. "Because of that… I guess Death felt that the life of a loved one is a worthy sacrifice."

"…And is that the only way?"

"…That's the way Sabrina knew." Ruby ran a hand through her hair, closing her eyes. "I know so little… When the DSI contacted me and offered me a position… I refused. I wanted to live my life… I wanted to somehow be normal. But how can it be, when everything was just so fucked? I mean, in the short span of a day I saw too much death… I saw Sabrina murder a girl… I saw the skies tear open and I saw terror, Tanzi. I mean…" Ruby's voice finally broke and she started shaking slowly, her eyes still closed. "…Sabrina kissed me at the end. That feeling… that warmth turning to cold… Seeing the colour in her eyes fade… feeling… feeling…"

A silence filled the kitchen. It was a silence filled with grief and regret. Tanzi could only stand in the doorway, watching Ruby shake. She had never seen her like this, not even on that night a year after Sabrina's death.

Finally Ruby opened her eyes and Tanzi saw that it was filled with determination. "I will not let it happen again, Tanzi! I will not let human lives be… be ignored and sacrificed. Sabrina felt that not telling me what was going on, about her smaller visions, about the list, she felt that she was protecting me but she was wrong. No matter what, we cannot play with human lives. I think I was the only one who felt that. I firmly believe that everyone died because we failed to connect at the beginning. Eddy… Jason… Corey… Meagan… Trenton… Bridge… Lily…" Ruby squeezed her fingers tightly into a fist. "…Sabrina. I've made sure to remember their names. I wanted to remember them. I never thought it would happen again but now that it has I have a chance to… to redeem what happened. Tanzi, we are going to find everyone that you saw die. We are going to tell them what is going on. I don't care if they don't believe us, we'll make them."

Ruby drew in a single, sharp breath.

"I will not let a single person die!"