Chapter 7: Lunch Date with Death

Justin had tried to get a good night sleep, but he couldn't sleep peacefully with those gruesome images in his head. Ever since he looked at those drawings he had felt even more scared and confused than he ever did before.

As soon as he woke up the next day he examined the pictures again on his bed. He spread them out, and tried to see how they meant anything. So far he knew that each picture depicted what happened in his vision of the Aqua Dome collapsing. Each of them showed a grisly image of people dying, but what was strange about it was that they were all of those who got out of the Aqua Dome before the disaster happened.

He picked up the one where the podium exploded, and killed the security guards. For some reason he felt as if he sense the connection between the picture and the deaths of Debbie and Joe. He put the picture back down and looked through all the other pictures that were spread out across his bed.

Suddenly he stopped as he looked at one particular picture. It was the one that showed Jamal getting impaled in the head by a sharp piece of the podium after it exploded. He felt as if the picture was trying to tell him something even if it wasn't in words. He grabbed it and slowly picked it up. He stared at it, hoping for something to come to him.

"What am I supposed to find?" he asked himself his head.

All of sudden the picture burst into flames.

"Holy shit!"

Justin dropped the picture, and it fell back on his bed. But for some reason it didn't light up the bed as well. Then he felt a strong wind blow up against him. He looked up and stared at the bedroom window in front of him.

Suddenly huge flames burst through the window, and out of the fire came several sharp flying objects. They appeared to be some kind of small wooden stakes, and they were heading right towards Justin. Justin screamed and covered his face to avoid being stabbed there. However, he didn't feel anything at all. He cautiously lowered his arms away from his face, and saw that his window looked completely normal again. He looked down, and saw that the picture that supposedly caught on fire was fine too. He was breathing heavily, and was totally freaking out.

"What the fuck was that all about?" he thought.

He stared down at the picture, and picked it up again. He had no idea why that just happened, and no he was even more scared.

"What the hell's going on?" he asked himself.

Why were all these strange things happening to Justin for no reason? What could possibly be causing these horrific hallucinations? Nothing has made sense to Justin ever since he had that fist vision. Stranger and stranger shit just keep happening to him on a daily basis now.

"Justin," yelled his mom from downstairs which surprised him enough to make Justin jump a little.

"What?"

"Come downstairs I've made some lunch for you."

"Can't I just have it later?"

"The doctor said you need to keep yourself as hydrated and fed as possible. You wouldn't want to have another problem again would you?"

At this point Justin really didn't care about food all that much, but he knew his mother would just keep bugging him about it.

"Ugh! Fine I'll be down in a minute."

"Thank you."

He was much more concerned with the pictures than his appetite, but he felt that maybe a little food would help him think better. So he headed downstairs for lunch where his mom greeted him with a smile and hug. Deep down Justin was hoping that what just happened was the result of hunger, and nothing else. But in his mind he knew that it wasn't true.

Meanwhile…

A few blocks away in an average looking house a certain star athlete was ready to tackle the day. But most of all he was ready to go to his job that he has worked for the last six months. And who might this person be. It was none other than previous football superstar and all around good guy Jamal Jackson.

He got up that afternoon feeling as great as he usually does. He got dressed, grabbed his wallet, but he couldn't find his keys anywhere. He searched all around his room, but could not find them. So he went downstairs to the kitchen where his mother was stirring some eggs in frying pan. She spotted him coming in and smiled at him.

"Hey baby," she said.

"Hey mom."

He searched around the kitchen countertop to see if he had left them there by any chance.

"You want some eggs," she asked. "I know it's a little late for breakfast, but you're just on time for brunch."

"I can't mom you know I got work today."

"Oh baby you're still working. Its summer vacation you should be out on the beach or something, not spending your time listening to some whiney ass customers."

Jamal smiled and chuckled.

"Mom have you seen my keys by any chance."

She looked around and found them lying next to the coffee maker. She grabbed them once she spotted them.

"Found them! They were by the coffee machine."

"Oh yeah! I must have left them there when I made myself some coffee yesterday."

"Boy as smart as you are you don't exactly have the sharpest memory do you?"

"Ha, ha very funny. Hand them over here."

She tossed him the keys, and when he grabbed them his face cringed in pain.

"Ow!"

"What happened?" His mom stopped what she was doing as soon as she heard him.

Jamal opened up his hand and saw that when he grabbed the keys they cut his palm. He could see a tiny cut on it with a tiny ounce of blood coming out of it.

"Nothing," he said. "It's okay I just cut myself a little."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes mom I'm fine. Don't worry about me so much."

"I know, I know. So when do you think you'll be back."

"Not too long I hope. The boss just needs me for the lunch rush. That place gets packed during lunch time."

"Well okay. "Be careful then."

Jamal went up to his mom and kissed her on the cheek.

"I will mom. I'll see you later."

"Bye."

Jamal went out the door and into his car. He started it up, and drove off towards his job.

Back at Justin's house he had just finished lunch, and went back upstairs to his room. He went in and saw the papers still on his bed. That's when he started feeling uncomfortable again. He was so worried about what else might happen.

Suddenly one of the pictures flew off his bed and landed right in front of Justin's feet. Now he was really scared because he had no idea what could have caused the paper to fly out like that. Neither of his windows was opened so it couldn't have been the wind. He looked down and saw that it was Jamal's picture.

All of a sudden everything disappeared, and he saw the sharp wooden sticks flying towards him again but much slower than before. This time they were all covered in blood, and in the background he could hear people screaming. Then Justin just snapped back into reality again.

By that time Justin was convinced that something was wrong, and that somehow it all pointed to Jamal. Deep in his heart he felt like something bad was coming, but he didn't know what.

Immediately he pulled out his cellphone, and dialed Sadie's number. When he finished dialing he put the phone to his ear where he heard it ringing. It was already ringing a few times, and Justin was worried that Sadie wasn't going to answer.

"Come on pick up your phone. Pick up your fucking phone."

Then he heard it being picked up.

"Hello," said Sadie.

"Sadie! Sadie!"

"Justin? Justin is that you?"

"Yes, Sadie it's me. Listen I know this is going to sound insane but I think something bad is about to happen."

"Justin what are you talking about? You sound like you just saw a ghost or something."

"Nevermind that Sadie, listen! Something is going to happen, and I think that it's going to happen to Jamal."

"Jamal, what about Jamal?"

"I think he's in some kind of danger."

"Justin you're not making any sense right. So let's just calm down for a second, and explain this to me as slowly as possible."

Justin took a few deep breaths before talking to her again.

"Please believe me Sadie. As my best friend you have to believe me when I'm telling that something bad is going to happen to Jamal."

"What's gonna happen to him?"

"I don't know exactly, just something bad; like really, really bad. I need your help."

"I don't know Justin. This sounds kind of strange to me…"

Justin didn't know how else to explain it to her that would make any sense.

"…but if it will make you feel better I'll help you anyway."

Justin smiled in relief that his best friend at least gave him the benefit of the doubt.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Well my dad's car is in the shop so he took mine. I need you to drive over here as fast as you can. I'll explain everything else when you arrive."

"Okay. See you then."

"Great, but hurry."

They both hung up, and Justin ran downstairs. He went out the door, and onto his front lawn. He stopped, and stood there waiting for Sadie to arrive. While he waited he was anxiously hoping that nothing bad would happen to Jamal before he could find him.

After a few minutes of waiting, Sadie finally arrived. Before she could stop the car completely Justin immediately opened the door and ran inside. He quickly buckled himself in.

"Drive, now," he said.

"But Justin-"

"Just drive! I'll explain everything, but please just go."

And so without even saying another word Sadie started driving again.

"Okay," she said, "now can you tell what's going on because honestly I don't know what I'm doing or even where I'm going."

"How far away is Jamal's house?"

"It's just two minutes away."

"Good. Just head there, and hopefully he's okay."

"What do you mean hopefully he's okay?"

"I told you Sadie, I think something bad is going to happen to him but I don't know when or where."

"Well, what do you know besides this hunch you have?"

"It's not a hunch, okay. I just know it! And I don't much except that it involves flying wooden sticks."

"Oh great," said Sadie sarcastically. "Well that's helpful."

"Just keep driving."

Sadie continued driving until she parked right in front of Jamal's house. Justin jumped out of the passenger's seat, and ran straight up to the front door. He knocked on the door rapidly, and waited until someone opened it. It was Jamal's mother.

"Hi! Are you Jamal Jackson's mother?"

"Yes, how may I help you?"

Justin thought of anything he could use as an excuse, and decided to go with the first thing that popped in his head.

"Uhh yeah I'm a friend of Jamal's. I was supposed to return one of his CD's that he let me borrowed. Do you know where he is by any chance?"

"Well I'm afraid you just missed him. He just went off to his job."

"Job, what job? Do know where he works?"

"Well I can't exactly remember the name of it, but it's some kind of Swedish restaurant. It's somewhere downtown I think. If you want to I can just put it up in his-"

"That's okay I'll just give it to him in person."

"But-"

"Thank you Mrs. Jackson."

Before she could speak Justin bolted back to Sadie's car, and jumped right back in.

"Sadie, do you know the name of the Swedish restaurant Jamal works at?"

"Yeah I know what it is?

"Really?"

"Yeah I used to meet him there all the time when we dated. I could never remember the name of it, but I definitely know where it is. It's about thirty minutes away."

"Great! Drive to there right now!"

"Okay, okay just relax Justin."

"I will once I know Jamal's okay."

Sadie started driving into downtown San Francisco.

Meanwhile, across town in a small old fashioned looking restaurant known as Välsmakande kött och Fisk, there was a huge lunch rush and everyone on staff was busy as can be. Most of the customers were elderly people, with few young people. Every seat was packed, and waiters were running around trying to get everyone's orders. One of those busy waiters was Jamal who was going table to table getting orders.

In the restaurant there was a small but wide window that connected the kitchen with the rest of the serving area in which waiters could pick up the cooked meals. Today's special was steak and fish shish kabobs. The chef had multiple shish kabobs laid out on the grill while adding spices to them.

"Olaf!" screamed the chef. Olaf the person behind the check in desk came running to the small window.

"What is it this time?" he asked annoyingly.

"There are no more wooden skewers. Where did you put the new box?"

"Hang on I got them by my desk."

"Well hurry!"

Olaf ran to this desk, searched through it until he found the extra box of skewers, and then went straight back to the window and placed it on its countertop.

"There, happy now?"

He ignored Olaf's comment, took a few skewers out of the box, and continued cooking on the stove. Olaf stormed off angry.

Jamal came up to the window.

"Hey Sven, we need two salmon platters and one steak special."

"Ja!"

"Excuse me," said a customer behind Jamal. "Could we please have some menus over here?"

"Sorry I'll be right with you."

He grabbed a few menus and took them over to the people.

Sven started frying some salmon chunks on a frying pan, and flipped them over many times. Then he grabbed a bottle of vodka, and carefully sprinkled some of it on the salmon to add some flavor to it. He placed the bottle on the table next to the still active stove, but made sure that the bottle was closed. While he continued cooking a tiny crack appeared on the bottom of the bottle, and vodka was slowly dripping out of it.

"Sven, Sven!" said one of the cooks.

"What?" he angrily said.

"There's a man outside with some meat you ordered yesterday. He said you need to fill out some forms."

"Shit! What are you doing right now?"

"I'm making the beef stew. I can't leave it while it's heating otherwise it might overheat."

"Shit! Fine I'll go, but make sure my salmon doesn't burn as well. It'll be ready in about a minute so don't forget it."

"I won't I promise."

"You damn well better let that burn otherwise the next thing that burns is your next two paychecks!"

Sven stormed off outside of the kitchen through the back door with the stove still on but at a low temperature. The other cook continued stirring the soup while silently mocking Sven behind his back.

"Arrogant bastard," he said.

While he was busy with the soup, the vodka was still pouring out of the bottom of the bottle. A tiny trail of vodka was making its way towards the small flames of the stove.

A small wind then blew the box of skewers forward, and it landed on top of the countertop with the opened top was facing the serving area. A few skewers fell out and onto the floor, but the majority of them still remained in the box, and they were all pointed forward in the main part of the restaurant.

Jamal was still getting orders, and when he thought he got the last one he started walking away only to be stopped by another customer.

"Waiter!" shouted an elderly female customer. He stopped and turned to face her. He stood right in front of the little window, as well as in front of the box of skewers that was now facing him, but was few feet away.

In the kitchen the trail of vodka finally reached the tiny flames from the stove which lit it on fire. The fire made its way down the trail and right to the bottle of vodka.

"Yes ma'm," he said courteously.

"Could I please have some water now? My throat is getting a little too dry."

"I'm sorry ma'm I'll get your water right now."

And just as he said that the vodka bottle caught on fire, and caused the bottle to explode in small fiery blast. The explosion then propelled the skewers out of the box and into the air. Dozens of wooden skewers went flying straight through the restaurant with everybody screaming. The kept going until they all flew right at the person that was standing in the center of their path, Jamal. In just a few seconds every single wooden skewer started impaling Jamal all over his body. Two of them stabbed him through his neck. Six of them impaled him on his chest and stomach. One skewer stabbed him through his mouth, and two of them impaled him through both of his eyes. But worst of all three skewers stabbed him in his groin.

After the carnage was over, blood started pouring from Jamal's body. At first his body just stood up, but after two seconds he fell onto his knees and then fell back. When everyone saw his dead body everyone started screaming and panicking. Then Sven came in through the front door, and looked in shock at Jamal's corpse. Out of the kitchen came out the cook who appeared to be unharmed but his clothes and right arm looked slightly burnt, which implies that he might have gotten injured from the small explosion.

"What happened?" asked Sven.

The cook who was utterly horrified over what just happened said, "I-I-I don't know."

Then two other people came running through the front door. It was none other than Justin and Sadie who finally made, but were already too late. They stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Jamal's dead, motionless body lying on the floor bleeding. Sadie screamed, and burst in tears when she saw it. Justin grabbed her, and tried to cover her eyes.

"Don't look at him," he said. "Just don't look at him."

Sadie cried against Justin's chest, as he stared down at Jamal.

"Sorry I was too late Jamal," he thought.

So what do you guys think? Was that bloody or what? I hope you all thought that it was a good Final Destination death. Write some reviews if you have something nice to say, and stay tuned for my next update.