Chapter 8: Pieces of a Puzzle

Justin and Sadie drove back to Justin's house after seeing something so grotesque and horrible. Sadie finally stopped crying when she parked out in front of his house. Justin didn't say a single word on the whole car ride home. He was in so much shock over what happened to Jamal, as well as the fact that he knew it would happen before it did. He saw it right in front of him, but even with all the signs and visions that came to him he still couldn't save one of the most decent and well liked men.

After arriving at Justin's house they walked in, and up the stairs to his room. When he opened the door to his bed room, Sadie's eyes started watering but she held back the tears from falling down her face. He saw this and gently led her to his bed where they both sat down on. She wrapped her arms around him and softly cried on his shoulders.

"Shhh its okay," said Justin trying to comfort Sadie. "It'll be okay, please don't cry."

He rubbed her back, but nothing could help his best friend from thinking about what she had seen twenty minutes ago.

"I just can't believe it," said Sadie.

"I know Sadie. I know."

Sadie stopped crying and wiped her face with her sleeve.

"And it was so awful; more than awful even. It was utterly horrifying."

"Shhh let's not talk about it."

"And the way that he died. I mean just by looking at him couldn't you feel how…vicious it must have been."

"Sadie please you'll just make yourself feel worse if you keep thinking about it."

She angrily said, "How can I possibly feel worse than I already am?"

Justin didn't know how to respond to that. He couldn't exactly blame Sadie for feeling like crap after seeing her ex-boyfriend's mutilated corpse. Even after they broke she still liked him a lot.

"I'm sorry Justin. I just can't believe that a good person like Jamal would die from such a terrible accident."

"I doubt that."

"What?"

Justin looked at Sadie and realized that he had said his thought out loud.

"Oh nothing."

"No, what did you mean by you doubt it?"

Justin wasn't sure if he could properly explain it to her. Even he didn't fully understand it. But deep in his heart and soul he knew that it wasn't a simple accident.

"Well the thing is…I don't think that Jamal's death was a mere coincidence."

"Well then what would you call it?"

Justin prepared himself because he was about to give probably the most fucked up talks of his life. He just hoped that his best friend would believe him.

"That day at the Aqua Dome, I knew that something bad was going to happen. From the moment I stepped in it I felt something. There's no clear way of describing it. It just felt wrong. I thought I was just being paranoid or scared. I even thought that it was my fear that caused the hallucination of the Aqua Dome collapsing in the first place. But it wasn't fear that made me see it.

Somehow I saw the Aqua Dome fall apart before it actually happened. I don't know how or even why me of all people saw it. I just did, and even after I got you, me, and the others out of there in time I still felt that fear. By that time I thought it was just guilt, but it wasn't. I was still afraid, and I didn't know why. But this fear…it's more than just being scared. It's like a presence. It's like something is always with me wherever I go. Even when I'm completely alone I feel like something is there with me, watching me, mocking me, and no matter what I do I can't shake off that feeling."

Sadie looked utterly confused.

"What does this have to do with Jamal's death?"

"What if we were never meant to leave the Aqua Dome? What if we were supposed to die down there?"

"But we didn't die."

"That's the point! We didn't die because I saw it happen before it did. I knew that something bad was going to happen, and I got you and eight other people including myself out in time. Somehow I changed my destiny, your destiny, all of our destinies. We were meant to die in the Aqua Dome, but since we didn't that means that we messed up the natural order of things. So what do we do when order is disrupted?"

"We fix it until order is restored."

"Exactly! I didn't realize this at first, but now it makes total sense. Because we messed up the order of things by leaving the Aqua Dome something is trying to restore order."

"How?"

"By killing everyone who got out of the Aqua Dome."

"But Jamal just died in an accident."

"Sadie, think about it. How often does someone die in such a bizarre way like being impaled by dozens of wooden skewers? And how is it that out of everybody who got caught in that huge car crash only those two security guards were killed?"

"Well even if everything that you're saying is true you still forgot to tell me one thing. If something is killing us to restore order, then what is it?"

"That I can't say for certain. For all we know it could very well be death itself. Because we cheated death already it has to make things right by killing us off."

"Wait a minute. So you're saying that death is like a person?"

"No, it's not a person. It's more like a…a force. Something that can alter or manipulate anything around us in order to do whatever is necessary to kill people."

"So if what you're saying is true then death is going to kill us."

"Not just you and me, it's everybody who got out of the Aqua Dome before it collapsed. That includes the two security guards, Jamal, Nolan, Brianna, and Tori. Even that other guy with the messy brown hair is in danger."

"I can't believe this. I mean this just doesn't make sense."

"Believe me this is the only explanation for everything that is happening to us."

"But if all of this is true, then death could come after any of us at any time. How are we supposed to know which one is going die?"

"I think I can answer that one for you."

"What do you mean?"

Justin got off his bed, and walked towards his desk. He opened one of the drawers, and pulled out a stack of papers. He came back, and handed the papers to her. She looked confused as she flipped through each of the bizarre drawings.

"Did you do these?"

"Honestly, I'm not exactly sure if I did or not. All I know is that I found them on desk yesterday morning."

She continued looking at the drawings.

"What do these mean?"

"All of these drawings depict everything I saw in my first vision of the Aqua Dome collapsing."

He sat down beside her, and took the drawings.

"Each one shows a different thing that happened that caused the disaster. And what's even weirder is that each one showed how each of us was originally meant to die."

"So you're saying that this is what was meant to happen?"

"I'm afraid so."

Sadie looked scared as she saw each gruesome image.

"But how are these drawings supposed to help us know which one of us will die next?"

"Don't you see Sadie? These drawings are just pieces of a puzzle. If you put them together you'll see that there's some kind of pattern involved."

"What pattern?"

Justin took one drawing where it shows the podium blowing up.

"Look at this drawing. In my vision this is how the whole thing started, when somehow the podium exploded killing Edward Novak, his family, and those two security guards."

Justin took another picture where it showed Jamal being killed.

"And after the podium exploded a piece of it went flying towards the audience, and impaled Jamal in the head just like in this picture. So that means that Jamal died after the security guards. Don't you see what this means?"

Sadie thought for a few seconds while looking at the two pictures until her eyes grew wide when she realized the truth.

"They're dying in order," she said.

"Exactly! Everyone who got out of the Aqua Dome and survived are now dying in the order they were originally meant to die. Since the security guards died first in my vision than that explains why they were killed off first. Then after them was Jamal which is why he died after them."

"So then who's next?"

"Well let's look at the drawings."

So they both looked at the rest of the pictures. He flipped through them until he saw one that got his attention.

"Wait a minute, look at this drawing!"

He picked up the one where two people were being impaled.

"Is this what happened next?" asked Sadie.

"After the podium exploded the statue of the narwhal started shaking and spinning around. Then something broke the controls which caused it to fall while spinning, and then it impaled these two and went straight through the glass wall."

Sadie pointed her finger to the boy being impaled first.

"Well that's obviously Nolan, right?"

"Right, but I can't tell who this girl behind him is."

"Well it has to be either Brianna or Tori. They always stick by him."

"That's what I thought too, but there's no way of distinguishing who this person is. The person isn't shown clear enough; she's all covered in shadow, there's no distinctive characteristic, and the only thing I know is that it was a girl with long hair wearing a skirt."

"Wait," said Sadie who sounded like she found something. "Look at the girl's right ankle."

Justin looked closely at the girl's right ankle. He noticed something was on it, but couldn't tell what it was.

"Is that a birthmark or something?" he asked.

"Do you have a magnifying glass?"

"Yeah there's one on my desk next to my radio."

Sadie got up and walked to his desk. She immediately saw the magnifying lying next to the radio just like he said. She took it, and walked back to Justin. She put it above the picture, and they could see what it was.

"It's not a birthmark," said Justin, "it's a tattoo. And from the looks of it it's in the shape of a butterfly."

"Well at least we know how we can find out who's after Nolan."

"Yeah this does help."

"But then who's after this girl."

Justin kneeled on the floor, and spread the pictures across the carpet. He put the first three pictures next to each other.

"So first it's the security guards, then Jamal, and then Nolan."

He picked up another picture which showed a girl about to get hit by the enormous rush of water bursting through the glass wall.

"After Nolan and the first girl get impaled, the horn goes through the glass wall which severely damages. It stays together until the glass finally breaks and this girl gets hit first before everyone else does so that would mean that she's after the first girl."

"But who is she."

"Well again she's all covered in shadow so I can't tell who she is. But it has to be either Tori or Brianna."

"Alright, then what happens?"

Justin put that drawing next to the row of pictures, and picked up another sketch which caused him to bite down on his lip when he saw it. It was the one that shows Sadie and that other guy falling into the shark infested waters which would eat them alive. He put it next to the other pictures, and when Sadie saw it her eyes widened in fear.

"Do I die next?" she softly said.

"Well while you and I were climbing up the emergency escape ladder that other guy came up from behind you. He tried to pull you off so he could get ahead of you, but he ends up slipping and falls off. However, he pulls you down with him."

Justin saw a single tear falling down Sadie's face.

"If it makes you feel any better you die after he does."

She sarcastically says, "Well as great as that may be it still doesn't make me feel any better."

"Sorry."

Then Justin picked up the last picture in the series, and this one really made him fearful. It shows a shark leaping out of the water with its jaws wide opened, which it would have used to eat him up. He placed it next to the others which finally completed the puzzle.

Sadie looked at it for a second, and then looked up at Justin.

"I think you pretty much get the idea of what happens to me."

Suddenly the radio on Justin's desk just turned on, flipping through different stations. Justin and Sadie both stared at it, confused and worried as to why the radio just turned on by itself.

"Please tell me your radio does that all the time," said Sadie.

"I can't honestly say that it does," said Justin.

After flipping through stations it finally stopped at one where a song was already playing. Justin listened to hear what it was. It sounded funky, and kind of old.

Very superstitious,

Writings on the wall.

Very superstitious,

Letters 'bout to fall.

Thirteen month old baby,

Broke the lookin' glass.

Justin then realized what song it was. His grandpa used to sing it all the time when he was very little. It was "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder.

Seven years of bad luck,

The good things in your past.

When you believe in things

That you don't understand,

Then you suffer.

Superstition ain't the way.

Suddenly the radio started acting out. Tiny sparks flew out, and then shut down with tiny smoke coming out of it.

Justin and Sadie looked at each other in total shock and confusion. They had absolutely no idea why that just happened, but they were pretty sure that it wasn't exactly normal.

Then they both looked down at the drawings and looked at the carnage they showed in each one.

"What do we do now?" asked Sadie.

"First things first, we got to find Nolan. If we are dying in some kind of order then he's gonna be next. Tomorrow we got to find him, warn him, tell him about the drawings, what happened to Jamal and the security guards, and anything that'll convince him."

"Well we know that's not going to be easy. A knucklehead like Nolan won't fully comprehend something as dire as this."

"Well we have to try."

"But why? If we're all going to die again anyways what's the point?"

"Because if we could cheat death once, maybe we cheat it again. Maybe for good this time."

"That's one hell of a hunch, but I hope for our sakes you're right."

"I hope so too Sadie. I hope so too."

So now that our fellow heroes are aware of the situation at hand, will they be able to save the others in time or will they meet the same gruesome fate as Jamal, Joe, and Debbie? Find out in my next update. Write some reviews for what you think of my story so far please.