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·Chapter Four
The night Carter died, I didn't sleep.
How could I?
His face kept flashing in my mindâfrozen in that final moment. Sparks raining down. Water at his feet. The smell of burning skin.
And the worst part?
I saw it coming.
And I wasn't fast enough.
I failed.
Clear had stayed by my side longer than I expected. She didn't cry. She didn't say much. She didn't try to comfort me with words that would've rung hollow. She just sat beside me, her presence steady and quiet like a candle in the dark.
Sometimes that's all you need.
---
Morning came too quickly.
I stared at the system interface as it projected in front of me like a heads-up display no one else could see.
> [Target: Billy Hitchcock]
[Thread Status: ACTIVE â Instability Level: 73%]
[Projected Death Window: 12 Hours 47 Minutes]
[Method: Vehicular Entanglement â Sudden Shear Impact]
[Chance of Survival Without Intervention: 5%]
A pulsing red thread hovered across the road outside my windowâdisconnected from everything but moving, like it was alive. Like it was searching.
This wasn't just coincidence anymore. Death was hunting.
---
Clear drove me to school later that morning.
Technically, we weren't required to go, but after Carter's death, most of the survivors wanted to be somewhere familiar. To ground themselves. Or maybe they just didn't want to be alone.
She hadn't said much since we left her house. One hand on the steering wheel, the other resting lightly on her thigh. Her fingers tapped a silent rhythm against denim.
I watched her out of the corner of my eye.
She was beautiful in that sharp, quiet wayâthe kind of beauty most people miss because they're looking for something louder. Her eyes held a storm, and that storm had a name: grief.
"You okay?" I finally asked.
She didn't look away from the road. "You keep asking that."
"Because it's easier than asking, 'Are you falling apart in ways you're too scared to admit?'"
That made her glance at me.
For a moment, our eyes locked.
She smiledâfaint, tired. But real.
"Ask me again tonight," she said.
---
At school, the tension was everywhere.
Students whispered in the halls. Teachers moved like ghosts. Counselors stood ready to hand out tissue boxes and pamphlets no one read.
I found Billy sitting on the back steps behind the gym, chewing gum like it was a coping mechanism. He wasn't alone.
Alex Browning sat nearby, hunched over his knees, scribbling in a notebook like a man possessed.
When he looked up and saw me, his eyes narrowed. "You."
"Me."
"You were at the airport," he said. "You moved just before the explosion. You knew something was going to happen."
"Like you did?" I countered.
That made him pause.
Billy blinked. "Waitâyou saw it too?"
Alex didn't answer. Just stared.
Clear appeared beside me a moment later, her presence grounding the conversation.
"I believe him," she said simply.
"Of course you do," Alex said, voice heavy with frustration. "You're the only one who didn't think I was crazy after Flight 180 blew up. Now you're the one following a guy who's either lucky as hell⊠or cursed worse than me."
I stepped forward. "Billy's next."
That got their attention.
"What?" Billy's gum nearly fell out of his mouth.
"The system I haveâit showed me a pattern. You're next. You die in about twelve hours unless we stop it."
Alex looked at me like I'd just told him the moon was falling.
"What do you mean, 'system'?"
I shook my head. "It's⊠hard to explain. But Death follows a sequence. It has rules. Invisible ones. If we can interrupt the chain, we can buy time. But it always adapts."
Billy stood abruptly. "Nope. Nope. I'm not dying next, man. I don't care what Death wants, it can eat myâ"
A bus thundered by the street near us.
Billy jumped a foot.
Clear gave him a look. "That's not helping."
Alex stood slowly. "So what's the plan?"
I took a breath. "We shadow Billy. Every second. Everywhere he goes. No matter how crazy it sounds. One mistake is all it takes."
---
For the rest of the day, we stuck to Billy like glue.
He didn't like itâbut fear makes people flexible.
In class, I sat behind him. During lunch, I "accidentally" knocked over a fork that was about to fall handle-first into a wet socket. In the parking lot, I pulled him away just before a van rolled a few feet downhillâits brakes failing silently.
It was like the world was trying to kill him in a dozen creative ways.
And it was getting more aggressive.
At one point, I blinkedâand saw a metallic cable coil like a snake behind Billy's chair. It wasn't real yet. But it would be.
> [Active Threat â Submerged Steel Wire â 17% Manifestation Rate]
Clear caught my look and whispered: "You're seeing it, aren't you?"
I nodded. "It's like watching a script being written in real time."
That night, we gathered in an abandoned auto garageâClear's idea. She knew the owner, who'd gone bankrupt a year ago. Dust covered the walls, and the air smelled like rust and old rubber.
We'd bought hoursâbut it didn't feel like enough.
Billy sat on a tool bench, nervously spinning a wrench in his hand.
Alex was pacing, muttering.
Clear leaned against the wall, arms crossed, her silhouette framed by flickering lamplight.
I walked over to her.
"You're taking this well," I said.
"I've seen enough weird to know when something's real. And you?" She tilted her head. "You're not from here, are you?"
I paused. "You believe that?"
She stepped closer.
"I believe you're the only person here who's not panicking. That means you either know how this ends... or you're willing to fight it."
Her eyes locked on mine.
I could see it in themâcuriosity, fear, and something else.
Something warmer.
"You saved me," she said.
"I'll keep doing it if I can."
She looked down for a moment.
"I don't want to be alone anymore," she whispered.
I gently touched her hand. "You won't be."
Her fingers curled around mineâtentative at first, then tighter.
A moment passed.
A connection formed.
> [Affection +10 â Clear Rivers: 51%]
[Trait Unlocked: "Emotional Anchor â Moderate Regeneration of Mental Stamina when Near Clear"]
And then the moment was broken.
A loud snap echoed from the far corner of the garage.
Billy jerked upright.
"What was that?!"
Alex ran over, flashlight raised.
A pulley system from the ceiling had broken looseâseveral feet of steel chain had dropped down, missing Billy by inches.
"Jesus!" Billy shouted.
> [Fatal Thread Deflected â 76% Remaining Threat]
"Not over yet," I hissed. "Get away from the center!"
But it was too late.
The chain had triggered something else.
The broken ceiling mount had ripped part of an overhead beam loose, and a rusted transmission blockâsuspended above by a fragile ropeâcreaked violently.
It fell.
I moved again.
But I was too far.
Billy turned to runâhis foot caught a loose cord.
He stumbled.
The transmission block struck the floorâmetal shrieked.
Billy didn't scream.
---
> [Billy Hitchcock â DECEASED]
[Fate Thread Severed â Pattern Accelerated]
[-100 FP]
[Death Thread Splintered â Targets Realigning]
---
Alex stared, frozen. Blood pooled across the concrete. Clear turned away, fists clenched.
I exhaled slowly.
"âŠDamn it."
> [New Primary Target: Alex Browning]
Estimated Death Trigger: 18 Hours 02 Minutes
Method: Blunt Force + Laceration
Clear stepped beside me. "So what now?"
I met her eyes.
"We keep fighting."
---
To be continuedâŠ
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