London - UK, Winter 1994:
When I was five years old, I remembered my first vision. I had been eating my lunch at school when I saw the boy opposite me choke on a grape. He went blue in the face, collapsed on the floor and eventually went into cardiac arrest. Except the boy was not going to be eating those grapes until about ten minutes after my visions. I had seen his future ten minutes in advance. Eventually that grape went down the wrong way and the boy died. They were unable to resuscitate him. At five years old, I had no idea what had happened and I certainly never told anybody that I could have predicted the poor boys demise. Worse still...I dared not tell anyone that I had done nothing to prevent him from dying. How was I supposed to know that five?
London - UK, Summer 2005
My visions became more and more pronounced by the time I turned sixteen. I mean, it came in handy when I was dealing with awkward situations like, deciding not to make a confession to the boy that I fancied purely because I knew he was going to reject me. Handy much? I also learnt that girls at sixteen were awful and being able to pre-empt bitchy hormonal outbursts, meant that I was everybody's best friend!
London - UK, Summer 2007:
At eighteen, I not only saw things before they happened, I started to sense that things were amiss. Like a sixth sense. Like spider-sense! I began to hear whispers, as if I can read others thoughts. It was difficult at first to switch off all of the information. I really didn't care to know about people's deepest and darkest desires. So I started to teach myself how to control what I wanted to know and equally what I didn't want to know. I learnt that if I concentrated really hard on trying to filter out the auditory, visual and olfactory information, like how our ears are able to filter unnecessary background noise such as the whirring of the air conditioning or the ticking of the clock on the wall, then with some success I was able to stop my senses. I spent a good year honing my skills in turning people off figuratively and literally.
London - UK, Winter 2010:
At twenty-one, I started to use my 'hunches', senses, super power, gift (whatever it is you would like to call it...) to my advantages. I had the ultimate control over my life. I could pick and choose what I wanted to know...use it to help me advance in job interviews, in relationships and even in arguments. You name it. I did it. I started to relish in one-upping others. I also used it to help people. I felt like I was a real life 'Avenger'. A proper superhero. Nobody knew what I was capable of.
Then one day...I realised that I was never to use my gift ever again. The gift stopped becoming a gift and started becoming a burden. My whole world turning upside down. You see, I 'saw' that there was going to be a terrible murder that would happen approximately three miles away. So doing what I knew best, I put in place my plan to prevent it. I tipped off the police. I made sure the 'murderers' encountered countless obstacles on route to the 'murder scene'. I bought the victim time. I stopped the victim from becoming a victim. I did something good for humanity. I changed the course of time.
...And then I learnt that by doing so - Playing God, as you will - has its consequences. Every person, every thing on earth has its purpose. We are all interlinked in some inexplicable way. That day I upset the balance of life.
...That day the 'murderers' did not become murderers. Instead, they became victims themselves. As they drove off unsuccessfully, trying to dodge the police, they crashed at high speeds into a crowd of weekend shoppers, killing five people, seven including themselves. Within the five dead, there were three children and two adults. Those two adults were also my parents...
My name is Ren.
**
London - UK, Spring 2018:
Ren bolted up from the bed, panting as the sweat trickled down her face. Her night shirt was drenched, sticking to her body. She took in a few deep gulps of air, trying hard to stifle the erratic beating of her heart, hammering so hard against her chest, she thought she would pass out. The room was silent. The gentle breeze caressed her clammy skin, cooling her down significantly, until her skin prickled. She wrapped the thin bed sheet around her shoulders and huddled into a ball, pulling her knees to her chest, seeking some sort of comfort. Ren looked at the time...3.45am...the digital clock on her small bedside table blinked at her, telling her that she had only been asleep for less than two hours. There was no use in even attempting to fall back in to slumber. Her mind was wide awake, already replaying the dream that she had, the one that made her jack-knife off the bed in fear and uncertainty. Sighing heavily, she took her notebook and pen from the side draw and started to jot down her dream.
'...And just like that, the handsome face came to find me. Except I knew that we were two people who existed in the same place impossibly. He had knowledge that I did not know...yet I could foresee his knowledge as part of my gift that I have been trying futilely, to hide, to supress. He would come from my future and seek me from his past. This time, it would surely mean the end for me and the start for him"
Ren chewed the end of her pen as she replayed her visions over and over again. "Yan" she whispered to herself. This impossible man was going to be paying her a visit soon...and she sure hoped he was going to bring an umbrella when he did.