When I finally arrived at home, dad had already passed out on the sofa with the television flickering softly on the news channel. I turned it off without waking him, gently placing the throw blanket over him. He would more than likely wake-up halfway through the night and amble to his bedroom, but I hated to think he might get a chill in the meantime.
I dragged myself upstairs to my room, not bothering to turn a light on as I flopped onto my bed, keeping myself fully clothed. My mind spun with the events that had taken place, mostly about Rechyl's upcoming death. In less than two hours she would make the mistake of driving recklessly and would come to a quick demise. It seemed unfair to me, that someone so young like Rechyl was going to meet such a devastating end. She was barely seventeen years old and would be graduating from high school in a few short months, she would never get to attend her prom, she would never accept her diploma, and she wouldn't get the chance to find out if she got into the universities she had applied to. Then I got to thinking about the things I wished I hadn't --- would she tell her parents how much she loved them? Did they remember to tell her? What was going to become of her family after her passing, and how were they ever going to come to terms with losing her before she even had the chance to really live?
I sobbed quietly, curling up into a ball as I gently rocked myself back and forth. She was too young to die, her family didn't deserve to lose her this way. If anything, she deserved to outlive her parents and be able to grow in all the ways every person is supposed to. Now of all times I wished I didn't have this stupid 'gift,' that I could take back the premonition so that I didn't have to live with knowing someone so innocent was going to have their life ripped away from them. I never asked to see the things that I did, and I didn't even know why I had in the first place. It didn't seem right that I had the ability to stop Rechyl from dying and yet I was doing nothing about it.
With that thought poignant in my mind, I pushed myself out of bed and quickly ran over to my desk, flipping open my laptop. I opened up Facebook, immediately searching up Rechyl's name. I began to type in a message but it said that she hadn't been online for quite a few hours. There was no way she would get my message, there had to be some other way to get a hold of her. Then it popped into my head --- I had her phone number written down in my employee handbook in case I ever needed her to cover for me and vice versa. Without thinking into it, I dialed in her number and listened to the tone as it rang.
A groggy voice answered after a few rings, "Hello?"
"I apologize for calling so late, but is Rechyl home?" I asked.
There was a pause as someone shuffled on the other line followed by the sound of footsteps. "Give me a moment," The man, who I assumed must have been her father, replied. I could hear him knocking, calling out Rechyl's name before knocking again. He cursed under his breath. "Who is this?"
"I'm Rechyl's coworker, Ellion," I replied.
"That right? Well, my daughter appears to have snuck out of my house, so you're out of luck," He said, hanging up the phone on me.
My heart sank, feeling panic leap up inside of me. Was it already too late? There had to be something else that I could do, some way to stop her from getting into her vehicle tonight. The only other person that I could think of to call was her friend Natalia, who may at least know her whereabouts. I searched up Natalia's name in the employee phone book, noting that the number led to a cell-phone. I didn't hesitate to punch in the number, my fingers slipping a few times causing me to have to redial it. It didn't ring long before the phone picked up. Natalia answered.
"Natalia, it's Ellion from work. I really need to know where Rechyl is," I said, trying to hide the urgency in my voice.
"Um," She paused, and I could hear music booming in the background. "I don't know where she is. Why?"
I dug my fingernails into my palm. "Listen, Natalia, it's really important that I get a hold of her. Please, do you know where she is?"
There was another pause as Natalia started speaking to someone else, almost as if she was ignoring her phone. But she ended up coming back to talk to me, clearing her throat. "Uh --- I told you, I don't know."
"I will pay you fifty dollars if you tell me where she is," I said sternly.
"Haha, say what?"
"You heard me, fifty dollars to know where Rechyl is. I'll even buy you beer if you want, just tell me where she is."
Natalia tried to cover the phone, talking to someone beside her about what I had just said. They talked back and forth for an unnecessary amount of time before Natalia spoke into the phone again. "Yeah, so we're kinda at this party right now down on Merberry Street. I don't know if she's still here, but she might be upstairs with her boyfriend or something."
I sighed with relief, pressing the phone against my forehead. I would have enough time to get to the party to intervene, not allowing Rechyl to get behind the wheel of her vehicle. "Thanks, Natalia, we can talk about what I said later," I said, ending the conversation.
Rechyl was going to die at 1:27 AM, which meant I had more than enough time to get to her. I wasn't going to waste a second, immediately grabbing my keys and throwing on a sweater. I skidded down the stairs and out of the front door, not bothering to lock it behind me.
I drove as fast as I possibly could to get to Merberry Street, which was across town from me. It wasn't difficult to figure out which house the party was at seeing as how the street was lined with cars and there were people mulling about on the front lawn, as well as loud music ebbing and flowing throughout the entire neighbourhood. I barely put my van into park before hauling myself onto the sidewalk and darting towards the house, pushing past a group of teenagers that were standing in front of the door. The house was crammed with people, the wafting scents of alcohol drifting from every direction as well as other questionable substances. I found every opportunity to slide through small openings between people, trying to avoid having various drinks spilled on me in the process. I had to wonder where the parents of the person throwing the party, but didn't have enough time to care.
Once I was able to get to the stairs, I pushed past a couple who were deeply involved in swapping saliva, running up as fast as I possibly could. The hall went two ways, one half was full of people waiting in line for what I could only assume was the bathroom, while the other half of the hall was nearly devoid of people. I decided to try my luck and started knocking on the nearest door, turning the knob only to have the door open and exposing a group of teenagers doing drugs. I apologized before quickly closing the door and moving onto the next one, knocking once more before opening it. The lights were off inside, flipping the switch to reveal a half naked guy on top of someone else. They both jumped up, cursing at me as I stood in the doorway. Thankfully, after the guy moved out of the way, I was able to see that it had been Rechyl underneath him. She narrowed her eyes, making a disgusted face at me.
"What the hell are you doing?" She hollered at me, grabbing a pillow to moderately cover herself. "Get out!"
I put my hands up in defense. "Rechyl, you need to go home. I don't know if you've been drinking, but I can drive you there."
The guy that was with Rechyl laughed, relaxing as he flopped down beside her on the bed. "Is this like, your crazy aunt or something?"
Rechyl shook her head, slipping a strand of hair behind her ear. "No, this is some absolute loser that I work with. Why she's here, I have no idea."
I tried to ignore her comment, motioning for her to come over to me. "Please, Rechyl, your dad knows that you aren't home."
As soon as I said the words, the smug look disappeared off of her face and she went white as a ghost. Clearly I had something that had struck a chord with her, which I hoped would work in my favour. If she knew that her dad was aware she snuck out, maybe she would let me take her home safely, or at least make sure that she didn't get behind the wheel for the rest of the night. I didn't care if I had to take her back to my place for the night, whatever it took to keep her safe until after the time of her death passed.
Rechyl panicked, throwing the pillow off of her as she bounced off the bed, quickly collecting her clothes and shimmying herself back into the gown she had worn to the pageant. The guy that was with her, who I assumed was her boyfriend, did the same, but with even more gusto. He was dressed in the blink of an eye, tugging his shirt over his head as he pushed past me and out of the door. Rechyl struggled to get her dress done up, looking over to me as vitriol filled her face.
"Did you tell my dad where I was?" She questioned, huffing as she tried to pull up the zipper.
"No, but I'm assuming by his tone that he had a pretty good idea," I replied.
She scoffed, shaking her head as she cursed under her breath. "So you talked to him then?" She paused, finally getting her zipper up the last half of her body. "Idiot."
"You can be mad all you want, but I'm only doing what's best for you," I muttered, waiting for her to gather her shoes. She hung her heels on her index finger, pushing past me. "Who do you think you are?"
Just as I was about to turn around to follow her, I heard someone from downstairs scream out at the top of their lungs cops, which sent the entire house into a dizzying frenzy. Rechyl didn't bother to wait for me, the entire crowd of people upstairs swallowing her as they all rushed down the stairs at the same time. I called out after her, watching from the top step as people flooded out of the front door and onto the lawn, Rechyl disappearing into the crowd. I tried to push my way into the crowd that was trying to get down the stairs, but it was too tight to get in. I continued to call Rechyl's name, she was out of my sight and my voice drowned into the panic of the party-goers.
I continued to try to shove my way through, but as I just about stepped into the shuffling crowd, someone grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back up onto the top landing. Quickly I was thrown against the wall, feeling the back of my head smash against the plaster. I threw my hands up in front of me as an all too familiar figure shoved me up against the wall, her long fingernails digging into my arms once more. She bared her bottom teeth at me, shoving her hand around my neck to keep me against the wall.
"I don't want to tell you again," She snarled. I could hear the sound of sirens blaring in the distance, the crowd quickly dissipating. "Leave it alone."
I coughed as she began to squeeze tighter, using all of my strength to push her off of me. I didn't know what this woman wanted from me, the same woman from the fair earlier, but she was bound and determined to follow me everywhere I went. She tripped backwards, catching herself before she fell entirely to the ground. Once more she tried to lunge at me, but I dodged out of the way and made a bee-line for the bathroom. She nearly wedged her hand in the door before I was able to close it, slamming it behind me and locking it immediately after. I scurried towards the nearest window, propping it open and staring down at the long fall below. The red and blue lights pulled up in front of the house, shining into the alleyway below me. I cringed, turning around to find anything to help lower myself down. There was a small closet and inside there were towels, pulling them out and trying to tie them together to make a rope to lower myself down. My hands fumbled as the fortune teller continued to pound on the door, the frame cracking every time she pushed her body against it. It wouldn't be long until the door came crashing down, and then I would have to face the woman again. But as I continued to tie together the towels, I felt my mind begin to slip. In seconds, it went dark.
When my eyes opened again, a dashboard of a vehicle was lit up and a radio was blasting, I felt hot tears against my cheeks as my hands were gripped tightly to the steering wheel. This was all too familiar, it was the premonition that I had about Rechyl --- it was happening again. I wasn't able to control what was going on, only able to see everything as Rechyl was. She was upset, driving recklessly on the road. She smacked the steering wheel, causing the car to swerve a little but she was able to correct it.
I can't believe she would do this to me! Rechyl screamed out, her voice cracking mid way. My dad is going to kill me, I'm never going to be allowed out of the house.
I knew that she was talking about me, and I knew that she was upset about her dad finding out because she had previously asked him to go to the party. But when her dad learned that it was her boyfriend, Davis Mills, who was holding the party, he instantly put his foot down and wouldn't allow her to go. So she decided to sneak out of the house, hoping to finally be able to do the deed with her boyfriend. She thought about how they had been talking about having sex for quite awhile, that they didn't want to wait for prom. Well, more appropriately, he didn't want to wait for prom. He used sex as leverage, she wanted him to take her to prom but he wanted more from the deal. In her mind this meant that Davis wasn't going to take her to prom and would probably break-up with her, seeing as how she wouldn't be allowed to see him anymore as soon as she faced her dad. She reminisced to herself about how much she loved Davis, even though any reasonable person could see that what they had was more than superficial – there wasn't anything real about it. But to Rechyl it meant the world to her, she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him despite the fact that they would probably break-up before going off to college. That didn't matter now, because to her it meant that their relationship was over and her heart was broken.
She screamed at the top of her lungs, punching the steering wheel and causing the vehicle to veer off onto the shoulder of the road. She quickly grabbed the wheel as tightly as she could, trying to stop it from going into the ditch, but she cranked it and sent the car spinning. She tried her best to control the vehicle, swinging the wheel back and forth which did nothing for her cause. It was too late, the vehicle was out of her control now and fate had to play its course. In seconds the car flipped for the first time, launching her from her seat and out of the front window, only to be crushed by the vehicle as it rolled away from her. She lived for only a few seconds before her soul left her body, and that was it. The shock made sure that she didn't feel anything after she went through the windshield, so the police would say later in the report.
I snapped back into the present time, finding myself laying on the cold linoleum of the bathroom floor. The door had been busted in, and I could see the mangled bare feet of the fortune teller standing above me. She leaned down on her knee, wiping some hair from my face as she sighed.
"I told you, there's always a window."