The police were speaking to Davis downstairs, sternly telling him that his parents were being contacted and that he was going to be in a lot of trouble when they returned home. They listed off a handful of offenses – underage drinking, failure to cooperate, and another long list of public by-laws that he had broken by having the party.
I could hear the entire conversation taking place between Davis and the police, the fortune teller standing above me as she sighed and tapped me on the shoulder to get up. She motioned for me to follow her, but that was the last thing I wanted to do. When I didn't do as she asked, she gave me a simple look that said oh well, taking her time to put one foot softly in front of the other as she descended the hallway. This woman had attacked me not once, but three times, there was absolutely no way that I was going anywhere with her, especially given that she had stopped me from saving Rechyl. That realization stung as I pictured Rechyl's end in my head, knowing that it had just taken place and that soon the police would be called to the scene of the accident. I tried to shake the image of her from my head, watching as the fortune teller peeked down the stairs before gently padding across the landing to the other side of the hallway. She didn't turn back to see if I was following, instead opening the last door at the end of the hallway.
"Is there anyone else in the house that shouldn't be?" The police officer questioned, his boots clunking against the hardwood. "Because if you have anyone hiding, it's only going to make this worse for you."
"No, officer, they all left," Davis replied.
"The street is packed full of vehicles, were some of these people going to drive home while intoxicated?" The officer continued to drawl on, but I willfully ignored him from there on.
I grabbed the towels that I had started to tie together, quickly securing the makeshift rope to the leg of the bathtub before gently tossing the other end out of the window. I knew it wasn't going to reach the bottom, but I just needed to get to a reasonable height that wouldn't disable me if I fell. I looked out of the window, hearing footsteps ascending up the stairs towards me. With one quick exhale, I turned myself around and allowed my feet to dangle out of the window while balancing myself on the ledge, carefully grabbing hold of the towels one hand at a time. As soon as all of my weight was on the rope, I heard the tub creak inside. Nothing about this screamed safe, and I wasn't entirely sure if my rope was even secured properly. I tried to contain my grunts as the towels made it difficult for me to remain still, trying to walk myself against the side of the house as I slowly made my descent. The voices from inside of the house were getting closer, and I wasn't moving nearly as fast as I thought I was going to. I tried to look over my shoulder to see how far the fall would be, only to see the fortune teller standing below me. I cursed under my breath, feeling the burn in my palms as I tried to hold tight to the towels. The muscles in my arms were quivering, unable to carry all of my weight at such a weird angle. I knew I had to make a decision to either let go of the rope and be prepared for my fall, or to involuntarily lose my grip and fall to the ground unpredictably. The decision was easy as soon as my fingers began to slip from around the towel, taking one last quick glance below to see where I was about to fall.
My stomach lurched as I fell, but I barely hit the ground thanks to the quick movements of the fortune teller who stopped the worst of my fall by blocking my upper torso from the ground, safely pulling me to my feet. She grabbed my arm and ushered me to follow her through the backyard, seeing a flashlight shine down the alleyway towards us. We dodged the light by skidding around to hug the back end of the house. She didn't wait for me as she ran across the backyard, quickly vaulting herself over the waist-high fence. I followed her movement, not as smoothly as she had done, but made a valiant attempt.
Once we were far enough from the house, we snaked our way back onto the street and out of random people's backyards. I huffed as I wiped sweat from my brow, noticing that she didn't look flustered in the slightest bit. Her eyes were wide like that of a cat, glancing down each side of the road as she perked up, listening for something.
"Who are you?" I asked through exasperated breaths, leaning over and placing my hands above my knees.
She turned her attention to me, staring at me for a moment. "Mahala," She said, her voice steady as the day comes and goes. "Come with me."
I shook my head as soon as the words left her mouth. "I'll pass."
"It wasn't a question," She said, snapping her fingers at me. "Come."
"I don't want anything to do with you, lady, just leave me alone," I said, waving her away from me.
She wasn't taking no for an answer, squatting down in front of me so that she could look at me directly in the eyes. Her glass eye was unmoving despite when she looked down at my feet, seemingly staring right through me. "What you don't see is that she would've died no matter what – she had an end time and she met it. Maybe she met it in a better way, hmm?"
I scoffed at her. What kind of lunatic says something like that? "You're telling me that her being crushed by her own car was a better way to die? I could have stopped it from happening!"
"No," She interjected, raking her long fingernails against the concrete below her. "What if I told you that her death remained pure – that she didn't die with a stain on her heart?"
I stood up straight, trying to contain the fiery anger that was burning away inside of me. There was nothing more that I wanted in that moment than to slap this woman in the face, but I kept calm enough not to. I wasn't that type of person, regardless of how angry I was about Rechyl's death. "I don't care what stupid riddles you have for me, and I don't care what kind of weird thing you've got going on where you know what I know – I just want to do what's right for people."
She grabbed my hand in hers, locking her thumb around my hand as if she was going to pull me into her. "We're sisters of sight, you and I."
I wrenched my hand out of hers, feeling the same tingle of electricity being pulled from my body into hers. I didn't want to believe that she had the same gift that I did, that she could see premonitions. But how else did she know what she did? How could I believe she was telling the truth and not making things up on the spot? This woman was a complete stranger to me, and not only that, I had never met someone with this gift before. As far as I was concerned it was a gift that I hadn't asked for, and it certainly wasn't appropriate for a person to be able to see the future the way I was able to. I wasn't God, and I certainly shouldn't have been able to play any form of a deity. But knowing what I did gave me the chance to make things right, even if I didn't know how to do it all. I didn't want to believe there was someone else like me out there, especially given what someone could use the premonitions for.
"Not the same, but we share a bond with the fates," Mahala added, "and you are moving beyond the scope of our visions."
"I've never done anything like this before, I've always kept a comfortable distance from their deaths. But I can't let this happen, I can't let these people die like this," I replied.
"That isn't your decision to make," She growled through a clenched jaw. "Fate calls on all of us, just like it has called on me and it will call on you. You can watch, but you cannot interfere."
"So I'm supposed to let an innocent man be murdered? I was supposed to let Rechyl die at seventeen years old? Explain to me how that isn't the fates telling me to step in and help," I said, raising my voice as I moved away from her, trying to remain as calm as I could. I paced back and forth for a moment, her eye following me. "And what did you mean she didn't die with a stain on her heart?"
"The events of tonight changed. The girl didn't want him, she thought she did but she was supposed to change her mind. He would take her any ways with lust in his heart, and she would still meet the same end," Mahala explained. "But you stopped it from happening, you made her ending different – better."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing, that despite her time of death still coming to fruition I was still able to change what happened to her before. I knew what Mahala was trying to say, and I hated to think that Rechyl would have died after being violated by Davis. But I stopped it from coming true, instead she died being upset about the idea of him breaking up with her and not with the trauma of him taking her virginity by force. Even though Rechyl died tonight, she died without the pain of Davis truly hurting her.
My heart sank, but at the same time I couldn't help but feel like maybe I actually had done the right thing, even if I didn't get the exact result that I had hoped for. Could I have stopped the accident? Possibly. Did I stop Rechyl from being raped by Davis? Yes. Even though it didn't make up for the fact that she had died, I wanted to believe I had done the right thing. Which brought my thoughts back to John.
"Now that I know I made a difference, you have to know I'm going to do everything in my power to stop John from being murdered," I quietly said, dusting myself off as Mahala stared at me silently. "I don't care how much you try to stop me, I'm not going to let him die like that."
I didn't wait for her to respond, instead I turned around and began walking in the opposite direction, hoping to loop back around to where I parked my van. Mahala chuckled to herself, but I didn't bother to turn around.
"Don't forget what I told you," She called out after me, but I didn't bother to give her any more time to explain. She couldn't change my mind, no matter how many times she told me about doors being closed and windows being opened – that wasn't how it worked now. The fact that I was able to rewrite the ending was all that mattered to me.
When I returned home, dad hadn't woken up from the sofa, still snoring softly underneath the blanket that I had draped over him. I thought about going upstairs to my bedroom, but I was left with the thoughts of Rechyl and how her parents would soon be grieving. I slipped out of my shoes, tossing my sweater onto the nearest chair and gently sat down beside dad on the couch, sliding underneath the blanket with him. I carefully leaned my head against his shoulder, cuddling up to him. He groaned softly, but his hand came over and placed on my arm that I weaved around him.