SEVEN: Cursed Souls

CHAPTER 5: DEJA VU

RYDER

Year 2008.

The laughter and steps of elementary kids mix with the school bell. The nine-year-old Ryder is amongst them, but unlike the others who are headed to the canteen, he is walking towards the jeepney terminal near the mall where his father waits for passengers.

His steps were halted when he noticed the clouds that devoured the sky which brought gloom around the area. The wind felt familiar when it touched his skin and whispered at his ear. A cold, shivering sensation ran through his spine, and then he suddenly smelled raw flesh and tasted blood. 

He looked ahead before he continued walking. It felt as if he's been in that situation before, his chest felt heavy.

He started walking slow then noticed the next house that he will approach. When he saw the red gate, he already knew that a dog would bark at him while birds will fly from the other side of the road after he passes by that house.

His steps were as heavy as his heartbeats are when he went on walking. The bark of the dog he was expecting was indeed heard when he reached the house with a red gate. The flutters of the flock of birds above him followed, which triggered a memory of the screams coming from passengers bathing in their own blood. Their screams were blending with the bustling road. 

He ran fast, remembering the details of the jeep where those people are coming out of. As soon as he reached the terminal, he noticed that the jeep now waiting has no passengers, meaning one just left.

"Pa? Who was driving the jeep that left? Call them, don't let them go away."

"Ryder why? It's going to hold the line. It's already my turn. It is Julio."

His heart only grew more into worry then worry starts to turn into a panic as he races with time and death, so he asked one thing he clearly remembered from his premonition, the color of the jeepney driver's shirt.

"It was red, Ryder. Calm down, nothing will happen" his father said. His worry grew worse when he heard the color of the shirt, because like in his vision, it is red.

"Pa! Stop them, please! They're going to die!"

"Ryder! Stop joking! Your mother is in there! What are you saying?!" his heart dropped but he couldn't remember his mother in his vision.

"Pa, just call Mama. The jeep is going to collide with a truck!"

"Stop! Ryder!" his father shouted but he pulled his phone from his pocket with trembling hands. He was about to call his mother when...

"Why do you look so worried?!" his mother asked when she saw his father.

"YOU ARE HERE?! I thought you already--"

"I forgot to buy something. Why?" said his mother.

Ryder butted in, "Ma! Pa! Call the driver of the jeep! Those in the front will die!"

His mother looked at him but before she could even speak, another driver yelled.

"N-no, NO! This can't be happening! Kumpareng Julio! A truck collided with his jeep!"

The three of them looked at him, his father's jaw dropped, and their eyes widened.

"Who told you?! Where did it happen?" his father asked.

"Just a few streets away, my son was there. Luckily, he sat behind or else-"

"Or else, he was crushed!" Ryder butted in.

"H-how did you know?!" the driver was taken aback.

He looked at his father instead. "Pa! This is what I was telling you."

His father fell unconscious.

Later that day, the accident was on the news. His father was brought home after he fainted. He blames himself for ignoring his son's warning.

Ryder listened to the news which described exactly what he had foreseen.

The jeep was just going slow, but a truck collided with it when it reached a crossing, it lost control of its break. The front-left part of the jeep was smashed as the jeep rolled to its right side and pushed a little bit more by the truck. Another car from the left lane crashed with the truck. The people in front of the jeep, including the driver, were crushed to their death, the driver of the truck and those in front of the other car also died. The road turned red from the bloodshed.

What hurt him was remembering the sight of another child, coming out of the jeepney.

"Uncle Javier! M-Mama...and my Pa...THEY'RE DEAD! "He cried and hugged the man he was with. He is overweight and there was cotton taped in his hand. He also remembers him holding a huge bag before the accident happened so he may have just been discharged from a hospital.

An entry in his journal narrated exactly what happened in that accident. He felt that it was only right that he wrote these nightmares, but he still couldn't save those people.

***

Remembering how he first encountered his nightmares coming true still tears him apart. He then looked at the envelope and the picture.

"Then I'm gonna bring death to you now? And to other people," he thought while holding the picture as if talking to the person in it.

"But what have you done?" he asked, still looking at the picture.