SKULL: Cursed Souls

CHAPTER 5: DEJA VU

⚠️ Graphic Content: Death, Blood⚠️

RYDER

10 years ago.

Kids are rushing in the halls as the bell rang, it's our lunchbreak. I, on the other hand, rushed to the mall where my father is. He is a Jeepney driver, and the terminal is just beside the mall. 

I stopped walking and looked up when I noticed that the clouds devoured the sky. It made the place gloomy. The wind felt familiar when it touched my skin and whispered at my ear. The atmosphere is giving me shivers while I suddenly smell raw flesh, and taste blood. 

I looked ahead before  I continued walking and it felt as if I've been in this situation before, my chest is heavy.

I started walking slow then noticed the next house that I'll approach. When I saw the red gate, I already knew that a dog would bark at me while birds will fly from the other side of the road soon as I pass by that house.

I went on walking while my heart only beats faster out of fear then a dog barked as expected and a flock of pigeons flew that caused something to flash in my mind: people are covered in blood, screaming while their noises are mixed with the bustling road.

I ran fast, remembering the details of the jeep where those people are coming out of and soon as I reached the terminal, I noticed that the jeep now waiting has no passengers so 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."

I began to panic more but just to confirm, I asked the shirt he was wearing. 

"It was red, Ryder. Calm down, nothing will happen" father said but when I heard the color of the driver's shirt, my heart pounds faster, because like in my 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?!" My heart dropped but I couldn't remember my mother in my vision.

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

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

"Why do you look so worried?!" Mother asked when he saw father.

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

"I forgot to buy something. Why?" said Mother.

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

Mother looked at me 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 us looked at him, my father's jaw dropped, and all our eyes widened.

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

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

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

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

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

He fell unconscious.

Later that day, the accident was on the news. My father was brought home after he fainted since he felt guilty for not listening to me.

I listened to the news. It was described exactly as I have foreseen.

I saw everything, even the road they traversed, the jeep was just going slow, but a truck collided with it when it reached a crossing, it was going fast because 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. It was bloodshed as the streets turned red.

Earlier was Deja Vu that triggered a vision that I have dreamt of to show in my mind. What hurt me was remembering the sight of a kid, 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. I also remember him holding a huge bag before the accident happened so he may have just been discharged from a hospital.

I scan through my journal. Finding out that everything that happened in the accident was written in it. It was just right that I wrote these nightmares, but I couldn't save those people.

***

Remembering how I first encountered my nightmares coming true still tears me apart. I looked at the envelope and the picture.

"Then I'm gonna bring death to you now? And to other people," I said in my mind as I held the picture, as if I'm talking to the person in it.

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