Chapter 2

It’s been a week since Professor Jones told me that I was destined to die. I guess I have just been processing the whole ordeal, trying to make sense of it all. I mean I suppose I don’t have to believe her. It’s just hard to not believe her when I have been experiencing all these things around her. Perhaps she is the real deal, I should just heed her warning and be grateful.

I dropped out of university the day after she told me, but let’s be honest, it’s not like I really needed the motivation to quit. I have been wanting to leave for the longest time. I already drew up a very detailed plan of action regarding my travels and just yesterday I bought my first plane ticket out of here. First stop, Hawaii!

I might just be paranoid, but ever since Professor Jones told me of my fate, I have been experiencing moments where my body just goes ice cold and it feels like someone is watching me, but when I look around, it’s just me and my crazy. I am at the airport and it’s happening again but even if I tried to look for the person staring at me I won’t find them because it could quite literally be anyone. I suppose all I could do for now is just try to relax and take each thing as it comes.

On the plane, I drank something to calm my nerves but all it did was make me feel extremely sleepy, too sleepy. I drifted off into a very deep slumber. I woke up to the smell of feet and despair. What on earth happened from the time I slept till now? And where am I? A huge grizzly bear type of man that reeked of a hundred untaken baths walked up to me and in a gruff voice said, “let’s go”.

I have seen way too many movies like this, and what I have noted from them was that it’s best to just do as they say. So I got up and followed him for what seemed like hours until eventually, we stopped. I took a quick look around to just take everything in. However, I wish I hadn’t, because what I saw was just awful. The room the grizzly bear took me to, housed around 30 body bags. I really hope they’re not actual bodies, but it sure did smell that way. The rest of the room had bottles of… is that teeth? Oh no, the professor said I had a year, what is this?

A very tall, slender man appeared from around some corner, holding an empty jar and wearing this huge smile while looking at me. My whole body shook with fear as he very slowly walked up to me, making it way worse.

All of a sudden he erupted in laughter and looks at the other guy and says, “Wow, Jack! This is the best one yet, look at him! He is ready to cry!”, Jack also starts to laugh and replies with, “I don’t know Gary, it feels so wrong when they have these kinds of reactions”, as he says this he is peeling back the grimy clothes on this back, but what also comes off is the skin on his arms, except it’s not his skin, it’s just a bodysuit.

I stopped shaking but I was now super confused, the body bags started wriggling which followed with them unzipping themselves and out popped normal-looking people with laughing faces. Is this a nightmare? Am I still asleep? Or is this maybe just one big twisted joke? The grizzly bear guy didn’t reek as much anymore, but he still looked like he could squash me with the blink of an eye.

The slender man put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Son, this was all just an ugly joke, we do this for research, we are sorry to have scared you like this. You are in Hawaii and we decided to pay for your stay here for being such a good sport. Just please don’t report us.” He pressed a button and the walls fell away, revealing that we were on a beach in Hawaii. I was OK? Then why did I still feel so wrong about it all??

I spent the rest of the day sleeping in the bungalow I had booked because the whole experience really tired me out. Then I woke up to the most amazing voice. I got out of bed to investigate where it was coming from and found a woman around my age, standing outside looking out at the ocean, like she was serenading the waves.

I walked up to her and said, “Wow, I swear this isn’t some ploy to date you, but your voice is that of an angel.” She looked over at me with a smile so sweet it would put icing sugar to shame and replied with, “That is such a kind thing to say, especially to a stranger standing right outside your place. I am sure you must be wondering what I am doing here?”

I suppose I was wondering what she was doing here, but at that moment I was just surprised that I was able to say something this decent to a breathtakingly beautiful woman without failing. I said, “I would like to know why you’re out here, but I’m not exactly mad that you are, a gorgeous woman like you.” Oh no, was that too much? Did I just mess up something that could have been amazing? My paranoia seemed to be just that, paranoia because what she said next did not confirm that at all. “I like that you are so forward, I am here because I want to be here. Although, you should know that I was sent to you”, she said, in a rather nonchalant type of way. What did she mean by that?

I started to ask what she meant by that, but all of sudden her eyes became alarmingly serious as they darted behind me. Before I could look back to see what she was seeing, she grabbed my arm and pulled me inside, and told me to stay still. This was starting to feel familiar, too familiar for my liking.

After a couple of minutes, she seemed more relaxed. Whatever happened must’ve been over now. I still had questions I wanted to ask, however it seemed like she saw it coming because she looked at me with a hopeful face and said, “Jebidiah, I am your destiny. There’s no need to question it, just accept it so that we can start the next chapter together.”