Premonitions. They always happen at the strangest time, and always out of nowhere. One second, everything’s all right, the next I witness something horrible.
My friend Paul and I were sitting on his living room couch, having a few beers. Suddenly, his drunk face was replaced by an empty, blood covered mask. At that moment, I knew something terrible was going to happen to him. When I saw it, fear took hold of me, a hot feeling washed over me, and sweat broke out all over my body.
“Yo, man,” I spoke up once the vision was gone. “We should call it a night. I think we’re both pretty drunk, and I should-“
“Fuck that, man! You promised you’d go with me! That bridge is where Julie and I first hit it off. Just want to get some closure, all right?”
I sighed.
“Look, I just got the feeling something bad will happen.”
“Like what? You think I’m going to cry?” he asked.
Then his face changed to an expression of slight outrage.
“You don’t think I’m planning on jumping or some shit, do you?”
For a moment, I was quiet. I knew I could never talk about these premonitions of mine. Not ever, not to anyone, not even a friend like Paul. Instead, I just shook my head.
“Nah, nothing stupid like that. I just think it’s not the best idea, that’s all.”
For the next half hour, I continued trying to convince Paul, but it was futile. Fueled by sorrow and alcohol, he was steadfast in going. So eventually, we set out. As we made our way through the town’s dark, empty streets, the premonition’s nagging feeling continued to linger in the back of my mind. Paul, however, didn’t notice my anxious and thoughtful expression. Instead, he lamented over his breakup with his ex-girlfriend. I only listened with half an ear. I’d heard it all before, had heard it many, many times over the past weeks.
As I trudged along after him, I couldn’t help but wonder when those premonitions had started. When I was ten, playing with our family cat, Polly, I suddenly saw her lifeless body in the middle of the road. I didn’t understand it then, but hours later, it came true. Over the years, these visions, or premonitions, as I came to call them, grew darker. At first, they were only about pets or strays I saw in passing, but eventually, they were about people as well. The worst was with Grandpa. I tried to warn him, but it didn’t change a thing.
My head was a mess, as the terrible images of so many other similar premonitions came back to my mind. There had been so many over the years, so many terrible things, and yet, I’d never been able to prevent even a single one of them.
With a heavy mind, I soon saw the big bridge at the edge of our town. It was a monstrosity of steel and cement and spanned the wide valley and river below.
“Paul, let’s head home. It’s freezing out here, and I’m tired,” I said, trying one last time to stop him.
Yet, he didn’t even seem to hear me, and trudged on, undeterred. Then, after a few seconds, he stopped and jerked around to face me.
“Fuck that man! We went all the way out here. Let’s just have a cold one, watch the dawn, and then you can go back home. Fucking hell!”
I opened my mouth to say something, to put the anxiety that flooded over me into words, but what could I even say? For a few more seconds, I merely watched him before I set out to follow him. When I made it to the bridge, Paul was already standing at the railing, and had taken two beers from his backpack.
“Told you we should have a cold one out here!” he said with a wide, drunken grin on his face.
With that, he popped open the bottles and handed me one of them. For a while, we just stood there, taking sip after sip in silence. Both our heads full of our own worries. Paul’s with his girlfriend and the break-up, mine with the terrible, haunting premonition.
“It’s beautiful up here, isn’t it?” Paul eventually said, staring at the valley and the horizon where the sun had begun dawning.
“Yeah, it’s a pretty nice view,” I agreed, mumbling.
“So, why didn’t you want me to go? It’s not like anything bad will happen if we’re just standing here.”
My hand tightened around the bottle. I took a deep breath before I opened my mouth and told him.
“I saw you die,” I said, my eyes focused on him.
“What?”
Paul furrowed his brow, but didn’t seem to understand if I was fucking with him. For a moment, I thought he’d laugh, but the seriousness of my expression made him stay quiet.
“A premonition,” I answered calmly, taking another sip of beer.
“What the hell are you-?”
Before he could finish, I’d reached him, and before he could do anything in his drunken state, I’d pushed him over the railing.
For a second, a high-pitched scream cut through the air before a sickening thud followed. As I leaned over the railing and stared down, the sun was slowly coming up. It really was beautiful, I thought, as I stared down at Paul’s bloodied body and face. Finally, my anxiety and worries ebbed away. It was done.
Premonitions. Whenever I saw them, I knew what I had to do. It wasn’t just about witnessing the future; it was about making it happen. Every single time.
