Jess's fork paused midway to his mouth as he absorbed Joseph's words. The air in the room suddenly felt heavier, and a sense of unease settled upon them both. Memories of their mother flooded back, memories they had buried deep within themselves, remembering the inexplicable things that had happened to her.
As they dined, Jess asked, “Well-I, I don’t understand, what do you mean?”
“Don’t you remember?” Joseph replied.
He thought he had seen this exact scene before; it was like déjà vu. It was when he once caught a glimpse of his mother through a door cracked open from when he was still seven, seeing the same exact scenario. His mom floating on the bed, with his dad on the side, trying to pull her down. And once she was down, she started speaking in tongues and crying in blood.
“Stop!” Jess yelled as his gut turned upside down. He felt everything that he just ate was coming right back up. He abruptly left the room, leaving Joseph stunned. The room’s atmosphere got eerier as Joseph reminisced as to how he was just remembering these.
He knew he was once a very sick kid, “but did any of that affect my memories?” he wondered. As he stared at his food, he felt sudden chills throughout his body. His vision morphed into such an angle, it was as if he was looking through a fisheye lens.
“I ca-a-can’t breathe,” he choked.
As he felt nauseous, he caught a glimpse of a mysterious shadow in the corner of his peripherals. He blacked out as it got closer to him.
Later that night, he woke up with his siblings by his side. Laying on his bed, he felt icy cold. Even a single caress from his sister made him feel like he was being poked with ice shards. His brother sarcastically said, “If you’re that tired, just sleep in your bed.”
“Shut up! It’s not like you have a job to be proud of,” Sherry replied.
As Jess left for bed, Sherry caringly asked if Joseph was alright.
He answered, “Do you know anything about a student named Jennifer Sanchez?”
Sherry was very confused as to why her brother knew about her classmate.
“Yeah! I know her. She’s my classmate, how’d you know her, though?” Sherry asked.
“How is Jennifer in school?” Joseph deflected. “Is she not a good student?”
Sherry replied, “You haven’t answered my question.” Joseph then proceeded to tell her sister what had happened.
Thirty minutes later, his sister replied, “That’s why!”
“She was very quiet today, and she didn’t even speak a word to anyone!”
“Why is that?” Joseph asked.
“Ohhh! It’s just that she’s very popular for being a nosy and loud student.”
Even though Jennifer Sanchez was a gossipy student, she was still one of the top students that are supposed to graduate this year.
“What about the vision?” Joseph wondered aloud. As he reminisced about the vision, his sister asked, “What is that?” Joseph hesitated to tell what he saw in his visions. He knew that if he told his siblings, they would only ridicule him. He could only wait for their dad to come back from his work. “It’s nothing, you should go to sleep,” he said.
The next day, as he walked the streets to the academy, he sensed a kind of creepiness within him that someone was watching him. He had a premonition that something was going to happen that day. And as he reached his office, he opened the door slowly. The door creaked; the knob wobbled. Pausing with the door cracked open, he shivered as he heard the announcement system ring from inside his office.
“Good morning, students, teachers, and faculty members. I would like to ask everyone to join a school assembly in the gymnasium this afternoon,” the principal announced.
With a sigh of relief, he then opened the door fully and saw a note on the desk.
It read: “I know what you saw.”