My chest hurt. I was soaked to the skin and out of breath. Ryo had fallen behind somewhere and was nowhere to be seen. But worst of all, I was lost. 

All that time spent thinking that I was wasting time talking to Ryo and now I was standing around like an idiot because I didn’t know where to go. Why didn’t it occur to me to find out where she lived before? It was pitch-black at this hour. There were street lights but they were few and far between, and the rain wasn’t helping visibility at all.

What was I doing? Maybe Ryo was right; maybe I was insane. A breathless giggle escaped from my lips. It was quickly silenced by a whisper from the Voice:

‘You can save them.’

An icy breath hit the back of my neck. I spun. No one there.

Somewhere to my right, a streetlamp buzzed and flickered. A moment later the one beside it did the same. As did the next. And the one after that. The flickering spread down the street like an electrical contagion, turning the corner several streets down.

I stood there, frozen. I really was going crazy.

‘Follow. Save them.’

The streetlight closest to me flickered again. 

The inexplicable urge to burst into laughter hit me once more. It was like I’d just become the heroine in some bad supernatural slasher film. Dark, stormy weather? Check. Alone without a soul in sight? Check. About to do something incredibly stupid like follow ominous flashing lights without any idea where they’d lead me because a voice in my ear told me to? Check.

Crazy or not, it wasn't like I had any better ideas. Every minute I spent running around wasting energy was a minute less to save Ai. 

Ignoring the instincts screaming at me not to do it, I chased the lights. They led me through the streets, left and right and left again. As I rounded a corner into Windchester Lane, every single light in the street in front of me turned off at once. It was like an electromagnetic pulse had just gone off – like the world had come to an end. There was no sign of movement. No sign of life. All I could hear was the pitter-patter of the rain and my own ragged breathing.

This would be the part where the heroine in that bad horror movie gets grabbed by the ankles some demonic force and then dragged kicking and screaming into the darkness. 

Fighting the urge to look behind me, I addressed the Voice instead. ‘Now what, genius?’ I did my best to sound annoyed (because letting it know that I was scared didn't really seem like a good idea), but the words came out so high-pitched that even I wasn't convinced.

The Voice said nothing. Five houses down on my left, a security light began to pulse. Eyes and ears alert for any sign of… well, anything, I made my way towards it.

It was a nice little place: brick walls, wooden gate and fence and a well-manicured front lawn – a typical suburban house. No one would ever suspect that something terrible was happening inside. Heavy tartan curtains hung in the windows, thick enough to block even shadows. Whoever lived there really didn't want to be seen. Which meant I’d have to get closer.

God, please don’t let some unknown force drag me into that house by my feet.

The security light switched off with a click. The gate creaked open of its own accord. 

Swallowing my trepidation, I tiptoed up the path. Muffled voices met my ear as I knelt to listen at the door.

The first was female – panicked. ‘Oh god. Oh god. Oh god – ’

‘Shut up, Ai. I can’t think with all that screaming!’

‘But Andrew, he – we – what do we do? What do we do? We should call the police –  an ambulance! Or – ’

 ‘I said shut up, Ai!’  There was a thud and a shriek. ‘I have to think! Sit down and shut it!’

‘Okay. Okay. Oh god…’

My fingers were on the door handle, knuckles white and shaking. Anger welled up, threatening to overcome my fear. He’d hit her. That fu— no, I had to calm down. I took a deep breath. Finger by finger, I forced myself to let go. At times like these, emotions were secondary enemies. One wrong move – one second of clouded judgement, and I – no, we would both be in danger. Andrew was bigger and taller than either of us and clearly just as violent as all the rumours had said. If he caught me – us, it would not end well.

My fingers started to tremble. 

Why was I here alone?

Ryo’s low-lidded look of pity flickered in front of my eyes. Is it because of a “vision?

Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!

I dug my fingernails into my palms until they felt like they were going to bleed, but the fear was already creeping in. God, I was an idiot. What was I thinking coming here by myself? Even if I confronted Andrew, what could I do? I was weak. I had no self-defence training. My arm was broken for Christ’s sakes! 

I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. Any second now and I was going to lose control of my breath. It wasn't like changing the future hadn't given me the shakes before. How many times had I nearly been run-over, set on fire or impaled by something sharp when trying to prevent an accidental death? This wasn't that different.

Except it's an actual human being trying to kill you this time, said the sceptical part of my mind.

On the other side of the door, I could hear Andrew still ranting to himself – his voice growing louder and louder as Ai whimpered in the background, adding more fuel to my treacherous, cowardly thoughts. I bit my lower lip. Surely someone else could hear that. Someone nearby had to have heard that scream earlier… Any sensible person would have called emergency services by now. Yeah, maybe one of the neighbours – 

I stiffened as a now-familiar chill washed over me. It blanketed my skin like a friend wrapping an arm around my shoulders. ‘You can save her,’ whispered the Voice. ‘You can do this.’

My chest quivered as the hysterics threatened to come out as laughter. What was this, a battle between my instincts and my conscience? 

The cold wrapped itself around me even tighter as I wavered, caressing my eyelids – chilling my ears. The drumming of the rain became muffled. My peripheral vision seemed to darken.

Inside the house, Andrew yelled something at Ai. Something in there hit the ground with a crash. I stared blankly at the door. I knew it was right there in front of me, but it felt like it was light years away. Everything around it was fading from view, as if all the other stimuli were being sucked into a black hole. No more shouting. No more muffled crying. It should have been a relief – a reprieve, but my chest felt hollow, as if the chill that came with the voice had frozen everything inside.

This was madness. I’d saved plenty of lives, most of them accidents for a reason. On the rare occasion that I had intervened with a murder, I’d made a point of staying as far away from a direct confrontation with killers as possible. This was wrong. I should have intervened sooner, or found some indirect way to deal with things. What was I doing here? 

‘You’re saving her.’

Why did I come here alone? 

‘Because you have no one.’

My stomach wrenched. 

Alone...

‘You can’t rely on anyone else.’

No, there were a million things I could have tried. I could have called the police – talked to her friends—

The numbness that had invaded my chest was spreading to my extremities. 

‘No one is going to come for you. You’re all alone.’

I was trembling. Hyperventilating.

That’s not… I—

No, there was no use denying it. It was right. No one had ever believed me. No one had ever listened to me. My parents. My friends. Ryo. It never changed.. Even when the things I said came true, people weren’t thankful. They still called me names. Treated me like some kind of freak. Used pathetic excuses like ‘treasure hunting’ to avoid being alone with me. Worst of all they were right and I knew it. I was a freak. If I was in their shoes, then I—

My jaw clenched.

I...

‘You’re not a freak. You’re a saviour,’ whispered the Voice soothingly.

Ha. A saviour. Was that how I thought of myself? It wasn’t as if I saved people because I wanted to. 

I had known from the start that this was insane. Suicidal even. I had told myself that it was fear of her reaction holding me back from telling her, but that wasn’t true. If she hadn’t turned up at the pavilion the afternoon after I’d seen her fate, then I… 

I would have just let her… 

My vision swam. My stomach clamped down as memories I’d kept long suppressed flooded forward. Visions. News reports. Corpses. Blood. Dad standing over a covered body in the morgue.

‘You are a saviour,’ insisted the Voice. ‘Prove it to yourself. Prove it to them. Save her.’

The cold drifted down my arm, wrapping itself around my wrist. My hand jerked forward, coming to a rest on the doorknob.