He stood there for another 2 minutes. Marc was the kind of person who arrived late. So much so that the teachers hardly ever remarked on it. The one he was worried about was Elie. She was still clinging to his sleeve.

“Shouldn’t you be leaving too?”

“What about you?”

“Me, it’s normal.”

“Is it? It’s normal for a student to often arrive late for class.”

“For me, yes.”

Marc had to leave too. Besides, he had science and he really shouldn’t be late for this class. If there was one thing Marc had never done at school, it was get expelled.

“Listen. I know this may sound strange to you, but it’s best if I stay close to you.”

He couldn’t believe his ears. As much as Marc had never received a compliment from a girl, none of them had ever told him she should stay by his side. To him, it sounded more like a declaration of marriage. In his head, he was already imagining the children, the house, the dog, kindergarten, the nursery, the bottle, the car, death.

“We’re too young for this.

Bye.”

For him it was the best way to get rid of his embarrassment.

“Wait. You just don’t get it. You’re one of the only ones taking this event seriously and you’re the first one to come to me. I can’t trust anyone else, least of all Chris.”

There was one thing he liked about her and that was that she wasn’t a Chris groupie. He sighed.

“I understand, but right now we’ve got to get to class. We might get yelled at if this keeps up. We’ll talk about it after school.”

“We go to the same class.”

“We are? Let’s go then.”

They both climbed the stairs. When they got to class, the other students started teasing him about being late with a girl. But he didn’t care. The only thing on his mind at the time was this collective vision. Or not. Maybe it was just a coincidence. But why was the word Aregis common to everyone. Was it just someone who said it? Why were the visions all complementing each other? Why them?

And why hadn’t the last person come forward to talk about it? She wasn’t the shy type.

Marc thought about it. He didn’t understand what had happened to them. He glanced around the classroom but didn’t see the last person. She probably didn’t have class with him at the time.

It had been a very long day for Marc. He left the classroom with a heavy head. Several times the teachers had asked him to concentrate on the lesson, but if he’d seen what he’d seen, he probably wouldn’t be talking like this.

He walked out of the school and was surprised to see Elie waiting for him with her pals. They glowered at him. Marc knew why. He walked with Elie to his bus stop without saying a word. Elie seemed tense and Marc seemed in a hurry. They looked like a couple on the verge of breaking up.

Marc was waiting for his bus as usual. Elie was waiting for hers.

“Don’t you want me to go to your place?”

“Huh? ”

“Nothing. ”

Marc couldn’t take it anymore. What did she mean? There were limits all the same.

“Listen. We’re not a couple. We’re not friends. So you’re going to have to stop acting like one. This is a joke, right?

A hidden camera of your buddies? Because if it is, it’s really not funny. ”

“It’s not.”

“I know the vision you saw has most certainly traumatized you, but am I really going to solve the problem?”

At these words, Elie turned pale. Marc thought she was going to die instantly. He was already imagining the consequences of those words.

“No, that’s not what I wanted...”

“You were in my vision.”

Silence reigned for a moment. Marc didn’t know what to say. Maybe she’d finally let out a few words of what she’d seen, but Marc didn’t want to have heard them. He was in it. The others’ visions had no people in them, so why was he appearing in Elie’s?

“I....I was in it.”

He didn’t want to insist and ask for further details given how pale she’d turned the last time. The bus arrived late as usual.

Marc got on without saying a word or looking back. Perhaps if he had, he would have noticed that Elie was getting on with him. It wasn’t until he sat down on a seat that he saw him get on the bus.

“Wait a minute. She’s on the same bus as me.”

Marc figured he really had to work on his memory sometimes.

The journey was also interminably long. The road he’d been traveling for 5 years seemed longer than usual. Elie looked out of the window. Her gaze seemed lost. Marc said nothing. Just as he was about to go out, he picked up his bag and turned back to her.

“I’ll still be here, don’t worry.”

Elie turned around. She didn’t know what to say. For the first time in her life she felt really comfortable with someone.

She felt a warm breath pass through her body. Marc, completely embarrassed, turned and rushed out of the bus. He’d never had a girlfriend, and since fate had given him a girl to protect, he had to take a chance. Marc was taken for a guy capable of anything, a no-nonsense type. He could talk very easily to girls he didn’t know and to new people. But deep down, he was a great stressor. He did all this to make himself look comfortable wherever he went, and to please other people.

Marc was just starting to walk home when he turned around and saw that he wasn’t the only one to have got off the bus. Elie was there, watching him. Red as a tomato. For Marc, this was already the most embarrassing moment of his life. After all that talk about her staying on the bus, she happened to be getting off at the same stop as him. Marc felt even more ashamed than the time she’d screamed all over the yard.

“Why are you here?

“I live on the same street as you.”

“If you want I can come over to your place” made more sense now.

“Ah.”

The two companions set off in the same direction. This time, the tension was palpable. Marc hoped to disappear and Elis wanted to go back in time.

“Well, I guess you’re stopping here.”

“Yeah.”

“Hi then.”

“Hi.”

Elie turned right to go home. Her house was a large estate. The garden, on the other hand, was small but the rest was covered in flowers. It suited her personality. As she passed through the door Elie turned in Marc’s direction.

“Thank you. Thank you for not leaving me alone.”

Marc turned too. He’d already had his fill of embarrassment for the day. He didn’t want anyone to see them.

“You’re welcome. I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye.”

With that, he pressed on and hurried home. Elie liked Marc. He was a nice, intelligent boy who often played the fool. Although she couldn’t imagine him being her boyfriend, she couldn’t help it now.

Marc jumped out of bed as soon as he entered his room. What a hard day. He needed some rest. He looked at his phone to see if a new chapter of his favorite novel had come out. To his surprise, the first thing his phone showed him was the death of a man on a building site. He had stumbled and fallen five stories. He was apparently unrestrained.

“These things happen. May his soul rest in peace.”

Marc wasn’t an insensitive person. He just didn’t want to feel guilty about everyone dying. As far as he was concerned, everyone died and that was life. There’s nothing you can do about it. Death is normal.

He wanted to forget about this man and concentrate on his novel, but another piece of information appeared on the screen. This time, it was the death of a head of state. Murdered in his home.

“Wow.

He passed on the information without a hitch, but another came, and another, and another. Marc couldn’t believe it. People died and that was normal, but why was he receiving so many death notifications.

They’d all died in different ways, and their deaths were either accidental or not. So why was he receiving all this?

“I guess I must have unintentionally asked for the death notifications. I should remove them.”

As soon as he had done so, all the notifications had disappeared. Marc was relieved not to have to feel guilty about so many people.

Finally, he read his new chapter without a hitch. The main character had succeeded in defeating the archdemon and had succeeded in destroying the throne. But the appearance of the new enemy troubled him. It was a man dressed in black and carrying a sword. He had six wings on his back and his face was invisible.

This man was the perfect description of the man Nathanaël had seen in his vision.

“Well, there aren’t many details. This kind of person dressed in black who reminds us of death often appears in stories. Maybe it’s a coincidence.”

Marc didn’t want to believe it. But deep down he knew something was wrong. He wanted to show Nathanaël the next day because an image of the man had been published. The illustration itself was by the author.

At the end of each chapter, the author always left a message for his readers, who were few in number. Marc opened his eyes wide when he saw the message.

“This world is going to change.”