Midnight

Raven approached the front steps with a decision. She could stay at home, or face the crowd that currently gathered in the high school auditorium. The school year was coming to an end, and summer break loomed overhead. A whole two months where she spent her time stuck at home with her dreary father was enough to get her to search for a dress at a thrift store. 

It was a black solid tube dress with a frilly skirt as if she were preparing to attend a funeral. Truth be told, she would much rather attend a funeral than attend her own high school prom. She had nobody to go with, and no reason to enjoy being there. But the alternative was to go home. She couldn’t do that either. So, Raven walked up the front steps and went through to the auditorium. 

She could hear the pounding bass of the music before she reached the gym. The doors were thrown open, with tacky streamers and balloons strewn everywhere. A buffet table in the corner promised delicious punch and snacks, so she waltzed towards it with purpose. If there were anything that could entice her to stay, it would be the greasy food brought by chaperones. 

Raven was pouring herself another cup of punch when suddenly the cup was taken right out of her hand. A boy stood beside her, chugging the contents of the plastic cup in five seconds tops. He appeared as if he could be from the school, and Raven guessed he was attending the party from the look of his nicely ironed suit. His hair was brown, in a neat bowl cut like baby Justin Bieber.

“You need to get out of here.” He said. 

“Excuse me?” Raven took no heed and grabbed another cup to fill up for herself. The rude boy smacked it out of her hand. She blinked, unsure of what to do. 

“I’m serious. If you don’t leave this party, you will die. I’ve seen it.” 

Great, Raven thought to herself. She’d run into the school whackjob. 

“It’s been written that you will die tonight.” He grabbed her hand, pulling her toward the emergency exit. “But I’m going to save you.” 

“What the hell are you talking about? Let go of me!”

“I just need you to trust me.” 

“No, you weirdo! Get off!” She tried to shake herself free of him, but his grip was tight as iron shackles. He pulled her outside and grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to look at him eye to eye. 

“Haven’t you ever thought it was strange?” He asked her. “Every woman in your family dies before the age of seventeen. Unless you don’t want to be an exception, I suggest you go along with my plan. I have a boat waiting for us at the docks. We can get a head start on them.” 

Them? Them who? He took her hand again, dragging her past the treeline. She struggled to keep up on the rough terrain in her heels and considered flinging her shoes at him as he forced her away from school property.  

Through the forest and down the beach were the docks, full of the many boats that belonged to the fishing Floridians of the region. The strange boy took her to the end of the dock where a gigantic vessel was waiting for him. 

“Dad! I found her!” He cried out triumphantly, pushing her onto the sailboat before boarding himself. 

“Tie her to the mast, we can’t afford for her to flee. We can’t make her understand, but we can make her live.” 

“What is going on? Who are you, people?!” 

The boy responded by retrieving a roll of duct tape, and securing some of it over her mouth to prevent any further speech. He used some fishing line to bind her wrists to the mast, a weak form of bondage meant to keep her in place. For her own safety, or so they claimed. 

Once the boat was headed away from the docks, the older man joined them by the railing. 

“Any visions?” The older man asked. “We need to know the second her fate changes.” 

“I know, I--” The boy went quiet and still, his eyes getting a look about them that made him seem a hundred miles away. The man shook the boy’s shoulders desperately.  

“Cameron! Talk to me, boy! What do you see?” 

The boy snapped out of his trance, suddenly seeming panicked. 

“We need to get her off the boat, they--” 

Suddenly, an arrow whizzed past and struck the man right through the throat. Raven screamed, her mouth still bound with tape. Cameron quickly got in front of her, undoing the bindings on her wrists and guiding her below deck. He ripped the tape off her mouth.  

“What’s going on? Who shot that arrow?!” Raven pleaded with him for answers. For a moment, he seemed inclined to give them. 

“There’s a unique group of people. They hunt down people like you, people like the women of your family. My visions show me every single one of you there ever is or ever will be. Today, I saw you. Since dawn, I’ve seen fifty-seven ways you could possibly die before midnight.” 

Raven glanced at the clock. It was eleven forty-five. 

“Stay down here. I need to keep them from boarding the boat.” Cameron grabbed a shotgun off the pegs mounted to the wall, before instructing her to bolt the door behind him.

When she heard the gunshots, she felt a knot of nerves in her belly. She knew Cameron couldn’t handle it alone. He may have claimed her to be the one to die, but he was the one in the line of fire. 

After a while, everything went quiet. There were no shots, no footsteps, no voices. Raven assumed it was a false alarm. And if Cameron was no longer on the ship, perhaps she would be able to get away. She risked opening the door slowly and saw nobody. So she proceeded to go out onto the top deck. She immediately saw Cameron laying in a heaping pool of his own blood. His gun was strewn uselessly by his outstretched hand. 

“Hey!” Raven ran out and kneeled beside him. “Can you hear me? Hey!” She put her hand on his chest, where she saw a bullet was lodged, sputtering blood profusely. 

He suddenly gasped and sat up, his chest wound healing all at once. He slowly turned to look at her, his eyes wide. 

“You shouldn’t have done that.” He breathed. Raven was grabbed from behind and dragged to her feet. A bearded man leered at her from behind, holding a blade between his thumb and forefinger. His free hand wrapped securely around her bosom. 

“He’s right girly,” He sneered. “People like you don’t need to be making more people like him.” 

A small fishing boat approached them from the water below, and more men boarded, locked, and loaded with more firepower. The man held her securely, refusing to lessen his grip for even a moment.

“Toss the boy overboard!” The man called to his comrades.

“No! Stop! You don’t have to do this!” 

The other men worked together to lift Cameron, despite his wriggling form refusing to give up without a fight. 

“Raven!” He called. “I’m so sorry!” 

“I wish I could say the same,” The man whispered, before slitting her throat and letting her body drop limply to the ground. 

She held her hands to her throat, but she couldn’t prevent herself from choking on her own blood. She could see it spread out onto the deck, her black hair becoming stained with crimson. She heard the chiming of the clock from the cabin behind her. 

Midnight had come.