"Get out," Jamie mumbled to his sister, Megan. She just stood there and raised an eyebrow. "Get out!"
"Why should I?" she replied, bringing the other eyebrow up to meet its twin. Her tone was light and mocking, but if you listened carefully there was a tone that suggested she was actually trying to help, but Jamie didn't pick it up. He had no answer. "That's what I thought." Sneering, she walked up to her younger brothers bed. "What's so important that means I should leave? It's not like you a have a social life, so you're obviously not hiding a girl from mum and dad, and I know you don't self harm in any way, even you're not stupid enough to do that, so what is it?" Megan was one of the popular girls at school, and to anyone else Jamie was just an outcast. His mind worked differently to other peoples. His ideas were strange. His thoughts of death especially.
"Can you please just leave?" Jamie asked, his tone softened noticeably.
"If you insist, but don't think I've forgotten about this," Megan laughed and walked out, but her smile faded significantly as soon as she was out of sight. She knew there was something wrong.
Jamie stood up and closed the door. When he lay back down he pulled out the notebook that was hiding under his pillow, open at a page about three quarters of the way through the book. The title on the top of the page read: "Death; A New Friend". You may ask what that means, but it would take hours of explaining. To put it simply, Jamie had different thoughts about what happened after you died, or whether it was possible to come back to life. His studies were complete. It was time for him to die. He had to make it look like an accident. He stood up, walked out of him bedroom and into the family room. "I'm going for a walk," he announced. His family mumbled in acknowledgement, and he padded outside. The sky was a light blue, and the world around him sparkled as the sun reflected off the raindrops. It was a beautiful day, and a shame to be dying. But he knew it was time. He had exactly thirteen minutes before his life was due to end. It was 3:22:54 in the afternoon when Jamie Andrews was struck dead by who knows what. One second he was walking in the park about three blocks away from his house, and the next he was lying on the ground in a pile of smouldering grass, his body in pristine condition. A young girl screamed. A man sprinted to help, but as he reached the body, Jamie disappeared with a soft whump. There was nothing left to see, and all memory of the incident faded from the mans mind, and the girl stopped screaming. The only thing to show that anything strange had happened was a mysterious patch of dead grass.
The next thing Jamie knew, he was floating up above the scattered clouds, and he looked down and his body shook. He'd done it. He had beaten death. For all he knew he was the first to do it. He swam through the air, waiting until he fell. The next stage, he knew, was dimensional travel. As soon as that happened and he was pushed back into the real world, his mind would be sharpened, reflexes heightened and all senses enhanced beyond any other human being alive. Jamie would be able to do absolutely anything. His stomach dropped and he fell, crashing into a something he couldn't see, and he felt himself break. He wasn't prepared for this. He had taken everything into account, apart from the landing. He wouldn't die, he knew that. You couldnt die when you weren't in your home dimension, unless it was by someone elses hand. His vision flashed, and he saw his destination, saw the ground rushing towards him, and looked through the windows in the building to his left and saw a man look back at him. Just a glimpse, but Jamie would remember the face. He looked back to the ground and braced for impact. There was one difference between Jamie and Rob. Jamie was just a human being, Rob was a mage.
***
Hayley screamed as her vision flashed before her eyes, briefly revealing a dark red city. Towering skyscrapers loomed above her. As she came back, she noticed that all eyes were on her, bright pin points in the dim lighting of the science department. She looked back at her test, combing through her dark blonde hair with her fingers, her hands shaking. Hayley was scared. Just as everyone had settled down and turned back to their own papers, there was a bright flash, and a crash like thunder. The girls screamed, and the boys sat in shock. One boy sat in the corner and started sobbing quietly into his shoulder. Hayley was dead, her wooden desk obliterated. Everyone abruptly turned back to their papers as if nothing had happened. All memories of Hayley were gone, along with Hayley herself. She screeched as she opened her eyes, feeling the air all around her, the fierce wind blowing around her. Thunder clapped, lightning flashed and she looked down and the billowing grey clouds. The red city flashed into sight, and she shuddered. This wasn't right. Level with one of the larger skyscrapers, she made a grab for the edge as she started falling. Windows flashed past her, and as she looked into one she saw a young girl, she thought she recognised the face, but surely that couldn't be right. She looked back at the ground and remembered. Ground. The ground was hard. Soft skin plus hard concrete were not a good mix. She closed her eyes and saw the face in the window. A painful face. Ailish.
