Neil Perry died on the night of December 15th, 1959, at the age of only 17. He died in a car accident, that wrapped his father's Volkswagen around the trunk of a maple tree, less than a mile away from Welton Academy. His tires had hit a patch of black ice, and had he been going the speed limit, the damage to both the car and Neil may have very well been less. Neil however was going 15 over. The vehicle, well beyond destroyed, wasn't discovered until 7:30 the next morning. Neil Perry, who seven hours later was still sitting slumped in the drivers seat, a low hanging broken branch of the maple pierced through his heart, was long gone. He was dead nearly upon impact. The branch struck through his chest left him but two seconds of life, before ultimately taking his. But those two seconds were more than enough for him to utter the only thing that was ever on his mind.
"Todd,"
And just like that, he was gone.