I can see the future. Yeah, I know, some bullshit right off the bat. But it’s true, and it has happened for so long that it’s become natural, so I don’t even make a big deal out of it anymore.
It’s not *exactly* prescience - I couldn’t make use of it at will until recently, when everything went south because of it. It would happen as I was living my life, doing something ordinary like talking, studying, playing, you get the gist. It would come as a memory seconds before it came to life, and then it would become true. Since I never managed to pin exactly *when* I first saw those memories, I guessed it was from dreams. My body’s own reaction told me I was right.
At first I didn’t notice it, shrugging it off as deja vú, until one day when I was 12, when my brother and I were supposed to go to the dentist with our mom, except my knucklehead brother forgot about that and left with his friend to go somewhere he didn’t mention. My mother was furious and I was crying, but we went regardless.
I couldn’t shake this feeling that we’d find my brother on the way there, though. I had this image on my mind of being on a specific avenue and finding my brother accross the street with his friend, and him coming with us. Lo and behold, there he was, exactly where I thought he would be.
Of course this isn’t enough, but I’ve avoided enough trouble and finished people’s phrases for them enough times to make it clear that it’s the case. It’s always the same thing: I’m in a normal situation, then I see something that is about to happen and I let things unroll however I thought it’d be better for me. Sometimes I’d avoid bumping into someone, sometimes I’d get the correct answer in a test, sometimes I’d find the perfect pick up line just in time. It was useful.
Well, until recently. Turns out, I was spot-on about the dream thing. Most predictions were brief, as most dreams were brief, but suddenly I was dreaming and predicting almost an HOUR of a day. Do you know what’s worse than having a boring hour of class? Having two of the EXACT hours of class. They’d be equal down do a T. And sure, that could mean I had two opportunities to learn, but it most often became two occasions of learning *nothing*. It was even worse since I KNEW I’d learn nothing, so it’d become a self fullfilling prophecy and I’d learn nothing for real. Fucking great.
And then, it happened. I think it was a week before Christmas 2020, I had a dream where I died in a car crash. I’d be driving downtown with my brother and sister-in-law in the backseat when an out-of-control truck would speed down the street and hit us directly, crushing me instantly and paralyzing my brother. My sister-in-law would lose an arm and a leg, but also survive. I woke up sweating from this dream, it’s been so long since I started remembering my premonitory dreams that I couldn’t tell them apart from regular ones anymore. As far as I knew, every of the conceivable dreams were premonitory.
After that, I was terrified to drive. I never had a dream that missed a single detail, so part of me told me as long I didn’t drive with my brother and sister-in-law in the car and in those exact positions, I’d be alright. Didn’t want to take any chances, though, so I went back to my old dusty bike for around six months, until that dream faded from my memories, just like every other.
On November 18th 2021, my brother and his wife came back to our hometown to be with us on Thanksgiving. That dream buried deep in my mind, I drove to the airport to pick them up. When we left, that odd feeling came back, and this time it was dreadful. It was so bad I even stopped the car, having to take a moment to recompose myself, but went on regardless. When we were arriving at the exact spot of the dream, it suddenly came flooding back, reminding me exactly why I was so afraid. I slowed down, trying to look for the truck, and there he was.
It’s been over a year, but every week, at least once, I think if that was my biggest mistake. Maybe if I hadnt slowed down we’d have enough momentum to take the car entirely out of the way. I couldn’t do that, however, not entirely, so I started turning to try to avoid it. The last thing I heard before the crash was my sister-in-law’s terrified scream.
I woke up in the hospital, with scrapes and bruises and a light concussion. The doctors said I got off pretty well, considering the speed at which the truck hit us. My brother was still in surgery, alive but having shards of glass removed from his chest, high chance of him losing a leg. His wife didn’t get to finish the scream.
I… I went to therapy after that. Several doctors during the months following the incident, but I gave up after the fifth one that asked for a transfer and one of them started getting way into what I told them. I told all of them about my dreams, about what I had seen and lived through. None of them believed me, of course, some even suggesting more advanced treatment. I knew I wasn’t crazy, so I just stopped seeking assistance altogether.
My relationship with my family was never the same after the accident. My brother survived but lost his right leg and the love of his life, and my family, even if unintentionally, blamed me for it. Ironically, it wasn’t all bad. I could finally tell them what I can do, and after not believing me and calling me crazy, going away from them actually helped. At first, the long prescient dreams were becoming shorter and shorter until they were so quick I couldn’t remember them. Then I stopped getting the “future memories” altogether, and by November 2022 it had been six months since I had one. I was finally free.
Until yesterday, January 2nd 2023. I wouldn’t be telling you this if I wasn’t terrified, but what I saw was beyond anything I could ever hope to prevent, and I’m afraid any efforts I make will end up speeding up or worsening the process. Hell, as far as I know, telling you all this could very much be the trigger of what’s to come. But if I can’t stop it then maybe, just maybe, some of you can. Maybe I can warn you.
I saw an army of devout legionnaires brandishing guns in a burning city, an army so massive it stretched beyond the reach of our eyes, chanting and celebrating the conquering of their final objective. Among them were soldiers bearing flags with a shield, a mace and an eye looking into itself through the infinite. They were offering that city to their prescient God, in revenge of his murder several decades prior.
Help me. Please.