𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐫𝐮𝐦 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 | ꜱʜᴏʀᴛ ʜᴏʀʀᴏʀ ꜱᴛᴏʀʏ

- 𝟒 -

Just like in The Twilight Zone, the psychologist could've thought that she experienced some kind of déjà vu. In the circle of repetitive sentences, there wasn't anything else to do but to fret.

"Well, that isn't something I hear on a daily basis, yet you're the second one to tell me that," she responded, then took a sip of her coffee.

"I don't want to know who the second person is!" Jack exclaimed – it was obvious he got very upset by the events these days, "the only thing I know is that this kid drives me into madness! He knows what will happen before it even happens! He has that black notebook he draws into every single class, and I'm anything but peaceful when I remember what I saw!"

As Jack spoke, his interlocutor wrote his thoughts down. His inconsistent breathing gave away his nervousness, and his shaky movements proved that he was panicking.

"Mr Atkinson, calm down and tell me – what did you see?" she asked him, raising her head from her papers.

Jack took his time to calm down a bit, just so he could collect his thoughts and retell the story truthfully. When he felt a bit better, he took a deep breath and started his earth-shattering monologue, "It all started when I was holding my latest class..."

The English Classroom, 29th of October 2022 (Jack Atkinsons P.O.V.) –

It seemed like a normal Monday as I was revising the past tenses for the exam with my class. I was writing the example sentences on the blackboard, the students were solving them and I was writing down the new examples they came up with. But as I was writing down the new sentence, it seemed like the marker was about to run dry.

I turned around to the class to see who I had sent to get me a new marker. As I saw Danny was scribbling something down in a notebook that didn't look like the school notebook, I fixed my look on him.

"Danny," I called him, and he immediately raised his head to look at me, "will you be kind enough to go to the assembly room and grab me a new marker?" I asked. He remained speechless as he stood up and walked to the classroom door, "Thank you," I said as he walked past me while remaining quiet. I wasn't able not to notice the way he violently closed his notebook before he even stood up from his seat.

The students were doing their tasks in silence and I could not help it but walk closer to Danny's desk. The scribbles in his notebook that didn't seem like English notes caused a feeling of curiosity to spark inside of my mind.

As I put my hand on that notebook, I felt a strange energy rushing through my body. First I saw a basic-looking sketch of a cloud with a few raindrops sliding from it. Besides that, there was a date written in the lower right corner.

24th October 2022.

Indeed, two days ago it was raining. Such a coincidence, I thought. Maybe he had drawn it during the rain, or he simply wild-guessed that the rain was going to fall.

Turning the next page, the date was the first thing I was going to read.

27th of October. A plain sketch of the classroom. A few desks were crossed out. My goodness, the students who sat at those exact desks skipped school that day.

29th of October. A sketch of the Blackboard. The lines of words written on the blackboard were getting shallower and shallower until there were no lines. The marker had run out just now.

What I saw next freaked me out like nothing before. I've seen a lot of weird coincidences already, but this one shook my world since it was so damn specific. And, good lord, it was about me. It showed me holding a bloody axe, chasing down the students – the same students who sat in this exact class at the moment of me looking into the notebook. They were in a panic as I held an axe, a maniacal look on my face, and an exaggerated grin on my face.

Oh goodness, I looked like a psychopath.

And the date?

31th of October.

Halloween.

Back to reality (Third person's P.O.V.)

"So, he's predicting that you will commit a homicide in two days? Why exactly then?" the psychologist asked while fixing her glasses.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because the holiday of gore and terror is exactly in two days!" Jack said with a hint of irony, but his voice was riddled with panic.

Truly, Jack Atkinson was living in fear. The fear of his own mind had overcome his ratio, and the only thing he felt was pure panic.

"Well, there is something you could do..." he heard the comforting female voice say. But the voice didn't calm him down. On the contrary, he was even more nervous, thinking that she couldn't hear or understand his problem.

"Please tell me what it is! I can't live like this anymore!" Jack said on the verge of tears, standing up from the seat nervously. He could hear himself hyperventilating, and there was a strange pulsating sensation in his ears.

Suddenly, the voice he heard was beyond paranormal – the sound deviation that couldn't be caused by the pulsating in his ears. The woman who was standing in front of him was not a woman anymore. There stood a figure of a tall man in black pants and a chequered shirt, his skin pale and his eyes bloody and empty.

"KILL YOURSELF LIKE I DID!"

The figure screamed, causing Jack to want to do the same. But, Jack was speechless. His voice left him as he was purely frightened away. His fear pushed him back into the chair as he silently screamed, covering his face. After a few seconds of silence, Jack finally moved his hands from his face, hearing the familiar female voice.

"Mr Atkinson, are you alright?" she asked with worry, "What frightened you that much?"

Jack didn't want to answer, as his response would be considered silly and mad. But his voice was clearly shaky and his face glowed with nervous sweat. The look in his eyes was insane, his eyes widened in shock.

"Yes, yes... everything is fine... g-goodbye!" Jack tried to respond as he was rushing out of her office. He needed to get somewhere. Anywhere where he could feel alone and recover from the things that are happening to him.