Forewarning

The day before the last History examination in his life; or at least Aden Ketcher hoped so.
Page after page of what anyone below the age of eighteen considered useless, tiresome and impossible to remember had entered his 16 year old cranium, and as Kennedy died for the third time that evening, Aden felt a wave of fatigue overwhelm his five-foot-eight frame. The next day was the D-Day for all sixteen year olds everywhere in the country, he reminded himself. He prepared to give his all the next day. He readied the 540-page tome in the flat of his palms and continued reading. The Americans mourned JFK’s death yet again.
A few minutes later, at the completion of the chapter, the time read 8:17:24. He returned to his book.
A few weeks later, Aden found himself dreaming of terrible things. They all ended at 8:17:24 in the morning.
The next day, he told his mother what had been happening.
“It’s ok, son. Happens to everyone. Now, when I was a kid…” And Aden was forced to listen to his mother’s nightmares about vampires the night she had watched Dracula with her friends.
Aden realized that his mother had not understood his plea for help at all. It was not the nightmares that bothered him. He had had nightmares before. What he found inexplicable was that they all ended together at the same time.
And they all had the same conclusion. Death.

A month passed by, and Aden found himself being ushered into a psychiatrist’s chamber. As he walked in, he felt that the place had a vague resemblance to the morgue. The same feeling of a still, morbid breeze blowing, the same eerie silence. The same helplessness as his father held him by the hand and took him in to see the doctor.
Aden was asked to inform the doctor about everything. He did so, hesitantly at first, but gradually opening up, divulging every little secret he had kept from his parents as he realized that this man was the first one to take him seriously.
When he had finished, the doctor spoke to his father gravely. Aden was asked to stand outside.
He felt as if he was standing alone at the cemetery on Halloween night.

A couple of months passed since his History exam. He was informed by his parents that he’d achieved the impossible. A+.
That was the first time in eight weeks Aden Ketcher smiled.
It was the last time too.

Extract from The Evening Times :

Ransburg, Massachusetts : The government of Massachusetts has decided to lay down $250,000 for the maintenance of the public roadways connecting Ransburg to Greyshame owing to the increased number of accidents taking place on a particulary dangerous curve known by locals as the Hangman’s Noose. The most recent accident involved a seventeen-year-old boy of New Helm School, Ransburg. The van carrying him to a nearby mental hospital ran off the curve into the dense vegetation below. No one survived the 1600 foot fall. However, the time of death was ascertained by the watch on the child’s hand.
It had read – 08:17:24.