Chapter 5-The Last January

       “Exsquueze me? A baking powder?” Tina exploded with a mix of shock and anger “You going to explain that shit or just drop the bomb and peace out.”

       “You heard me, I’m going to blow the school up.” Kincade made sure they understood that he was not joking.

       “Well fuck Cade, you care to give us some context here or are we to assume the worse big guy?” TJ inquired.

       “You been making an “Ass” out of “U” and “Me” for like five tears TJ why stop now?”  Kincade let out a rumbling low laugh “No man, you know you should never assume anything in life.”

       “Then how bout coming through on that context for us.”

       “I do not have any more context to offer you TJ.”  Kincade allowed just a sliver of his anger bleed through. “You see it is funny that you mention these dreams.  I do not normally put much weight on things like dreams and shit like that.  It is just the brain doing its cleanup while you sleep.  I know my Momma, she believes all that stuff, fuck she has dedicated her life to researching mysticism, but I believe in science not magic.  I say that but right now, I am scared.  You talked about Shadow overlooking things.  I saw him too.  No features, an actual Shadow, he was watching over me.  The scary part is in my dream, I saw Momma with the Machete covered in blood.  I saw her from the same position I saw her today after the dog lost its shit.  Only in my dream, she was killing Cyd.”  Kincade was barely getting the words out between sobs at this point.  “I…saw it from the same angle…I was calling out to Cyd just like the dream.”

       “It wasn’t Cyd, Cade, your mom saved the day as she always does.”  TJ reassured his best friend.

       “That…That is not why I am scared TJ.  The next thing in my dream…the next scene to play out was me in the school’s computer lab, I plugged a drive into the mainframe, put on my Walkman, I rebooted the system and then it blows up.”

       “So…you do not know that you do it on purpose then” Tina chimed in

       “It does not matter if I do T.  If the first part of the dream came true right down to the angle I saw it happening from…If it is that exact…then what are the chances that the second vision will not come true?”

       “But you were wrong about what the first one meant right?  Maybe you are misunderstanding the second part as well?”  Nancy was grasping for answers while falling down this rabbit hole.

       “If that was the case Nancy, why would you guys have dreamed about it being blown up?”

       “I don’t know Cade, not like the rest of us have had our dreams invading our real lives.”

       “Well….” TJ regretted the words before they were even spoken, “The porch.  I had been through that moment in my dream before, gave me what the french call ‘Je Ne Sais Quoi”

       “Deja vu” Tina corrected

       “God bless you” TJ responded

       “Gros con” Kincade added

       “Go where?”TJ asked

       “What the fuck are you talking about TJ” Nancy threw a pillow made for that across the room, nailing TJ right in the forehead.

       “Nice shot.” Kincade complimented

       “Imagine if I actually aimed.”

       “I mean I had lived that moment in my dream, looking back at you and Tina, sheer terror in your eyes looking at me.  At least I thought you were looking at me.” the relief in TJ’s voice was a physical presence at this point. “I was afraid that I had done something to hurt one of you or something that would cause me to lose you guys and that had me scared.  I knew it was in front of Cade’s place, but up until the moment it happened the outfits, the way the day looks, none of it registered until it all did at once in that moment.”

       “See you were wrong about what it meant too though.” Nancy pleaded, “Look I am not seeing anything other than a case of Folie a deux”

       “Bless you, need to do something bout that draft Cade.”

       “Shut up TJ” Tina spoke with some intensity

       “Let us assume that the theory that the things will happen but we need to interpret them different than they appear.  Does that change anything?  I am still in there when it blows up right?” Kincade asked

       “We don’t actually know that do we?” TJ asked

       “Well in my dream I fucking am.”

       “Are you?”

       “Did I fucking stutter TJ, yes I fucking am.”

       “You told us about you putting the drive in, you told us about putting on your Walkman, presumably to jam out on your Final Fantasy Mixtape Volume three, you told us that you rebooted the mainframe, and you told us the room blows up….you don’t tell us where you are in relation to computer, how you see it blow up or anything that could help us interpret the damn vision”

       “Interpret the vision?  Oh sweet Jesus, what did I walk in on?”  Miss Darabont had returned from her shower at the perfect time to peak her interest. “Since when does one of you go around having visions?”  While her comment was meant to get a chuckle from the room instead it was met by sullen faces all gazing at their shoelaces.  “Someone going to need to give me an answer here before I start dousing the house and cleansing your filthy little souls”  she was only half joking and they knew it.
       “Momma we do not know what is going on.”

       “Well no shit Kincade.  You are all a bunch of teenagers that barely know your ass from a hole in the ground, but baby momma going to need more information than that so that she knows rather you are a bunch of silly kids or if something is rotten in Denmark.”

       “We all had dreams, plural, of the same guy, a Dark Shadow.  We saw the school being destroyed, or in various stages of destroyed, well all of us except Nancy anyway,” Tina’s words seemed to be a passive aggressive accusation almost, “Then Kincade told us he had a vision of himself blowing it up.”  Tina unfolded the diorama to Miss Darabont.

       “Ok but we do we think any of this is a thing that matters?  I mean dreams are dreams kids, not visions…”

       “…until they come true” Tina finished the expression for Miis D.

       “Care to explain that part then for me?”

       “Didn’t I tell you we would have to go over it again”  TJ exclaimed.

       “Oh shut your little mouth Thomas, let Tina explain it to me.”

       Tina explained the going events leading to this moment, the dreams the group had been having, the visions of both Kincade and TJ that had come true today alone as well as how they thought it all tied together.  Miss Darabont listened intently, only rarely looking away to make a note or ask for clarification on things the group had not even thought to ask.  After the story had caught back up to her walking down the stairs from the shower and back into the narrative she lay her pencil and paper down and sighed.
       “The book you spoke of.  Tina you dreamed of it correct?” Miss D had ideas, a nod was the response she received. “Did any of the rest of you see it?  It is important at this point that we are honest here because that will tell me what we need to do going forward.” Miss D more than had ideas, “Kincade?, TJ? Nancy? Any of you?” a series of heads shaking no was all that met her question.
       “What is going on Miss Darabont?”  Tina’s voice cracked under the pressure they were under in the moment.

       “How much do you know about the Legacy of Salem?”