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Tyler’s eyes snap to mine, and he struggles to swallow his last bite of sandwich as his cheeks flush. “I think that’s the end of my break.”

He’s standing from the table without a second glance before hurrying into the kitchen and disappearing from sight.

My gaze turns to Cole, who’s shooting me daggers, his thick, tattooed arms folded over his chest, and my smirk widens. For the next five minutes Cole and I have a silent stare-off as I finish my tarts and coffee.

Clearing my throat and dusting my hands of crumbs, I stand from my seat, give Cole a final glance, and turn to leave. Tyler is back at the register and waves goodbye as I step onto the sidewalk and make my way to my parked car.

The town is moving with cars sliding up and down the main street where pedestrians stroll through the small gardens across from the cafe, and the mountains loom overhead, casting deep shadows as the afternoon sun kisses their peaks. I smile to myself despite the looming weight of my own demise now hanging over me.

I find my car and unlock it before sliding into the driver's seat, slamming the door shut behind me. The silence of the world now rings in my ears, and I can't move. My hands grip the steering wheel yet I haven't turned the car on. Even my eyes are trained on the road ahead, but my feet are heavily planted below the pedals.

“What the actual fuck?” I whisper to myself.

“Okay, let’s say this is real and Tyler has told you you’re about to die this gruesome death while your new… boyfriend watches?”

I sit in silence, listening to the way my heart beats steadily in my chest. I’m not hyperventilating nor screaming at the top of my lungs. All I can do is let the minutes tick by as I zone out entirely.

“It’s just not a thing to have your own death promoted like a goddamn movie trailer by your friend… this can’t be real?” I chew on my bottom lip, catching a glimpse of a nice-looking family walking their sausage dog down the sidewalk. “I just got here.”

My stomach drops, and I'm jumping into action. Turning my car on and peeling into the road, I speed the entire way back home. The garage opens, and I suck in a breath, waiting to see Xander’s motorbike. Yet, as the gate lifts, the spot is empty. I sigh heavily as I park, climb out of my car, and practically sprint into the living room.

With my computer sitting on the coffee table, I snatch it up and dash for the backdoor. Pumpkin comes bounding down the stairs, meowing loudly as Nyx silently follows behind, her tail flicking back and forth.

As I pull the door open, Nyx slides in next to me and takes a seat at the threshold. I twist to step around her, yet her bright red eyes look up at me and she hisses a warning. Tension rattles through me, but I’m itching to get to the bottom of Tyler’s vision.

“I just want to go into the garden, what’s your problem?” I ask her, yet she lazily blinks up at me.

I take another step, and she bats at my ankle. “What the hell, Nyx!” I hop on the spot with my laptop bouncing around under my arm.

For a moment we simply stare at each other when her eyes finally dart to the fridge. It’s so human of her that my heart leaps into my throat. Following her gaze, I find she’s looking right at the sheet of paper taped to the front of the fridge door. The rules.

If Nyx sits in a doorway, you wait until she moves.

“Oh,” I sigh, and take a step away from the cat and the threshold. My stomach turns as I watch her closely, seeing the way her eyes dart around the room. Like all cats, she’s clearly seeing the invisible demons, yet the way her tail continues to flick back and forth has the hair on the back of my neck standing on end.

“Is it a ghost?” I ask her as Pumpkin brushes his head against her shoulder, purring so loudly it echoes throughout the quiet house.

With a little chirp, Nyx slinks away from the doorway and into the garden, where she finds the last spot of sun and curls up for a nap.

“All that for invisible demons, huh?” I shake my head and chuckle, wondering what on earth she was seeing. In fact, I'd rather not know the horrors this house holds and leave it up to the cat from hell.

Stepping out into the garden and kicking off my shoes, I wander between the bushes of flowers, smelling their fragrance as I reach the edge of the pond where the cherry tree still blossoms. I still have no idea why the garden is the way it is, given it’s far too cold for flowers to be blooming. But just like the rest of the mysteries of this house and town, I simply enjoy their beauty instead.

Finding a soft spot of grass, I take a seat on my side and pull open my laptop, immediately going to my search browser and typing in the most atrocious question of my life.

What to do when your friend has a premonition of your death?

I chuckle as the browser loads with countless Reddit pages and badly curated websites from 2008.

I click the first link. Am I Cursed Or Just Unlucky?

The first comment has me giggling. “Dropped my phone, lost my job, AND got bitten by a stray dog in 48 hours. Someone said it might be a curse?? pls help.”

Response: “Try turning your shirt inside out and walking backwards around your house at midnight. Worked for my cousin. He’s normal now.”

I roll my eyes and exit from the site to scroll to the bottom of the page to find another slightly more promising link.

“How to remove a curse without spending money?”