Eva had driven for hours, chasing the illusion of safety until her gas tank screamed empty and the sky began to bruise with morning.
But something clawed at her gut the whole way: the sense that something wasn't finished.
That Lorenzo's death was more than a message.
It was a warning.
8:02 AM – The Hidden List
She stopped at a roadside diner, cracked and sagging in the middle of nowhere. While flipping through an old news article about the pier accident on her phone, her heart stopped.
A new name.
A new face.
One she didn't recognize.
Then another.
And another.
They hadn't been on her evacuation bus—but they were at the pier.
Four more survivors.
They were never part of her vision, never near her when the collapse happened. They had slipped under Death's radar… or so it seemed.
12:30 PM – Reunited
A half-day later, after frantic calls and begging, Eva met the four survivors in an abandoned warehouse in Camden: a shattered space of rusted beams, broken glass, and walls stained with age.
They were:
Noor, a lifeguard who had skipped work that day and watched the disaster unfold from the parking lot.
Brent, a dockhand who called in sick but showed up after the collapse to help.
Lacey, a violinist visiting family, caught on a side of the pier that didn't fall.
Tyrell, a food vendor who ran when the ground first cracked.
They weren't close.
They didn't remember her.
But they remembered the pier.
And they'd been feeling it too.
The dread.
The close calls.
1:42 PM – One by One
They didn't get long to compare stories.
Because Death had already caught their scent.
Noor excused herself to go to the bathroom in a side hallway. The building had no power. She used her phone flashlight.
Halfway through washing her face in the cracked sink, the rusted pipe under it gave way. Steam hissed violently upward as the old boiler rumbled behind the wall.
She didn't have time to scream.
The pipe burst, impaling her throat from below like a spear. The boiling water followed, cooking her from the inside out.
When the others found her, her mouth was full of scalding water, her tongue bloated like a drowned animal.
2:17 PM – Lacey's End
They tried to leave.
Tried to run.
Lacey tripped in the staircase, catching her balance only for the railing to break. She fell two floors, landing spine-first onto a rusted metal rod that had once been part of a stair support beam.
She didn't die right away.
Her eyes darted toward Eva. "Why is this happening?"
Then she choked on her blood.
2:20 PM – Brent's Turn
Brent tried to take control—tried to pry open the locked side door with a crowbar he found.
He struck it hard, over and over—until the door's top hinge shattered, and the jagged metal swung loose like a blade.
It sliced across his face with brutal precision.
He fell to the ground screaming.
But the worst part came seconds later: the stack of scaffolding above them, dislodged by his blows, gave in.
A beam dropped like a guillotine.
His skull cracked like an egg.
2:23 PM – Tyrell's Final Moments
Tyrell panicked.
Ran.
He crashed through the exit into the alley behind the warehouse.
He didn't see the glass-shard rain gutter hanging low above him, loosened from the heat and vibration of the collapsing warehouse wall.
He breathed once.
Then the metal gutter snapped and fell.
The jagged end drove clean through his eye and pinned him to the alley wall.
He twitched for a few seconds.
Then stopped.
2:30 PM – Eva Alone Again
Eva stood in the warehouse door, shaking.
Their bodies were still warm.
She hadn't seen the vision, hadn't known about them.
But now she understood something deeper.
Death didn't just follow the list.
It expanded when it wanted to.
Anyone who escaped it—anyone who cheated—was marked.
There could be dozens more.
And she might be the anchor.
She walked back into the warehouse, picked up Brent's crowbar, and whispered:
"Then I'll find every one of them. Before you do."
From the shadows, a gust of wind curled like fingers around her ankle.
Death was listening.
End of Chapter Ten