With the kind of strength that came only with full-bodied panic, Vin had broken the hold of the trance and bolted into the store. He hadn’t been fast enough, though. One of the parent chaperones had raced in and caught him before he’d been able to say anything, and when he’d fought to get to the man and the watch, he’d been dragged out by the collar and condemned to wait in the bus while the others continued on to the museum.

Nothing came of the vision.

At least, not right away. Seven days later, though, Vin had been in school and seen one of the teachers in the cafeteria with what appeared to be the watch on her wrist. She’d been showing it off to her colleagues, talking about a birthday dinner she’d had the night before with her husband.

In that instant, a flash of sunlight on the playground slide had come through the window and captured Vin’s eye…and then he’d seen the blood on the timepiece again, as well as much, much more.

Vin had collapsed on the linoleum of the cafeteria, and as the teacher had rushed over and leaned down to help, he saw with great clarity the car crash she was going to be in: Her head was hitting the steering wheel, her delicate face splitting open on impact.

Gripping the front of her dress, he’d tried to tell her to wear a seat belt. Get her husband to pick her up. Take another route. Take a bus. A bicycle. Walk home. But as his mouth had moved, nothing but random syllables had come out as far as he knew—although the horror dawning on the faces of the other teachers and the students suggested they were understanding what he was saying.

In the aftermath, he’d been sent to the nurse’s office, and when his parents had been called, they’d been told he needed to go see a child psychiatrist.

And the teacher…the lovely young teacher with the thoughtful husband had died that afternoon on the way home from school with her new watch on her wrist.

Car accident. And she hadn’t been wearing her seat belt.

When Vin had heard the next morning in his classrom, he’d burst into tears. Of course, a lot of kids had started crying too, but it was different for him. Unlike the rest of them, he’d been in a position to do something to prevent the outcome.

Everything had changed after that. Word had gotten out that he’d predicted the death—which made the teachers nervous around him and his peers either avoid him or ridicule him as spooky.

His father had started having to beat him to get him to go to school.