Our jeep surged toward the bus at unprecedented speed.
Before it could hit the gas station, the two vehicles—one large, one small—collided.
My entire field of view was swallowed by the airbag. I held on for half a minute, fighting to stay conscious.
Half a minute passed. No explosion.
That little punk Shawn had actually pulled it off.
---
10
Later, when I watched the security footage, I understood just how close it had been.
The jeep and the bus had collided.
The massive force brought the jeep to an immediate stop, while the bus was deflected at a slight angle—just barely avoiding the gas station. It veered off and, carried by its own momentum, was flung sideways, rolling to a stop a dozen meters down the road.
This should have been a heroic feat, a guaranteed promotion for Shawn.
If not for the BMW the bus had landed on.
When I woke up in the hospital, I could hear a commotion in the hallway.
Several family members were screaming and cursing, and a few younger ones had started throwing punches.
And every one of their attacks was aimed at one person—Shawn, silent and covered in injuries.
A few officers tried to intervene, but it was no use.
"Kid, that BMW had my sister in it—our youngest sister!"
"Shawn Shaw, right? Big deal, you're a cop. You killed my sister, you're going to pay!"
"You motherfuckers know who I am? Even your chief gives me face!"
"What kind of cop are you? You're a murderer!"
"Where's that woman in there?"
"Drag her out! I'll butcher her right now!"
The loudest of the young men suddenly lunged out of the crowd, heading straight for my room.
One step, two steps, three steps...
He was tall and burly, his face thick with menace.
I felt like if he got to me, he'd skin me alive.
Suddenly, a hand seized him by the throat.
Then his entire body went horizontal, flying backward.
It was Shawn.
Shawn was saving me.
"That's enough!" he shouted. "I did this alone. Whatever the consequences, Shawn Shaw takes full responsibility!"
---
11
Shawn wasn't always this cool.
That evening, I knocked on his door, and it was clear he'd been crying for at least an hour.
"Shawn, your eyes are even puffier than mine."
"Yours are definitely puffier!"
"Maybe, but mine are puffy from the sunglasses hitting my face, not from crying."
For the first time—Shawn had no comeback.
We'd been spending time together for months, and I'd never won a verbal sparring match.
We sat in silence for a long while. Just when I thought he was going to start crying again, he turned around and grabbed a map.
It was a map of the entire city of Essen, bristling with pushpins.
"Based on your description, I checked every intersection, ruling out the ones too narrow, the ones without nearby tall buildings, the ones with buildings but no billboards..."
"Shawn, what is this?"
"This is every one of the one thousand four hundred and six intersections across the city that could hurt you. As long as you avoid these places, you'll be safe."
"How... how long did it take you to make this map?"
"Started the day you told me you were going to die. Finished it last week. I was going to give—"
I didn't let him finish.
I couldn't help wanting to hold him.
But I suddenly realized that although he was a head taller than me, broader in the shoulders, in my arms, he trembled slightly, like a frightened child.
"It was really hard at the hospital, wasn't it?" I whispered near his ear.
He didn't speak, but his trembling grew more violent.
He probably wanted to cry.
I started to loosen my hold, wanting to wipe his tears. But the moment my body pulled back, he pulled me tight again.
Oh, right.
He was a man. He didn't want me to see him cry.
I held him close, gently stroking his hair.
I felt my shoulder grow warm. That was—his tears.
"Sophie, did... did I kill someone?"
"Nonsense! Those bastards are talking crap! You saved a whole bus—over twenty people!"
"But the person in that BMW..."
"Shawn!"
"Yeah..."
"Shawn!"
"Yeah, I'm here..."
"Everything we do always comes with a price, always with sacrifice!"
"Yeah."
"But we still have to keep trying."
---
12
Later, Shawn told me that he'd brought me that map that night because he didn't want to work with me anymore.
He was scared.
But when we held each other, he suddenly felt something.
It was the future.
Something that was destined to come.
Fear and avoidance couldn't stop it. You could only face it...
"You just have to summon your courage and press forward, so, Sophie..."
"Shawn, are you trying to confess right now?"
"Whoa! You saw this future too?"
"No, but that line was so awkward it didn't sound like something someone of your intelligence would say."
"Really?"
"Really."
"So did you say yes?"
"Save my life first, then we'll talk."
Actually, I was incredibly relieved that Shawn could act this way again.
At least he'd started flashing that "student-style" smile from time to time.
And he'd begun to approach the bus incident with composure.
"Let's get down to business, Sophie. I recently found something suspicious about the BMW."
"Suspicious?"
---
13
"The BMW was parked in a weird spot—not on the main road, not on the service road, not at the gas station entrance, and there was no parking space there. According to security footage, the car had only been sitting there for three minutes."
"You're saying she was deliberately lured there."
"Not only that—right after she parked, the woman received a phone call and was arguing intensely the whole time..."
"That call was to distract her."
"Sophie, did you notice something?"
"What?"
"Everything I just said would look like a complete coincidence to anyone else. But when we reason through it together, you've been operating with a hidden assumption the whole time."
"Right, because I know the future can be seen."
"Exactly. If the future can be seen, then this goes from an accident to a murder."
"You're saying someone else besides me can see the future. They knew the bus would crash that day, so they used that knowledge to commit murder?"
"I know this theory still has holes, but..."
He pulled out a case file.
"Sophie, what I'm about to tell you, I need you to stay calm."
"Okay."
"Remember that man who fell from the building?"
I paused, then nodded.
"That BMW driver was a former colleague of the man who fell."
Just then, two crisp notification sounds rang out simultaneously.
It was both our phones, receiving the same anonymous text at the same moment.
We glanced at our screens, then wordlessly showed them to each other.
"If you keep investigating, the person in front of you will die."
---
14
"Shawn, we..."
"We guessed right."
"So..."
"Are you scared, Sophie?"
I shook my head.
He smiled.
I smiled too.
"Sorry, but you'll have to risk this with me."
---
15
The entry point was simple—the two security guards who had thrown me out of the apartment complex during the suicide case.
Shawn said that the first time he read my interrogation transcript, he thought something was off, because those two guards had been far too aggressive.
They seemed to have a very specific purpose—to get me away from there.
That alone wasn't enough, but they'd also said something they shouldn't have: "Whoa, there's actually a crazy person bold enough to come cause trouble here!"
So...
"They must have been hired," Shawn said.
When they were brought in, both men were clearly frightened. They'd been questioned after the suicide case, but had obviously coordinated their stories, and the detectives hadn't pressed hard. This time, with Shawn making it clear he intended to extract information, nobody could hold out unless they were seasoned criminals.
"Prisoner's dilemma—simplest trick. Run it once, they'll crack."
Shawn put them in separate rooms and then didn't interrogate them for two hours—just let them stew.
After two hours, both men were paranoid: had Shawn already gotten the other one to talk?
Then Shawn entered one of the rooms, cracking sunflower seeds.
"Not interrogating anymore. Go home. Court date in a few days."
"Officer! You're not questioning anymore!?"
"I've got the picture pretty much. Your buddy sang fast, so the leniency opportunity... next time, alright?"
"No—no! I have more information, Officer, I know more stuff!"
---
16
The two security guards had been hired. Before Sophie arrived at the apartment complex, they'd been told a mentally ill person would enter and harass the residents of that building.
They hadn't wanted to get involved, but the person who hired them offered ten thousand each.