Sometimes it is better to follow the crowd, but what happens when you have no choice but to go your own way?

I held the ability to see my end. In the small vial filled with purplish liquid held secrets that no one else knew yet.

I shook violently as I unscrewed the cap and dropped it to the floor. Being scared of knowing things not meant for you in normal, right?

I have always felt that some things in life were meant to stay a mystery. Stay unknown for reasons I should never understand, but it was so very tempting to know.

I felt like Eve in the garden. Reaching for that forbidden fruit. Thinking I would have knowledge of things that were not meant for my eyes to see or my ears to hear.

I poured a small droplet onto my fingertip and applied it to my eyelids, which I left closed. I did not dare to open them. I felt guilty, like I had just taken a bite of that fruit and realized the reward wasn't worth the consequences.

I ran to the bathroom and rinsed my eyelids off. I could not go through with it. 'Let my death remain a mystery' I thought before going to bed and quickly falling asleep under the warm covers.

…

When the dreams came, I did not dream of my own demise, I dreamt of everyone else's.

The people I loved, all falling away around me. I stood alone. The only one left in a world full of dying people.

I reached out to grab the hand of my best friend, who reached back, but we could not touch. She fell to the floor, turning into dust at my feet.

My mother, my father, my brothers, my sister, friends, family, all fell to dust around me as I watched. Unable to stop it.

I startled awake. Sitting up in bed, sweat drenched my body and a tear ran down my cheek.

'There must be a mistake' I thought. I pulled the blanket off and ran to the bathroom.

I flicked the light on and it instantly burned the backs of my eyes.

In the mirror, I leaned in close to see. Yes, I could see a faint purple still laying in the creases of my eyelids.

I curled into a ball on the floor. This couldn't be happening. What does it all mean?

Was my dream just a glimpse of my paranoid subconscious, or has the serum really worked? Maybe it had failed because I had diluted it with water before going to bed or maybe I was going to actually live through the deaths of my loved ones. Live on while they all pass to dust.

'Maybe it is better to not know the inevitable. To fall with the crowd rather than to be different.' I thought as I washed my eyes off once again. This time I rinsed them till my skin was raw and my eyes were bloodshot.