It’s 2025. Eighteen-year-old Lia Mendez wakes up from a nightmare in a peaceful Pennsylvania suburb, her sheets drenched with sweat. The fantasy is always the same: a train accident, her family shouting, blood dripping from the sky, followed by silence. Every time, it seems more genuine.
Just two weeks prior, Lia had barely survived a terrible train accident while traveling with six classmates on a senior trip. She had a violent vision as the party boarded the train: flames engulfing the cabins, bodies ripped apart, and metal screeching. She pleaded with the party to disembark on the spur of the moment, which resulted in a disturbance that led to their expulsion from the train.
The train crashed moments later, killing 108 people, in real-time on television. The survivors were known as “The Lucky Seven,” the country mourned, and the media called Lia a psychic rescuer.
Lia, however, is aware of the truth. Death, as she is well aware, never forgets.
It starts all over again now.
A week after the accident, Samir, her childhood friend and a member of the Seven, is discovered dead in his pool, killed by an electrical shock from faulty lighting that had passed numerous safety inspections just days earlier. His face was fixed in a terrible grimace of disbelief. They said it was an odd incident. Lia was skeptical.
Two days later, Eliza, the class valedictorian, passes away at her house. A trophy from her shelf hits her head at the precise angle to render her unconscious. Her hair is lit on fire by a scented candle. The speed with which it occurred baffled everyone.
Lia’s aspirations become more vivid. The noise of metal grinding, fire, cables, and blood. She begins to see signs, such as black crows following her, clocks that stop at 11:11, and mirror reflections that have been distorted into skulls. Every sign becomes more evident.
In a state of panic, she seeks help from Isaac, a conspiracy-minded survivor who thinks that death is a plan rather than just a force.
He says to her, “It’s a bloodline.” We are all related to the original survivors. The initial batch was from 2000. Flight 180. It’s like a bizarre lineage. The family tree is being cleaned up by Death.
They search DNA databases, obituaries, records, and conduct research. They are horrified to discover that it is real. Every one of the Seven is descended, however remotely, from a person who escaped death in previous events. The racetrack, Route 23, and Flight 180. The bloodlines are doomed to inherit the fate of those who survived death decades ago because of the bridge’s collapse.
“It’s not just us,” Lia whispers. “It’s in our DNA.”
Lia tries to break the chain as the survivors pass away one by one from unexplained food poisoning, being crushed in elevators, or being stabbed by debris. For the curse to be broken, Isaac thinks that somewhere, somebody has to pay the full price—willingly.
However, there isn’t much time left. Only three remain: Dev, a somber sportsman with a guilty conscience and a firearm, Isaac, and Lia.
Lia’s last vision is a fire, with her home ablaze and her small brother inside, wailing. She understands that death is passing her by and seeking her life. In the dream, she sacrifices her life to rescue her brother.
The last evening arrives. The smoke smell and the crackle of flames reach Lia’s nose. The idea is genuine. She fearlessly rushes into the fire, rescues her brother, and pulls him to safety. However, she is crushed to the floor by a falling beam. Dev and Isaac show up too late to rescue her.
She says, “Blood for blood,” as she smiles as she passes away.
Six months later.
Isaac goes to Lia’s grave. The others have ceased to be wary. There are no omens. For the time being, death has retreated into the shadows.
However, the tombstone bears a message that nobody left, freshly carved by the elements or chance:
A life lost, a thread severed. But the loom is still running.
A baby is born in a remote hospital. The nurse examines the chart.
Amelia Browning is the name.
Kimberly Corman was the name of her great-grandmother, who was also a victim of Flight 180.
In the hospital corridor, a shadow moves over the floor despite nobody being present.
The ultimate destination? Just postponed.
