Everything happened exactly as in the movie. The police detained them and subjected them to different interrogations.
But Damiano was in shock; the fact that his nightmare was the movie Final Destination shocked him immensely.
And it terrified him as well.
In every Final Destination movie… there were no survivors.
During the interrogations he wore a vacant, frightened stare.
When the police finally let them go, he left with his parents, who had come to pick them up.
That was when he realized he had taken over the body of the older brother of the protagonist's best friend.
Damiano couldn't relax for a single moment during the entire ride home.
He kept his eyes on the road, on the cars, even on dogs. He knew he was on Death's list, and Death attacked in unpredictable and even irrational ways.
At home he had to take a pill to calm his nerves; he felt like the tension alone was going to kill him.
His heart was pounding at a thousand beats per hour, and large drops of sweat ran down his face.
His parents and brother didn't say anything about his condition; they assumed it was because of what had just happened.
Damiano didn't eat anything, afraid that his food might be poisoned. He only drank bottled water when he himself opened the bottle—and even then, only in small sips.
At night he lay in his bed, but he couldn't sleep. The sound of the wind against the window, the soccer balls in his room, shoes, cleats, the lamp, a screw—
Everything looked like a lethal weapon to him.
Slowly recalling the plot of all the movies, Damiano grew even more afraid… until he remembered something.
His body sprang up like a coiled spring as he jumped out of bed, eyes wide.
That's right! In the Final Destination saga, no one survived Death's list.
Everyone died—but at the same time, two people survived.
To those who hadn't seen the movies, that might sound contradictory, but it wasn't.
The only two survivors of Death were Kimberly Corman and Thomas Burke.
They survived by using the first method: dying.
By dying, Death had achieved its goal—but shortly after, Kimberly was resuscitated, frustrating Death's plans by beginning a new life.
This was the most dangerous method, not only because Death would be trying to kill you at all times, but because when it tried, it would attack with even greater force, as shown in another film in the saga where they attempted to imitate this method multiple times.
The other method—and the safest—was… murder.
As explained in one of the movies, one way to erase yourself from the list is to murder someone who is not on the list and take their remaining lifespan.
Nathan Sears survived Death's list this way, but ended up dying shortly afterward because the person he had killed only had a few days left to live due to a terminal illness.
In the end, he died, yes.
But the method proved to be real.
Damiano's mind began racing, formulating ways to survive and recalling every detail from the movies that he could.
Unfortunately, he didn't know his exact place on the list, since in the original plot he had never survived.
With a plan in mind, Damiano prepared to sleep, not before building a wall of pillows around and over himself as a form of protection.
…
At dawn, Damiano felt better, and much of his panic had faded. Now he had a way to survive, and that was what mattered.
He took a backpack from his closet and filled it with clothes and essential items. Sneaking into his parents' room, he stole whatever money he could find along with his mother's car keys.
Before anyone noticed, he started the car and drove toward one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city.
He drove slowly until, in an alley, he saw a man with a suspicious attitude and a hood pulled over his head.
Damiano took long, deep breaths before getting out of the car and approaching the man.
The man stared at him and reached for something at his waist.
Damiano stopped immediately and raised his hands. "Easy, brother. No need to be so nervous."
"I'm not your brother," the man replied. Damiano caught a glimpse of him—he was a Black man.
"You're right," Damiano said, hands still raised, his body trembling. "You're not my brother, and I shouldn't have spoken to you like that. All I want is a little weed."
The man lowered his guard slightly when he saw how nervous Damiano was.
Damiano slowly pulled money from his pocket and showed it to him.
That was what finally calmed the man, who removed his hand from his waist.
He smiled confidently at Damiano and asked, "Which kind do you want? I only sell the best, you hear me?"
Damiano smiled back, still nervous, and stepped closer, placing the money in the man's hands.
"Give me everything you can with this."
"Now you're speaking my language, kid," the Black man said with a grin, accepting the money and slipping one hand into his pocket—when suddenly his eyes flew wide open.
With total disbelief, he slowly lowered his gaze to see Damiano's hand holding a knife buried in his chest.
He slowly lifted his eyes again to look at Damiano, who seemed just as stunned as he was.
"You—!"
His voice snapped Damiano out of his shock.
Before the man's astonished eyes, Damiano pulled the knife out and plunged it in again—over and over and over again.
He only stopped when the man no longer resisted and it felt like he was stabbing nothing more than a corpse.
With trembling hands, Damiano stepped closer and stabbed him repeatedly in the neck, making sure he was dead.
His hands covered in blood and his legs shaking, he returned to his car and sped away, not caring about the body, the money, or the fact that he had just committed a murder in broad daylight.
It might have been incredibly selfish of him—but the only emotion he felt in that moment was… relief.
At last, he was off Death's list.