“She’s gonna be fine. Just a little bump on the head.”

            “What about the big kid? Will he be alright.”

            “Yes, he only got a few bruises on his back.  It actually resembled the tiles on the floor, it was a mighty hard fall.”

            … Denny you idiot… you were always a wuss…

            “What about the other two?”

            “They are fine.  A little traumatized, but who wouldn’t be when they just saw they friend runned over with a truck that had its wheels chained like that.  The chained lacerated him quite a bit.  Not only that, he was alive after that, screaming until it was over…”

            … That’s sick… it was the call… who… why…

 

I opened my eyes.  The room was bright white, almost unnaturally clean.  In my view were a nurse and a doctor standing over me.  I felt my head throb.  I reached for it and felt bandages.

“Oh, you’re awake.  You fell and bumped your head.  You were unconscious for 3 days.  But don’t worry, your going to be fine.  In fact, you can go home today! I’ll inform your parents,” the doctor calmly said.

Within 10 minutes, my parents came with a sigh of relief.  They brought me home.  Everything before that felt like a dream.  I hope it was at least.  I went to my room and made a call to Salina. 

“Ha Loo,” it sounded like her mother.

“Hi, is Salina home?” 

“Who is dis?”

“Vanessa…”

“One minute.”

“Hello?” A familiar voice came.

“Hey, it’s me!”

“You’re ok??? That’s great!”

“I’m lost, where’s Valiant, Denny, Jonny and George?  I had a dream that we went to Mickey Ds and man, it was krazy!”

Silence was heard and then Salina replied, “… Valiant’s gone… It wasn’t a dream.  Denny’s back hurts, but it’s only bruises and George hasn’t been online and he wouldn’t answer my calls… and Jonny, that white boy cut all connections with us.  He’s such a traitor.”

“…what? But I saw… it looked like he was forced onto the road… and… I don’t get it.  The call?”

“Maybe, the rumours were spreading and while you were gone, it was all over the place, the news, the radio, the papers, internet… but it’s calmed down now. I’m coming over.”

The sound of the beeping noise repeated after.  I hung up. 

I went on MSN and logged on.  I had a lot of email messages, most of them were get well soon and chain letters.  One particular email was from Jonny.  It was dated today, just now.  I opened it and it read:

 

Come over to Denny’s place as soon as you read this.  It’s important.

 

            The door bell rang.  It was Salina.  Her newly dyed light brown hair reflected in the light of the sun.  Her bright white shoes made the gray smudge that I made last time more visible. 

            “We gotta get to Denny’s house.”

            “Yeah, I got the email too.”

            We got into Salina green Toyota Camry.  I got into the car and took a good look at it as usual.  To my right were wires sticking out from the walls of the car.  The roof lining’s edge was wearing off and looked like it was clinging onto the roof with all its might.  The car was hot, the air conditioner was broken.  I tried to open the window but it was stuck.

            “Bang on the door, the window’ll open after.  It always does this.” Salina suggested.  

            I did what she said and the window did pop open.  It slid down into the door shaking as the wind blows against it.  The window looked like it would break at any moment.  We got to Denny’s house.  I rang the doorbell.  After a few minutes, we decided to kick the basement window while Salina banged on the kitchen window.  Denny never hears the doorbell.  We came to the conclusion that Denny was in the washroom so we banged on his washroom window, which was conveniently placed near the rest of the windows we were banging on.  After all the window banging, Denny came to the door.  We went into the basement to find Jonny, sitting on his couch, clutching his phone.  The dark circles under his eyes were very visible in the dim basement.  Denny reached the wall behind us to grab a can of pepsi amongst rows of other soft drinks.

            “Denny, how’s your … back?” Salina asked.

            “I’m fine, thanks. Just a bruise.”

            “Hey Jonny, you don’t look so well.” I said.

            Jonny looked up and said, “Hey, Valiant got that phone call before he died right?  With a future date included?  The… call foretold his death?”

            Salina nodded with a strange look on her face.  I quickly realized that perhaps Jonny got that phone call too.  Jonny put his phone on speaker mode and played his voice message.

Man, I totally forgot it………… Huh? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

 

            This message was dated April 29, 10:20 pm, tomorrow’s date.  We all jumped.  I ran over and grabbed his phone.  I ran to the washroom and threw the phone into the toilet.  The rest watched quietly.

            “I don’t believe this!”

            “Ummm… I didn’t flush the toilet.  Sorry… Do you think you can pick up the phone… I don’t think the phone will go down… and I don’t wanna put my hand in that water…” Denny said.

            I gave Denny a disgusted look as the rest turned around, holding their laughter in.  Salina’s face was turning purple.

            “Screw you! I ain’t touching that! It’s your toilet you lil sicko! Who cares, the phone’s dead now.  Come on guys, we’re going out.”  We left the house and the phone behind.

            We all crammed into Salina car and went to the carnival that happens to be in town today.  The boys at the back were loud as usual.  Words like “Watch where you’re touching man” or “Man, Salina’s driving, I see death! Haha!” were heard.  We went on all kinds of rides from the ferris wheel to the merry-go-round.  After that, we went home agreeing to come back here for the special attraction, the haunted house.