We got dressed and were ready to go.  Suddenly, I noticed Salina was carrying a cell. 

“Salina? When did you buy your cell?  I thought you didn’t have one.  That what you said at the restaurant… before all this happened!”  I said with a worried face, “I thought you’ve given up the idea! After all, look what a simple cell phone cost us!”

Salina looked down and said, “Sorry… I really wanted one.  It looked so cool and everyone has one… and … and … look! It can take pictures!”

“ARE YOU AN IDIOT!?!” I screamed.

Salina turned into a chibi (small doll like figure) and said in a childish voice, “Wahhhh! I’m sorry, but it’s too late! I’m keeping it!”

I went over to her and smacked her head with a giant roller up newspaper that happens to be in my hands.  Denny stood there with their mouths wide opened.

“Hey, what’s your cell number?” George asked.

“Oh, here gimme it, I’ll dial it in for you!” Salina said.

“The power of fads,” Denny concluded.

“Pack your bags peoples, we’re movin’ out! Get in the car!” I shouted.

“Moving out?” George asked.

“You idiot! It’s a figure of speech,” I replied and was faced with a puzzled look on George’s face, “Oh my god, we’re goin to Williams!”

“Ummm.. Vanessa, you better call the dry cleaners cuz I think George had an accident.” Denny said.

“What!?! Ur kidding rite?!”

“Vanny, I’m sorry, I was too scared to go to the bathroom and well, I had to go and couldn’t hold it in….” George said in an apologetic voice.

“Damn! You’re paying for the cleaning!”

He shyly nodded.  After that, he walked towards the washroom, with a giant wet spot down the back of his pants.  If this was an anime, the back of our heads would consist of many sweat drops.  

While we waited for George to clean up, we had breakfast.  I played chef and started to make pancakes from scratch. 

“First the butter, then flour, pinch of salt, a buncha eggs… ouch, the shell scratched me!  Some milk… Take beater… Ouch! The edge cut me!  Attach beater onto motor… Plug beater in…  AHHHH! It’s alive! My hands!” I cried.

The motor was turned on when I plugged the beater in.  Salina and Denny just sat there watching knowing it would be entertaining when I cook. 

“Guys, my hands are bleeding…”

“Really? HAHHAHAHA!  I brought bandages already, don’t worry!” Salina said.

            Salina bandaged my right hand while Denny bandaged my left.  After the bandaging, I finished off the pancakes.

            “Breakfast is served!”

            “Shit, they’re all burnt and they looks like… barf…” Denny commented.

            “EEEAATTTT or else!”  I gloomed over Denny holding a spatula ready to attack.

            “ok….” Denny whimpered.

            George came down afterwards. 

            “Oh, chocolate cookies for breakfast? That’s awesome and they’re huge!” George exclaimed, “And they’re soft cookies tooo!”  He took several of my pancakes onto his plate and stacked them together and took an enormous bite out of it.  Tears started rolling down his dark blackenese face.  He managed to choke the words out, “Wa..ter… burns… bitter… too horrible…”

            Salina quickly handed him a large cup of milk to wash it down.  George gurgled and swallowed it all.  I decided to throw out the remaining pancakes, realizing it wasn’t fit for human consumption.

We all walked to the bus stop and tried to catch Jalna 26.  The bus stop was a 3 minute walk from here.  The stop was located in front of the church.  We waited 20 minutes for the bus. Then, we saw it, the 26 came, however, it appeared across the street. 

“Yo, the bus is going the other way.” Denny said.

“Yes… but don’t worry, it’ll come back after a round to this side and will turn right!” I answered.

“Uh… Vanessa.. no, it turns left after, back to downtown, not to William’s.” Salina said.

I stood there for a moment and realized that it was true.  Cold sweat came down my back as I slowly turned around and said, “Opps.”

The 3 azns’ face changed from bored to angry.  They were ready to strangle me.

“Wait! Let’s run to the next bus stop and catch the 10 instead! We can do it!”

            The rest grumbled as they walked to the next stop, 5 minutes away.  Once we got there, we started joking around.

            “Hey, let’s hitchhike for the ride!” Denny suggested.

            “Hey, let’s push you onto the road to catch the driver’s attention then!” I replied.

            “Yeah, and when you push me, you trip and land on the road instead of me! Now that’s what a good leader does! Sacrifice herself for the sake of her crew!” Denny said.

            “No, that’s an underling’s job, that means you.”

            “Shut up, you idiots! If you haven’t forgotten, 2 of us already moved on!  Don’t joke about death so easily!” Salina yelled.

            We looked down.  

            “Did you know the best thing to do before you go is to laugh?” I said.

            “Shit! Shut up! I’m in no mood to joke around like this!” Salina yelled.

The bus came after 20 minutes of waiting.  We got on.

            When we got off, we saw the handsome stranger named Jake at the entrance of Williams.  He waved to us.  I ran ahead of the group and said that he’s the stranger I sacked.  Salina’s eyes started to sparkle and hearts were formed in her eyes.  Not only that, she started to drool.  George’s turned around, fixed his hair and brought out a mirror to check his teeth.  When he thought he looked perfect, he turned back around.  Denny stood there behind George and Salina staring.  I ran toward Jake and presented him with the disc of all the videos I’ve collected. 

            “I see you’ve brought your friends along,” Jake smiled.

            “Yeah, they need to know.  Any one of us would be next.” I said.  Knowing that one of us can be the victim and reminding myself that so often had numb my emotions.  The feeling of depression has lost its effect.  It seems that the rest of the crew feels the same now, even Salina by the googly eyes she’s making at Jake.  We got in to the café and ordered drinks.  We sat at the table in the corner of the cafe near the window. 

            Jake showed us his notebook and said, “This is all the information I’ve gathered starting from my sister’s death.  She was burned and even after that, she was still alive.  Her face was scorched completely along with her arms and legs.  The doctor said it was a miracle but I didn’t think so.  Why couldn’t she move on in peace?  She died on the surgery bed in front of my eyes.  When the doctors declared her dead, I took a look at her and found a red round candy in her mouth.  It seems that all of the victims are marked by that piece of candy.  Not only that, there was always the sound of a puffer being used just as the supernatural or whatever you want to refer it to as attacks.  I believe it’s an angry ghost that died of an asthma attack.  Here’s what I found on the net.  One of the newspaper site reveal this girl, Toshio.  She died of an asthma attack as her mother stood by and watched.”

            The rest of us were in shock. 

            “How do we know that this is even real?” I asked.

            “We will confirm this, of course.  I know a friend that can help.  He works at the morgue.  We can go and find out right now. I’ll take you there.”

            “Alright. We’ll do that.  Desperate times calls for desperate measures, even if it means going in a strangers car… George, don’t hit on him.” I said with a small laughter.

            George glared at me as he crossed his legs and folded his arms.  Salina stared at Jake the entire time he was talking and Denny was too absorbed into his super sized hot chocolate with extra marshmallows.  What a useless crew I got. I’m surprised, George moved on quick… Oh well, at least Jake lighten the situation…