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"Good morning ma'am, what would you have today?" I ask an elderly lady who took a seat by the window.
"I will have Iced Tea with a bit of lemon dear," she replied.
I nod and go to the counter where the assistant manager was. "The lady at table nine would like to have Ice Tea with a bit of lemon."
She snorted, walked into the kitchen, and emerged a few minutes later with a cup of golden tea with a lot of ice in it.
"Here is some extra lemon for the old lady," she said while adding another lemon slice to the saucer. "She likes a lot of lemon in her tea."
I take the saucer, walk over to the table where the old lady sat, and place her order.
"Enjoy," I wear a plastic smile on my face for it's always important to smile at the customers. It makes them feel welcomed. "Is there anything else I can get for you?"
"No, darling. I am fine thank you very much." she picked up the slice of lemon, squeezed it into the drink, and sipped it. "Ah, just the way I like it."
I have been working at the diner for nearly a month and nothing bad has happened so far. It is a place that serves food at any time of the day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner but customers arrive in the afternoon and the evening making it the 'Dinner Rush'. We have a signature dish we always recommend to our customers which is Steak with Mushrooms and Gravy. I have tried it too and it tastes good.
"Hey big tits," the assistant manager yelled. "Your phone has been ringing for the past five minutes."
I frown at the name because that's what they called me at my former school but take the phone from Mrs. Wicket who is the assistant manager (who insists we call her Amanda) and go to the employee lounge where the other employees were.
"And make sure you get some rest because you have been standing all morning. Once the clock strikes noon all the low life and the high life will arrive," she said yelled as I dial the number again.
"Hi, Brianna."
"Hey Emma, how is it going?"
"It is going well and you?"
"Well, wishy-washy," she laughed. "Have you seen the results?"
"Yeah, I got 99% in nearly all the subjects, and yours?"
"I passed Physics."
"You owe the praise to Brutes you know,"
She sighed, "Yeah, and I hate it. Congratulations on your results by the way."
I smiled at that. "I did work hard for it you know,"
"Do you want to come over and play video games? Bayonetta Two is out."
"Sorry I work until evening."
"Aww?"
"Remember? I work full time."
"I know but come on! Don't tell me that you are planning to waste your summer working."
I sigh. "It's for my future Brianna but don't worry about it. I'll ask my boss if I can take a day off."
"It is okay, take your time. I heard that school is not going to resume until two weeks after the summer break."
"I know, Andrew told me." then I remember something. "Brutes told me you are doing an online study is it true?"
She groaned. "Yeah I failed Math but Mr. Smarty-pants aced it with a 50%"
"I heard that," Ralph said in the background.
"Shut up," she yelled.
I chuckle "I can tell he's not doing the online study."
She scoffed. "You think,"
"At least I did not fail. So don't be so mad about it." I heard him say.
Brianna groaned and said something when Amanda walked in. "All right you lazy chickens, we got our first order at table nineteen and that is just the beginning! Customers are already flooding in like it is a high tide during the hurricane so listen up! I want you guys to attend to them immediately. No mistakes understand?"
"Yes ma'am," we said in unison.
"Who is that?" Brianna asked as I put the phone on speaker.
"It is the assistant manager," I reply while tying my hair up. "I am sorry Brianna, but I have to go back to work."
"Lunch rush?"
"Yeah. Goodbye."
"Bye," with that, I put the phone in my bag and rush out of the employee lounge.
They were a lot of customers today which was usual since it was Friday. You know, TGIF. Many ordered our signature dish and to make matters worse, someone decided to celebrate his birthday at the diner. We served the celebrant and his friends nearly all the food we had on the menu and beer. Most of the men complained the beverage wasn't strong enough to give them a hangover but once it was 9 PM, most of them were sprawled on the floor. It was not easy to get them out because of how drunk they were but we did that and started cleaning up the place.
"I guess we gave them a hangover they would never forget," Michael said with a tone of annoyance as he picked up a used tissue paper.
I chuckle for Michael hated cleaning and always tried to get out of it by making excuses. He outsmarted Amanda once who figured it out and said he could kiss his job goodbye if he tried that again. It was enough to straighten him out but he still grumbles about it.
"Hey, Emma," one of my coworkers handed me a business card. "Looks like you have an admirer."
Taking the card from her, I look at it, shake my head and toss it in the bin. "Sorry. I am not interested."
"C'mon," she popped the gum she was chewing and winked. "I heard he is a CEO of a thriving company."
I ignore her and start cleaning the table in front of me. "I am sixteen. There is no way I'm dating a man old enough to be my father."
"I guess the customer forgot you are younger than you look." another worker said with a twinge of jealousy.
Amanda suddenly walked into the dining room with a lit cigarette in her mouth. "I heard that Veronica."
Michael gasped. "Ma'am you are not supposed to smoke here!"
She took a huge drag and blew the smoke in the air, "As long as no one sees me I am fine and if you don't like it, sue me."
All my coworkers laughed except Veronica who scoffed and looked at me with envy but I understood her jealousy. She is a twenty-five-year-old woman looking for a date but men turn her down because of her small front size. I did try to get her to like me but she made clear it won't happen and showed signs of passive aggression like waiting for me to screw up so that she can berate me for it. Luckily, Amanda sensed the bad blood between us and kept an eye on her.
"Anyway," Amanda said. "I spoke to the boss and she said you guys can have two days off. Take it as a thank you for all the hard work you have done so far."
We all cheered and worked faster until it was time to go. Taking the busy street home, I bump into Stan who was still wearing his uniform and still welding his weapon of choice.
"Hey, beautiful. Whatcha doing?" he asked.
I put my head down. "I am fine."
"It looks like you are going home." he licks his lips while staring at my front. "Do you need an escort?"
I shudder at the way he stared at me while my phone buzzed.
"No thank you."
"Aww." He pouted. "Anyway, Caroline wants us to meet at the school tomorrow night. Since Gwen is out of commission and Alice doesn't want to do her job, I will be the one keeping an eye on you. Isn't that great?"
My phone buzzed again. "No thank you. I can take care of myself."
"Shoot."
"Have you heard from Gwen? I haven't seen her since the incident in school and she isn't picking up my calls."
He scoffed and looked away. "Beats me. I don't know anything about that b!tch."
I purse my lips at that. "I see."
"Aww, are you worried about her?" he cooed.
I nod and he laughs.
"Do not worry. You will see her in school. Trust me."
My phone buzzed for the third time.
"Aren't you going to take that?" he asks.
I shake my head. "No. Maybe it's my Aunt."
"Oh."
"See you tomorrow night?" I ask
"It's a date then." He winked at me and disappeared into the alley.
My phone buzzed a lot on my way home and I was going to be labeled a fool by looking at it but after taking a shower and wearing my PJays, I lay on my futon and read them.
'Why are you talking with Stan?'
'Why did he ask you to meet him tomorrow night?'
'Where are you two going?'
'Are you dating him?'
'Who is he to you?'
'Say something!'
'Don't ignore me!'
'You are cheating on me aren't you?'
'Why are you picking him?'
'It's not fair.'
'I have been the one protecting you this whole time!'
'Why are you picking someone like him huh?'
'I am getting a headache reading this.' I delete all the messages. 'The funny thing is he thinks we are a couple but we have never met.'
I hum in thought. "But he seems to know who Stan is. This means he is a student of our school but who could it be?'
Tossing my phone beside me, I swipe my hand over my face because of how intense this was getting but to tell you the truth, I don't like Stan. Apart from the way he stares at me with lust in his eyes, there was a creepy vibe he had that made my skin crawl, and what kind of person wears a school uniform during the holidays?
I turn to my side. 'Gwen is the only trustworthy person but I haven't heard from her since the incident in the school's girls room. I hope she is alright.'
Despite everything, I woke up early the next day and take a shower. Since I wouldn't be home all day because I was spending it with Brianna but in the middle of tying my hair, my phone rang.
"Hello?"
I hear breathing at the other end.
"Hello?"
"Inbox!"
The line went dead. I look at my inbox icon and see a huge number on it most of them from an unknown number.
'I had a dreamt of you last night.'
'You were as beautiful as always.'
'But you were with someone else.'
'What's worse is,
'You were getting married to that person.'
'I tried calling out to you but you ignored me.'
'It was so terrible.'
'So terrible that I woke up trembling.'
'But do you know what's worse?'
'You not being there to hold me in your arms.'
'Not being there to assure me that you are mine.'
'I...I wanted to hold you in my arms.'
'I wanted to hug you.'
'But you weren't by my side.'
'I am heartbroken because of how you are ignoring me.'
'Why?'
'Because I love you.'
'I love you silly.'
'I love you.'
'It's bad to love someone?'
'I...I don't think so.'
'I don't think it is unusual.'
'And to think...?'
'You are not making any effort to keep the promise you gave me.'
'I...'
'You are hurting me because...'
'It's...It's not fair.'
'We are meant to be.'
'Don't you understand?'
'We are meant to be together forever.'
'You and me'
'Together forever.'
I delete them all. 'I wish the police took my case seriously. This is getting out of hand.'
As planned, I spend the day with Brianna who showed me how to play video games until nightfall. Sneaking into the school, I search for Gwen and find her in the library.
"Gwen?"
She looked up. "Emma!"
Before I knew it, she hugged me.
"I am so glad to see you. I am sorry for making you worried. It was so wrong of me." she said.
I was in shock because the events of what happened the last time we met played in my head. Did she have unstable mood swings or something?
"Emma? Are you okay?" she asked releasing me from her embrace.
I snap out of it and forced a smile on my face. "Yeah. I am alright."
She smiled. "Great."
"I found the professor's textbook!"
She was shocked. "Really? Where did you find it?"
"Right here in the library." I take it out of my bag. "Although, I think it was a coincidence it was here."
"No, it is not a coincidence" she put two hands on my cheeks. "Caroline was right. She said you were special and finding the book we spent time searching for proves it."
If question marks were animated creatures visible to the human eye, I am sure some of them would be floating on my head but I blush and play along.
"Okay."
She smiled and let me go. Sitting on the table, I flip through it until we see a bloody thumbprint on a page that had a math equation written on it.
Gwen leaned forward. "It looks like a clue." I flip to another page and see another one next to it.
'This is odd.' seeing the same thing on another page, I take out a pen and a notebook from my bag and write them down.
"They are five equations in total," I say taking a look at it. "Want to solve it with me?"
She nods and we get to work. I was a little slow because I lacked a calculator but she solved one easily without one.
'Wow! She is good at Math.' I watch her solve another one. 'No surprise there since she is an upperclassman.'
"BOO!" someone yelled startling us. It was Stan with his usual creepy grin. "Looks like I stumbled onto some bookworms. Doing something that catches my interest?"
Gwen frowned. "We are doing Math."
His face twisted into that of disgust. "I will leave you guys to it."
Then Alice walked in with the little orange-haired girl and frowned. "This better be good."
"Emma found the Math teacher's book," Gwen said.
"Sweet! Where did she find it?" Stan asked.
"Right here in the library." She replied.
Alice rolled her eyes and brought out her phone. "You guys done?"
I solve the last equation and look at the answers. "4, 18, 2, 5, and 14. That is not much to go on."
Stan looked at my paper and huffed. "See? This is why I don't like Math. It always leads to a dead end."
"Not really," Gwen replied taking the paper from me. She hummed and began to write down the letters of the English Alphabet and used the numbers to coin out a word.
"Dr. Ben." I read. "Who is that guy?"
"Maybe the internet can help us," Alice said. Soon our phone's beeped with the information on Dr. Ben.
"It says he is a thirty-three-year-old man who owns a hospital at the Eastside of town." I read.
"The hospital was closed down due to allegations of drug trafficking," Gwen added. "But the police suspect it is still in operation."
"Operation?" Stan asks with a scoff. "What kind of hospital operates after the cops have shut it down?"
"Maybe he is operating it secretly?" I ask.
"There is only one answer to that question. "We turn to see Caroline standing at the entrance of the room. "You have to check it out."
"All of us?" Alice asked with a scoff.
"All of you!" she replied walking towards her with a glare. "Don't question me again!"
We were all speechless for a moment until Stan laughed.
"All right you little b!tch. I will go." He said while clutching his forehead. "After all, it is about time we smash some heads around here. Staying in this school is getting boring."
'Staying the school?' I look at him. 'He doesn't have a home?'
"I will go too!" Gwen said.
Alice turned up her nose. "I am staying right here! There is no way I am going on a wild goose chase."
I stand up. "I am going too!"
"NO, YOU ARE NOT!" Caroline's cold but firm voice echoed through the room. "You are staying here until they come back."
Alice jumped to her feet in rage. "That's bullsh!t! You dragged her into this so she has no choice but to join us!"
"Yeah! What is she a princess or something?" asked Stan. "Or do you have a thing for her?"
Caroline glared at him and everywhere went quiet for no one said a word for several minutes.
Gwen coughed. "I think we should let the person decide." then she turned to me. "Emma, do you want to come with us?"
I think deeply before answering. "Yes, I will go with you."
Caroline was shocked. "But..."
"I can't let them go on their own," I add. "We are a team and we are meant to stick together right?'
Alice scoffed while Gwen and Stan smiled. With nothing to say, Caroline said took out her cards and looked at them.
"You have three stars tonight." She put them back. "Your fate is still uncertain."
And with that, she walked out of the room.
"Well, that went well," Gwen said.
"I'll say," Alice replied lifting her baseball bat. "I will drive us there."
Before we left, I stopped by the Martial Arts Club to search for weapons but came out empty-handed. Piling into Alice's car, she drove us to the East side of town but I felt myself shiver because I was sitting next to Gwen who smiled and held my hand. I force back a smile and look away until we got to our destination.
"I will park here," Alice said stopping the car. "This way no one would see it."
We get out and continue the rest of our journey on foot. Soon an old rundown hospital building came into view.
"Well what do you know, it is abandoned after all," Stan said.
Gwen looked at Alice. "This area is filled with abandoned buildings are you sure you got the right one?"
"The GPS never lies." She calmly replied.
We walk in through the front door and see the hospital staff walking back and forth doing their work. The only problem was the lighting around the place was poor and the building was on the verge of collapse.
'This looks like a cult.' I look at the eyes of one of the nurses who walked by. 'Their eyes look empty. They are hypnotized!'
"We have to blend in," Gwen said.
"How?" I ask. Then a grunt was heard followed by something hitting the floor. Looking to the right, we see a 'doctor' lying on the floor with blood on his head.
"Looks like these guys are easy to beat," Stan said and he proceeded to drag him to a safe area leaving me in shock but what shocked everyone was the fact they except us were oblivious about our actions.
Alice shrugged and knocked one of them out with her baseball bat and Gwen did the same with her machete. Not wanting to spill blood, I grab a female nurse, strangle her and change into her clothes.
"There. I am ready." but all eyes were on me. "What?"
They looked at me in shock for a few minutes until Stan chuckled. "It looks like big tits has a murderous side right guys?"
Alice could only shrug. Emerging from our hiding places, we walk around until Gwen suggested we split up and look for clues. Despite my disagreement with the idea, I was outvoted and soon found myself on my own looking for Doctor Benjamin Francis.
'Maybe this was a bad idea.' I think as everyone walked around like zombies. A doctor bumped into me but he apologized and walked away. 'I have to go to the place where they keep the files but where is it?'
I stand still and look around until a 'nurse' carrying a file in her hands walked passed me. Keeping my distance, I follow her and she leads me to the entrance of a room where a man wearing a red uniform stood at the entrance.
'That looks like a guard.' I watch carefully. The guard said something and the nurse gave her a reply granting her access to the room and this happened again with another doctor. Curious, I get closer and hear the following conversation:
"Three"
"Six."
I cocked an eyebrow and put a hand on my chin. 'What are they saying?'
Another approached the guard.
"Nine."
"Four."
She was granted permission inside the room.
'Is there a mathematical theory to this?' I asked myself. 'Three plus three equals six and nine minus five equals four. None of this makes any sense!'
I watched another nurse walk towards the guard and he said, 'Eight.' But she looked in confusion creating tension. Upon closer inspection, I discover she was an outsider for her shoes were muddy and she was wearing jeans underneath the lab coat.
"Eight." He repeated when she stammered in response, he took out a gun and shot her in the head making blood splatter on the already bloodstained walls. Everyone looked unfazed and watched as the doctors took the body away.
'Where are they taking her?' I watched them put her on a stretcher and wheel her away. Following them at a safe distance, they talk to the man guarding the room and wheel her inside. 'It looks like you have to answer the riddle to gain access to the room.'
Then someone tapped me on my shoulder and turning to my right, it was Stan with a sly grin on his face.
"Well, well, well, the sexy nurse was here all along." He cooed.
I ignore him and looked back at the guard who was staring straight ahead. "That room may have the answers we need but how do we get in without getting killed?"
"Simple. We kill the guard and storm into that room!" Stan suggested posing with his weapon.
"We can't. He has a gun." I brainstorm for a while, come to a conclusion, and, walked toward the guard who looked at me with dead eyes.
"Together?" he asks.
I nod as sweat dripped down my forehead.
"Six."
"Th...three."
He surprises me by nodding and opening the door for us and we walk into a dark room filled with patients lying on hospital beds.
I look around. 'That is odd. There are no IV or life support systems near the patients.'
"So what Einstein move did you pull back there?" Stan asked interrupting my thoughts.
"I just counted the letters used to spell the number," I say.
"What?"
"When he says a number, you have to count the number of the letters used to spell out the word and..."
"Okay, okay, don't bore me." he scoffed. "Where are we?"
I look around. "Looks like we are in the patients' ward."
While we walked through the doors following the smell of sterilizers and blood. Stan mentioned his hatred for hospitals, complaining the smell made him want to vomit. Bringing out my phone, I send a text to Gwen asking where she was and she replied revealing she was in the receptionist's office searching through the files.
Is there a guard there?
Gwen: No.
Then you are not going to find anything in there.
Gwen: Where should I go?
Follow the nurse holding a stack of files in her hands. She will lead you to another office. The guard there will tell you a number and the answer is the number of letters used to spell out the number. For example, ten=three and three=six. Do you understand?
Gwen: Crystal clear.
Good. Be careful.
Gwen: I will. Thank you.
"Who is there?" Stan yelled.
I look back and see nothing behind us. "Did you see something?"
"Yeah. It was an ugly rat." He replied.
I shudder and go straight to the operation room which was the source of the awful smell. Lying on top of the operating table was a bloody corpse with its abdomen split open only no one was operating on it.
Stan looked at the body. "From the boobs and body structure, the gender of the corpse is a female." He touched it. "It's still warm though."
'How could he touch that with a straight face?' I held down my dinner, and look at it. 'But he is right. Not only that, the heart and lungs are missing.'
The door to the right opened revealing a gray-wrinkled-skinned woman wearing nothing but an operating cloth. Blood oozed out of her eyes, her mouth was wide open revealing her yellow teeth and a black tongue and she was moaning loudly.
"My eyes! Where are my eyes?" she moaned stumbling around the place. Without hesitation, Stan swung his baseball bat and smashed her head into bloody chunks.
"That's that." He said with a smirk. 207Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLdrM2RrWHU
