CHAPTER 21
1004 Words
Marvin and Jackie arrived at Janine's house. Mark is in the living room while Janine is coming from the kitchen, carrying a tray of coffee teapot and cups. The two were smiling at each other sweetly.
"Hey, how's your date?" Marvin greeted them and asked naughtily. "You two seemed in a good mood."
Janine shyly smiled at him. Jackie raised one of her eyebrows, confirming what she's thinking. Janine nodded. "Whoa!" She covered her mouth using her both hands. "Congratulations!"
"Thank you," Mark said, smiling at them.
"Anyway, before we celebrate, let's pause your happiness first." Marvin sat down in a couch. "We had a situation earlier and it's mind-blowing."
"What happened?" Janine asked. She placed the tray on the center table, then she sat down beside Mark.
Jackie seated beside her. She poured coffee on two cups and handed each to Mark and Marvin. She stood up and grabbed another two cups for her and Jackie. She poured coffee for them and handed one cup to her best friend.
"You wouldn't believe it," Jackie said. "We went to this condominium for his permanent home here, but what we saw there was not a unit. It's Sandy."
"Sandy? As in the dead, Sandy?!" Janine exclaimed. "How come?"
"Yes! And I didn't even know Sally lived there. Past tense, because she's dead now." Jackie sighed. "She died earlier. It wasn't reported on the news?"
"Wait, what?" Janine and Mark said in unison.
"Well, Marvin said I have the same ability as him," Jackie explained. "What happened earlier was, I found this agent online so we went to that condominium as our last stop for today. We were checking the units out when we felt something different on the tenth floor. We heard something from the unit right beside the vacant unit we were about to see. We asked the agent to forcibly open that unit, then we saw Sandy, standing right over there. Her face was the same how she looked like after her fall from the rooftop. She just killed Sally, then she turned into smoke and then, she returned to Sally's phone screen."
Janine couldn't react on what she heard. It's impossible it's Sandy. "This is getting out of hand. Three people already died after Sandy's death."
"I know," Marvin said. "Are there other bullies around aside from those who died?"
"Yes," Jackie replied. "Darryl has a lot of friends from their gang, but the ones are those who died. The other two are Luke and Cathy. They were my classmates in Junior High. I'm telling you, they are all bullies. They had a lot of victims back then."
"Are they still alive?" Mark asked. "Where are they? We might be able to warn them to stop using phones for the mean time, or wait for Sandy to appear."
"We might see them tomorrow in school. I hope it's not too late yet." Janine sighed.
"We need to wait for Steve, at least he should be here before Sandy's appeared again. He's on a plane now going here. He will arrive tomorrow night," Marvin said. "Let's pick him up."
"I think we should better go now," Mark said. He looked at the wall clock. "We need to rest. We have a lot of things to do tomorrow. It's already past nine."
"I'll stay here, Janine. You're alone." Jackie said. "I can't leave you alone here all night."
"Thanks, Jackie. Papa called earlier. He said he's investigating a new case. Was that Sally's death?"
Jackie nodded. "Yes. He's the only person I know who would believe in what we saw."
"He didn't tell me," she said. "He didn't want me to get involved, I think."
"Perhaps," Mark agreed. "He's just protecting you."
"I know." She stood up to clean up the center table. "And I believe Papa did something on my ability for my sake."
"We'll go ahead, Janine." Mark smiled. Marvin waved at her and Jackie. He showed his big smile at her best friend.
Janine gave Jackie a suspicious look. She waited until she heard two cars leaving. She teasingly looked at Jackie. Their eyes met.
"W-what?' Jackie asked. She averted her eyes and started helping Janine clean up the center table.
"What happened aside from seeing Sandy there?"
"Nothing. What else would happen?' she avoided the question.
"Remember our rules? No secrets." Janine crossed her arms and waited for her best friend to answer her question.
"Fine." Jackie gave up and sighed. She sat down in the couch. "He held my hand all through out we're there."
Janine's jaw dropped. "Whoa! He's quite fast!"
"He also protected me when we saw Sandy... we'll, I also don't think it was Sandy. Her face was almost wrecked and rotten. They just have the same body built and facial features."
"We'll worry about Sandy and the bullies tomorrow," Janine teased her best friend. "Do you think Marvin likes you?"
Jackie paused. "I don't know. I don't want to assume or anything. I also don't like a no label relationship.
He still grew up in a different environment with a different culture. I don't know how he treats plain women friends and girlfriends."
"We will know about that.' She smiled. "You'll have your first boyfriend soon." Her eyebrows went up and down.
"Well, you have a boyfriend now," Jackie talked back. "Your first boyfriend ever."
Janine blushed. She held her cheeks.
"Did you kiss?"
"No!" Janine exclaimed.
"What?! No first kiss yet?"
"Do we have to do it now?" she asked. "There's a right moment and timing for that. Besides, we just became official a few hours ago."
"Fine, but tell me when you had your first kiss, okay? I want to know the feeling!"
"Why do you ask me about how it feels? Why don't you try it with Marvin?" Janine laughed. She ran away from Janine and went up stairs.
"You naughty, little witch!' Jackie followed to tickle her. They just laughed and shared stories about their experiences that day the whole night.
- Writer
