[28th December]
"What time is it?" Nick asked as he pushed the loaded trolley to the doorway of the market.
I had just discovered that Nick possessed a driving license. I was also informed that Silas owned one too. I always assumed they had a driver to send them around places. Just when I thought they couldn't be any more independent.
"Hm, seven-thirty." I half-shouted, trying to get my voice across in the busy premises.
"Already?" Nick was stunned. "Oh, god." he continued to drive the cart ahead with no mind, he was not aware of the person standing in front of him.
"Ow!" the boy exclaimed and propped his scratched ankle; his purchased goods scattered on the floor. "I'm so sorry!" Nick was yanked out of his thoughts He promptly ran to the boy's aid. I decided to help the boy put his stuff back into the plastic bag. A couple of disposable cloths, duct tape, and...
Lye?
"Is this for a Science project?" I blurted out.
The boy had a startled look when he faced me. Even his body language told me he was petrified. The majority of his face was enveloped with a mask but somehow, he looked strangely familiar. He seized the bottle of concentrated substance from me and shoved it into the bag, which he also snatched from me.
"Y-yes! It is!" he said in a dash. "Oh," Nick swiftly leaned down to grasp something. "You forgot this..." his voice trailed off when the boy took the item from him.
A matchbox?
He wrapped his arms around the bag protectively before speeding off with a rushed thanks. "That was unusual," Nick stated. Disposable cloths, duct tape, lye, and a matchbox. What kind of Science experiment was he intending to do? "Have we used lye in any of the experiments in our syllables before?" I shifted to Nick. He shook his head. "Not that I can think of any,"
I glimpsed at the shop the boy has previously left. A hardware store...
"Wait for me. I'll be quick," Nick became worried as his brows knitted. "Where are you going?" he observed as I trotted into the store. Saying a quick hello to the owner, I made a beeline to the drain cleaning section. "Lye, lye, lye..." I chanted as I skimmed through the hundreds of labels.
"Are you looking for something in particular?" a clerk suddenly appeared beside me. "Oh, I'm looking for lye?" she hummed in confusion. "How odd, the last customer came in looking for lye too!" I perked up.
"Did they say what they wanted it for?" I took my chances. "Hm, I think he said something about wanting to dissolve muscle tissues..." muscle tissues? "Well, is it possible?" she nodded.
"It is if you burn it at a very high heat." the matchbox.
Maybe the boy was really experimenting, after all.
"I don't think I need the lye anymore, thank you though!" I hurried out of the store before the staff could say anything else. I approached Nick who had been waiting for me out front. "What were you looking for?" he instantly inquired, getting off his phone. "Just clearing my suspicion. Let's go!"
-
"You called for a cake delivery!? W-why the hell didn't you tell us!?" Nick's eyebrows were knitted together as he glowered like a tiger at the duo standing apologetically before him. Oh, he was beyond enraged. I was mad too.
We faithfully went out to get the ingredients for the cake but the two chose to buy one without our acknowledgment! Not only we've wasted money but they've also summoned someone up to the penthouse. They were risking their lives here.
As if on cue, the doorbell rang and Nick's nostrils flared. "Stay in the living room," he ordered through gritted teeth before making his way to the door. Silas and Ethan scratched the back of their heads and waddled to the couches. The playing animation on the projector now paused and the remote untouched on the coffee table. They wouldn't dare continue it without Nick's permission, anyway.
"Is this Mori's Cake house?" Nick peered through the peek hole. He had no intention of opening the door. "Er, yes! One order of Black Forest?" the delivery man glanced at the receipt clutched in his gloved hands. Nick grunted. Either he is being too paranoid or
this man was really peculiar.
First of all, Nick thought, why was he wearing gloves? And he was so uncertain of the order!
"How much is it?" Nick observed as the man looked at the door with raised eyebrows before shifting back to the receipt. "It's fifty-six dollars, sir." Nick hummed softly. At least they ordered something relatively cheap for a cake. He got the cash out of his wallet before he paused. How is he going to give the money without opening the door?? An idea developed as he peered down at the small gap. "I'll slip the money to you from under." Nick bent down, folding the bill in half.
"But sir, the cake-!" "Leave it at the door." he hurriedly got up to watch through the peek hole again, waiting as the delivery man pocketed the money and smoothly laid the boxed cake on the carpet before walking away in jolly. Must've been his last shift. Nick sighed, maybe he doubted the wrong person.
When the elevator door slammed shut, Nick opened the entrance door and speedily grabbed the cake box before locking the door again.
"Nick, we're sorryyyyyyyy." Silas immediately cried when Nick wandered into the living room with the pastel cake box. Honestly speaking, Nick wasn't angry anymore but he decided to play along. Maybe they'd offer him the biggest piece of cake to console him. "Whatever." he scoffed, causing the pair to whine more.
"Nick!!" Ethan waddled to Nick who was putting the cake away in the kitchen. "We didn't mean to make you mad like a gorilla!!" he cling onto his younger's arm. Gorilla- that made Nick a tad bit irritated. Nick pursed his lips, pretending to not care as he put the cake into the fridge. "Could've at least told Johnny and me, you irresponsible idiots." Nick bluntly asserted.
Ethan gasped dejectedly and detached his body from Nick. He looked like a deflated puppy. "Nick, come on," I spoke from the living room. "We can make something else with the groceries we bought," Nick grunted. "Still doesn't change the fact that I waste thirty-eight dollars," he shuffled to the stairway. "I'm gonna take a shower." we wordlessly watched as he ascended the stairs with heavy steps that sounded somewhat calculated.
Silas immediately relaxed. "Gosh, he can't act for shit." he rested his arms on the backrest. "You can tell?" "I'm his twin, duh. He was being so obvious!" we suppressed our laughs, afraid that Nick could hear us. I shifted to the two. "Wanna cut up the cake while he baths?"
-
Nick finally neared the stairs but he halted on his first step when he noticed that the lights were completely turned off. "What the..." he trailed off when he noticed five lit candles on the coffee table. "Hello? Guys??" Carefully, he took tiny steps towards the table and visibly jumped when he spotted us in black cloaks.
[twelve minutes ago]
"Guys," Silas suddenly summoned when we were setting the slices onto paper plates. "I have a brilliant idea." he motioned for us to come closer. "What?" I breathed out, leaning back.
"Come on! Nick isn't a fan of horror stuff. It will frighten him!" he snickered at the imaginative sight of his twin having a heart attack. "Uh..." Ethan glanced at me, unsure. It was thirty-seven minutes past nine...
"This might be our last time together!" Silas added, earning harsh glares from both of us. "Touch wood but let's just have some fun before the climax of this mission thingy." I was getting skeptical of Silas. He was rarely serious about the mission.
"Alright," Ethan gave in to Silas' plan. I turned to him with wide eyes. "It won't be long," he whispered to me.
So, to coordinate with Silas' idea, we set up four tall candles on the corners of the coffee table and were about to light it up when my phone suddenly rang on the countertop.
"Mr. Kim???" I was surprised a teacher would call reasonably late at night. "Hello, Johnny! Hope you had a great weekend so far." well, can't really say much. "I apologize for calling at such an ungodly hour but I just wanted to give you a quick reminder about your Math test tomorrow-" "Sup, Mr. Kim!" Silas chirped behind me. "O-oh! Silas! Delighted to see you two together!" Mr. Kim was taken aback by his sudden presence. "I'm here too!" Ethan screeched from afar. "Ethan! What a great surprise! Anyway-"
"Mr. Kim! We're currently on a mission to prank my twin brother! Care to join?" I whipped my head towards Silas. He simple wiggled his eyebrows at me.
"W-what prank...?"
With some convincing, we got Mr. Kim to participate so we set up another candle to represent the elder. We discovered black silk robes in the storage room and put them on without any questions. After that, we set up the cakes on each side of the table and took our seats. Of course, the birthday boy sat at the center. We left the seat opposite of Ethan empty for Nick.
We took deep breaths and patiently waited for the older twin's arrival. Mr. Kim changed into a black sweatshirt, by his own will. He wanted to fit in and do his best.
"Wait, lights!" I hissed. Silas rushed to switch off all the lights on the lower floor. Now, our only source of light was the candles and it was creeping me out. Mr. Kim speedily got up from his seat to turn off his lights too.
"That piece of cake looks delicious," our teacher spoke, eyeing the plate we laid in front of the phone. We snickered. Mr. Kim could only see and not touch.
Silas was in the process of lighting up the candles on our slices of cake when the toilet door suddenly cracked open. He almost choked and set Ethan's robe on fire. "Whoa, careful, Silas!" Mr. Kim whispered. After Silas was finished, he discarded the lighter somewhere on the floor. I glared at him. "Are you sure you turned it off?" he blinked. "Nope."
-
"Come sit," Ethan spoke in a fake deep voice. Silas and I had to stifle our laughs. It was advantageous that my back was facing Nick at the moment. With an audible gulp, he secured the seat across Ethan, glancing at the piece of chocolate cake in front of him. He didn't even have the guts to scold us for cutting the cake without him.
"Hello, Nick." Nick's eyes were blown wide when he saw Mr. Kim was on the phone. "M-Mr. Kim!??" he was floored.
"Now," Ethan spoke again, dramatically jabbing his fork into the strawberry. Its juices splattered all over his plate but his face was still straight. I almost burst out laughing. In contrast to Nick, Ethan could become an actor. Nick flinched at the squelching sound, his palms getting sweaty.
"This is to celebrate my 6,940th day on this god-forsaken planet called Earth," Ethan said with malice as he propped up his stabbed fruit and pretended to study it. All while keeping a serious expression. Yes, we converted the years to days beforehand.
"We shall blow out our candles." with that said, all three of us put out the flames, making sure the ones on the table stay lit. Nick was confused but blew out his as well.
"I am not of presence in the realm you are in so will you please, extinguish my candle when I do?" Mr. Kim cleared his throat before blowing onto his screen. None of us did what he said and the candle remained lit and bright. The three of us had to suppress our giggles with all our might. Our firsts were gripping onto our cloaks for dear life.
"Hm," Mr. Kim hummed with a blank look as he leaned back to stare at the cake. "It seems like my fellow pupils were defiant."
We couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing. "I can't-" Nick was wide-eyed as he stared back and forth at us. "What the hell were all those for!?" he let out a huge sigh and clutched onto his chest.
Silas quickly got up to turn on the lights. "It was to spook ya!" Nick rolled his eyes, slamming his fork onto his cake. "Well, it worked! I thought you guys were possessed or something! Plus, you even got Mr. Kim to join in on your imprudence!" Nick gawked at our teacher.
"I was promised a slice of cake tomorrow if I gave in." Mr. Kim shrugged. "Anything for cake!" we chortled. "By the way, happy birthday, Ethan! I should buy you lunch tomorrow." Ethan waved Mr. Kim off. "It's okay, Mr. Kim! Just do some tweaking to my grades and I'll have that as a present!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Mr. Lee." "Aw!!"
"Well," I shifted the phone so it was facing me. "What did you think of the prank?" Mr. Kim hummed in thought. "Would've been better if I was there personally so I could eat that cake!" I snickered at his retort. Abruptly, a text message arrived at the top of the screen. I furrowed my brows, disturbed.
'Jay has shared his location.'
"Mr. Kim. I'll call you back later." "Oh, alright! Good night!" I hung up and rapidly tapped on the pop-up notification before it disappeared. "Jay just shared his location," I glanced up to see their smiles falter. "What? What is it?"
"It's Johnny and Jay's way of alerting each other." my eyes widened. "When one of them doesn't feel safe, they'll share their location without a word." I scrolled through their chat history and sure enough, they've shared their locations countless times before. It was always followed by messages like, 'Never mind, it was just me overthinking.' or 'Thank you so much.'
I found out that Johnny almost got mobbed one time by a gang who chased him into a dead alley. It was fortunate that Jay called the cops on them before anything could've happened.
"Where is he now?" Nick asked with impatience, already getting up to get his coat. I clicked on the map link.
"The...the park..." I gulped; a bead of sweat rolled down my forehead.
"Shit!" Nick fished for his car keys. "Silas, watch Ethan!" he fumbled with the locks on the door. "What!? Why me??" Silas wanted to come along too. After all, the two of them were Taekwondo buddies. "Because you're proficient in defense! Johnny, let's go!!" Nick shouted, holding the door open.
"R-right!"