NEXT TO YOU😍 - Chapter 3 & 4 - Market Business & Happy Birthday

Chapter 1 - Link https://app.t2.world/article/clwlzw2gj6649541zmcp8hdxiqf

Chapter 2 - Link https://app.t2.world/article/clwvy2wyb79658520mcupnhvzsg

Jack finally got himself setup. The sun was high in the sky, the frost all melted away and the warm feeling of the people around him helping him out and sticking up for him like that brought unexpectedly strong feelings. There were some conflicting emotions. He knew more than anyone that his health was declining all the time. He was in fact a picture of health, other than the mysterious issue with his lungs. He was now resigned to the gradual and sometimes not so gradual decline. Getting close to new friends though, that was a big issue if the end was near. Pushing them away was the cruel to be kind option and he couldn't shake it today. The nicer things were the more that emotion rose up with it. Grim thoughts to countermeasure the joy of belonging. The Grim was much outweighed today though by the nice. Take it as a nice birthday present Jack said to himself.

He was late but the after church crowd hadn't come through yet and the people who liked a Sunday morning sleep in so he could still make a success of the day. He had plenty of regulars rolling through to buy his raw milk ice cream. An old fashioned treat made in the old fashioned way, without all the extra additives from todays modern foods. His sign simply read 'Real Raw Ice Cream' followed by information about what Raw milk was in smaller print.

A smiling mother with her son of about 12 came up. After ordering an ice cream the boy asked “what does Raw milk mean? Like, you don't cook it?”

“Actually kid of. It means unpasteurised. On top of that this all comes from my cow, Rosie, that lives in my back yard. Along with a few other animals and a magnificent vege garden if I do say so myself”

“Sounds great. My sister thinks cows destroy the planet so she's getting an ice cream from there” He pointed to Luna's stall with one of her signs saying, 'Scoops of Compassion'.

“Well” started Jack. “Tell her this. Cows eat grass. Cows fart, burp and breathe out so call emissions. Grass uses those emissions to grow. It's a complete system.”

The boy laughed. Probably at the word fart. Jack handed over the ice cream.

“Thank you for buying a real ice cream rather than that fuckin abomination Luna calls ice cream at the next stall”

The boy laughed even more. His mother however, didn't look so happy. “Sorry ma'am. I'm sure he's heard much worse at school but yeah, sorry about that.”

The boy was still laughing “Rebecca's eating a fuckin abomination mum!”

The glare from the mother to Jack was justified. “and you'll be eating nothing in a minute if you speak like that again!”

Not Jack's finest hour. “oh by the way ma'am, Luna is a great friend of mine, she actually sells great things. She's an artist with herbs. Just steer clear of the ice shi... stuff”

“alright, thankyou for the ice cream, not so much for the influence”

The boy had run to his sister laughing “hey Rebecca, you're eating an f'ing abomination!” Jack very quickly made another icecream and handed it to the mother.

“as an apology and no charge for either. I'm off my game today for some reason”

She sighed. “apology accepted. If it wasn't this it'd be something else he'd find to wind up his sister”

Not the perfect start to the day. For some reason, probably several reasons, Jack was feeling a bit off form.

He saw Heather meandering over towards his cart. One of his regulars. Nice lady. She ran a stall somewhere else in the market selling a large assortment of knick knacks and usually came by for an ice cream or two. One undeniable thing about Heather, particularly the first time you saw her, it was hard to take your eyes off her. Like seeing a celebrity for the first time. Your brain for some reason was fascinated by what it was seeing and you couldn't help but stare a little. Heather wasn't a celebrity. She wasn't doing any sort of extraordinary job. She also wasn't just obese. She was huge. Your brain couldn't quite compute what it was seeing. It would be the same if a 7 foot 2 man walked past. It was a marvel that she could even walk. After you got to know her your brain adjusted and you didn't see it so much but it was an undeniable fact.

“Good morning Heather! How are the sales going?”

“Pretty good thanks. We got in some chair massagers and they seem popular. 2 doubles today please.”

“Coming right up!”

Jack turned away from his window and began scooping ice cream when he heard someone talking overly loudly. He was in conversation but speaking very loudly so many could hear.

“Oh my fucking god!! My parents paid a lot of money to go on a boat whale watching but there were none there that day. Now I can see why, it's crawled up on land and buying ice creams!”

Jack snapped his head round to see who was talking. It was a boy, late teens maybe, talking to his friend and they were both laughing. Jack saw red. As if Heathers' life wasn't hard enough already with everyone looking at her. Jack put down the ice cream he was preparing in a hurry and stormed out the door of his trailer to catch the boys before they'd gotten past. They were on the other side of the walkway having gone just past Nancy's. Jack didn't think much before talking he just launched.

“Yeah?! Whale you say you little prick? You don't know what you're looking at, the money it would cost to make a body like that, Heather here is a ferrari!”

Not the best comeback. After a slight initial shock the boys just laughed.

“I'd pay to see her try and get into a Ferrari, no chance!” They laughed some more.

Jack was a new level of infuriated. Maybe it was the late start, the reason for the late start, him turning the milestone of 40, the overwhelming kindness shown by Luna and Nancy. Whatever it was, temporary insanity? His next comment was incredibly unfortunate and something that made him cringe inwardly cringe every time in future that his mind drifted to it.

“Well you could never afford the money to get into her, Heather is way out of your range!”

He didn't just say it either. He'd shouted it across the distance to the boys. They laughed so hard they almost had a fit. Luna was out of her stall from hearing everything. Others had stopped in the walkway to see and listen to the commotion. All shocked eyes were on Jack apart from the 2 laughing boys.

Jacks brain was in lockdown. He was frozen for a moment. Then he just roared an angry shout of no words and ran 2 or 3 steps towards the boys who ran away. He heard them shout and repeat the line 'you could never afford to get into her!!! Hahahahaha!”

Luna was then beside him leading him by an arm. “lets go back inside”

“Luna I'm so sorry I don't know what happened”

“It's ok, Jack, lets get back inside and away from all these eyes”

Heather was upset. Jack was in shock. Luna was taking charge.

Jack tried to apologise to Heather. “I'm so sorry Heather, I don't know what came out of my mouth there”

“It's ok Jack, I know you were trying to defend me but honestly I'm used to it”

It might happen to her often but she clearly was still affected by it. It would be hard not to be.

Luna wasn't angry at least, she was trying to calm everyone down. She went to Heather.

“Come on inside Jack's trailer. His is much bigger than mine. I'll go make us all a nice calming tea and we can sit away from the public for a bit”

Luna went inside Jack's trailer first and held out a hand to help Heather up the step and in.

Christ. Jack's trailer was big. He'd made it himself. He was quickly trying to work out if the ply wood he had in the floor at the back would hold the weight. Usually Jack wound down supports at the back and front of the trailer to stop it moving around. Today he'd just left it attached to his car. People's feelings were involved but physics didn't care about feelings. The whole trailer shuddered under the weight of Heathers first step. Jack sensed imminent catastrophe but he didn't trust himself to speak after the debacle he created. Heathers' second step caused the trailer to dip a bit at the back but it still held. Mass times gravity against that piece of ply. Oh fuck. Leverage. He forgot the leverage part. That much weight at the very back of the trailer with no extra support put down, the axle being the pivot point and all that force onto the tow bar!

Jack ran around to the front of the trailer as fast as he could. His car suspension was raised with all the force. He ran to jump on the draw bar to offset it but before he could get on the tow bar gave way. The ball that was attached to the car actually snapped. The safety chain held however so the trailer launched up suddenly about 10 inches and stopped just and suddenly. Leverage being what it was, that meant the back of the trailer crashed down 10 inches before stopping suddenly.

Still puffed from his first run and all the adrenaline, Jack ran straight back to the rear of the trailer, horrified at what he might find. There was an almighty crashing of loose items from inside the trailer.

Physics reared it's head again. What goes up must come down as they say. Heather had fallen backwards out of the trailer onto the ground. Luna followed suit in fast fashion, landing on top of Heather. Then the trailer crashed back down at the front with another crashing of items from inside.

Jack was terrified for the girls safety. He got to them as soon as he possibly could. He carefully and quickly picked Luna up off Heather. Jack was in a panic.

“ARE YOU OK?”

Luna was understandably shocked “yes I think”

“Are you sure??”

“yes Jack I'm not hurt”

Some part relief hit Jack and he moved to Heather

“My god, Heather are you ok?”

“yeah I'm actually fine”

In the shock and embarrassment and horror, filled with adrenaline and breathing heavily, Jack took Heathers hands and helped her up with all the strength he had left.

His vision went a bit funny at the edges, he couldn't get enough breath. He heard a floaty voice.

“...at least all this padding was good for something!”

Some laughing. A not completely unpleasant feeling overcame him before he felt something hit him in the back. Hard. Turned out it was the ground.

So loud. A voice. Annoyingly loud. Getting louder..... Jack opened his eyes and from a blur, a face floated in focus. God she was pretty. Luna. Damn. Happy birthday Jack. He must have passed out and now Luna was angry. Actually no it was worry and concern.

“Sorry Luna, I just moved too fast, I'll be ok” Luna wasn't buying it.

“Jack your breathing is shocking, I'm calling an ambulance. It's been getting worse for weeks”

Jack didn't want anything to do with an Ambulance. He sat up. “Please Luna, no ambulance. I've seen the doctors and they have no idea what it is. Nothing they can do. There's an somewhere I'm supposed to take”

Luna pursed her lips in concern and thought. “ok, I won't call the ambulance on one condition” Jack laughed weakly “free ice cream? You drive a hard bargain” Luna didn't laugh at the bad joke.

“No ice cream. No milk. No dairy at all for a week”

Jack laughed again but Luna was watching him with a stone cold look. Those eyes though... beautiful.

“I'm deadly serious Jack”

Jack could see she really was. That was an easy enough trade. “ok Luna, deal. It'll just give me more product to sell anyway”

Kimoko wandered over with a letter in her hand.

“Hi everyone. We having a picnic? I heard there was a bit of a commotion”

Luna looked up at Kimoko “where did you hear that?”

“Noah at Enchanted Crystals told me on my way over. Quite the gossip going on”

Luna wasn't impressed.

“yeah well he's always gossiping about something. I'm sure it's not nearly as bad as you heard. Anyway, I thought you were at a protest outside a poultry farm?”

“Often no smoke without fire too. Yeah the bus driver got lost so we just ended up coming back home. You're Jack right?”

Feeling recovered, Jack got to his feet and held out his hand to shake. “Yes that's me. Kimoko right? I've seen you around on occasion.”

“Must have been a nice occasion for you seeing me around!” She gave Jack a flirty wink while holding rather than shaking his hand.

Luna interrupted, “Speaking of occasion's I believe it's Jack's birthday!”

Kimoko's hold holding turned into a full on hug as she practically threw herself onto Jack as she squealed. Jack couldn't help but laugh.

“Haaappy Birthday!!!”

Luna protectively prised Kimoko off Jack. “ok ok, save some energy for the party”

“Oh, always. I love a party. What kind?”

Luna had a think. “Dinner party at ours?”

Kimoko gave an excited little clap. “Perfect!”

Luna turned towards Heather “You're coming I hope?”

“Tonight? Um, yeah I can make it”

This whole thing was arranged in no time around Jack as he just watched and listened.

“Do I get any say in this?”

The 3 girls all looked toward him. Luna asked

“Do you have other plans?”

“Well no, I don't really do birthday's. How did you know it was my birthday anyway?”

“you mumbled a couple of things when you were on the ground. One of them was 'Happy Birthday Jack. Is it your birthday?”

“yeah but..”

Luna pressed. “you don't want to spend time with these 3 lovely ladies??”

“Oh no, I mean yes, anytime really but..”

“Great! Then it's settled!”

Kimoko then remembered why she'd come to the market. She handed the letter to Luna.

“One tiny problem Luna. This was just delivered. You remember the landlord had that inspector come round?”

“I do”

Kimoko pointed at the letter. It read:

Dear Luna and Kimoko

Subsequent to the building inspection I'm sorry to inform you of the following result.

'As an old cottage built around the turn of the 20th century. It was a well built cottage in its time, but years of neglect and only the necessary patchwork repairs attended to over the course of no less than eight owners, have led to the demise of the beautiful small place, the roof has had may repairs over the years and multiple leaks have rotted away some of the timber rafters and the roof now sags. If the rest of the house maintenance had been kept up, this single issue on its own, may not have been so bad, but with holes in the walls and no insulation, the black mould has become a serious health issue...'

As you know I've only recently purchased the cottage hence the building report. This finding means it's not fit to live in. Quite a shock. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience and please let me know if I can help you with somewhere else to stay. They say it's a minimum of 4 weeks...

Luna passed the letter to Jack. “well that's unexpected. Where do we have the dinner party now?”

Jack quickly read the letter. “You have no bed to sleep in tonight and you're first thought is what about the party?”

Kimoko rolled her eyes. “Jack! Life is about living and having priorities”

Jack furrowed his brow. Fair enough. True too, life needs to be lived.

“Plenty of room at mine. For a party and I have a house that's far too big. It used to be a hostel before it was done up so you're all welcome to stay”

Cheers and another hug from Kimoko. Heather followed suite with a fairly awkward hug.

“I'm so sorry about what happened today Heather and I'm extremely relieved neither you nor Luna was hurt. I'm quite embarrassed about it all”

“Oh, I get embarrassed all the time Jack, I mean look at me. I know you had the best of intentions”

Luna got a little bit cross. “No need for you to be embarrassed about how you look Heather! We're all made of stardust and that's the most magical thing of all. Living beings made of magic”

It was Luna's turn for a hug. This one was awkward for a different reason. She stood in front of Jack, look right into his soul with those incredible blue eyes for what felt like a minute. Jack could feel heat rising to his face. She came in and wrapped her arms around Jack's neck, came in close and quietly spoke into Jack's ear.

“I wonder what you were thinking about with that other thing you mumbled...”

Jacks arms had nowhere else to go other than around Luna's body. She felt incredible as he held her... and then they separated. The hug probably didn't last any longer than with the other 2 woman but it felt so intimate, so incredible and all so public that he didn't know where to put himself.

Luckily Kimoko had other things on her mind and no one else seemed to notice his blushes.

“Costume party!! What shall we wear?”

Heather wasn't such a fan “I can't get a costume on such short notice”

“you can if we all wear suits” Kimoko had a mischievious smirk.

Heather didn't see it.

“I don't have a suit Kimoko”

“Yes you do, a birthday suit! Lets all wear birthday suits for Jack's birthday dinner!” Jack and Heather laughed. Kimoko wasn't laughing though. Christ. She was serious.

CHAPTER 4

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

The trailer wasn't in the best state. Actually that wasn't fair, the trailer itself was fine. The tow bar on his car was not. The interior of his ice cream cart was utter chaos but the structural integrity of the trailer itself, fine. Luckily all of the valuable stuff didn't appear damaged. The freezers were still chugging away but there was a problem. The tow bar wouldn't be fixed immediately, that was probably a tomorrow job by the time he got parts. The other problem was the ice cream in the freezers. While he could run the generators all night, the fuel tank wasn't big enough to keep them going that long. Usually when he was at home he backed the trailer into his garage and plugged the freezers into the mains supply when required.

He asked Kimoko if she'd like to work the rest of the day and keep the takings as the ice cream would be a right off anyway. That was met with a swift and decisive no. In hindsight, asking a sometimes activist vegan, activist when the driver didn't get lost that is, to sell his ice cream had a very low probability of a successful outcome.

Compromise wasn't far away though. Luna was only vegetarian and not an activist, even when fps was available so she happily helped with the clean-up and sold ice cream for the rest of the day. Heather went back to her stall and they all agreed to meet at Jack's place. More strict instructions though, he was not to cook. The girls were determined to cook for him. So Jack drive off, ordered parts for his tow bar online that he hoped to pick up on Monday and promptly panicked about the state of his house. It'd been a long time since he had visitors and since his stamina wasn't what it used to be he confined himself to a small portion of the house. The warm portion. A small open plan kitchen dining lounge type setup, 2 bedrooms adjoining. It was the part of the hostel that Jack assumed the owners or people that ran the place lived. A nice wood burner kept the place as warm as you'd ever want. Too hot sometimes. Right, they'll be here soon, that'll have to do for the cleaning thought Jack. Vacuumed, bathroom and toilet cleaned, most of his mess moved into his bedroom or through the big door into the hostel part of the building. Time to see Rosie.

As he filled a bucket with bran for Rosie he looked over his land with fresh eyes. Looking as if he was a stranger and seeing it for the first time. He was embarrassed by how overgrown and scruffy the place was. The mostly unused outbuildings looked largely condemned. Weeds in the middle of the driveways, even some plants growing out of the gutters. Truth was he couldn't keep up. He might have to let the old place go if he was honest with himself.

“Rosie!!”

She was in a far corner, lifted her head and hurried over to the milking shed.

“Sorry Rosie, early milking today”

Rosie put her nose on Jack's shoulder while he gave her a rub.

“Not sure how your day was but I had quite the day”

Jack went about the milking routine, chatting away to Rosie as he always did, letting his thoughts wander out loud.

“Not a day to forget, well not all of it Rosie. You should see this girl Luna. I think you'd like her if she didn't cover you in weird herbs and medicines. Anyway she's stunning and far too young for me and even if she wasn't, in my state I couldn't be starting anything even if she was interested. Just makes you think though Rosie, when you're young and more so healthy actually, I mean Nancy is nearly twice my age and the energy she has. Actually funny story about Nancy I'll tell you about, my ice cream cart is pretty fucked on the inside though Rosie, I wasn't careful today Rosie. I mean you remember when I told you I should've waited for a double axle trailer to start work? Anyway... not all bad today. Man, if I was healthy and a few years younger Rosie!!”

“Then what?”

Luna? Jack stood up and looked over Rosie. There stood Luna and Kimoko.

“Sorry ladies, didn't hear you drive up”

“That's because we didn't. We weren't sure we had the right place.”

“Well, you found me”

Kimoko wasn't so impressed. “Yeah abusing a cow. You gonna murder her now or later?”

Fucking vegan.

“Fuck, vegan. Yeah I'm a mass murder by your standard. Gonna kill all those vegetables in the garden too in time. Rosie's for milking though”

Luna wasn't happy either

“Guys!! Please! Live and let live”

Kimoko looked chastised but had one more barb

“Unless you're an animal then you kill it”

“Kimoko! Birthday dinner and a free bed for the night, behave!”

“ok sorry Jack”

Jack had one more thing to say himself.

“Look I can see why you'd be vegan, I respect it. I don't expect to be judged and told off on my own place though, especially when I care a lot for my animals”

Kimoko pursed her lips while staring daggers at Jack.

“That's fair, I respect that”

Jack was relieved. That could've turned nasty.

“How about I introduce you to Rosie and show you how things are done. Animals aren't people but they're great and deserve respect and the best care I can give them”

Kimoko thought about it. “Fine. I'm not milking her though”

“Fine”

Luna breathed a sigh of relief at the truce.

“I'll show Heather where to bring the car, we brought a big of stuff from our house if that's ok Jack?”

“That's fine. Let yourself in, there's plenty of room”

Jack showed Kimoko how he did things. She asked a seemingly unlimited number of questions that all seemed to have an accusatory tone. He couldn't quite tell, she was all business and very straight faced. They toured the whole place. The vegetable garden, what Rosie ate, the hens, the neighbours and how they cared for their cows. She was very curious.

By the time they got inside it was nearly dark. The fire was on and interesting smells were coming from the pots and pans bubbling away on the stove.

Luna looked and the incoming duo trying to guess the mood.

“What's the verdict?”

Jack shrugged. Kimoko gave nothing away on the tour. She'd make a good poker player. Jack had no idea what her opinion was or what she'd say. It wasn't as bad as he feared.

“He's not so bad. He does actually seem to know what he's doing and looks after his animals. The vegetable garden has definitely seen better days though”

A little tension dropped in Luna's shoulders.

“Good. So we're staying the night?”

She was looking at Jack and Kimoko. Kimoko answered.

“Yes please Jack, for the night anyway and we can see what happens. If that's ok with you?”

Jack thought they'd be staying the night anyway.

“You're most welcome”

“Great. I'll go to the car and get a few things” Kimoko headed out.

Jack could see Heather at home in the lounge watching some rubbish on tv. He decided to see what was going on in those bubbling pots. Smells that wouldn't normally be coming from his kitchen. “No no Jack! Tea is a surprise, sit up at the island bench out of the way”

She'd found his whiskey in a cupboard, poured him a glass and placed it where he'd be out of her way.

“was it really ok with Kimoko Jack?”

Jack had a think about it.

“She didn't say much other than to ask questions... I did show her my setup and a bit about my philosophy of things. I told her I'm ok with her way if she's ok with my way. Sounds like that was acceptable to her to stay a night”

Luna was busily putting herbs in different things, using some kitchen tool he didn't know he had to liquidate something else.

“She can get a tiny bit intense over the vegan cause sometimes but she's a good soul. I'm happy you're getting on”

The door swayed open and Kimoko was struggling with a big load of boxes. Jack jumped up to help, he took the box on top to help out, something fell out and onto the floor.

“Just put them down over by this door for now Kimoko”

Jack went back and picked up the item that fell out of the box. It looked like a kind of short horse whip. Strange for a vegan.

“You ride horses?”

Kimoko came over and looked at him with a raised eyebrow as she took it from him.

“Are you a horse Jack?”

She was a bit weird, this Kimoko. Must be the lack of protein to the brain thought Jack.

“I'm not sure the right answer to that. You want a drink? Heather?”

Kimoko spotted the glass of whiskey.

“One of those please!”

Heather asked from the lounge “what have you got?”

“Actually only whiskey”

Heather made a face. “I'll pass”

“Now I think about it I have some dodgy home made cider a neighbour had a go at making. I cannot vouch for it's quality or if it's fit for human consumption”

Heather's face brightened. “Sounds lovely! I'm brave enough to try”

Luna had a go at the cider too. The dust on the old glass flagon didn't even put them off. They didn't hate it either, going back for more after their tester first glasses.

Everyone was loosening up a bit. Heather had turned off the tv and sat at the table to join in conversation and things were starting to feel more natural.

It was Heather that was curious about where Jack lived. She'd just finished a story from the market about the taro card reader and the someone who painted and sold ceramics.

“Luna gave me the address Jack but when we were out the front on the road I swore we couldn't be in the right place. What is that big thing at the front? Anyone live there?”

Jack wasn't quite following.

“Live here?”

“No dipshit, in that big building your place is attached to. How does the mail even get to you back here?”

Jack realised she was just talking about the old hostel. Jack was setting the table for tea.

“Oh, yeah that's just all part of this place”

“so you rent this part of it?” Heather seemed confused.

Jack shook his head pointed at the big door that Kimoko's boxes were placed in front of.

“It's an old hostel. All just through that door. Hard to heat and not in great shape so I close it off and live in this part but there it is”

Luna turned off everything in the kitchen, refilled her glass with cider, Heather's glass with cider and stood in front of Jack.

“You are such a shit host Jack! We need a tour now”

Jack smiled. If they were somewhat impressed by the overgrown exterior, they were about to be surprised.

“Just a second then!”

He slipped out of the room to turn on the power for that part of the building. It was on a separate switchboard to save money.

“Ok everyone, put on your coats and get ready to follow me”

Jack tended towards a bit of the dramatic at times. He picked up a small torch from the kitchen “Everyone has to be quiet, only whispering from here on. This building has many ghosts and they don't like to be disturbed so I'm going to turn off this light and in we go”

He turned off the light and slowly opened the overlarge wooden door. Pitch black and a chill breeze hit them all in the face. Jack shone his torch near the girls faces to see if they were ready to go. Heather had a massive smile on her face, Luna had a mix of trepidation and expectation on her face. Kimoko's eyes were so wide he couldn't help but enjoy her being a bit scared. He kept the beam of the torch narrow so only small parts were lit up at once.

“Ok” he whispered. “follow me” They sure did that. It was so dark, only the reflected glow from the wood burner in the room behind gave any sense of light away from the small torch. He'd already had a few whiskey's and he nearly burst out laughing at the situation but he kept himself together. Jack purposely walked slowly with big loud steps that echoed in the large hallway. He shone the torch up the wall to the ceiling high above.

Jack led them further into the darkness. “This building is rumoured to built on top of the religious grounds where they mass buried victims of the plague”

Kimoko let in an audible shocked intake of air.

“The townspeople were so frightened of the plague, some were thrown in the pit and buried while they were still alive”

Kimoko clutched hold of one of Jack's arms and whispered. “I think we can go back now, we don't need to disturb there sleep”

“That's true Kimoko, but sometimes they're restless and can't sleep, that's why we're whispering. At night the our world is closer to theirs”

Jack led them further down the corridor. Kimoko was hanging onto his arm and her nails were digging into his skin a bit, he could even feel Luna staying as close as she could on his other side.

“This next door on the right is supposedly built right above the block they used to put some poor infected people voluntarily out of their misery. A priest would say last rights as they lined up, one by one”

Jack pushed open the door and started a low prayer like chanting.

“Jack I really don't think this is a very fucking good idea!” Kimoko was shitting herself.

“It's ok, follow me” They really had no choice, into the room they went.

Jack made his chanting a little louder then stopped, whispered, “if we wait, sometimes one of them appears...”

Silence.

Deathly terrifying silence.

Then BANG!

Kimoko screamed “FUUUUCK!!”

Then the lights went on.

Heather was standing behind them by the light switch. “Sorry about that guys, I dropped my phone, thought I'd turn on the light”

Jack got the giggles and couldn't stop. Luna was breathing hard after the adrenaline rush, she punched him in the arm which made Jack laugh even harder. Kimoko was trying out every and all swear words she could come up with and they echoed through the building.

Heather just loved it. “Brilliant! Sorry about turning on the light Jack, I felt like I was properly in ghost hunters then”

Luna wasn't as impressed. “I think I'll skip any more of your tours jack, I need more cider. Most of the last glass is on the floor. I'm just lucky I didn't piss myself” Kimoko finally calmed down. “was any of that story true?”

Team

• Blaze
• Impostor
• Tansi