I had a serious case of winter tiredness (which is finally going away now that the sun can be seen much more!) an lost all inspiration… There was a long while when I didn’t even play sims at all, and I hardly did anything else either xP Now it’s been too long time since I wrote this story and I simply don’t feel I’m into it anymore :O

I could probably write a new story instead, it sure feels like a nice thought, but on the other hand: I don’t know if I have time for it now, and I wouldn’t want to write one more unfinished story O_O So… If I’ll start a new story, I have no idea when it will be.

Thanks to everyone who was reading this story, it was so great to get feedback from you!

Under the ground, I had noticed, that there was no field, and thus the phone had been unusable… but it wasn’t anymore!
When I dug the phone out of my pocket, a strong feeling of dejavu struck me. Now, this was already the second time, when I returned to my “home”… which suddenly was no longer there, and I had to call dad and ask, what on earth had happened! What a strange fate…

I entered dad’s name in the phone book, and called him.
When I waited for his answer, a cold sweat trickled on my face, and my heart began to thump violently, when suddenly I began to fear, that he wouldn’t answer at all, or something else sinister would follow!
Eventually, however, he answered quite quickly, with a little bit weary voice.

-Dad … what … I came home and … where … I spluttered incoherently.

-No, you didn’t come home… yet. But you should, dad stated grumpily.

-But our home… I stammered desperately.

-Stop already that childish rebellion! dad snorted, -I know you didn’t want to move to the port quarter, but none of us wanted to! You also know very well, that we were forced to do so, because the city needed our lot.

-No, I seriously didn’t know! I’ve been away, and … I tried to explain, completely baffled.

-Come on, just get home already! It’s starting to get late, Dad snapped, and cut off the call.

My mind was just getting more and more fuddled.
Okay… So nowadays we lived in the port district, which wasn’t very far away … I could get there just fine on foot, and in addition to industrial buildings there was only one row house, so I suppose we lived in it.
But how could we have moved so quickly? I had been gone only for one day, and during that time apparently a terrible lot of things had happened … Besides, dad seemed to think, that I had been present all the time! How was THAT possible?!

Numbly I started to trudge towards the port district, which is by the way probably the most unpleasant-looking area in Shark Bay.

I felt as if I was surrounded by thick  fog, everything around me was somehow unreal and distant.

But when I came closer to the port quarter, my attention woke up. I hadn’t remembered, that the area was this ramshackle and creepy!

Or could it possibly have fallen into even worse disrepair within one day – after all, my family had moved in one day, and our house had been bulldozed that same day?! 

Totally absurd … this case was completely outside all the common sense! I guess it somehow mysteriously HAD TO be a longer time than one day, that we had spent under the ground!

Suddenly my phone rang. It was Meckyes calling.

-You’ll never guess what has happened! she huffed right away when I  clicked the button to answer the call, -When I came home… well, our house wasn’t THERE! It had been torn down, and when I called mum… It turned out we have moved to the port district! Think about that! Supposedly we had moved within one…

I interrupted Meckyes’s raging outpourings to inform her, that we shared the very same fate, and apparently we were neighbours from now on… or actually: again!

-Whoah, this is just… I can’t believe this!!! Meckyes shrieked in a nearly hysterical state (deducing of her voice), -Besides, the weirdest thing of them all is, that mum seemed to think, that I had been at home all the time! And that Lylaicke had also been there all the time! And I even heard Lylaicke’s voice in the background, as I talked with mum in the phone! 

Once again I bemusedly stated, that my situation was similar – like if I had never been away!

Then my phone started to make a knocking sound.

-Someone’s trying to call me, let’s talk later! I blurted out to Meckyes,  and shut off the phone call.

The one calling now was Skeemee. I drew a deep breath before answering - had Skeemee’s family possibly ALSO lost their home lot and moved to the port district?! This was getting all too bonkers!

Well, at least it turned out, that Skeemee’s house hadn’t been bulldozed. She had called me only because she was astonished about how her family had never considered her missing. Oh well, that was already a huge mystery in itself, but after all the weirdness we’d been through, it felt almost as an everyday issue…

While talking in phone I had managed to safely bypass the shadowy, suspicious corners of the port district, all the way up the row house with two floors and a few apartments in it.

The house was made of old, crumbling bricks, and their red colour had turned quite dark and brownish over the years… The small, common yard was covered by trampled soil, and vague blotches of weed-filled grass. the rusty, dangerous-looking swings were wiggling by themselves in the foggy wind. There was not a single flower planting or tree growing on the yard!

I shivered, as I waddled up to the closest door. That very door apparently happened to be the door of our new home, ’cause it said “Afavau” on the letter drop.

I tried the door, and noticed that it wasn’t locked, so I stepped in.

Indoors everything seemed to be just the way it used to: Vivelay was at the toy box, playing with Kayet and Teilys, Jaet was exercising in front of the radio, and dad was admiring a mounted fish on the wall. They barely noticed my arrival.

Suddenly I realized, that things looked even a bit too normal and organized - considering, that we had just moved in! There should have been piles of boxes and all kinds of chaos, but instead all the objects were neatly where they belonged!

But I was so baffled and washed-out by everything, that I almost felt unable to talk. Well, at least I didn’t feel like asking anything. If one more weird detail would come into light, I’d simply flip!

I opened a random door,which turned out to be the door to my and Myesav’s new bedroom. Myesav sat at the writing desk, absorbed in her homework. Our room was pokier than ever, and had a window view to a cluster of trash cans and the broken windows of the abandoned industrial building across the road. Just great!

Suddenly I felt really weak and dizzy, and rushed over to my bed to lie down.

While the dizziness eased, changing into simple exhaustion, I noticed, that my face was now turned straight towards a wall calendar.  Slowly I started to realize, that there were just a little bit too many red checks on it… In fact, according to the crosses on the calendar, almost the whole month had passed, while we were under the ground!!!

But how on earth could it possibly be… Then it lept to my mind, how abnormally deep the sleep in the cabinet had felt. What if… what if we had slept for almost a month?! Actually, that seemed like the only possible explanation!

(*This chapter remained short, in the sense that nothing much happens… My game is still causing problems (it crashed after taking these pictures) At first I thought, that I’d write the rest of the chapter without pictures, but after all, this part of the chapter became quite long anyway, and the next part would be so much better with pictures… So, I’ll try to get the game issue solved until next chapter!*)

So, it’s a bit difficult and frustrating, to say the least! :O I’m still going to try to make the chapter today, I just needed to rant… >:P

EDIT: OK, so now the game crashes CONSTANTLY, and it’s getting impossible to play I don’t know what’s the problem, but I’ll try to find out.

And maybe the game will work just fine an other day or something, I don’t know, but now I’m too irritated  to try and play it anymore today xP (’cause now it has crashed 4 times in a row, so that I hardly had time to do anything! and it always takes too long to restart the game… )

Well, I could write it without pictures of course, but I don’t want to, ’cause the pictures will be in a pretty important part in the next chapter.  I already know what will happen in the next chapter, so it’s not about a lack of inspiration or the like – it’s just these infuriating technical issues! O_O

Let’s hope it works better tomorrow (also I’ll do some defragmenting, cleaning & stuff on my computer) , but as for today: if I’d see the game crash one more time, I think I’d flip and smash the computer into pieces, so probably it’s better to give it some time

-What’s wrong with you?! she retorted impatiently.

I described to her, how Lylaicke had turned completely catatonic, like a malfunctioning machine or something.

-Like a robot? Skeemee suggested faintly, while waving her hand in front of the inert Lylaicke’s face.

-Do you think that she could be just a look-alike robot of Lylaicke? I mumbled, without knowing whether to give a sarcastic laugh, or to start considering the idea seriously.

-Well, who knows – she wasn’t acting exactly herself either! Skeemee pointed out, -Anyway, Tekabi wasn’t anywhere to be seen, but instead I saw a trail on the gravel, like if someone had dragged the unconscious Tekabi somewhere! she continued.

We were unanimous about trying to find out where she had been taken, and we quickly collected Meckyes and Kibessi along.

The trail led to a small and rather inconspicuous cement door in the stone wall.

We scurried through the door in a tight row… and found ourselves in a fairly wide and disorganized room, that was mostly filled with barrels, racks with juice-bottles and many stony cabinets, similar to those where we had slept.

-Ok, so apparently Tekabi aint here, but they have dragged her further… Skeemee concluded.

-Too bad that you can’t see the trail anymore on these stone tiles, I sighed.

-But are you completely positive she aint here? Meckyes dunned with a slightly sassy voice, -She could be in any of those cabinets!

-Or any of those barrels… Kibessi snickered by herself. Skeemee gave her a warning glare.

-Well, luckily there are just two doors leading out, so we have a 50 % chance to guess right… I bumbled thoughtfully.

-But the cabinets… Meckyes tried to insist, but Skeemee managed to squash her by saying, that we can return here and check them through, if we don’t find Tekabi elsewhere.

Guessing the right door turned out even simpler than I had thought, ’cause the first door that we tried led only to a  closet-like, small room, with a few chests in the corners and no other way out.

-So it must be that door! Kibessi reasoned, and pointed to the double doors on the back wall.

I contemplated silently in my mind, that this would probably still become quite a troublesome labyrinth mission… But I guess not! The next room we stepped into was totally the bull’s eye.

This room was even wider than the barrel storage, and not completely square-shaped, but irregular with some obscure dusky corners. It was filled with large, and most of all outlandish technical devices, that made it almost look like the scenery of some tacky, old scifi-movie. The weirdest objects definitely were those few tube-like aquariums with dolls and stuffed animals floating inside of them!

But most importantly… Tekabi was there! She seemed to be sleeping peacefully on a luxurious canopy bed surrounded by all the suspicious machines.

-Wait a minute, didn’t Lylaicke… or the clone of her or whatever… say that they don’t use regular beds down here? Skeemee pondered.

-Well, that’s a side issue! I hissed nervously, -Let’s try to wake Tekabi up and get her out of here! I have a bad feeling about that big machine-thingie in the ceiling pointing right at her!

This time the others seemed more insecure than me, so eventually I sidled up to Tekabi, and started to reach out my hand…

A sudden, sharp and loud swish-sound made me startle and swirl around. A glass door of the biggest, vertical tube-looking machine had slid open… And standing there was a most muscular and menacing-looking man… no, woman actually… with a creepy, black face-painting, and some sort of weapons hanging from her belt!!!

What on earth?! I could swear, that just a blink of an eye ago, those tubes had only included toys! I rushed back to my friends in terror, but the woman was resolutely marching towards us!

The woman chased us to a couple of glass doors, with two clusters of flamethrowers, casting fire pillars up from the floor, on each side of the doors.

-Get in there, you prying brats! she roared at us.

-Why?! We haven’t done anything wrong as far as I know! I argued for principle reasons, even if I knew, that we couldn’t fight this berserk, armed athlete.

For some reason Skeemee was strikingly paralyzed by fear – she was just standing passively behind us others, and when I quickly glanced at her, I noticed, that she didn’t even dare to look into that woman’s direction… That was blatantly odd and atypical of the usually rather brave and defiant Skeemee! 

But sure, the woman WAS utterly morbid, with her face painting that resembled an inverted tiger-pattern, her sharpened teeth and… red eyes? Brrrrr!

And she apparently wasn’t eager to negotiate or justify her commands, ’cause without replying anything to me, she took forth some mysterious gun (I assume?) from her belt, and aimed it at us…

-Ok, we’ll obey, we will walk in there! Meckyes shrieked anxiously.

And one by one we strided through the doors the a small, dim and musty booth.

-What’s the point of putting us into this closet? I muttered, when we all were inside (and the booth was disturbingly crowded).

-Is she going to starve us to death in here? Or is this some sort of gas chamber?? Meckyes dunned in panic, as if we would know any better than her.

Skeemee was still too horror-struck to say a word…

-This reminds of an elevator somehow… Kibessi mumbled absent-mindedly.

-Oh, dream on! I snorted in frustration – Kibessi obviously wasn’t the brightest person on earth…

Or was she, after all?! ‘Cause the next thing… was the booth making a violent jolt and starting to move! It moved sideways unlike an elevator, though… to start with! The speed accelerated rapidly, and suddenly the booth was making insanely fierce twist up and down, and to every horizontal direction! It felt like a frenzied roller coaster… without safety railings! We bounced painfully on each other and smashed against the walls. I think my whole body was covered with bruises, when the “ride” finally started to slow down… and eventually stopped.

I squinted dizzily out to the brightness… and the doors opened automatically. We tottered outdoors feeling nauseous… and slowly I realized, that we really were OUTDOORS, in the sunshine, no longer in that distressing basement-kingdom!

Besides, even the place was familiar: it wasn’t far away from that ramshackle windmill where this crazy spectacle had started!

We started to hug each other and laugh loudly, almost hysterically, out of pure relief!

When we eventually could stop laughing, Meckyes sighed:

-I guess I have to contact the police about Lylaicke. The real Lylaicke, I mean. This is getting way too dangerous and complicated to solve alone!

This time even Skeemee quietly agreed.

-Pretty soon after meeting that supposed Lylaicke I became sure, that it’s not actually the real Lylaicke, Meckyes explained, -She was acting weird, obviously… But also: She was weirdly pale, and had too watery blue eyes! And I have never even seen Lylaicke wear that kind of a silly jacket!

-You were so alert! I gasped, -I didn’t realize that it could be some sort of a look-alike, until she became… well… glitchy, or something.

-Well, I would recognize my own twin sister! Meckyes reminded.

After that we discussed our feelings a bit, and realized, that we felt too confused, exhausted and timid (and bruised!) after all this, to take any reasonable action or even plan such right now. We all would just head to our homes to rest, and Meckyes would call the police… unless her mum had already done that. Presumably even the parents of me, Skeemee and Kibessi were worried. Hopefully they ALL hadn’t sent policemen after us (well, Skeemee’s family probably hadn’t)…

A suitable bus happened to come by soon, and we sat on the bus without talking much. I felt that my mind was simply too numb by all this weirdness to be really able to handle  things, and I guess my friends felt similarly.

As I stepped out of the bus I  felt relatively safe and contented – and it felt as if I hadn’t felt this way for ages, although it wasn’t long ago when my life was decently normal the last time.

I walked down the path to the coast in the beautiful, yellow and pink sunset… 

And then the feeling of safety changed into total dismay!

My home house had been torn down, and in its place the were building… well, God knows what?!

At least Lylaicke had been honest about one thing – the basement indeed was enormous! Well, in fact it couldn’t be called just a basement… it was a basement with many floors, deeper and deeper under the ground.

Secondly, the place was extremely weird! As Lylaicke led us through a bewildering number of maze-like hallways, oddly shaped halls and numerous staircases, we spotted many memorably unique sights!

Among other things, the place was filled with hazardous traps of electricity or fire, but Lylaicke knew them by heart, and knew how to avoid them or turn them off, just like if she had lived here for ages! 

At times we also had to balance through vague, narrow strips of floor, that were built high up in the air and looked shaky! One more thing to note was, that about every corner was crowded with mysterious and rather creepy statues!

The place sure was impressive, but  not in a fully positive way, like Lylaicke seemed to imagine. I and Skeemee for one  were getting more and more distrustful towards this “perfect Shark Bay” and the true reasons for its existence…

When we once again were stepping high on narrow floor-strips, I noticed someone below us! Well, we had seen a few people even before this, but from afar… and this person looked totally familiar!

-Look, Tekabi is there! I exclaimed all astonished.

-You’ve mistaken, it’s jus someone a little bit similar-looking, Lylaicke hissed somewhat uneasily, -Let’s go, so that we’ll make it to the guest house before midnight! She commanded sternly after that, and led us quickly to an other space.

Finally we arrived to the so-called guest house,  and to start with, Lylaicke served us dinner.

(no comments xD)

After the bath I stepped up to her, to ask what her problem was. But she didn’t react to my presence or voice in any way! She just monotonically continued the same pattern of gazing around her and looking irresolute…
At first I tried to get her involved into a sensible discussion, and then I just tried to catch her attention by goofing around, but I couldn’t  get a contact with her at all!

-She obviously wants to be alone, just let her be! Lylaicke snapped, -Besides, I can’t  wait to take you to the great market event!
-Hey, we really would need to go home… Kibessi tried.
-Yeah yeah, later – you simply have to see the market event of new Shark Bay! Lylaicke enthused.

I’d been pretty sure that the market event would be a pitifully small failure. I mean, we hadn’t seen more than a handful of people roaming around in “the new Shark Bay”!
But… at least the marketplace was outrageously wide! I almost started to feel dizzy, when I glared at its edges… and surely there were quite a lot of sales tables as well. But anyhow, there were very few people - at the first glance, I only noticed sellers, no buyers at all!

But soon I noticed something a lot more interesting. Tekabi!

I rushed over to her to inquire, how on earth she had ended up here!
But before I had time to say anything, I spotted an absent, alienated look in her eyes , which made me freeze on my spot for a moment, and feel quite guarded. So I started by just greeting her neutrally… And she replied to my greeting in a tepidly carefree tone.
-Well, how come that you’re here? I asked then a bit precautiously.
-Oh, of course I wanted to come and see the awesome market event! she shouted ecstatically…
and collapsed right away on the ground!

I anxiously glanced around for my friends. Meckyes persistently, yet desperately tried to create a dialogue with the absent-minded and reticent sellers, Kibessi seriously was eyeing through the products, willing to buy something, while Skeemee…

At first I didn’t notice her, but then my eyes caught her… calmly collecting the jewels, money-piles, ancient vases and other relics, that randomly lied here and there all over this underground dump!

-Hey, you can’t walk around and steal stuff just like that! I retorted, when I had darted over to her, -I wouldn’t have believed this of you!

-I’m not stealing anything! Skeemee rasped spikily, -Look, I’m doing this in front of everyone’s eyes, and no-one’s saying anything! So I assume they don’t have anything against me picking up these valuables – no-one ever said that it’s forbidden!

-That’s a good point, actually… I mumbled, feeling a bit ashamed of blaming Skeemee for theft, -Anyway, I just saw Tekabi! And… then she fainted! Just like that! I think she needs some help, but no-one does anything, and I don’t know what to do…

-Tekabi? Here? Really?? Skeemee gasped with widened eyes, and I nodded.

-Well, I know a tiny bit about first aid, Skeemee continued after the worst shock, -I could go and take a look at her, while you could go up to that weirdo who used to be Lylaicke, and ask, if there’s like… a health care room here or something… or if she would finally show us all the way out to the real world!

I just nodded again, and took a spurt towards Lylaicke, who was still apathetically standing nearby the entrance of the marketplace hall.

As I came closer to her, a horrible hunch formed in my mind – was she maybe being a little bit too apathetic?!

-Hey, Lylaicke! I huffed and stopped right in front of her.

No reaction!

I tried to talk normally to her a couple more times… without even getting her to turn her look towards me. Finally I flailed my arms wildly, roared like a tiger and scratched her shoulder!

But she stood stock-still, like a statue, and just stared into emptiness!

In the same instant Skeemee stormed up to me… or “us”, but Lylaicke could hardly be counted as fully present.

-I can’t even find Tekabi anywhere! she sighed anxiously.

-I think the most reasonable place to search would be where we saw her last time! Skeemee stated, and everyone agreed.

We started to consider how we’d get back to the gravel field where Lylaicke had been playing. The next bus to that direction would go only after an hour, and if we walked there, it would still take at least 30 minutes (and be exhausting… I was the one who resisted the idea of walking the most).

Finally Kibessi blurted out, that we could take a taxi, and soon we realized, that it would actually be most rational – when we would share the fee among each one of us, it would be anything but expensive!

Quite soon a taxi had taken us to the gravel field, surrounded by those simple and bland town houses. The evening was already darkening (the darkness came ridiculously soon this time of the year!), and a chill wind had started to blow. I felt all irresolute.

-What are we going to do, exactly? I inquired finally, when the others just kept glaring around, -Lylaicke could be anywhere…

-This is maybe useless, but we could knock on the doors… Skeemee started to explain with a shrug, when Meckyes suddenly interrupted her:

-Since WHEN has there been a creepy windmill at the back of this neighborhood??

Now we all noticed the sinister, scruffy building that was made of unpainted dark planks.

-Let’s start our search there! Kibessi blurted out, and started to march towards the windmill.

We followed her, even if Skeemee hesitated. She kept on saying, that she had a bad feeling about the mill, and that it was a bit too creepy-looking in her taste. How weird – usually Skeemee is like the bravest of us all, no matter of her paranoid…ish ideas…

-Look, it’s not that scary at all! Meckyes tried to encourage Skeemee, as we stepped into the mill.

She was right - on the inside the mill seemed rather boring than spooky or the like. I had expected it to be full of garbage, dirt and cobwebs, in addition to some morbidly suspicious stuff… but it was actually quite clean and rather empty – only a few boxes lied here and there. However, Skeemee still seemed extremely distrustful…

-I wonder what’s inside of those boxes… Meckyes mumbled to herself, but I was already glimpsing into one of them.

-What’s that? Is it gold?? Kibessi gasped, when a yellowish shine emerged from the box.

-Nope, I sighed lazily, -It’s just some books with glossy covers!

-Lylaicke is obviously not here, so why don’t we just get out already? Skeemee dunned nervously.

-You’re right… let’s go, Kibessi shrugged.

-Wait, we should at least peek upstairs first! Meckyes pointed out, -Besides, I sense that Lylaicke is not far away!

We followed Meckyes’ advice – not too eagerly, but we did anyway. The upstairs turned out to be only slightly more interesting than the ground-floor. At least there was some strange, bulky and old-fashioned machine, that fascinated Kibessi, and a shelf that seemed to contain some sort of archive… But well, no sign of Lylaicke, or anyone else for that matter.

A speck of curiosity made me open one of the drawers of the shelf… and that turned out to be the biggest mistake on could possibly do there!

The moment when the drawer made a jar and started to open, a couple of shrill thuds were heard behind our backs…

Thick wooden bars had dropped down from the ceiling, surrounding the stairs so that we couldn’t get back down! In a flash after that (before we had  even grasped the first happening yet), weird green lights were lit in the ceiling, and the light wedges started to dance around us in a dazzling way!

-What the heck is happening?! Skeemee inquired, trying to cover her eyes from the light, while Kibessi gaped at the wooden bars paralyzed by the shock.

-This is some kind of a trap! I shrieked anxiously, -We have to get out somehow!

-But… the stairs are blocked… Kibessi mumbled, sounding like if she couldn’t believe the fact herself.

-There is a window! I yelled, pointing at the small, peaked window on the opposite wall.

Single-mindedly I rushed towards the window, and in no time Skeemee darted after me.

-Hey, it’s the second floor! Meckyes whined.

-We’ll survive that! I exclaimed, and smashed the window glass into thousands of shards. Thankfully the glass had been very fragile, so I didn’t hurt my fist, and there were hardly any sharp pieces left on the window frames. At this point even Kibessi and Meckyes had barged to the window. 

The one planning this trap had probably thought, that the window was too small for escaping, but luckily we weren’t all full-grown yet, and we four even happened to be small-sized for our age.

I crawled through the frames first, and the others followed me incredibly quickly. I guess the panic makes people reach an almost supernatural speed…

When I felt the ground clatter under my feet, it only took a split second until Skeemee dropped down on my side!

Wait, did I say that the ground clattered? Well, weird enough, it did. And the same brassy sound was repeated when Skeemee fell on the ground!

Quickly we moved a couple of steps away, when Meckyes and Kibessi jumped down, once again making a metallic clatter-sound…

And when I finally internalized, that we all were standing on a huge metal grid… the grid splintered, and we fell towards the unknown!

I bumped painfully on… a grass-green carpet? Surprisingly, I noticed that I wasn’t surrounded by darkness, but by bright lights.

When I scrambled up on my aching legs, feeling dizzy, I suddenly realized, that I was standing right in front of a smiling Lylaicke! And the surrounding landscape resembled a tacky theater scenery,with a green carpet as grass, strikingly artificial plastic flowers here and there, shrubbery-patterned wallpapers and a retarded cloud-pattern in the ceiling.

-Hello, my friends! Lylaicke greeted in an overly ceremonial tone, -Welcome to the new, magnificent, perfect Shark Bay!

-Eh… whaaat?! Skeemee bawled, sounding extremely frustrated, and rubbing her obviously sore forehead.

-Lylaicke! Where are we… and what are you doing here?? Meckyes inquired.

-I already told you where we are, Lylaicke gave a laugh, -It’s the awesome new Shark Bay! In a moment you’ll also see how great it is!

-But you didn’t answer the question about how you ended up here, Meckyes muttered grumpily.

-Well, I’m not quite sure, actually, Lylaicke snickered in an alarmingly careless way, -Probably I just dropped down through the ceiling like you just did…

-She has a black out, and seems to think that she has been here for a long time… Skeemee whispered stealthily in my ear, and I nodded.

-But wait until you see how awesome… Lylaicke pattered.

-Blah, quit repeating that! I blurted out, -This is just a cellar with silly wallpapers and stuff!

-Oh, is it? Lylaicke snorted with a sassy voice, -You will so change your mind when I’ve showed you around. You see, this place is huge!

Before anyone of us had time to come up with a reply, the slightly sullen expression melted from Lylaicke’s face, and changed into a  smile:

-But it’s quite late already, you’d probably like to have some snack? And I think you should stay here over the night as well…

Lylaicke strided over to a rack full of juice, and started to pour juice into a few glasses on a small tray, apparently for us.

All disconcerted we slumped down on the chairs around a table, and grabbed our juice-glasses.

The juice tasted quite good – probably a little bit too sour, but good anyway. And I realized, that I indeed had been horribly thirsty, without really being aware of it.

-Anyway, we should all go home, Meckyes finally declared, -People will be worried – like we were worried of you, Lylaicke!

And we still are… I added silently in my mind.  

-Oh, I’m sorry you had time to get worried… Lylaicke hummed absent-mindedly, -But I’m sure that no-one will be worried anymore. See, this place kind of fixes the issue of people being worried – soon they won’t even notice that you’re missing. You’ll understand soon how it works!

-Sounds psychotic to me! Kibessi blurted out, -Are you sure you’re in your senses, Lylaicke?!

-Besides, it’s not like we’re willing to move into this cellar! I reminded.

-I didn’t mean that! Lylaicke giggled nonchalantly, -I just mean that you should spend some time here with me, just for fun. Even this one night!

I noticed, that she was all the time talking about how we should stay here – not that we could, if we felt like it. ”You should stay here” didn’t sound like a friendly request at all… But I didn’t want to take the risk that Lylaicke would get angry – now that she seemed to be in some  kind of a weird mental state, and we didn’t even know how to get out of here on our own… Skeemee, Meckyes and Kibessi were giving me meaningful glances, and I understood that we were all thinking about the same thing…

http://krmypossu.wordpress.com/character-information/

The teacher started to prattle something numbingly dull about information technology, and I sighed while I lazily skimmed through the list of different software installed on the computer. We haven’t ever had a computer at home, but somehow I still “get along” with computers quite decently. Sometimes it even seems I understand them better than an average teen, which makes me really proud!

But that doesn’t mean I’d enjoy the IT-lessons at school. Somehow the teachers manage to choose all the most boring topics concerning IT - it’s either about something childishly obvious (like: the basics of using the internet browser), or something too complicated and pointless.

Suddenly my attention was caught. Not by the teacher, but by one program on the list. It was the same, weird chat-program that I had once used in the library!

No one was looking at my direction, so I opened the program out of curiosity. The odd thing about it  was, that it didn’t go to some chat-site with many random people, but it would only show if “your friends” were online. And who on earth had installed those contacts on a random computer of the school??

I gasped, as a green name popped up on the “friends online” list. How fun – Lylaicke was also using the chat-program! Or… not?! When I looked more carefully, the name was “Lylaiche”, not “Lylaicke”! Was this something similar to the creepy fake-Skeemee I had met on the library’s computer?!

 I glanced at the real Lylaicke on the other side of the classroom… she didn’t even have her computer on, but was secretly reading a book in the shadow of her screen! So, Lylaiche for sure was someone else, trying to fool me, and I decided to try to find out who it was. At least I could try to close out some people who couldn’t be pretending Lylaicke – for instance, I could ask Lylaiche where she was, and if she claimed to be somewhere else than in the computer class, I’d know that it wasn’t any of my classmates.

“Oh hi, Lylaicke!” I wrote on the chat and added some cordial smileys… “Where are you right now?”

The reply was clumsy… and surely unexpected, to the extent of creepy!

“I… I’m not quite sure.” a text appeared on the screen, “I guess I’m somewhere under the ground. Ekalme, you need to… “

I was just about to read the end of the sentence, when all the computers suddenly shut down!

-I didn’t give you a permission to use the computers yet! our teacher roared, at the power switch that affected all the computers in the room. He had just flicked it to the “off”-position!

-You need to listen to me first, and then I’ll give you assignments to do!

Crap, just when the class was starting to get fascinating for my part!

Eventually I was sitting on the bus, on my way home. Annoyingly, Helaicka and Sanewe taking the same bus today. This time they didn’t pick on me, though… but were badgering Kibessi instead! I considered that very strange, ’cause just a while ago Kibessi appeared to be one of the most popular girls in the whole school. Someone whose toes nobody would step on!

And now… I have no clue what had happened. Kibessi seemed to have simply abandoned her former, snobby friends (or had they abandoned Kibessi? And anyway… why?), become more humble and… somehow unstable herself. And apparently she had lost her status with it…

I would’ve liked to defend Kibessi, not that she’d be my good friend or anything, but just because Helaicka and Sanewe were such nasty nitwits. However, I felt downright too sleepy to even concentrate on their argument, let alone coming up with something clever to say!

Besides, Kibessi seemed more than capable to assert herself just fine. In fact it soon started to sound like if it was Kibessi who mercilessly mocked Helaicka!

Horrible terms of abuse streamed from her mouth just like that… and I woke up to the realization, that I hardly understood anything that she was saying!

“Okolming espitarv”, “zagohned royibast”… whaaat?! Had she switched to an other language, or were those some super exclusive terms of Shark Bay dialect and Shark Bay dialect only?

-What does that… okolm-thingie mean? I muttered mostly to myself.

I definitely didn’t expect, that anyone would sit down and calmly explain it to me, in the middle of the heated quarrel…

But that’s exactly what happened, and the weirdest detail of them all is, that it was Helaicka, who nicely started to explain the word to me! Just that she didn’t explain it too well…

-It means to kind of freeze your mouth… into a muzzle or something, she blabbered absent-mindedly, without making me one bit wiser.
I tried to re-formulate my question:

-Umm, I rather meant that… what’s the point of that saying. Like, what does it imply about someone?

Now it was Skeemee’s turn to try to enlight me, but she didn’t do it much better than Helaicka.

-It means: to shape one’s mouth kind of into a dog’s snout, and howl pathetically.

-Right… eh, well, I guess I now understood… somehow, I mumbled all dispirited. Probably I’d be better off without knowing the freakish insiders of Shark Bay, that inborn Shark Bay people themselves didn’t seem to grasp all that well… 

I turned my gaze out the window, and that very moment I suddenly spotted Lylaicke!

She seemed to be playing some sort of ball game with some guys, on a random sandy field, tightly surrounded by little houses.

-Look, how come Lylaicke is there?? I hooted, shaping my mouth into a dog’s… eh, NOT.

The bus drove by slowly, and I happened to notice a particularly genuine, excited smile on Lylaicke’s face.

Right after that Lylaicke and her friends (?) gathered together and started to stride away. Now only their backs could be seen.

-Strange, I didn’t know that Lylaicke has so many male friends, Skeemee muttered, -And wasn’t one of them Ez? What the heck is he doing in Shark Bay?!

-I have no idea, I hummed, -He seems to be everywhere, like if he was stalking on us all the time or something…

-Does Lylaicke like cartoons? Kibessi inquired suddenly.

-Hmm… I don’t know, why do you ask? I queried, raising my other eyebrow.

-I was just thinking… Kibessi mumbled, -See, I only had time to see their backs, and at first I thought, that Lylaicke might be the one, who had that cartoon-animal-jacket… But then I noticed, that she could’ve also been the girl with the blue jacket.

The tone of Kibessi’s voice made it crystal clear, that in her opinion it would’ve been utterly embarrassing to wear that kind of ”cartoon-animal-jacket”. I gave her a resentful glare – I thought that she had already gotten over that kind of snobbishness.

I guess she still tried to “defend” Lylaicke by suggesting that she would’ve been the girl in blue (who obviously was someone else! Duh!), but honestly – wasn’t it ridiculously superfluous to even consider what pattern Lylaicke was wearing?!

-I believe Lylaicke indeed was the one with the cartoon-patterned jacket, I stated coldly.

-Hey, wouldn’t it be nice to go and visit Lylaicke and Meckyes right now?! Skeemee exclaimed abruptly.

-Uhh… not now, I need to go home and sleep, I yawned.

But thanks to a quirk of fate, Skeemee got her will anyway! You see, when we were already approaching the bus stop where I should get off, my phone rang. It was Meckyes calling… and she sounded absolutely anxious.

-Ekalme, you need to come to our place! Meckyes begged, -I’m so worried – I can’t find Lylaicke anywhere.

-But… I’m sure she’s just outdoors, actually we just saw… I stammered all baffled.

-No, Ekalme, something’s wrong now, believe me! Please just come over here!

Even if Meckyes’ panic seemed absurd, she had sounded so genuinely distressed, that I and Skeemee… and randomly even Kibessi… headed there as soon as we could.

When we arrived on the Sinishos’ door, Meckyes led us straight to her and Lylaicke’s room, without saying anything more than “come here”.

She stopped close to the wall, that was full of mysterious markings made with black ink.

-What do you see here? she asked with a shivery voice.

-Eh… a lot of weird drawings on a wall. Why couldn’t you just use paper? I commented.

-Well, ’cause I didn’t make them! Meckyes snorted, -Besides, I’m sure it’s actually a message – a cry for help by Lylaicke! When we were little, we had a game, that we would send each other notes where we used pictures and symbols instead of letters. The point was, that we should figure out what the message meant… and ’cause we did that a lot, we finally became very good at communicating together with pictures. But… it’s so long ago that I don’t have that skill anymore!

-But you anyway figured out, that it’s a call for help, Skeemee pointed out skeptically.

-Yes, because it’s written on a freaking wall! Meckyes screeched in frustration, -Lylaicke must’ve been really anxious to make sure that I’ll see it, and because it’s in symbols… I think she wanted to hinder someone else from understanding it!

-What are those? she mumbled with a bemused voice, when she noticed the marshmallows.

-I wish I knew! I shrugged, and shook my head in confusion.

Even Meckyes, who lied on the other sofa, started to glimpse her eyes sleepily. Lylaicke had grabbed a handful of the mysterious candies, and was sniffing on them thoughtfully.

-Wait! I think they might be poisonous… or dangerous in some other way! I warned her.

-Why do you think so? Lylaicke asked, puckering her brows doubtfully, almost simultaneously as Meckyes squealed:

-Yuck! What is that green stuff?!

-Don’t touch them, ok! I told off a bit frustrated, -I’ll explain everything I know, when everyone’s awake.

Both of the Sinisho twins shrugged, giving me weirded out and slightly grumpy looks, but they started to help me with cleaning up the mess anyhow.

Soon enough the others had wakened too, and we were gathered in the kitchen (we were too lazy to use the fancy dining hall) for breakfast.

-Lyddas, there’s something really strange about this flat! I started with a serious voice.

-Ahhh, you’re just jealous! Lyddas instantly snorted irritably.

-No, listen! I’m serious! I reassured, and began to report the whole chain of events, starting from the creepy, distant cries that had woke me up in the night.

While I portrayed the happenings I realized, how truly unbelievable they sounded, and it was no wonder, that my friends were giving me a bit skeptical glances and raising their eyebrows continuously!

But I guess they could tell from the tone of my voice, that I wasn’t just joking or something, because they didn’t outright refuse to believe me…

-Um… well… Lyddas was the first one to get a sound out of her mouth after my story, -But what you experienced at night, it could have been just a nightmare…

-I can distinguish dream and reality! I snapped, feeling nettlesome.

-Yeah… But SOMETIMES dreams might feel extremely real, Tekabi tried to downplay me too, -Maybe you’ve just never had a THAT realistic dream before. Also we were very tired, and that might…

-Well, it doesn’t explain the marshmallows anyway! Meckyes supported me for my happy surprise.

-Well, nope, but what if my automatic candy machine simply… Lyddas tried to come up with explanations. She apparently didn’t want to believe, that there would be something creepy about her dear flat, which was kind of understandable…

-Automatic candy machine?? Skeemee retorted suddenly, -This place is just WAY too automatized!

-Calm down! Hebye bridled, -All you have done since last afternoon is complaining about every detail in this flat. What’s your problem, really?

-All this technology makes me nervous! Skeemee yelped, and I could see that she indeed was uptight – she was swinging her legs restlessly under her chair, and strictly speaking, her whole body seemed kind of shaky.

-Then you’re just like my dad! I cried out my surprise.

-Hey, back to the point, Lylaicke commanded, -So, we’re considering, whether this place has something supernatural, or…

The answer to Lylaicke’s (and everyone’s) question bursted on our faces quite instantly… All of a sudden a mischievous laughter started to blare in the kitchen cupboards! Then the buttons of the stove began to click fiercely on their own…

And when everyone was screaming in shock and trying to crawl under the table, more green marshmallows trickled down from the lamp shades, hanging on cobwebs!

When the horror was at its peak, the candies suddenly were dragged back up by themself, and everything else was back to normal too! Except that we were now all horrified, and our nuts were badly messed up!

-Nice, now I’ll never dare to spend a night alone in my own flat! Lyddas screamed bitterly, breaking the paralyzing silence between us.

Well, at least everyone believed me now!

Nevertheless, we eventually had to get to school. Nothing particularly interesting happened during the school day, but quite a  few annoying events did occur!

First of all, Meckyes got furious at me in the art class, when I just tried to help her with crafting her massive wall-collage! I apparently was offending her artistic vision deeply… But well, luckily Meckyes always calms down as quickly as she snaps, so by the end of the day she was my devoted friend again.

(Oh, and I had for once put my hair up. Because I could and so on... )

Then, before the history lession Lylaicke warned, that we’d have something that she likes, but I won’t like.

-Repetition of the whole autumn’s history-teaching, Lylaicke elaborated, when I looked confused.
At first I thought, that she was suggesting that I hated history in general (which wasn’t true – I didn’t like it exactly, but it wasn’t the worst school subject either). But then I got a hunch of trouble…
-Oh wait, do you mean, that we students have to rehearse it by heart? I dunned.
Lylaicke confirmed my bad premonitions! Everyone would have to verbally report everything they remembered from the history-teaching of last autumn!
-Oh crap! During the Christmas holiday, I at least let the history studies be wiped out of my mind completely! I would never have dreamed of anything like this! I complained all appalled.

But no matter my protests, the rehearsal was done. And it took forever, ’cause students went to the teachers room one by one, and we didn’t finish the lesson until everyone was done! For my part, it went dismally, and to crown the annoyance, we missed the lunch because of the prolonged class!

On the last break, even Becky-Chatee seemingly noticed, that it’s a good moment for getting on my nerves. She walked up to me just like that, and started to accuse me for “trying to act funny”!

I had just fooled around with Hebye, and accidentally blurted out a real inane comment, that made us both burst into laughter. So my first guess was, that in Becky-Chatee’s opinion I just pretended to accidentally mess up my words, in order to seem funny. Anyway I definitely didn’t get Becky-Chatee’s point, and all dumfoundedly I muttered:

-No way am I… trying to pretend funny… or whatever! And I swear that confusing my words like that was a genuine mistake.

-Well, at least you’re very initiative, what comes to joking, Becky still kind of accused me, with a somewhat bitter voice.

-I don’t know… I don’t think I’m like extra much… I stammered, until I finally got a grip of myself and yelled:

-Wait… What the heck?! So what if I’d be the most initiative joker ever! What’s supposedly wrong with that?!

Becky just snorted sullenly, and our absurd conversation was over, as we headed to the last stage of annoyance of today – the pokey computer class, where the desks with the ancient computers were arranged in an extremely impractical helter-skelter way!

At first I was about to sit down next to Skeemee, facing Hebye, but then I noticed, that even though there was a keyboard on that spot, there was no screen (except the back of Hebye’s screen… )!

But after a good while of slumbering, I slowly woke up to something…

It was a distant, faint voice! It seemed to somehow be wafted from below, and… just like if it would moan: “Set me free, anyone …”
The volume of the gripe strengthened and weakened in waves, but still it always remained very quiet.

I was obviously creeped out to the infinite!

Terrified, I crawled deep under my blanket, and pulled it all the way around me.

But suddenly, the blanket started to feel abnormally heavy and airtight. And all at once I realized, that it was moving on its own, wrapping itself more tightly around me! I could hardly even draw breath, let alone scream, and the blanket seemed to have transformed into enormously wide, so that I couldn’t get one single limb kicked out of its heavy embrace!

Reluctantly I faced the fact, that I was in peril! What on earth was this about?! Was this flat like… haunted? Cursed? An intentionally designed trap??

Suddenly, out of nowhere jumped a small figure, who wore black all over. Of course I couldn’t see him, until he had sideswiped the demoniac blanket away from me, so that it slouched dead beside my “mattress” and looked just normal, probably even smaller than I remembered it to be.

During all this, Skeemee was just peacefully snuffling in her sleeping bag!

I glowered around absolutely stunned.

Then I lifted my eyes at the mysterious person in black, and was about to burst into praises and thanks…

But the unearthly guy just put a finger on his lips and hissed.

Then he whispered, with a rather weird grin on his face:

-Be careful not to eat any of those marshmallows.

After that he simply disappeared, before my confused mind had time to realize, whether he slinked away in a flash, or evaporated into thin air!

But what he had uttered seemed even more loony. What marshmallows was that weirdo raving about?

However, I suppose I eventually fell back to sleep, so weird as it seems… ‘Cause I just can’t remember what exactly happened between this freakish scenario, and the moment when I woke up at dawn, feeling cold, stiff and cranky after my bad sleep on the blanket… and without a blanket (on me… ).

Skeemee was still in deep sleep, and I didn’t see a reason to disturb her quite yet.

Instead I waddled to the living room…

Where the floor was now filled with piles of  little, pale green marshmallows! Fortunately I was the first one awake - now I had time to collect the apparently dangerous candy to the trash, before anyone would make the mistake to eat them.

But this incident definitely wouldn’t stop baffling me!

No matter how distressing and distracting the recent mysterious events had been, I guess I had little by little started to get used to them, ’cause now the most typical Christmas with family felt somehow… even slightly surrealistic!

When the holiday was about to end, I felt like if I was floating in some frustrating, dreamlike state of tranquility, and longed to wake up to the harsh reality already!

Well, finally school was starting again. When I met my friends in the entry hall, everyone was buzzing about their Christmas presents. Everyone… except Hebye, who wasn’t there.

I felt a bit left out, ’cause I had only got the usual things – books, candy, some clothes… while everyone else seemed to have got something very unique. For instance, it turned out, that Skeemee had got a large trampoline and a punching bag!

-I got my very own set of cooking supplies, Tekabi swaggered in a cheerful mood.

-I got a book about reading palms, and wow, it was so intriguing! Mye-Geeme too fussed over-zealously, -I’m definitely going to learn the skill of foretelling from people’s palms – in fact, I think I already have a clue about it…

-I got myself a special cocoa cooker! Meckyes for one rejoiced.

-Well, I got a weird elephant-mask from Hebye… Lyddas mumbled rolling her eyes, -But most importantly: I got my own flat!

-Eh… what? I gasped in unison with everyone else.

(OOPS!!! Big fail: Hebye shouldn't be there in the picture! Too bad I forgat she WASN'T THERE when I took these pictures... xP Please just imagine that it's someone else xD)

-Yeah, our apartment was getting too tight for the whole family, so my parents got me an own flat! Lyddas repeated more in detail, -I already moved my stuff in there during the holiday!

-You must mean that they rented a flat for you, Lylaicke pointed out.

-Nope, it’s my own, Lyddas noted shortly, -And you’re all invited for a sleepover after school! Will you come?

Everyone agreed gladly, but immediately afterwards I became a bit hesitant.

-How will we all fit in there? I wondered.

-Oh, we will… Lyddas smiled somewhat mysteriously…

Hebye’s (and Lyddas’ former… ) home house is really close to our school, so on the lunch break I, Skeemee and Lyddas decided to visit Hebye, and ask why she hadn’t showed up in school.

Typically of us, we made our visit without warning Hebye in advance, in a most familiar and even slightly intrusive manner.

Usually Hebye tolerates this admirably well (I myself would become a little cranky, if my friends constantly barged to my door without calling me first).

But this time… Hebye’s every gesture seemed more or less monosyllabic!

And yet she didn’t say anything directly rude, so we didn’t get a change to ask what’s wrong with her, without sounding brusque!

What comes to school, Hebye just muttered, that she had felt too lazy to study today.

When we were leaving, Hebye mentioned, that she had forgotten to hand over her Christmas cards to us before Christmas, and sullenly gave them to us now. But she kind of seemed to do it out of mere responsibility, not due to any friendly feelings!

The cards looked traditional and dull… even the text was mirthlessly businesslike. Except, that it actually didn’t say “Merry Christmas”, but  ”Merry spring and summer!”. Like if Hebye wouldn’t have planned to see us until the end of summer or something?!

In the staircase of the house, I started to ponder over the strange text in the cards. But after remarking it aloud, I came to think of that our voices maybe could be heard to Hebye’s place, and added with my most (wannabe) sincere voice:

-Not that there’s anything wrong with wishing happy spring and summer… of course not!

When we returned to school, we found out that we’d start an all new course. Clay modeling course, that is!

I myself modeled a cat-sculpture… or, eh… tried to model one, but it turned out to resemble a giraffe much more! It was no way as good as Skeemee’s mouse! But my pathetic comfort was, that Tekabi’s cat didn’t look any better. It maybe looked more like a cat, but an ugly one, while my giraffe was at least pretty cute…

Suddenly, when the class already drew near its end, Hebye bumped to the classroom, apologizing that she supposedly had accidentally slept this long.

And… all at once she was acting just her playful self, and seemed sincerely cordial towards us! Maybe it was our surprise-visit, that had made her a bit grumpy after all?

Anyway, now Lyddas remembered to invite even Hebye over to her place, and Hebye said that she’d come most willingly… So, now there was seven of us (plus Lyddas) going for a sleepover at Lyddas’ place!

How on earth will we be able to breath inside Lyddas’ flat? I reflected quietly in my mind.

When each one of us had quickly visited their home, packing up clothes and other necessities for the sleepover, we gathered at the front of our school.

You see, Lyddas used to live nearby the school, but now she lived even closer – in a highrise on the other side of the street!

Excitedly we crossed the street, and tumbled up all the stairs to the top floor, laughing and shoving each other, supposedly having a running competition…

 -Whoaaah! Meckyes admired, when we crowded through the door into Lyddas’ new penthouse apartment.

-So… this place has a huge flat screen TV, blue ray and high-end stereo, a terrific brand new computer… a fully automatic coffee maker, a hyper-modern stove, a dishwasher. Oh, and that vacuum cleaner that moves around by itself!  And, is this supposed to be a web cam or a professional movie-filming camera? Lylaicke listed all agape.

-Don’t forget the karaoke machine and the mixing console, that would do for a professional DJ! Skeemee whimpered weakly, and seemed to be on the edge of fainting, -And what do we have here… massaging mattresses?!

-Wow indeed! Tekabi pattered in the bathroom, -An automatic hairdresser machine?? And other beauty appliances better than in the local spa! Plus obviously a washing machine, a clothes dryer, bubble pool and… whah, tons of disposable electric toothbrushes?!

-And just the basic set of five bedrooms, plus living room, kitchen, dining room, bathroom, sauna, huge entry hall, library and three toilets, Hebye grinned, -This place seems pretty liveable!

-Yeah, and self-evidently all furniture of latest fashion, and wall panels of too high quality, Skeemee yelled being somewhere between enchanted and… enraged?

Maybe she felt a bitter sting of envy… and who wouldn’t? I knew, that we all were thinking about the same thing: since when had Lyddas’ family been this rich? But no-one dared to downright ask it.

-Oh, and don’t forget the UV-lamps that make this irritating buzzing sound non stop, I rasped out, -Is their purpose to prevent depression during dark weathers, or was this flat originally a greenhouse?

Now everyone was staring at the rattling light-pipes in the ceiling. They indeed made a constant, nerve-wracking whirr-sound.

-Prarrr zrarrr pra pra zrarr, Hebye imitated apathetically.

Lyddas was blatantly red all over her face – her embarrassment couldn’t have been more obvious.

I started to feel sorry for her. She hadn’t done anything wrong – on the contrary, she had kindly invited us over, but now everyone was acting almost like if it was her fault, that our families weren’t even nearly as rich as hers…

-Hey, if we go directly to bed, we could just switch those torturing lamps off, Skeemee suggested ironically.

-What about we go for a bubble bath first? Lylaicke recommended, and apparently thought that Skeemee had been all serious.

However, we ended up eating first, then toying around with the mixing console and the karaoke device, along with dancing, then watching a movie… and only then taking the bubble bath. 

We had a so amusing evening, that  everyone luckily seemed to push aside their envy, and forget to be disturbed by the lamps…

Eventually, we were serious about going to sleep. Tekabi and Mye-Geeme headed to one of the bedrooms together, Lylaicke and Meckyes reserved an other one, Hebye and Lyddas went into one of them, and Skeemee and I ended up in the fourth chamber.

The bedroom of me and Skeemee was probably the most unpleasant of all, ’cause it was decorated in puke green all over. But we didn’t bother to check whether the remaining fifth bedroom was any cozier. Instead, Skeemee started to calmly drag her sleeping bag out of its package.

-There are blankets and everything in the bed already, you know… I pointed out lazily, while diving into my night gown, and especially in my horrendous nightcap, that Disa and Dora had sent me as a Christmas present!

-I prefer my very own humble sleeping ba… HEY, Why are you wearing a nightcap that tacky?! Skeemee shrieked in shock.

I chuckled maliciously. My only purpose with the silly hat had been to startle Skeemee.

-Remember the reason you told me, when you got yourself that cellphone with a terrible neon-coloured flower-pattern? I reminded, -I’m wearing this cap for the very same reason!

-Oh yeah, to annoy me, Skeemee sighed deeply, but giggled simultaneously.

-That was a pretty good one, she still kept on snickering, -Well, good night now.

She turned off the lights, and slumped on her massaging bed… and the mattress began to automatically undulate like the waves of a stormy ocean!

-Ouuuch! Skeemee raged.

-What is it? I giggled, and threw myself on my bed, that also began to beat up my spine way too substantially, as if I had a maniac boxer beneath me!

-How can this be turned off?! I growled, while I toured the whole bed, feeling it out carefully with my fingers, hoping to find some kind of a switch.

-I guess we have to turn those annoying lights back on, I eventually muttered pettishly.

We had stayed up past the midnight, and I started to feel seriously sleepy. Also, we’d have to wake up early tomorrow, so it annoyed me already in advance, if we couldn’t catch sleep in decent time!

-PZZZAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!! the lamps brawled so unbearably loudly in the silence of the night, that I decided to shut them down right away.

-Where’s that damn switch hiding?! Skeemee whined in the pitch-dark.

-I wonder if the others have somehow solved this problem? Or we could just ask Lyddas… I muttered, and Skeemee rushed on my heels as I left behind our awful bedroom. 

-OUCH! I screamed in pain, when I violently bashed into Meckyes, Lylaicke, Lyddas, Hebye, Mye-Geeme and Tekabi, all of them simultaneously.

-Our massaging mattresses… everyone tried to gabble in a chaotic choir.

-OURS TOO! Skeemee flew into a rage, -But Lyddas knows how to turn them off, right?!

-Eh, well… Lyddas mumbled and became glowing red once again, -Actually, this is the first night I spend in this flat… so I don’t know these things any more than you do…

-Well, if no-one has any smart suggestions, how to shut the mattresses down, we could try to sneak into our beds so stealthily and slowly, that the beds don’t notice a thing! Lylaicke pointed out.

So we all sneaked back  to our own directions.

Skeemee sidled on her mattress so dexterously and pliantly, that even the most sensitive person wouldn’t have wakened from their lightest sleep, if Skeemee sneaked on them this way… 

-AAARRRGHH! Skeemee scraped, as the mattress mercilessly started to drum her spine, so that the vertebras were about to go dislocated.

On the surface the  small building on the manor’s yard didn’t seem too spooky. It looked just like the most dull and ordinary woodshed or little barn. But on the inside it was shadowy, musty, dusty and filled with suspicious stuff…

Every corner was packed full with shelves, boxes, barrels, pots… so that one barely had space to walk between them.

-What is this? Lylaicke wondered with an insecure grimace, and pointed at a shelf on the wall, -A whole rack full of stuffed bunnies? Creepy!

-And what’s this terrifying smell? Meckyes shivered while sniffing on the smelly breezes from the rotten firewood stacks.

Then she blurted out a horror-struck scream, and at first we all thought that she freaked out because of the smell… but then we realized, that she was franticly pointing at a huge wooden closet, that had started to open by itself!

We urgently retreated many steps towards the door, and although it was hard to see in the dim lighting of the shed, I could perceive a dark, skinny figure slink out of the closet and up the stairs, silently and swiftly as a shadow! Brrr!

Anyhow, Skeemee remained determined, and crazy as it sounds, she managed to persuade us all (except Meckyes, who had run completely out of the shed, and insisted that from now on, she’ll always stay at least ten meters away from it) to go back and explore even the upstairs of the barn! 

Skeemee climbed the creaking stairs to the attic first, and I arrived after her… into the immense cloud of dust, and a rather empty-looking space. Apparently the attic was even ten times dustier than the first floor, that had seemed extremely dusty as well…

-Look at that closet! Skeemee coughed. She looked fuzzy through the thick dust-wall.

-Which closet? I croaked and felt like I would suffocate any minute, -I can’t see a thing!

-The one next to the back wall… Skeemee rasped out, -It’s seems identical to the one downstairs – maybe the creep is now hiding there.

-Stay still for a while so that the dust settles down, Lylaicke whimpered nervously, and we took heed of the advice.

When most 0f the dust had finally floated down to the floor, we sneaked carefully closer to the eerie wooden closet, that almost reminded me of a vertically placed coffin…

…But apparently even Skeemee was too creeped out to actually peek inside it, ’cause instead she turned to me with an uneasy face and muttered:

-Maybe we should go now, ’cause… ’cause our dance performance might start soon… or maybe…

Simultaneously Lylaicke had drifted to the window:

-Hey, we should get outside… ’cause… even she started to make excuses, -The others are playing some funny game on the yard! Even Hebye and Lyddas are there, and we’re missing all the fun!

The end of her sentence had sounded genuinely enthusiastic, so even I rushed to the window to take a look.

She was right – some people indeed were playing… some obscure game on the yard. I didn’t quite agree that the game looked funny (in Shark Bay I’ve become rather reserved towards all kinds of weirdo-games, so called amusement parks etc… ), but I definitely agreed that we should get out of the unpleasant barn!

-Yeah, let’s get out of here! I exclaimed, starting to feel the panic form in my innermost, and stormed out at full speed, with Skeemee and Lylaicke on my heels.

But no matter how fast we rushed out, when we reached the grass field where the others had played just a moment ago, all the players had disappeared like ashes into the wind! The game equipment was still lying here and there, but the people were undoubtedly gone. Weird, to say the least! 

Only a few other girls were slacking on coarse, brown mattresses in the shadow of an oak tree.

-Darn, I really wanted to talk to Lyddas and Hebye, ’cause I honestly have no idea when our dance performance should happen, and I guess they know better, Skeemee grouched.

-Yeah, me neither… I admitted, -But maybe we could ask those girls if they saw where Lyddas and Hebye went?

Said and done – we marched up to the girls, and I recognized one of them as Haigi Tikemasi from our school. She at least should know whom we’re talking about… or… NOT! As I kindly asked her, if she knew where to find Lyddas and Hebye, she snorted in a most crude tone:

-And should I know who those famous Laddish and Herbie… or whatever… are?!

For a moment I and Skeemee just stood still, baffled and stunned by Haigi’s rudeness, but then we both came to the conclusion, that it’s not worth querying more from her, when  we can just go and find Lyddas and Hebye on our own.  They couldn’t be far away, could they?

We had already taken a couple of steps away from the girls, when one of them shouted:

-Hey, Ekalme, you forgat your bag!

I turned around weirded out.

-What bag? I inguired. I hadn’t even taken my bag with me to the celebration.

-This one! the unknown (or at least un-remembered) girl snickered, and kicked towards me some ugly, brownish green sack, that apparently was just randomly rotting on the ground.

I just rolled my eyes and gave them my most scornful face.

-What’s wrong with them?! I pattered, as I and Skeemee headed towards the entrance of the mansion.

-I have no idea… Skeemee huffed absent-mindedly.

We arrived to the main hall, that now wasn’t as crowded as a while ago, and after glaring around for a moment we were convinced that Hebye and Lyddas weren’t there.

-Where are they? And where have everyone gone? Skeemee dunned in frustration. Even Lylaicke had vanished somewhere!

We started to aimlessly waddle through a nearby corridor. When we walked past one door, that looked just as plain and white as the other doors, I realized, that a  loud gabble was heard from the inside!

We peeked in… and saw something that resembled a class, to a confusing degree! And there even Lyddas, Hebye and Lylaicke were sitting.

-What? I thought that this is a Christmas celebration, not a seminar! Skeemee snapped.

-Yeah, I wonder what’s the point of that… session… or whatever, I mumbled.

-Let’s sit down with the others and we’ll find out, Skeemee whispered really quietly, when the teacher at the front already gave us an annoyed glance.

-Okay, I shrugged, -At least we wont lose Lyddas and Hebye from our sight, and after the… thing… we can ask about the dance show.

So we sneaked to the free desks at the back and sat down.

But we had been wrong about two things! First of all – we found out that the lesson was about art theory, but we didn’t find out the point of having a such in the middle of a Christmas feast! Also, we did lose Lyddas and Hebye from our sight, ’cause in the middle of the lecture they suddenly rose up from their seats with one consent, and started to mince towards the door.

-Where are you going? Skeemee hissed to them.
-To the toilet, duh! Lyddas sighed like if the question would’ve been the dumbest imaginable.

-I think I could come too, Skeemee whispered, and nodded at me, apparently meaning that I should come along.

Nevertheless, Hebye and Lyddas got a head start and were not waiting for us. When I and Skeemee arrived to the bathroom, that had been renovated to women’s common restroom with many toilet booths, Hebye and Lyddas couldn’t be seen. We concluded, that they had of course already gone to their toilet booths.

-I guess we could as well use the toilets, once we’re here, I shrugged, and so we did.

But when we came out of our booths, Lyddas and Hebye still weren’t there to be seen!

-Uh, what if they went out already, and we came here in vain? Wasn’t our primary purpose to just ask them about the timing of our dance show? I moaned, feeling weary.

-Yes… Skeemee muttered lost in thought and peered around, -But… I didn’t hear that anyone would’ve walked out! None of the booth doors slammed, let alone the bathroom door… and I didn’t even hear steps!

-That’s true… I admitted, and suddenly the whole situation started to get a creepy vibe!  Two of the booths were still locked… but no sounds were heard, and no shoes were seen from the gap between the floor and the booth walls!

We still waited for a couple of moments, holding our breath, but the silence was absolute! I started to get horrifying pictures in my mind, about the doors suddenly opening by themselves and showing an empty booth… or even worse, some kind of ghosts or zombies walking out the door! Or… the evil spirits probably?! Even the air of the room suddenly felt strangely chill, and the lighting seemed to stealthily get dimmer…

-Let’s get out of here! I bleeped on the edge of panic, and suddenly felt like believing in the spirits of this mansion. This was the exactly same, irrational but overwhelmingly spooky feeling that I had experienced when we picnicked here!

As we darted out to the hallway, I even felt some weird tingle in my soles!

-We must have just missed Hebye and Lyddas after all, Skeemee breathed, -Let’s hurry back to the lesson – they’re certainly there already.

I could tell from the “hurry“-part, that Skeemee in fact was terrified and just wanted to get far away from the bathroom as soon as possible, but typically of her, she didn’t say such things straight unless she absolutely had to!

So we returned to the room with the art class. While we were away, assignment-booklets had been distributed on the desks. As I quickly browsed through it, it seemed to include some drawing tasks, and some random puzzle-like things solve. Also, now there was a small plastic basket with some pencils on every desk. But something was still missing… LYDDAS AND HEBYE, that is!

-Where on earth are they?! I bursted out.

-I don’t know… Lylaicke sighed with a low and sad voice, God knows why!

I gave Lylaicke a most weirded out glance. Could Lylaicke possibly be so childish, that she was jealous when I and Skeemee only worried about the location of Hebye and Lyddas instead of her, or what?

-Didn’t they go to the bathroom? some guy said.

-I wonder how they can spend all those hours in the toilet? an other boy blurted out in a mocking tone.  

But at that very moment Hebye and Lyddas finally walked back to the room!

-Where were you? Skeemee dunned instantly.

-Well, the toilet! Hebye cried out irritably and sighed loudly, -Didn’t I tell you that already?

Okay… so what was wrong with everyone now all of a sudden? It felt like if the whole crowd had joint decision to be cranky at me and Skeemee since… since the moment when we stepped out of the shed!

-Strange, ’cause we didn’t see you there… I hinted suspiciously, and gave Skeemee an ally-like glance, but Lyddas and Hebye didn’t comment anymore.

Eventually the drawing lesson ended, and our teacher announced, that the next thing up was “the traditional Tango of Death” in the great hall…

She led our flock to the great hall in a queue formation, and reluctantly I and Skeemee sat down to watch the ominous-sounding show. The “Tango of Death” turned out to be an utterly weird dance show… with Lyddas and Hebye involved!

Someone was dressed as a witch (eh… I guess? Or was it a grim reaper?) and supposedly chased Hebye and Lyddas all around the stage, while they all simultaneously danced to a gloomy and dissonant music in the tango-rhythm.

Their choreography sometimes emulated the situation of them trying to slink away from the evil whatever, or fighting it…

Finally the show came to its pointless end, when Hebye and Lylaicke “won” the monster by throwing an extremely odd-looking giant ragdoll upon the monster!

The performance had been long, tedious and drowsy… But I still think that it was quite exaggerated by some people…

…to faint on the floor during the show! And did the air suddenly smell icky, or did I just imagine it?!

(* This is without pictures again… sorry about having many of these recently. But I realized that it’s quite impossible to get good pictures for this scenario with the huge crowd in the mansion, so I can as well skip them. When this crowded Christmas-feast part is over, there will be pictures in every single chapter again (except maybe some utterly rare exception)! *)

Suddenly I snapped back to my senses. What was I being THIS stunned for? After all,  I hadn’t seen a ghost – I had just seen Jazmin, who was behaving weirdly, dressed strangely and an unexpected gate-crasher in the Christmas feast of the schools. Oh, and who had behaved weirdly even yesterday with those phone calls and text messages…

But anyway, maybe the police had been right, and she was just making fun of me with some tasteless pranks?! I had to figure this out, and the straightest way was to simply ask her.

I rushed after Jazmin, before I’d completely lose track of her, and hooted:

-Hey, wait!

She stopped walking, and turned back towards me, still with a puzzled and kind of slightly frowning face.

-Sorry if I seemed a little weird, I huffed so quietly as I could, ’cause a new choir song had just started, -I just… didn’t expect to see you here. But how come you don’t remember me? We hung out together yesterday, on the beach and at Lyddas’s place…

I could see from Jazmin’s reflective face, that some memories started to take shape in her mind.

-Lyddas’s place… and Kibessi was there… oh yeah, I remember, she smiled absent-mindedly, like if everything was clear now.

But her featherbrained eyes were talking a different language! She almost seemed to be half-asleep, and… could she seriously consider it normal and harmless, that she had just forgotten the happenings of yesterday completely?

-How come you forgat it all? I inquired again.

-Pfft, don’t take it so hard, she just sighed in a dismissive and slightly frustrated tone, like if I had been personally offended by her black-out or something.

Then I even discovered Fannie  on the background, a few meters away. She waved at me indolently, and seemed to have the same bland and faraway glaze in her eyes…

I was just about query Jazmin more about… well, everything, but right then the whole choir-song session apparently was over, ’cause the crowd around me started clapping with a deafening volume. And after that it apparently was obvious, that we’d have some sort of break (hmph, like if everyone except me knew the festival schedule by heart)… ‘Cause although numerous people had been wandering around during the show, now within seconds everyone got up and started to bustle for their lifes! It felt almost like if a massive riot would have exploded on my face, and I inevitably lost the sight of Jazmin and Fannie in the chaos.

 I started to feel anguished - how on earth could I even ever find my friends in a such hurly-burly? Would I end up all lost and lonely during the rest of the feast?

But as I thronged around anxiously, I soon happened to hear a familiar voice from my left side. I squeezed myself through the crowd to Lylaicke, Meckyes and Skeemee, who seemingly were discussing the cranky spirits of the mansion, ’cause the first thing I heard clearly was Meckyes saying:

-Yeah, I’m convinced, that “The Hare-Spirit” is the most heinous of them all…

I sighed – I didn’t really feel like pondering over some silly tales (The evil spirit of some bunny? Come on!) while real issues, like the profoundly weird behavior of Jazmin and Fannie, were at hand!

But again it seemed like the whole freaking universe had a conspiracy against me! The very moment when I opened my mouth to pin down the mess concerning Jazmin and Fannie (yes, there were people all about, but the noise and bustle would cover my words from strangers), Becky-Chatee stormed there.

-Hey, Ekalme, my friend! Becky huffed, -I need to buy something from that kiosk…
Becky flailed her hand towards the alcove at the back of the hall, where they seemingly indeed had set up a selling booth.
- … But no one has agreed to lend me money, no matter how much I’ve asked around! Becky continued predictably, and I slammed my palm on my forehead.

I guessed, that Becky just wanted to buy a negligible amount of candy (she had been so happy about one piece of bubble gum last time… ) and even if I abhored Becky’s mooch-like behavior, I eventually agreed to lend her the money, just to get rid of her!

But surprisingly, Becky needed a pretty notable sum of cash for some kind of a meal!
And yet, when we discussed, how and when she would pay back, she just kept dunning that “someday”!

Lylaicke, Meckyes and Skeemee had loosely followed us to the kiosk, and were now hanging about next to the outer wall of the booth.

When I finally got back to them, I naturally found them deeply immersed in a conversation about the spirits, and their sticks-in-the-soles -experiences…

Lylaicke was currently explaining, that already in the morning she had felt like if sticks tingled her soles, before she even was at the mansion yet.
For a brief moment I started to actually get fascinated by their talks…

But then Lylaicke’s credibility was ruined, when she self-importantly told, that actually she had downright concrete splinters stuck in her soles! She lifted her other foot up, and pulled a few of the sticks away through her thin tights!

She had to have walked without shoes on the rough wooden floor at some point – that was already all too palpable to be eerie or mysterious at all!

-I’ve at least only felt the sticks, Skeemee mumbled quite baffled, but at least she seemed a tiny bit skeptical.

-But, hey, I have something impor… I tried to start explaining about the  mysterious demeanor of Jazmin and Fannie.

-Hey, now that we’ve got some time, let’s go and investigate the outdoor-building of the manor! Skeemee cut off my line with an eager squawk, and her face blazed in a foreboding way…
-What shack are you talking about? I wondered, feeling most annoyed.
-Oh, do you mean the one where the most frightening spirits reside? Meckyes hesitated with a shudder.
-The Hare-Spirit, among others! Lylaicke screamed in horror.

This time, I was pleased that they were such cowards – thanks to them, we’d certainly skip that stupid shed-tour or whatever, and I could finally report about the mystery of Fannie and Jazmin!

-Yep, exactly that one! We could snoop around there profoundly! Skeemee yelled impatiently, with a worrisome, manic glow in her eyes, and bobbed around overly enthusiastic.

I smiled to myself, ’cause I knew that the next thing we’d hear, would be a dramatic refusal from the mouths of the twins.

-Well… okay then, Meckyes and Lylaicke whispered in unison.

Before I had time to really realize what was going on, they all three were already heading outdoors, to rummage that damn shed or whatever!

-Come on, Ekalme! Skeemee shouted after me.

What on earth?! Apparently I should never ever imagine, that I’ve learned to understand something about the mentality of the Sinisho twins…

(* Note: the next chapter will still be, at least partly, happening there in the mansion, but I think I’ll make it illustrated, ’cause it will happen outside the most crowded main hall *)

After pondering frantically for a good while, to no purpose, I decided to simply call the police. I knew, that Skeemee wouldn’t like the idea, but there was no proof, that Fannie’s and Jazmin’s case had anything to do with the Rinth, right? Besides, I felt really anxious for the girls, and had to do something.

However, maybe I should have listened to Skeemee’s complaints about the cops… ’cause they turned out useless. They apologized to me, that they couldn’t start an investigation based on a vague text message - it could have been a prank, a misunderstanding or anything… They’d have to wait until someone officially announced that Fannie and Jazmin were missing – and I wasn’t the one to do that, since I hardly knew them!

Finally I had to go to bed. Whatever the situation was, at least I couldn’t do anything right now, and I needed some sleep to be able to handle the Christmas celebration tomorrow. That would by the way last almost the whole day! I had found out, that it certainly wasn’t a typical ceremony in question. The Christmas spectacle was rather like a whole festival than one single feast…

Obviously I slept miserably badly, and when our school bus headed towards the mansion, I was definitely not in a party-mood. My friends, on the contrary, were! I didn’t want to open up about Fannie’s and Jazmin’s mystery while all our schoolmates were listening, so I pretended enthusiasm, and listened to their fussing with a half ear.

But so absent-minded as I was, I managed to realize, that they were babbling about some show-contest… Apparently, this Christmas-celebration always included a contest for the self-prepared performances of the teens and children, and I had managed to miss the information about this earlier.

When the bus arrived on the yard of the abandoned mansion, it looked anything but abandoned! The whole hill was swarming with people and… it was plain impossible that they all were from Shark Bay’s school! When I peered into the crowd, I realized, that at least there were people from the school in Manta Cove, where we had been, and probably even from some other schools in Manta Cove, ’cause the throng was so immense!

While we jostled towards the main hall of the mansion, Hebye and Lyddas explained excitedly, that they’d participate in the show-contest with their very own sketch, which was a parody of some sci-fi movie.

Lyddas described a scene from their play, which she and Hebye seemingly found raging hilarious. I personally didn’t really get the joke, so I gave a tepid and pretentious laugh and mumbled:
-That certainly would’ve been even more fun, if I had seen that movie…

-I’ve always sensed something strange in this mansion, Lylaicke shuddered abruptly. 

We were just about to settle down… on the floor of the hall, in the middle of the swarming horde of others, who were looking for a nice place to crouch on. So, no matter how huge this festival was, the schools hadn’t bothered to bring in some chairs? How nice…  

-Well, it’s about self-evident, that there are creepy spirit-beings in this place… Skeemee whispered with an eerie voice, and I wasn’t sure if she was joking, trying to scare Lylaicke or being serious.

-This mansion gives me a weird feeling… like if… I had tiny wooden sticks stuck in my soles! Lylaicke continued her nervous bleeping.

Suddenly I became more alert – her talks sounded so familiar! Hadn’t someone in Manta Cove complained about the exactly same sensation? Back then I had thought that it was ridiculous… but it was creepy enough, that two persons had the same, odd and far-fetched feeling!

-That’s actually true, even Skeemee remarked with a low voice, straight-faced and with all sincerity! Brrrrr….

To start with, at the front of the great hall began a concert, which mainly consisted of boring choir songs by different classes. Although the show was already going on, people hung around quite freely, groveling here and there, and even Hebye, Lyddas and Tekabi scooted out of my sight at one point. Finally I got so sick of the off-key singing, that I myself started to wander around too.
Suddenly, I came across a person, who looked shockingly familiar, but still somehow a little different, so I turned totally befuddled, and gasped all choked up:
-Is… is that… you?
The girl furrowed, looking perplexed, and probably considered that I was a freak.

-Eh… I mean… don’t we know each other? I stammered.

-Well… yeah, you actually look like that I might have seen you somewhere, sometime… shrugged the stupendous look-alike of Jazmin, turned around and strided away quickly!

(*This chapter is without pictures again – this time purely because of my lack of time! I apologize… but the positive point of view: if I didn’t publish this until I had made the pictures, there would be some delay without any posts, but now I’ll publish this one and later on, when I have more time, I’ll already publish the next chapter, with pictures and all! XD The next one will be about the Christmas feast, btw )

The dreadfully tremendous Christmas-feast would be kept next Monday, so before that we luckily had a weekend on us to take a breath.

On Saturday afternoon I, Skeemee, the Sinisho twins, Hebye and Lyddas, Tekabi… and even Blue headed to the biggest beach in town to relax. Wonder why Blue is so eager to hang out with us girls – doesn’t he feel embarrassed or anything? Or does he maybe imagine, that it’s kind of macho to have so many “girlfriends” (hmph, like if any of us would even have a crush on him!). Or maybe it’s the other way around – he has a crush on someone of us?? Oh God… I have a sinister premonition, that it might be me…

The beach really is like from a brochure of ”paradise-vacations” – it’s a wide strip of fine, white sand, surrounded by peaceful bamboo thicket and some palms… just that the darn sharks make it impossible to swim in there!

Soon enough the others started to insist, that we’d play Shiwwong. I pointed out maliciously, that we hadn’t taken the equipment with us… But then they came up with an idea to collect branches,  rocks, big palm leafs and all that, to make our own, all natural set of shiwwong-junk! I just wonder, why they didn’t invent that earlier – they could have saved a nice handful of cash this way…

Eventually we started to play, and this time I joined the game too. I still hadn’t even really figured out the rules, but by a strange twist of fate, I and Blue anyhow survived as the last ”unfired” ones (in Shiwwong people fall off the game one by one, when they’re “fired” by being hit by the ball). And to top it all… I even semi-consciously beat up Blue!

-So, now Blue will have to shell out, stated Tekabi, when we lounged on some red-painted benches after the game.
-Eh… huh? I inquired all bewildered.
Skeemee did the ”hopeless case!” -gesture with her eyes and hands, and sighed with a frustrated, even disparaging voice.

Suddenly, I just boiled over. How was it my fault, if I didn’t happen to know, what Tekabi was gabbling about?! I felt that I had simply had enough - even though I had lived in Shark Bay already more than half a year, I constantly felt as an outsider, when my friends descended into their inside-natter… And now Skeemee even dared to belittle me because of my unfortunate position! Besides, she had recently several times acted somehow arrogant towards me. Well, I couldn’t remember the exact situation… but it just felt like that!
I was too peeved to get a word out of my mouth, so I just strode away in full swing across a shallow wading pool. Afterwards, I’m not even sure, if I did mutter something bilious half aloud as I went, or if I only thought about it!

What followed was a period of time, that at least felt long, when I just roamed around the beach aimlessly, avoiding Skeemee and the companions. I had figured out on my own, that Blue probably had made a bet with someone, that he’ll win the game, and would therefore have to “shell out”…

On the edge of the beach there was a kiosk, and some lemonades and candies were sold in a triangular shelf, that you could rotate around. Absent-mindedly and lazily I began to spin it around for no reason, and happened to notice, that on one side of the shelf my favourite juice was for sale.
But later on, when I had decided, that I actually could by myself juice, I couldn’t find juice on any of the sides of the shelf! I rolled the whole thing around several times out of frustration, and it almost felt like if the content of the sides changed randomly every time!

Really, how could I be this dizzy? I prefered to blame it on hanging out in straight sunshine for too long… but I couldn’t sweep some distressing ideas completely out of my mind. What if the meditation-chamber episode really had messed with our brain permanently, like Meckyes had suggested?? Well, if it would cause me to go haywire one day… the teachers would SO need to be scared of a raging berserk’s revenge!
I was still wandering along the beach, when I accidentally almost stepped on someone’s toes! I awkwardly muttered some apologies to the young woman… Suddenly the woman’s and her female friend’s face brightened.

-I think I heard from your accent, that you’re from Quagmire Isle, just like we are! she yelled cheerfully.
At that moment I realized, that she wasn’t really a “young woman”, but only a teenager, maybe a little older than me.
I explained, that my origins indeed were in Quagmire Isle, and I had moved here about half years ago.

It felt surprisingly nostalgic to think about Quagmire Isle after a such long time… which in fact wasn’t even that long! It just felt like ages, and it felt almost impossible, that just some months ago I had still lived there!  How come I hardly had offered one moment of remembrance to Quagmire Isle after moving here? Well… to be honest, I never had appreciated Quagmire Isle either. Shark Bay had just been way worse… or maybe I was a hopeless pessimist and grump like my dad, after all?

Anyway, Quagmire Isle had at least been a real city, although a little disreputable one… According to its name, it literally was located on a quagmire - an unsteady swamp – and there was constantly problems with houses slowly sinking  into the ground or getting moldy. I didn’t have any real friends there… but I definitely wasn’t lonely either! You see, it was a part of Quagmire Isle’s (and the whole nearby region’s) culture, that everyone hung out with everyone, usually in big crowds where it was difficult to get to know anyone on a closer level! People there even pretended to be friends with everyone, no matter if they’d actually hate some of their “friends”! For example: there were three seriously disturbing sisters – one of them was rude, even outright malevolent, the second one was brutally violent – always picking a fight and beating people up for no reason, and the third one was simply unbearably hyperactive. Everyone hated them, but still everyone “was friends” with them, and they were invited to every single party (people in Quagmire Isle did a lot of pointless house parties), although they ruined every single one of them!
But back to my new acquaintances - they introduced themselves as Fannie and Jazmin, and began to walk the same (most aimless!) road with me around the beach. We chatted together in the dialect of Quagmire Isle, which filled me with a surprisingly homely feeling. I would have never guessed, that one day I’d feel this way about Quagmire Isle – that I’d even miss it!

Then Jazmine asked:
-With whom did you come here – or did you come alone?
-With some friends… I murmured avoidantly.

-Oh, how nice! Let’s go and say hello to them! Jazmine gushed. Typically of Quagmire-people, she immediately wanted to get to know everyone, although she was just visiting our town.
Uncomfortably I explained, that I wasn’t really on friendly terms with them at the moment.
Fannie urged me to discuss things clear with my friends, in a maternal tone. It sure was annoyingly “matey” behavior, when she hardly knew a thing about me… but on the other hand, I guess she was right, and the embarrassing situation didn’t really leave me a choice.
So I went to the whirlpool, where Skeemee and the gang sprawled (except that Blue seemingly had left), and my new acquaintances stayed and waited a short distance away.

I was going to open up about why I was hurt, and wait for an apology, but soon enough it became clear, that Skeemee too was angry with ME, because I had scooted away just like that!
We had to resolve our dispute in a quarrel-like manner for a quite long time, and that made me strung-up too, that Fannie and Jazmine were on the hearing distance! Finally we reached a concord, but I wasn’t too satisfied with course of the whole “show”.

I reluctantly apologized to Jazmin and Fannie, that it had taken so long, but they weren’t bothered, or at least they didn’t comment or seem cranky.

They insisted to hang on my tail, and intensively socialize with me the whole rest of the day…  

So in the evening, I dragged them with me to Lyddas’s place, where my other friends had gathered as well.
There was also a Blue, and even Kibessi (strange, nowadays she hardly ever hangs out with her old friend group, but tries to intrude our gang instead!), who wore a new pink “skater-cap” (as a completely pointless sidenote… just to highlight how her style was getting less and less snobby!).
This time Kibessi was in that kind of mood, that she didn’t keep silent for even one moment, and waffled on about some very personal matters – those ones, that aren’t secret, but are usually not told to others, because others are not interested! Among other things, she read aloud to us something from her “ABC exercise book” of the first grade! Oh yeah, and now she had written a poetry book called “When you are young” in english (which is not our mother tongue), and I suspect it to be some overly romantic poor quality piffle… 

Jazmine and Fannie enjoyed their stay top well, and they arbitrarily almost  incited everyone to stay for the night at Lyddas’s… But finally they agreed to take off towards their hotel, and I said goodbye to my new “friends” wannabe-wistfully, like a proper Quagmire Islander should.

I, Skeemee and Blue (we live in the same direction from Lyddas) left towards our homes quite late, traveling by bus. On the way, Blue wouldn’t stop blabbering about how Kibessi demanded sickly much attention, although as a “gentleman” (yeah, right… ) he hadn’t said too rude things to her face to face. So I and Skeemee didn’t really have a chance to (finally) discuss things between us two truly clear… 

Late at night, when I was already about to fall asleep, Fannie all of a sudden sent me some uttermost vague and abstract text message, so I phoned her.

-Give me a call! she urged with a slightly panicky voice.
-Sure, of course… I muttered dizzily, -Although… I’m already giving you a call right now, you know?’

Suddenly it stroke me how outright absurd Fannie was behaving! What on earth did she mean by “give me a call”, while I was all the time  talking on the phone with her?! Seemingly, insane behavior wasn’t limited to Shark Bay-citizens! Maybe Fannie was into drugs, unlike me and my friends, who were blamed for such?

Now she had cut off the call just like that… Hey, maybe she wasn’t the slightest crazy after all, but had a talk-time-limitation on her phone, or something? Then again, even the last time I was the one who had called… I really didn’t get this to make sense, no matter how hard I tried to! 

Well, I tried to call her again, but it didn’t work.

Soon after that I received an SMS from Fannie again. This time it said plainly… “Help us!”.