After hanging up the phone, Christopher immediately retrieves the diary from the table before sitting on the side of his bed to read it.
The diary is still in the same condition with nothing new having been written in it.
Christopher wonders if the mysterious figure with the hooked nose had snuck into his room again last night. He contemplates on asking the Krang twins to review last night’s cctv footage for a minute before shaking his head. He never got the torn page back, so any thoughts about getting the security involved again are not worth entertaining. With the heads up they got from him about the incoming truck crash, they should’ve already completely shut down the main entrance to the hospital by now.
Christopher hides the diary under his pillow and leaves to bath, brush his teeth and do his morning routine. When returns to his hospital room twenty minutes later he sees that Okimoto is waiting for him by the window.
Christopher notices that his friend seems to be panting, as if he had just arrived in a hurry. He also notices that Okimoto’s style of clothing differs from what it usually is. His hoodie, his pants and his shoes were of different and conflicting styles, meaning that he had thrown them on in a hurry to get here.
“You good bro?” Christopher asks.
There is an awkward pause before Okimoto finally responds while frowning. “Last night I went to bed with the diary resting on my desk. When I woke up this morning it was gone.”
Christopher decides to have some fun at Okimoto’s expense and says. “Are you sure someone didn’t sneak into your dorm room to steal it?”
“No.” Okimoto responds. “As you already know I lock my dorm room from the inside every night before I go to bed. It’s impossible for anyone except the teachers to enter my dorm room when I’m sleeping.”
“You think one of the teachers took it?” Christopher asks, faking irritation in his voice as he sits on his bed and quietly shoves the diary deeper under his pillow.
“It doesn’t make sense for a teacher to take it.” Okimoto says shaking his head. “Since the fourth page is gone, there’s nothing threatening in the book, and no reason to take it away. I think whoever or whatever gave the diary to you took it back.”
“So what now huh?” Christopher asks as he sits on the bed with his arms crossed. He looks at Okimoto expectantly, secretly laughing to himself as he watches Okimoto just stand there like a child waiting to be yelled at by their parents.
Okimoto breaks eye contact and stares out of the window towards the Hollywood sign in the distance as it shimmers. He thinks to himself, replaying the events of the previous night over and over. After Mrs. Boyd had left he used the bathroom and then immediately went to sleep after returning and locking his door. When he woke up the diary was gone from his desk without a trace. He searched his room at least ten times, ultimately cleaning it in the process of flipping everything over.
He looks back at Christopher before saying. “If who or whatever owns the diary wants it to be in your hands then I believe it should return to you eventually.”
“Eventually?” Christopher sighs before kissing his teeth and saying. “How are you going to make this up to me?”
“I don’t think I can…” Okimoto admits with a self deprecating laugh.
“Punch yourself in the nuts.” Christopher says bluntly.
“What?” Okimoto asks, believing that he’s misheard his friend. “What did you just say? For a second I thought you just told me to-“
“Punch yourself in the nuts.” Christopher repeats with a dead serious expression. “You’ve lost a supernatural item with the ability to predict the future. You could’ve used it to get filthy rich and you’ve lost it. And to make things worse you just had the audacity to walk up in here like you’ve only committed a mundane mistake and not a catastrophic error.”
There is a pause for a few seconds before Okimoto’s frown intensifies as he spreads his arms in a pleading manner. Whether he likes it or not Christopher is right. He had fucked up tremendously last night. If Okimoto had given the diary to someone else and they had been the ones to lose it, they’d be tied up butt naked to the base of Middlecrest’s redwood tree right next to Lucas.
Okimoto circled around the bed to come face to face with Christopher. He then says. “I will punch myself in the balls ten times consecutively.”
Christopher’s face contorts as he clings on desperately to his serious expression. Not only did Okimoto accept the punishment, but he also doubled down on it. The humbleness of Okimoto’s half Japanese side was coming out.
It takes all Christopher has for him to not explode into laughter as he gets up to meet Okimoto at eye level. He pats his friend on the shoulder as his lips curl into a smile of encouragement.
Okimoto clenches his right hand into a fist and bends over slightly before swinging at his family jewels like a boxer swinging at two mounted speed bags. After receiving his retribution he stumbles around the hospital room in a daze of nausea and groans. His vision has gone blurry and his balls are throbbing.
He looks over at Christopher who now sits flipping through… the diary?
Christopher smirks as he finds no new writing in the diary again. He looks over at Okimoto who appears to be buffering and says. “I wonder who or what made this diary. Maybe it was forged from the souls of human sacrifices, or summoned here from a dark realm.”
Christopher looks over at Okimoto who was completely void of any expression and asks. “Did they shut down the main entrance? Like, how did you get in he-… What’s wrong Okimoto?”
Okimoto glares at Christopher, his nostrils flaring as his face turns red hot.
Before Christopher can say anything else Okimoto yells. “Get off your ass and look for yourself!”
“Chill!” Christopher says as he holds his hands up in the air. “Why are you having mood swings all of a sudden? Did you punch yourself so hard your balls flew back up inside of you to become ovaries?”
“Screw you!” Okimoto sneers. “This will come back to bite you in the ass. Mark my words.”
The door to the hospital room swings open as Dr. Fredrick emerges and says. “Christopher please come with me.”
The lanky doctor is as stoic as usual, as if he had never proposed to Nurse Veronica last night.
Christopher nods and gets off the bed before asking. “Is it okay if Okimoto comes with me?”
Dr. Fredrick nods and continues to say. “It won’t be long, we’re just going to do a few check ups and discuss your test results from the day before yesterday.”
The two boys leave with the doctor and the check up goes by in a flash. When it’s all over Christopher and Okimoto are seated in the doctor’s office as Dr. Fredrick sits opposite them delivering exposition.
“Your results are simply astonishing.” Dr. Fredrick says. “It’s like you never even had cancer to begin with. Your situation simply defies logic.”
“His mother…” Okimoto speaks up, still side eyeing Christopher with twitching lips, and throbbing nuts. “Did you guys still not manage to get ahold of her.”
Dr. Fredrick’s stubble ridden face darkens as he answers. “No, unfortunately.”
Christopher sighs. Without his mother’s consent he can’t be discharged due to him being a minor. Perhaps it was a good thing. At least he won’t be thrown before the hyenas any time soon.
“Take it easy Christopher…” Dr. Fredrick says, a rare shimmer of pity in his middle aged eyes. “You can return to your room. We’ll let you know as soon as we get ahold of your mother.”
Christopher and Okimoto leave the doctor’s office and are immediately met with an unpleasant surprise in the corridor.
“Christopher!” George the ginger kid jumps in surprise when he sees the two older boys, almost falling out of his wheelchair.
Before the kid can gather his words Christopher cuts him off by saying. “Don’t start a conversation with me after the attitude you had yesterday.”
“I just wanna ask one question.” George says hurriedly. “Why are you in the hospital?”
Christopher leans forward before the boy, carefully spelling out his words with his finger as he says. “None of your business.”
“He had cancer.” Okimoto says smiling widely.
Christopher’s mouth twitches as he stands up straight.
“Really?” George says, his lips curling into a psychotic smile. “It’s a shame I can’t tell my sister that. Boy I’d love to see the look on her face. But if you had cancer then why aren’t you bald? Is all of that curly hair of yours just a nappy ass wig?”
Nurse Joyce emerges from a women’s bathroom off to the side and lights up when she sees Christopher and Okimoto.
“Good morning boys!” She says in a high pitched voice that gives away her youthfulness.
“Good morning Nurse Joyce!” Christopher and Okimoto chant in unison.
She grabs on to the handles on the back of George’s wheelchair and notices him laughing to himself and asks innocently. “What’s so funny?”
“Christopher’s boyfriend told me he has cancer.” George answers gleefully.
Christopher roles his eyes while Okimoto frowns.
“Boyfriend?” Nurse Joyce grimaces when she realises that George was being awful again. “Listen here, you better apologise to them right now before I ring up your parents.”
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“Why should I apologise?” George raises an eyebrow as he replies to Nurse Joyce in an a mocking tone. “I think that the blonde one is the one that obviously gets bent over. I mean look at him he’s got painted nails for crying out loud!”
Okimoto immediately took out his phone, googling the potential legal consequences he’d face for sparta kicking a disabled kid in the chest.
“George!” Nurse Joyce snaps. She swings open the door to the doctor’s office before quickly pushing the cackling youth inside.
With George’s foul presence dealt with, Nurse Joyce immediately apologises profusely for the red haired boy’s outburst.
Christopher shrugs off the bad taste and lingering foul smell George’s personality left behind and asks. “What’s up with the main entrance? Is it sectioned off?”
“Oh!” Nurse Joyce jolts in surprise when she remembers the strange threat written on the mysterious page. She answers before explaining. “The situation with the main entrance is under our control, and several police cars are patrolling the hospital. Don’t worry, I’m sure nothing extreme will actually happen now that it’s clear the hospital is heavily guarded.”
Christopher and Okimoto share a glance before they both fell into pondering. Christopher in particular feels a cold chill. He knows that no matter what, the diary’s manifestations couldn’t be contradicted. It was likely that the harder a person tries to contradict the diary, the more danger they encounter as a result of its seeming omnipotence. He wonders what will happen if the cops decided to blockade the entrance. Won’t they all die as a result?
Christopher wasn’t the most morally upstanding of people, he was someone born and raised within the corporate world of Hollywood. There were times when he had to throw others under the bus to get ahead. He obeyed his mother’s instructions which often entailed many nefarious acts. Spreading false rumours about other pop stars, bullying potential rivals into submission, stealing and cheating, Christopher had done it all before. Regardless of all of that, sacrificing human lives was far out of his comfort zone. But then again, if he hadn’t informed the security team then the public will be the ones at risk. Surely a bunch of cops who are trained to deal with life threatening situations will have the common sense to lunge away when a speeding truck races towards them.
Okimoto on the other hated the police, so he didn’t mind at all. He checks the time and sees that it’s only a minute past eight. With the crash not occurring until four minutes before three pm, they’ll have plenty of time to find a safe place to observe the front entrance from.
Okimoto looks over a Christopher who’s already staring back at him, both needing no words to understand the other's intentions.
The two boys say goodbye to Nurse Joyce as they continue on their way.
“The x ray waiting room on the fourth floor has a window that overlooks the main entrance.” Christopher explains. “Let’s get the diary and the Switch so we can stake the place out.”
Okimoto nods before continuing to ask. “What did you find on the cctv footage? Did you see the thing or person that left you the diary. Judging by your casual attitude I’m assuming it wasn’t anything too special.”
“You’re right, he doesn’t seem like anything special.” Christopher responds.
“He?” Okimoto enquires as he looks at Christopher raising an eyebrow. “So the one responsible for leaving the diary in your care is human?”
“He looks human on the outside at least.” Christopher sighs as he folds his arms behind his back. “I saw an old man with a hooked nose. He appears to be quite pale and entered my room at around three in the morning on the 29th.”
“What the hell?” Okimoto’s lip twitches as his brows curl up in concern. “The hospital just lets a complete stranger enter your room practically in the middle of the night? Don’t you find that a bit strange?”
“What about the past few days hasn’t been strange?” Christopher shakes his head before snickering. “I don’t think that strange man means me harm. If he wants to kill me it’s clear that he can do so without any trouble. He clearly wants me to have the diary for some reason, the only question is why.”
Okimoto looks at his friend’s calm demeanour and calms down himself. Between the two of them Christopher was the more level headed one. Okimoto knew this very well and wouldn’t question Christopher’s judgment. He thinks back to the first few times he had visited Christopher in the hospital. Immediately Christopher’s calmness had stood out to him.
Before Okimoto knew Christopher, he had never thought much about how he would die. He knew only two things: he didn’t want to die slowly and painfully, and he wanted to go out with a bang. After seeing Christopher’s sudden collapse before him, and hearing about his diagnosis a week later, he couldn’t help but feel an extreme pity towards the boy. These feelings of pity led him to visit Christopher everyday to console him. Despite his awful situation Christopher never once seemed to cry or express feelings of despair. It was often Okimoto who had his pessimistic attitude made fun off by Christopher. Despite the fact that his mother never once visited him, Christopher only ever seemed to be at peace with his situation. Because of this, gradually Okimoto’s feelings of pity became feelings of respect and admiration. It wasn’t long before he found his times with Christopher to be the highlight of his days. To see someone be faced with one of the worst deaths imaginable, only to remain in relatively good spirits. It made Okimoto reconsider how he imagined his own ideal passing to be.
After getting the things they needed from Christopher’s hospital room, the two make their way up to the x ray waiting room with the window overlooking the main entrance. Fortunately the place was empty with only a few nurses around the corner engaging in casual conversation.
They quickly spot the window which had a square cafeteria style table in front of it with two chairs.
The sound of steel chair legs scraping across the beige tiled hospital floor could be heard as the two boys sit down. They both lean in towards the window and witness a scene of organised chaos four stories beneath them.
The police had indeed arranged a blockade infront of the main entrance and even went as far as to shut down the nearest lane on the main road.
A wall of riot shields formed a half circle around the sidewalk as over a dozen L.A.P.D. caps shimmered under the sun behind it in conversation.
“I guess we’ll just sit here and watch it all go down.” Okimoto says as he retracts his gaze from the scene beneath him and turns on his Nintendo Switch.
Christopher sighs before leaning back in his chair and grabbing one of the controllers.
Nine o clock, ten o clock, eleven o clock, twelve o clock, one o clock and eventually two o clock fly by as more and more of a commotion is kicked up outside.
Countless confused people come and are redirected to the back in order to attend their usual appointments.
During the last hour a swat van had even parked not too far away down the lane of the main road that was shut down.
Christopher can’t help but fall into a daze at the surreal nature of this situation. It is crazy to think that all of this resulted from him showing the security team the fourth page of the diary.
“How do you think the crash will happen?” Okimoto asks.
“The truck will drive into the main entrance at a high speed…” Christopher answers before looking at Okimoto like he was stupid.
Okimoto roles his eyes before rephrasing the question. “What events will the diary create to get the result of the truck crashing into the main entrance?”
Christopher rubs his chin and answers. “Maybe a passing garbage truck driver will randomly pass out and face plant against the steering wheel. This causes the truck to fly out of control and crash into the hospital.”
“Do garbage trucks normally collect garbage at this time of day?”
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be for that reason that a garbage truck passes by the hospital. Maybe it’s a new truck that’s being delivered to the company, or an old one being sent to the scrap heap. It could be a new truck driver getting trained or a truck being taken to get washed. There are plenty of mundane occurrences that could lead to the events written down in the diary. That’s why it’s called the fate diary right? Its power seems to be the ability to influence naturally occurring patterns in everyday life in order to bring about a specified incident or event.”
Okimoto glances back towards the wide road beneath him and his eyes narrow when he spots a garbage truck speed past amidst the passing cars. Several cops turn their heads as their eyes follow it as it disappears into the sunny horizon over the Hollywood hills.
“We’ve still got twenty minutes left.” Christopher says. “There’s no need to be so tense. It’s not like the upcoming event is our wish.”
Okimoto calms down and looks at Christopher before the two return to playing their game.
They get lost in various virtual adventures until they both jolt in surprise when they see the time go to two fifty five suddenly. They both look at each other in shock, realising that they had almost missed the crash. Their eyes dart to the road four stories beneath them where no abnormalities are present as of yet.
The various L.A.P.D. officers grow visibly tense as the critical minute draws near.
As seconds go by cold sweats break out. Each passing truck seems to loom over the sea of passing cars like the fins of prowling orcas as they encircle a terrified seal.
The engine of the swat van revs up as its armoured body shimmers, ready to ram and intercept any incoming vehicle.
A garbage truck is seen comming up from the west. It’s obviously speeding and several cop cars are seen trailing behind it.
“It’s finally happening.” Okimoto says, his expression a mixture of twisted excitement and fear.
Christopher remains dead silent as he watches the truck begin to swerve out of control.
The swat van quickly moves to intercept the truck only for it to suddenly starts stalling as a plume of black smoke rises from its exhaust pipe.
“The swat truck broke down?” Christopher comments as he observes with a detached fascination. He thinks back to the previous day when he tried to stop Dr. Fredrick proposal and gains a deeper understanding about the diary’s abilities. If a person tries to contradict it they’ll be met with a near infinite amount of resistance from the environment around them. This resistance may not appear to be supernatural at face value but in actual it really is. Just like how the crowd had moved and formed a convenient barrier when he tried to stop the doctor, the engine of the swat van has conveniently failed.
The van conveniently swerves just in time to miss the stalling swat van before hurdling towards the front entrance.
The survival instincts of the L.A.P.D. officers kick in as they all lunge towards safety, a few only narrowly managing to avoid being turned into mincemeat.
Christopher and Okimoto watch in utter disbelief as the truck hammers its way through the entrance. It vanishes into the building as an explosion of glass and falling debris is left in its wake.
Christopher and Okimoto both feel their chairs and table tremble as the truck comes to a stop somewhere deep inside the hospital.
For a few seconds the two are stunned. Typically such events are always witnessed indirectly, either through the news or word of mouth. For both boys this is their first instance of witnessing a deadly situation with their own eyes.
After almost a minute of silence the shock dies down and Christopher is the first to speak. “Let’s check out the crash.”
Okimoto nods and the two get up before hastily making their way down stairs.
On their way through the main corridor towards the main lounge there met with a scene of doctors and security staff frantically trying to control a chaotic crowd. Countless voices scream out as people start to panic believing that a terrorist attacker is lose in the building.
With the path ahead blocked, Christopher and Okimoto both look around for an alternate way to get to the main lounge.
They then see one of the Krang twins emerge from a hidden doorway to aid in controlling the hospital goers.
Seeing that the twin left the doorway open they waste no time and enter with Christopher leading.
They head through a dark and narrow corridor that leads to a dimly lit room. Upon entering Christopher recognises the place as the room with the monitors where he had reviewed the footage from outside his old hospital room the previous day.
The two boys pause and stair at the massive screens, searching for the security camera overlooking the main lounge or cafeteria. Their faces glow under the light of the monitors as their eyes both lock on to the same camera. They see a the mangled remnants of the garbage truck crumpled against two elevators. Immediately Christopher leads Okimoto down the corridor the krang twin had taken him through to get to the monitor room the previous day. When they emerge behind the reception desk, their hearts palpitate and their gazes freeze as they witness utter carnage.
The formerly prestige and ornate reception had been reduced to a scene from Iraq. The elegant beige tiles were no more, now obscured by rubble and dust and streaks of black tire marks.
To the left of them the regular L.A.P.D. as well as the swat team had already surrounded the scrap metal that now only vaguely resembles a garbage truck.
“Get a look at that!” Christopher was shaken to his core by the devastation.
The swat team cautiously approaches the front of the vehicle that was practically merged with the debris of the wall it crash into. They naturally didn’t yell for the driver to come out and put his arms up as he was obviously already dead.
“Did we just witness someone’s death?” Okimoto asks rhetorically, his face a mixture of fright and morbid curiosity.
After hearing his friend’s question, Christopher feels yet another chill run down his spine. There was practically nothing they could have done to affect the outcome of things. Christopher feels a complex mixture of emotions as he reflects on the cruelty of knowing something bad will happen but having no power to stop it. Fate can be a cruel thing…