*Tonight on Fox News, Bank robbers escape after a three hour police chase through the streets of Vancouver.*
Night had fallen over the east Los Angeles medical centre. Christopher Marcus and Okimoto sat watching the news, waiting for the news story covering the incident that happened at the hospital earlier that day. The stone faced and bug eyed anchor rambles on for a few minutes before it finally cuts to a reporter outside of the destroyed entrance.
*this is John Jennings and I’m currently live from outside of the East Los Angeles medical centre where a terrorist plot has seemingly resulted in a truck crashing into the hospital’s entrance. Fortunately nobody besides the still unidentified truck driver has been injured.*
The two boys lean in towards the screen and squint their eyes.
*Apparently the hospital staff were tipped off by a patient whose identity will remain anonymous.*
“So that’s why nobody came to interview me.” Christopher lets out a long sigh of relief. “I was really scared for a moment. I thought the paparazzi would come knocking at the door any second now.”
Okimoto loses interest in the news broadcast and reaches for the diary that rests on the table beside the bed.
As soon as his finger touches its leather cover, Okimoto jolts as a surge of electricity fires off in his brain. Several scenes replay themselves in his head. He sees himself in the dark corridor of his dormitory facing two floating red orbs and hears a beastly roar that shakes him to his core. He then remembers the shrivelled up corpse on the ground and how all of the other kids and Mrs. Boyd all seemed to walk off in a zombie like trance after seeing it. He remembers going to bed and immediately falling into a dreamless sleep only to wake up the next morning completely oblivious. Okimoto begins to tremble as he realises that his memories were altered. He immediately glares at the diary suspiciously and wonders if it was responsible.
He continues to do what he intended to do and places the diary on his lap before flipping it open. When he gets to the fifth page his pupils narrow.
“Christopher there’s more written down now!” Okimoto says urgently. “Come and see this!”
Christopher leans in and reads the fifth page. “31st of September, 21:03: Benny Burner and Samuel Burner will encounter a fatal crash on Mount Lee Drive. Okimoto D. Cheffei will retrieve fifty thousand dollars from the backseats and leave the area without triggering suspicion.”
“There’s going to be a fatal accident?” Okimoto comments as his unease grows. “Why am I being sent to Mount Lee in the middle of the night? This book is really fucking sinister…”
“Relax.” Christopher says before laughing light heartedly. “I’ll come with you.”
“Huh?” Okimoto sneers as he looks at Christopher. “Who the hell said I’m even going? I’ll be fine right here.”
“You don’t have a choice remember.” Christopher says, his lips curling into a slightly mocking smile as he slides off the bed and stands up. “Everything written in the diary is fated to happen no matter what. You saw its power earlier today when it made the swat van malfunction.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Okimoto frowns deeply.
“We’ve got just over an hour.” Christopher says, putting on the hoodie he had taken from Okimoto the previous day.
“Where do we even keep the money?” Okimoto grows annoyed and starts to lampoon at his circumstances. “We’ll just be sitting ducks for the cops to come and give us a rough time. I don’t have anywhere to hide fifty thousand dollars.”
“You still don’t quite seem to understand.” Christopher says. “The diary can’t be contradicted. It states that you’ll leave without triggering any suspicion. That means that you won’t be caught by the cops no matter what. The money is being offered to you on a silver platter, you should be grateful.”
Okimoto fails to find any words to refute his friend. He knows that there’s nothing he can do about his situation and sighs in a defeated manner.
He gets off the bed and says. “You can’t leave here without your mother’s permission remember.”
Christopher snickers with an incredulous look. He wonders how it could be that the rebellious Okimoto, who hung up the captain of his school’s wrestling team to a tree naked was the one concerned about not breaking the rules.
“Since when did you suddenly start caring about dumb rules like that?” Christopher asks.
Okimoto shrugs and sighs before getting up and gathering a few things into his backpack. Once he’s ready and waiting for Christopher to lead the way he suddenly says. “Before we head out I have to tell you something.”
“What is it?” Christopher asks with a curious itch.
“My memories of last night turned out to have been somehow altered.” Okimoto says. “I don’t know why but I remembered the truth as soon as I touched the diary just now.”
“Is this about how you lost it?” Christopher chuckles light heartedly. “Are you telling me that you didn’t wake up with it gone? Did you see the bald headed man with the hooked nose?”
“I saw something much more terrifying.” Okimoto says. “First there was a floating creature with bright red eyes, and then I heard a terrible roar come from right behind me. I ran back to my room where I discovered that I had lost the diary. When I returned to the corridor a few minutes later I saw that one of the teachers and a bunch of kids were staring at a strange corpse on the ground in a trance.”
“That’s really freaky.” Christopher’s smile intensifies as he rubs his chin in contemplation. He can't believe that the idea of ghosts, demons and other supernatural entities being real had never occurred to him after seeing the diary’s abilities. He thinks about Okimoto’s description and wonders if it was one of those entities in particular that had returned the diary to him. Perhaps the bald headed man with the hooked nose is a werewolf or some other kind of shapeshifter? He could also now link the diary to demonic entities and things of the occult, granting more insight into its potential origins. He smiles, satisfied with each new taste of enlightenment.
“Do you know what happened to the corpse?” Christopher asks.
Okimoto shakes his head and answers. “No, I don’t know what happened to it. I was also placed in a trance and returned to my dorm room. The next morning I woke up with my memory completely rewritten.”
Christopher moves towards the door before putting on a pair of sneakers. He retrieves a baseball cap from his belongings and puts it on forcing his afro downwards to obscure his eyes. He flips the hood of the sweater over his head to further hide his face before looking back at Okimoto and saying. “Let’s go.”
Upon exiting the room the two immediately head towards the alternative exit the hospital had arranged after the closure of the main entrance. Along the way they pass by the former ward Christopher was staying in and see two female figures sobbing as they hug a child in a wheelchair.
As Christopher and Okimoto get closer bright red curls become clear to them and they both grimace when they realise who they belong to.
“It’s okay darling, we’ll move you to a safer hospital.” One of the female figures says.
She’s an older woman with long and messy brown hair and visible bags under her sobbing eyes. She wears a trench coat that was hastily thrown over a barista’s uniform.
George who was nuzzled in the woman’s embrace dawns an expression of impatience.
“So that’s the brats family.” Okimoto folds his arms and smiles as he speaks. “I wonder if we should tell his mother what a wonderful attitude her son has.”
“Let them have their moment.” Christopher sneers. “It would be a little tone deaf to bring that up at a time like this.”
Christopher looks around and sees several people complaining to the various nurses and doctors across the turquoise corridor. All of them obviously parents who wish to transfer their admitted children to other hospitals.
“It’s just a truck crash.” Okimoto sighs. “I don’t get what all the fuss is about.”
“Maybe you’ll understand once you’re a father.” Christopher responds as if he had any experience to go off himself. He smiles mischievously and says with a hint of mockery in his voice. “Well… that would be assuming you can still have children after all those nut punches you gave yourself.”
Okimoto’s mouth twitches as he squints and mutters. “Shut up…”
“It’s not that deep bro.” Christopher chuckles and points at his friend’s groin. “You already look like a girl so you might as well have the parts of one.”
Okimoto shoots back immediately. “You’re one to talk mr pretty boy pop star.”
“Calm down gentleman gaga.”
“Knock it off Jamaican Justin Bieber.”
The boys go back and forth as they pass by George and his family. Their bickering attracts the attention of the girl standing beside George’s mother whose eyes widen upon seeing Christopher’s face.
“Christopher Marcus!” She yells hastily.
“Fuck.” Christopher sneers quietly. He was screwed.
“What’s going on?” Nurse Joyce appears before spotting.
Now Christopher was doubly screwed. He wonders just how the hell he’d get himself out of this situation and leave the hospital without the nurse trying to stop him.
Before the girl could say anything else, Nurse Joyce quickly swoops in and ushers Christopher and Okimoto away, sparing them from having to deal with a potential fan girl.
Christopher and Okimoto pretend to be going on a casual stroll, hoping that Nurse Joyce will get lost some time soon.
“Where are you two going?” Nurse Joyce asks.
“I’m just feeling a little restless after the crash from earlier.” Christopher says wearing a fake smile. “I’m walking off all of the extra energy left after going through such a frightening situation.”
A person in a wheelchair rolls out from an accessible toilet just ahead. Okimoto seizes this opportunity and darts inside, leaving Christopher alone with the nurse.
Christopher who was now scowling in his heart glances over at Nurse Joyce while smiling nervously.
He leans against the wall and says. “I’ll wait for Okimoto here. You probably have some important things to attend to.”
Nurse Joyce shakes her head and leans against the wall next to him. She takes out a paper plane from her pocket before playfully throwing it at Christopher. It bounces off his head and gently glides a small distance down the hallway.
“Christopher Marcus…” Nurse Joyce says. “You need to get better at lying.”
Christopher’s heart sinks. It wasn’t because he was caught red handed, but because her calling him a bad liar hurt his roguish pride.
“I used to be a teenager too y’know.” She continues. “Whenever I would try to sneak outside, I never imagined I’d be busted by my parents. When I eventually did get caught, I would make up the dumbest excuses. For example, when I was fifteen and my dad caught me sneaking out to meet a boy I liked at the time, I told him that the air in my room was too dusty so I needed to go outside for fresh air. I had worn a fluffy pair of indoor flip flops to hide my footsteps and had a packet of condoms hanging out of my back pocket. As you could have guessed he saw right through me.”
Nurse Joyce laughs gently, her voice is so warm and sweet it makes Christopher smile completely involuntarily. She was a strange woman. She’d always go the extra step to weasel her way through his defences. To Christopher she was more like a friend than an adult he had to obey without question.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“I’m not going to lie to you.” Christopher sighs before coming clean. “The real reason why I’m trying to sneak out-“
“-is because you’re lonely right?” Joyce says finishing his sentence in an unexpected way.
“Lonely?” Christopher looks at the red haired and rosy cheeked woman with immediate incredulity. “Why would I be lonely?”
“Because you’re just a boy.” She replies, before motioning at the various people down the corridor. “All of them are parents who came here after the crash, terrified that their children were hurt in the disaster.”
“Let me guess.” Christopher says. “This is about my mother isn’t it.”
Joyce nudges his shoulder before gesticulating to convey her frustration. “We’ve tried so damn hard to contact her, but no matter what we do we just can’t get ahold of her. I… I don't want to pry into you’re relationship with her but things are getting out of hand, what’s up with her?”
Christopher doesn’t respond allowing a silence to engulf the two. His mother was not an ordinary person that ordinary people could understand, neither was he.
He feels a hand touch his shoulder followed by the sound of a sickeningly sweet voice. “You are lonely aren’t you. I understand that you have your best friend with you all the time but that’s not going to replace a mother’s love. What’s the point in sneaking out to run a muck around town with that boy?”
Christopher looks over at her with a hint of annoyance as he speaks. “And you fancy that you can replace that love?”
Joyce shakes her head. “I wouldn’t dare try to replace your mother. Nothing can replace the love a mother has for their child. But I do want you to know that me and the other staff do worry about you. You can’t just stay here forever.”
Christopher’s eyes drift away from the woman’s. His gaze sweeps the corridor locking on to each parent before moving on to the next. He sees the a few children cling on to them. He sees George being embraced by his mother. He also sees George’s sister whose eyes sweep across his direction periodically. He wonders if he really felt lonely in this hospital despite Okimoto’s presence.
In truth the loneliness he felt in his previous life was far worse than this. He thinks back and remembers the flashing stage lights and hordes of cheering girls. Back then he felt alone. Far more alone than Joyce could imagine. That world of brand endorsements and record sales was true loneliness. Okimoto may have been the only genuine friend he had. But one genuine friend is still better than a snake of a mother and a bunch of wicked executives.
His thoughts are interrupted by the warmth of a human body against his own.
He likes the softness most of all. It’s like he’s being embraced by a sun that lights up his entire world.
“We are all concerned for you.” Joyce says, her voice calms him as it dances in his ear.
Christopher knew that Joyce still saw him as a child who needed to be loved. That naturally didn’t change the fact that he was becoming a man. He can’t help but notice the narrowness of her his as he hugs her, and the push of her breasts against his chest.
He had wanted her for a while now. It obviously wasn’t his choice to desire her but a decision his body had made for him. He wonders when it started. Was six months ago or a year ago? Was it when his voice started to deepen or when he grew taller than her? Was it this… was it that… He wonders and wonders and wonders until he feels her warmth leave him in a daze.
She steps back and he looks at her for a moment before a melancholic expression washes over him.
“All we can do is keep trying to contact her.” She says. “I won’t stop you from sneaking outside. just be sure to keep yourselves safe.”
Christopher nods and watches as she walks off back towards his old ward. In that moment he couldn’t help but let out a self deprecating laugh. He wasn’t the type of person to have a crush and wouldn’t waste his time yearning for something that just wasn’t ever going to happen. Still this didn’t stop his body from wanting what it wanted. It was honestly quite pathetic.
Okimoto emerges from the accessible toilet with a shit eating grin.
Christopher doesn’t even bother with him anymore and leaves alongside him.
They exit through the rear entrance to the hospital which has been modified to accommodate a larger crowd of people.
When the last set of glass sliding doors opens Christopher feels the cold air of night time Los Angeles for the first time in over a year. He closes his eyes, allowing himself a few moments to take it all in.
The ambience of the city comes alive in his ears, no longer muffled and obscured by a window. The tree leaves dance and rustle against each other as cars race by in the distance. The air is crisp, raw and naked against his skin.
Okimoto pats him on the back and says. “Welcome back to the outside world.”
He then walks over to his motorcycle that was chained to a lamppost nearby and unlocks the padlock before dragging it off the sidewalk and onto the road.
Christopher adjusts his hoodie to cover more of his face before joining Okimoto on the motorcycle.
The engine revs up and the surrounding city lights begin to blur as they pick up speed.
Christopher watches the hollow figures of night time pedestrians blur past him on the sidewalk. He leans back spreading out his arms with a wide smile on his face as he gazes into the sky. The wind blows off his hood and flings the baseball cap off his head to go flying off to some blur of a passing corner. Christopher doesn’t care one bit.
“It feels so good to be outside again.” He says to himself.
An hour goes by as they weave their way through the hills of Hollywood. Los Angeles easily outshines the stars in the distance as they near the Hollywood sign high above. He had visited the place time and time again in the past. Every time the massive letters took his breath away.
He checks his phone and sees that it’s exactly eight pm. The crash was due in three minutes.
they continue around the winding roads as they use google maps to show them the right directions. After another two minutes pass them by they finally reach mount lee drive. The area is pitch black and buzzing with the sound of insects. The air is chilly and dry with an earthy smell that Christopher finds quite refreshing compared to the sterile air of the hospital.
Okimoto on the other hand was on edge. The time had already hit two minutes past with no sign of Benny and Samuel’s car in sight.
A slow rumble suddenly sounds from far behind them. It rapidly increases in volume until the roar of a speeding engine can be heard approaching at breakneck speed.
The two boys swing their heads back to see the bushes be illuminated by a pair of encroaching headlights.
“Shit!” Okimoto immediately grabs Christopher who is stuck in a daze and lunges to the left as the car violently swerves to avoid the two of them.
They go tumbling down the hillside as they hear the car fly out of control in the distance followed by a loud crashing noise.
The two boys collide with the poles propping up one of the Hollywood letters before hastily getting to their feet to look towards where the crashing sound came from.
They see that the last letter of the Hollywood sign “D” has the mangled remnants of the car smashed into its base.
Christopher is in complete shock at the implications of this. “What the hell, don’t tell me-“
“We are the ones who cause the crash!” Okimoto finishes the sentence as Christopher himself dares not to do so.
“Okimoto…” Christopher’s voice trembles slightly. “Does this mean that we killed them?”
Okimoto doesn’t answer and immediately runs towards the wreck. As he gets closer he sees that the entire front end is flattened against the base of the giant letter. He ignores this and approaches the mangled front door, telling himself that the drivers could still be saved.
When he reaches for the door his hand pauses midway as he sees what remains of the two men in the front seats.
Christopher who was still standing some metres back hears Okimoto scream at the top of his lungs before seeing him fall to his knees. Christopher snaps out of his daze and charges forward. He stops by Okimoto’s side and impulsively covers his mouth with his hand in shock. The upper bodies of the two men were no longer recognisably human. The one in the passenger seat has Meat and brain matter disgustingly dripping down its torso into a puddle of red mush across its lap. Its head is smushed against the collapsed ceiling and obscured by loose debris. The other body is in an even worse condition as the driver side had sustained the bulk of the damage. Everything above the waist is completely minced with no way of telling apart one body part from the other.
Both boys knew that this was a sight they’d never forget for the rest of their lives.
Minutes went by without the two saying anything. The silence is finally broken when Okimoto bends over to throw up.
Once he’s done he yells some more before saying. “Screw this… let’s ditch that evil fucking diary and forget about all of this.”
Christopher can’t bring himself to say anything in response. He clutches the diary that is stuffed into one of the pockets in his sweater.
His heart races, each beat slams against his chest like judge’s hammer.
He thinks that this surely doesn’t make him a murderer. After all it was never his intention to kill anybody.
“Don’t feel too bad.” An unknown male voice radiates from high above them.
The two boys look up towards where it came from, and their eyes meet with his.
Sitting casually on top of the massive letter is the figure of a man only barely visible in the blackness of the night. His features are not discernible as he continues to speak. “I’m sure you two have a lot of questions on your mind right now.”
He jumps down several metres before landing with an inhuman grace on the smashed car roof. He glances across the horizon towards the cityscape. The light from the city illuminates his features and makes his side profile visible to the two boys.
Christopher immediately froze. Not only had he seen this man before on the cctv footage the previous day, had also seen him earlier that same day in the cafeteria. Christopher clearly remembers how he got into a fight with a larger man and knocked him unconscious.
The man was a pale skinned Caucasian with a bald head and prominent hooked nose. He was middle aged with mildly sunken eyes and a goblin like aura. He snaps his fingers and a white veil falls over the car obscuring the corpses within. His black trench coat fanned slightly as he turns to look at the two boys before saying. “As I said just now, don’t feel too bad. We’re not the kind of people who sacrifice the innocent for our gain.”
Neither Christopher nor Okimoto have anything to say to him.
The man shakes his head as his fin lips curl into a smile before saying. “It must be nice to be so sheltered that the sight of two dead bodies is enough to stun you like this. Get over it already.”
“What do you want with us?” Christopher finally speaks up and asks. “You gave me the diary and cured my cancer right?”
The man nods affirmatively.
“So then… tell me?” Christopher folds his arms as he dawns a mask of incredulousness. “What was the point in showing us all of this and giving us no power to affect anything.”
The bald headed man chuckles lightly before answering the boy’s question. “Because I needed to show you that supernatural forces are real in this world. Christopher Marcus, you’re not the kind of person to blindly believe something based on word of mouth, so you needed to see it with your own eyes. As for why I chose you in the first place… well, let’s just say that you’re not who you think you are.”
“I’m not who I think I am?” Christopher is instantly baffled by what he hears the man say.
“Who the hell are you to tell him who he is.” Okimoto is as on edge as ever as he speaks with a grimace.
“Let’s hear him out.” Christopher says. “What do you mean I’m not who I think I am?”
“Before we get into that Let’s discuss your mother.” The man says with a wicked smile.
Both Christopher and Okimoto stare at the man in confusion.
“My mother…” Christopher was stumped. Why was this man bringing up his mother all of a sudden? Did she really have something to do with this? He looks up at the man and asks. “What about her?”
“She is the one who arranged for all of this to happen.” The man clears his throat as he speaks. “She sold you to us and agreed to give us full custody of you once you had recovered from your so called cancer. In reality you were cursed with a phantom illness in order to let your reputation die down over an agreed upon period of time.”
Christopher’s world starts to spin. All of this was carefully arranged from the beginning. He was cursed? He wonders what the hell that even means. Did he use the diary’s power to curse him or was it done some other way? And why is his mother involved with all of this? Did she really sell him off to this guy?. He also used the word “us” when referencing himself. Did this mean that he’s a part of an organisation? What kind of organisation is it?
“Christopher… are you okay?” Okimoto asks with an expression of anger and concern. “You shouldn’t blindly believe what this man says, no mother would randomly sell off their son in some nefarious plot to do god knows what.”
“You’re right about the first point, you shouldn’t blindly believe me.” The bald headed man nods in agreement. “But you’re wrong on the second point. I’m not particularly knowledgeable on how you beings of the Third Dimension engage in familial relationships, but I can say for certain that the woman who gave birth to your friend is no true mother.”
“You speak as if you know her personally.” Okimoto says folding his arms. “And what do you mean by third dimension?”
Christopher wasn’t too surprised by the man’s words. His mother was a mysterious person, even to her own son. She had all manner of friends or…acquaintances as she preferred to say. Most of them were people Christopher would only see once and never again. The sheer amount of them meant that he couldn’t remember every face. It was entirely possible that he had encountered the man in front of him before somewhere, and memory simply faded away over time. But the man could also be lying.
“If I was really transferred into your custody then why didn’t you just show up with my mother to announce it?” Christopher asks not bothering to hide his suspicion. “Why drag us all the way out here?”
“That’s what we were going to do, but your action of coming here alongside Okimoto had forced our hand.” The man explains. “I only wrote Okimoto’s name down in the manifestation because you were not supposed to come with him.”
“That’s your own fault.” Okimoto snaps. “You should have just written that I’d come here alone and this wouldn’t have happened.”
The man’s lip twitches after hearing Okimoto lampooning.
“What do you mean I forced your hand?” Christopher asks.
The man says nothing as he looks around, his eyes scanning the blackness as if searching for something.
He extends his spindly hand and points further up the hill.
The two boys follow his finger with their eyes and see a giant shadow suddenly shrink back behind the hill top. It resembled the shade shrinking back from the sunrise except it was in the middle of night.
The sight made them feel deeply uncomfortable.
“I had to rush here because the diary attracts beings from beyond your world.” The man says. “Had I not been here you two would have probably died by now. The same thing almost happened to Okimoto last night. Fortunately I was able to kill the Rake before it got its hands on the notebook.”
Christopher’s world spins again. Rake? The diary attracts beings from beyond this world? That’s why Okimoto had the experience he did in his dorm? But if that’s really the case then why didn’t anything happen to us in the hospital?
“Rake?” Okimoto asks.
“That’s right, the creature with the glowing red eyes.” The man says.
“Okimoto immediately took a step back before asking. “Were you also the monster that roared?”
The man chuckles and nods as he adjusts his coat. “That was me. You ran from me even though I meant you no harm. It was quite entertaining to see.”
Christopher was about to ask more questions but is stopped after seeing the bald man raise his hand to silence him.
“I strongly recommend you two collect the fifty thousand and return to the hospital.” The man’s voice changes, urgency now replaces his previous casual attitude. “The longer you remain outside of such safe zones with a fate diary, the more you’ll attract hostile entities seeking to use its power.”
Christopher and Okimoto both look at each other, not hiding their unease.
“We don’t have anything to store the money in.” Okimoto says.
The man rubs his chin before extending his hand and motioning with it.
The diary suddenly levitates out from Christopher’s pocket and opens up to the fifth page. The page is ripped from the book by an illusory force before burning up into nothingness.
“How annoying.” The man kisses his teeth in irritation. “Couldn’t you two think to buy a duffle bag on the way here? Now I’ve had to waist a page because you. I’ll take the money and you must return to the hospital as quickly as possible.”
Despite having a thousand and one more questions to ask, Christopher and Okimoto both nod before walking back towards the motorcycle that was flipped over on the side of the road a few metres back.
“I’ll see you both again, very soon…” The man says, causing a chill to run down the spines of the two teens.
Okimoto props up the motorcycle and sees that it’s undamaged.
He gets on with Christopher and the two quickly speed off, leaving nothing but dust and unanswered questions behind.