A step away from love

06. Halloween

It all started around 8pm when Jiew sent a message to Yong asking about a topic that would be part of the test the next day.

Tiny jeab:
Did you understand the problem on page 53?

The taller one freaked out. He simply couldn't find the book anywhere until he came to the conclusion that he had forgotten it in the college classroom.

Cute giant:
I forgot the book in the classroom...

Cute giant:
I'll need to go to college to get it. Can you come with me and search for it?

Jiew wasn't too inclined to accept the invitation. It was halloween and even though he hadn't wanted to admit it to his best friend for 2 years now, the truth is he was a bit afraid of going out at night during this kind of festivity. But they needed to study for the exam and Yong couldn't do it without the book, so he had to work up the courage to answer.

Tiny jeab:
You will owe me!

Cute giant:
You can ask for anything you want! Thanks, Jiew! See you at the bus stop in front of the University.

After meeting at the appointed place, it didn't take long to reach the building where they had classes that morning. Jiew didn't enjoy the view of the place which was dark and had empty corridors that looked really scary. Of course, upon realizing this, Yong couldn't help but start teasing his friend. He slowed his step or walked further and turned quickly to surprise Jiew who was successfully scared. Several times until he was almost breathless after laughing so hard at him.

"Ai Yong! You're an idiot! I shouldn't have come to help you!", he complained.

"Hey, hey! Sorry! But anyway we're here, look!", he said pointing to the classroom door.

They had taken the spare key from the building security guard and had promised they wouldn't be long, so Yong wanted to be quick. He walked into the room and went straight to the seat where he was that morning, luckily the book was there and he showed it to Jiew in celebration. However, when they turned to leave the room, the door closed on its own with a loud thud that became almost deafening after the echo produced had spread down the hall.

"What was that, Yong?" Jiew asked approaching him and grabbing his sleeve.

Yong even thought that his friend had done it on purpose to get revenge for the previous scares, but he was too scared to have planned it.

"Calm down, Jiew! It was just the wind!", Yong said approaching the door and trying to open it "It's just… it's just... huh, what's going on?".

After a few tries, it had become clear that the door would not budge. The two boys looked at each other scared and decided to look out the window to ask for help. The view from there was not very promising because it showed only the football field flooded in darkness.

"Wait, I'm seeing someone over there!", Yong tried to point to a figure walking on the side of the field.

"Hey! Hey! You there!", Jiew suddenly yelled, calling the person's attention. "Can you…", but he didn't continue his sentence because the image they saw didn't seem to be human!

The figure walking across the football field had turned his head slowly in the direction from which the screams had come and it was possible to get a better view of his appearance. The pale skin and the heavily marked eyes with gigantic dark circles made it look very much like a zombie.

"Yong…"

"Jiew!"

The two friends looked at each other and before waiting for any sign, they ran towards the door and, luckily, this time it opened. They ran down the hall and only stopped at the post where the security guard was still calmly doing his crosswords on the newspaper.

The two students only stopped running again when they reached the bus stop and while they tried to control their breathing they looked around to make sure there was nothing strange behind them. Whatever that was.

"What was that?", Yong decided to ask trying to keep a shiver from running through his body.

"I guess it's better not to even think about it, Yong! Do you have the book?"

Only then, after hearing Jiew's question, Yong realized he didn't have the book in his hands anymore. Probably dropped on the floor when they were running away from the scary creature. He looked at his friend with a mixture of fear and confusion, but the short one quickly made him give up on the idea he seemed to have in mind at that point.

"Don't even think I'm going back there! You are going to come home with me and we will study together using my book! Tomorrow morning we'll try to find yours again!"

As there was no other solution and Yong was just as scared as Jiew of going back to the room in the darkness, he just nodded.

Not long after, the bus arrived and they got on it. After a few minutes of the vehicle moving, Yong felt something bothering his back and decided to look at what it was. It was a book. But not just any random book.

"Jiew, look at this…", he said showing the object to his friend.

"It's not possible, right?", Jiew asked with big wide eyes.

"Wait, that can't be!I remember that I wrote the phone number of a pizza place on my copy yesterday on the page we were studying! Let me… ", Yong said, quickly turning the pages to look for the information he had referred to and feeling another shiver as he confirmed it. The book was his.

"Didn't you say you lost the book, Yong?" Jiew demanded.

"I swear I didn't put it here, you saw I didn't have time to do anything! I didn't have anything on my hands when we got to the bus stop!"

The two friends argued for a while longer, Yong pleading innocence and Jiew irritated that he thought it was all a halloween joke planned by Yong. What they didn't know is that somewhere far away, perhaps beyond this mortal world as we know it, a pair of ghosts had congratulated themselves on the success of their mission of making the hearts of the young lovers pound together that night even if it wasn't for exactly romantic reasons.