The Others

Chapter Three

"Wait up!" a strange but oddly familiar voice shouted.

"Ugh," Yona groaned as the black-haired boy caught up with us pausing to catch a breath just as he reached us.

"Be nice," I whispered to Yona as I turned to face Chuckie who was visibly sweating.

Due to a group project we had been spending a lot more time with Chuckie, but I had the feeling that Yona wasn't too keen on the kid. Chuckie had a very eccentric fashion sense and wore pink flamingo shorts, with a blue and red dinosaur t-shirt together with his black backwards baseball cap and his non-brand trainers he was quite odd.

I liked him.

"Hey Chuck, how's it going?" I grinned as I gave him a pat on the back.

"You know, same old, same old, sleep, wake up, sleep," he yawned as he stretched to click his fingers.

"Gross," Yona eye-rolled as she continued walking in front of us.

"Good morning to you Yona," Chuckie said as he looked at me and laughed.

We got to school a few minutes later and went straight to class. It had been like this for a while. Yona would come over to my house to hang out after school most days. Chuckie would visit occasionally.

I was the happiest I'd ever been.

I had friends.

***

"You ready to go?" Yona shouted as she walked towards me, bag in one hand, drink in the other. She was sporting a black crop top coupled with white baggy shorts and blue Adidas trainers.

"Do I have to?" I said reluctantly flinging my bag over my shoulder whilst I took my key out of the door.

Yona had been trying out a new 'active lifestyle' and being her best friend, I was dragged into it too. The sun had barely come up, when I saw the message that Yona was waiting downstairs for me. We had planned to go to try Salsa.

"Come on, it'll be fun. Stop being lazy," she said with a massive grin.

I groaned as she pulled me in for a hug and gave me a nudge.

"Who even goes to a Salsa class at this ungodly hour," the morning sky burned my eyes as stretched my free arm in front of me.

"You know what they say Sav, the early bird catches the worm," Yona laughed as we turned the corner at the end of the road.

"Where even is this place you're taking me?" I said realising I had never even asked.

"Haha, you're a funny one, aren't you?" she took a sip of her water.

"Do you think we should've invited Chuck?" I said suddenly becoming aware that Chuckie would not be happy if we did not invite him.

We walked for twenty more minutes until we were finally at our destination.

I was not familiar with this part of town and felt like an explorer out on an adventure to discover new land. We came to a very secluded street which had a mixture of various boarded up buildings and abandoned furniture scattered around it.

"Here we are!" Yona smiled as we reached a building which was tattered from head to toe with a sign which read 'Salsasita' barely hanging from the door.

The door was a murky grey colour and had a multitude of scratches and paint peeling off it.

Yona pushed the door, which was slightly ajar, open and carefully stepped over what I could only assume was some sort of puke stain.

"Umm... Yona... are you sure this is the place?" I said following closely behind her our arms linked.

"Trust me, it's worth the stench," she said as she pushed open another door which creaked as it opened.

Inside, the building was dimly lit by lights that flickered on and off. The ceilings were wet and some sort of sticky liquid covered the floors. The building itself was quite large and I followed Yona through multiple doors, all the rooms we passed were empty and dark.

"Uhh, you know I'm just going to go..." I said slowly unlinking my arm from Yona and backing away.

"Oh, come on! I know it looks bad, but that's what's part of the fun! It looks empty now, but boy when we get to the actual place, you'll be wishing you were back here," Yona said as walked towards me and placed one hand on my shoulder.

"But there's no one here! How can this be the right place?" I said reluctantly being pulled along by Yona.

"Wait here for a sec," she said clearly ignoring what I had just said.

We had stopped in a small hallway which was frequented by six doors on the right and six on the left which were all had pin readers situated to the left of them. Yona went to the first door on the right, leaving me standing in the middle, and pulled out a small, torn piece of paper and tapped in a pin number. The door lit up in green and Yona pushed the door open slightly.

"I'm just going to check that they are expecting us," she said as she walked in, leaving the door slightly ajar.

I should have known that something was up.

Even though she was a little eccentric, I still considered Yona as a true, honest and dependable friend.

She emerged a few moments later.

"Okay, so the class prior to us is still going on, so we're going to have to wait it out a bit. I grabbed us some drinks from the vending machine though. Catch!" she threw a green, unlabelled bottle at me.

On closer inspection, I could see that the label had been ripped off.

"Um, thanks? What is it?" I opened up the bottle and gave it a sniff. It was odourless and colourless.

"It's a special concoction of a few things to give you energy. It doesn't smell of much, but it does wonders for your immune system! Just drink it and see what you think," Yona walked closer to me with a quizzical expression on her face.

I cautiously took a sip.

"Come on, you need a bigger swig than that! Here let me show you how it's done," Yona said opening her bottle and glugging it down in one.

"Woah, easy there tiger," I laughed in surprise as Yona licked her lips.

"See? Once you get used to it, you'll want it all the time. Okay, you're go...I'll count you down... ready?", Yona bended her knees and crossed her arms like she was getting ready to do a Greek dance.

"Fine..." I said poising the bottle near my lips.

"We.... like to drink with Sav, Sav is our mate and when we drink with Sav she downs it down in eight...," Yona began stomping her feet and proceeded to count down. "8... 7..."

I took a deep breath and squeezed my eyes shut and started downing the drink.

"6...4...5...2..."

"Gahhhh!," I crumpled up the bottle and threw it on the floor when I had finished.

"Go on girl. Wasn't so bad was it?" Yona cheered and gave me a pat on the back.

"You were counting wr...," I spluttered my words.

My vision started to go blurry a few moments later with my head beating like a drum.

"Aw, hun don't worry... I'll take care of you now," Yona smiled as she took a step back from me.

Thud!

And that was the last thing I remember.