“You all are actually insane,” I subjected in between my bursts of laughter, slamming down a plus four on the table.

  It was Diana’s four cards she had to pick up. Poor her.

  I actually ruined her chance to win.

  “Well yeah,” chuckled Akira, infected by the sound of my laugh, “But it is what makes us unique from other friend groups!”

  He was searching his bag, tongue stuck out like he was drafting an engine blueprint for a fighter jet. He knows I hate that look but he keeps on bragging that he caught something ‘cool’ and wants to show us so badly.

  “I bet he caught a lizard with his bare hands,” Diana muttered under her breath, her mood was drained after losing Uno for the past fifteen minutes.

  “Diana… I thought you wanted to play this game to have fun, not to win…” I cooed softly, keeping my tone soft rather than harsh to avoid hurting her more.

  “I know! But every single five minutes, I treat it as if it is flipping IGSCE and I have to score high!” she snapped, at this point I was close to yelling at her to shut up, but I controlled the raging fire trying to burn through my words.

  I inhaled slowly. “Deep breath…” I repeated in my head before exhaling out.

  Before I could say anything, Akira whipped out something out of his bag, it looked old, rusted and weird in shape… A tape recorder.

  “Listen to this,” he said excitedly, he held up the tape and hit play on it. Wait hold up, why did it sound like danger? She sounded so panicked and nervous. The ending ripped my heart.

  “Yeah. Whatever, this idiot decided to keep the name like a top secret, how bad can it be? Its just ghosts and other common, boring stuff,” groaned Akira in disappointment

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  "I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you Akira, but what if those ghosts or ‘boring stuff’ was actually scaring her to death?” retorted Diana “I can literally hear her heavy breathing!”

  I nodded my head in agreement with Diana. “But also, it is getting a bit late and I want to sleep in peace rather than just continue the talk, what do you say?” I asked

  “Boring but okay,” Akira mumbled “Follow me.”

  We got up from the desk and followed behind Akira, he led us upstairs, went on his right, which led us to a long hallway of doors and finally he opened one door on his left to his bedroom. Me and Diana were both left in shock.

  The bedroom was tidy and organized. I was surprised that he actually had a tidy room, because whenever we came to his house, his room was always messy as if a pack of dogs raided his room for food.

  “Anyways, Fuji and Adithi will be coming here tomorrow too, so please don’t mess up my room that took me two hours to clean,” Akira joked sarcastically

  “Diana, you can take my bed, and Rosie, you can take the mattress under my bed. Have a good night,” instructed Akira as he turned his back to leave the room.

  “Wait! You are not going to stay and chat with us?” asked Diana.

  “Sorry I can’t,” Akira informed us, “My mom left me a whole list of chores to do while she is gone for the night. So, I have to finish them before she gets pissed that I left the house messy like my room.”

  He smiled as he left the room and closed the door gently on us. I was busy preparing the mattress while Diana seemed to be thinking about something.

  “You know what Rosie?” stated Diana.

  “What?” I asked cluelessly,

  “I may or may not have become interested in knowing where the place is,” Diana’s words rang in my head as she told me “I mean come on? Its stupid to blur it out rather than say ‘I am somewhere else’ like now I am more interested since… there could be a way to remove the blur!”

  I scoffed at her, “Stop pulling my leg Diana,” I giggled, but she looked dead serious that I burst into a fit of laughter.

  “I’m serious…” she uttered “But I’m tired to explain everything, let’s just sleep.” As she tossed the blanket on her body and turned on to her right side. I mean she is right, but who would want to go down in trouble rather than stay safe?

  I laid down flat on the mattress and just closed my eyes, “We will discuss about this tomorrow with the friend group,” I muttered to myself, while the light drizzle of rain hit the windows, providing a comforting white noise that I can fall asleep faster with.