It was a morning like any other. After waking up, getting dressed and grabbing some morning grub, Jackie headed out of the apartment and to the bus stop where he hitched ride. He played an RPG game on his phone to pass the time. Occupied with a quest, he nearly missed his stop but luckily looked up just in time to see a familiar set of buildings fly into view from his window: the compound known as high school.
Jackie quickly yanked on the cord to signal the bus driver and went tumbling out the back exit with other youths his age when the vehicle came to a stop. Phone in hand, for the quest was still ongoing, he stopped at the beginning of the concrete carpet rolled out over a field of grass towards the building that was both the school's entryway and its heart.
His eyes swept over the crowd of high schoolers, some groggy, some lively, some having fun chats with their friends while others had their gazes glued to their phones, until he spotted one figure in her lonesome, his childhood friend Alice. There was always a wide berth of space between her and the rest of their peers, so she was always easy to spot.
Like Jackie, Alice had also grown greatly taller since they met as children. By Jackie's reckoning, she must be a few centimeters more in height than he was. Her dull black hair had been cut to a short bob, and she had gotten into the habit of wearing huge, black earphones blasting music into her ears as she walked.
His destination set, Jackie ran full speed ahead. "Alice! Hey, Alice!"
He had to yell loudly for Alice to hear. After a few more tries, he got his friend's attention. She pulled down one half of the earphones and turned her ghostly pale face around. Jackie couldn't help but notice the bags under her eyes and frowned with worry.
"Still have trouble sleeping?"
Alice shook her head.
"I'm fine," she muttered.
But she did not look nor sounded "fine" to Jackie. And he had sinking suspicions as to why.
When whispers caught his ear, he turned to see a trio of girls looking his and Alice's way. Particularly Alice's.
Jackie threw the clique a scathing glare, but they just tossed back looks of contempt before moving on laughing. Unfortunately, incidents like that were also routine, much to Jackie's dismay. Luckily though, it never got worse than that. At least as far as he knew.
To try take his friend's mind off her troubles, he abruptly brought up news about a game that she had also taken a liking to. The move worked and the duo quickly dove into an in-depth discussion about the game's upcoming releases, from strategies for the event to comments about the story that they already had knowledge about. They continued to share their ideas and plans all the way to the classroom, until the bell rang signaling the start of the school day.
Throughout the day, Jackie heard snippets of talk from his fellow high schoolers about the serial kidnapping case that's got the whole city abuzz. That famous, ongoing case with numerous teenagers and young adults disappearing the past couple of weeks. Jackie's own stepdad was on the case but hadn't had any luck on it. Or so Jackie rightfully guessed from the sour look on the police officer's face when he came home every day.
His peers couldn't help but share rumors and conspiracy theories like how aliens must have abducted the missing people or how they might have been whisked away to a magical land. Those were the more benign rumors. There were more tasteless ones that . . . Let's just say belonged in a horror movie. The most mean-spirited, however, was heard at the end of the day as Jackie and Alice walked out of the school.
"Maybe invisible monsters got them," said one girl, purposefully loud.
"They say they go after kids with SPECIAL eyes that can see them," said another, intended to be heard.
"Now where have I heard of someone like that before?" the third wondered aloud. She tapped her chin thoughtfully before casting her gaze over at Alice. "Oh! I guess I know who's going to be kidnapped next."
It was the same clique from the morning.
Jackie made a mental note to complain to a teacher, though deep down he knew it would help very little to make those mean girls change their ways. He gave his friend a glance. But she already had her earphones on, listening to a guitar riff with the volume turned so high up, that Jackie could clearly tell what song was playing. It made him worry about the future of her eardrums.
As usual, Jackie and Alice took a leisurely stroll through the city streets, taking routes that rarely see anyone else from their school. This was by design to get away from riffraff like that clique. They were headed to Chinatown where Alice's great-aunt owned a building and lived, where Alice also called home.
As they walked a snail's pace down a gray sidewalk alongside a black paved road with cars roaring (and sometimes honking) by, they ran into a girl around their age who was passing out flyers with a few other folks. She spotted the duo and quickly walked up to them to hand them one.
"Come check out our gathering," she said to them. She was pretty short, standing no taller than Alice's shoulder height, with wavy strawberry blonde hair tied behind in a single ponytail.
Alice gave the flyer a look and reluctantly accepted it.
Overwhelmed with curiosity, Jackie took a look over her shoulder. The 8-by-11 piece of paper in her hand was completely black with big, bold words typed in font that made the letters resemble lightning bolts, which read: "Come to the Gathering, where destiny awaits". Almost an eighth of the flyer was overtaken by a white, blank box.
"Cool," he said. "What's it called?"
"The Gathering," the girl replied back. She lifted up her plastic badge card which showed her name, "Taylor", and the words, "The Gathering" in the same font as the words on the flyer.
"So you named a gathering, 'The Gathering'?"
"Yes," Taylor said. Her smile turned into a concerned frown.
But whatever had her worried proved to be nothing when Jackie flashed two thumbs up over his chest, bobbed his head up and down, and said, "Smart!"
Alice rolled her eyes before taking a look a further look at the flyer. Surprise visibly rolled over her face, and she moved back up the flyer to read it again all the way down to the white square.
"Say, where and when is this Gathering supposed to take place?" Jackie asked. "I don't see that anywhere."
He moved from Alice's right shoulder to her left and then lifted himself up by his tiptoes before lowering down with bent knees. But no matter what angle he looked at the flyer, he could not see anything remotely close to answering his question.
"Sorry," Taylor said with a friendly laugh. "But not just anyone can get into the Gathering. Anyone interested has to pass a test first."
"And I'm guessing the flyer's the test?"
Taylor gave Jackie an affirming nod. "Right you are. The flyer comes with a puzzle. Can't solve the puzzle, can't get in the Gathering."
Jackie helped himself to his own flyer copy from Taylor's stack with a smug, "Challenge accepted."
"Well, good luck trying to solve it," Taylor said. "We're always looking for new members. Our leader really takes to heart the phrase, 'the more the merrier'."
"I will be there," Jackie promised. "Bet on it."
Taylor responded with a promise of her own. "I'll keep a seat saved for you."
She gave Alice a particularly meaningful look and added, "I'll save one for you too."
After bidding Taylor farewell, Jackie and Alice continued on their way. From the lively, shiny business centers of downtown, their feet carried them to a road of much duller and smaller buildings. Up ahead, they were greeted by a huge, red archway which served as the entryway into Chinatown.
As soon as they passed beneath the black placard that proudly displayed the golden calligraphy of the Far East nation their ancestors came from, the duo immediately veered left to the white building outlined with red. The building was purposely designed to give off a traditional feel and much like the rest of the district, stood as a proud display and reminder of heritage. Doors were left open to reveal ground floor space flooded with red and gold trinkets and knickknacks, some of them leftovers from the previous Lunar New Year celebrations.
"Hey, Daisy!" Jackie called out.
The woman in the black t-shirt, sitting behind the cash register looked up from her smartphone which had a colored comic on display and gave Jackie a wave back. "Hey!"
Daisy had run the knickknacks store for quite a long time. With how frequently Alice and Jackie passed by her store every day since they were kids, the three naturally got to know each other really well. It was also natural for Daisy to know about Alice's oddness.
Out of the corner of her eye, Daisy watched Alice abruptly stop and stumble backward as if she had bumped into something. The young girl took a look ahead of her and then walked in a semi-circle as if walking around something. The whole time, there was nothing in front of her to obstruct her way.
Alice took no notice of the shopkeeper, completely engrossed with the sheet paper in her hand as she walked out of view. However, Daisy quickly looked away when Jackie gave her a glance.
After a few seconds, she risked a peek and spotted Jackie frowning at that empty space Alice had walked around. He opened his mouth as if to scold it but then thought better and mirrored his friend instead, as if playing a game of Follow the Leader.
Once they were gone, a little girl popped her head out from the back room.
"Was that Jackie and Ally?" she asked. Alice's name was still too hard for the child to pronounce, so she's been calling her Ally instead.
Daisy answered her daughter's question with a nod.
"I'm gonna go play with them!"
"No, you don't," Daisy said harshly. "They have homework. You'll disturb them. Besides, I don't want you catching any of their weird habits."
Jackie wasn't that far from the store entrance and could hear everything. He turned his attention to Alice, but her eyes were still glued to the Gathering flyer in her hand while blindly digging for her keys in her backpack. With her headphones clamped over her ears, there was no way she could have heard all that, could she?
Alice took quite a while to find her keys, so Jackie decided to give her a tap on the shoulder.
She jumped with a start and pulled her headphones off. "What?"
"You okay?" Jackie asked out of concern.
"Yes! Everything's fine!"
She answered a little too quickly for Jackie's liking, but he let it go and watched in silence as Alice unlocked the red gate to stairs that led to the building's upper floors. Whatever was bothering her, he was certain she will let him know when she was ready. Their day together ended there.
Jackie bid Alice good-bye with a promise to meet again at school before leaving for home, not knowing the promise would go unfulfilled.
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