Ghost Cab

(set: $typewriterText to "You just kept waiting and waiting for one of your co-workers to show up, you weren't supposed to be working tonight on your own. You thought so anyway, I mean they'd have the decency to tell you right?... It's a quiet night so I guess it doesn't matter all too much. Just as you uttered those words you got a call in, you responded and said you'd be there as soon as you could. You hung up and decided to watch a bit more of your favourite show before leaving. The phone rang again. It was another customer. You mentioned that it might take a little while because you're short staffed tonight. You weren't worried. There had only been 2 calls, and you're well equipped to handle two rides. The phone rang again and again and again and again until there were so many customers you couldn't keep track of them all. The. Phone. Would. Not. Stop. Ringing. You were worried now, there was no way you could drive all these customers to their destinations on time. The panic had set in and you were starting to freak out. With every passing moment you knew you had less and less time to get this done. What will you do?") {  (set: $typewriterPos to 1)  |typewriterOutput>[]  (live: 40ms)[  (append: ?typewriterOutput)[(print: $typewriterText's $typewriterPos)]  (set: $typewriterPos to it + 1)  (if: $typewriterPos is $typewriterText's length + 1)[ (stop:) ] ] } { (live: 70.1s)[ (stop:) [[Head to your bosses office]] ] } { (live: 70.1s)[ (stop:) [[Cry at your desk]] ] } { (live: 70.1s)[ (stop:) [[Start Driving]] ] }

There was no way you could get this done, the next best thing was to ask for help? Right? You ran to your bosses office with as much speed as you could muster up. (text-rotate-z:342)[Knock Knock] The door opened and you walked into this lifeless office, your boss sat behind the desk. He pulled his glasses down and said "yes?" You're one of the shyest employees that work here so you had to take some time to think of what to say [["It's impossible for me to complete all these rides tonight"]] [["Nevermind!"]] [["Can you help me with these rides?"]]

You feel stuck. You don't know what to do. The work keeps piling up and you don't have enough time to do it all. You don't want to go and talk to your boss because you know he'll tell you to just get on with it. You know that but you can't. You don't think you can do this alone. You sit for a while and cry. Your desk is a little wet now, it's okay, it'll dry. Your hear your bosses door open, you don't want him to see you like this. You rush outside before he sees you. Phew! Close call. You made it outside but because you were in such a rush you forgot your scarf and coat, you're extremely cold. As you walked to the car, you saw someone rush past you and get into the other car. They drove off. WAIT THEY DROVE OFF? THEY STOLE A CAR? WHAT. Oh god. You can [[rush back inside]] and let your boss know or [[chase the culprit]] yourself! Better make that decision quick! (live: 20s)[ (go-to: "Time out") ]

You decided to just go ahead and start. There was no time like the present and the longer you waited the more rides you'd have to end up doing. You walked outside and checked your app, you saw a lot of people were still calling but when they weren't getting through they caught on to the fact that you had an app and there were a ton of rides lined up. You had a list of callers and a list of people on the app, you were overwhelemed with the amount of rides lined up. You knew you either had to work your way through [[the callers]] or the people on [[the app]].

"It is when you're not working overtime. But hey guess what, you are now. You have plenty of time to do this." (text-colour:red)[OVERTIME?!] Your. Boss. Sucks. Your. Job. Sucks. [[Burn the place down]] [["I'm pretty good at emails, why don't we switch places?"]] [[Start Driving]]

What just happened? You couldn't bring yourself to speak up, you'd always been a little bit quieter than most of your other collegues but you thought about what would happen if you spoke up and it honestly wasn't worth it. You left the room and just went back to your office and sat on the floor. Your emotions were running wild and you couldn't bring yourself to move, you could [[go driving]]. Having a [[Cry at your desk]] seemed like a good idea too though, you felt lost. You also thought about [[staying put]] because the thought of moving seemed all too difficult right now.

"Help you?" he scoffed "You work for me remember?" "Y-yea I understand that but we don't have enough cars or people to get all these customers to their destinations in time" "Well think of something! I don't pay you to just stand around" As one of the only ghosts that worked in this dump of a town you started getting mad, madder than you had ever felt before. You didn't know why this had struck a cord in you but it had. He didn't respect you. [[Possess him]] [[Panic]]

What have you go to lose? Your job I guess? Also maybe prison? I guess that could be hard to convict so you're basically free! It's not like you like this job anyway. Well I guess it's okay sometimes. Okay stay on track. Focus. You've [[done this before]] , right? If you [[haven't]] this is going to get a bit messy. Think of the bigger picture, you get to fuck over your boss with one simple task, imagine how good that's going to feel!

The panicking started before when you realised how much work you had ahead of you, it just seems to be getting worse with each second. You start forgetting how to breathe, which is definitely a (text-colour:red)[(text-rotate-z:355)[problem ]] but hey I mean you can't die twice? I don't think that helped, in fact there truly is nothing stopping you from spiraling now You know you need to get this done, but you just don't know how. You're stood in your bosses office unable to catch your breath. You think about all the possible options of tonight and none of them seem to end well. You go from one extreme to the other, you either think you're going to ...die (been there done that) or you're going to get fired. One of those is much more possible than the other Okay okay okay quickly think think think [[Make him help you]] [[Get a snack, maybe your blood sugar is just low?...]] (live: 6s)[ (go-to: "Weeping") ]

You know for a fact there's no chance you can get this all done alone, if you have to do this, the least he can do is help. You walk to the back of his chair and pull him out of it. It's pretty hard considering you're a ghost, with no muscle mass. You somehow manage to do it although your boss doesn't look very happy with you. You don't say anything and just point to the phone that's still ringing. He walks over to the phone and answers it "Hi, you're speaking with Damian at the Acheron City Cab Company, how can I help you?" He mouths over to you "was that so hard?" You sigh at him and walk out the door At least you don't have to answer that fucking phone anymore. Maybe [[a drive]] will do you some good.

You were almost paralysed in place. You didn't know how to move forward. Your boss looked at you and said "you can go now." You really wanted to leave, but you couldn't. You didn't know how to fulfill your duties so your brain simply decided there was no chance in moving at all. Your boss stuck a sticky note to your head. It says: (text-style:"double-underline","superscript","smear","condense","buoy")[You're Fired] Hey at least you don't have to worry about doing the work anymore! But I guess you do have worry about finding a new job. :'(

You flip your boss off as you leave the building. You get panicked and checked to see if he noticed. He didn't. Panic over. You get in the car and start driving. You forget for a brief while that you're actually in this car for a reason. You drive quite far when suddenly you break in the middle of the road. You realise you're supposed to be working. If you want any chance of not having to do overtime you've gotta work first. Instead of working the logical way around, the first call goes first, you decide to work your way from the newest customer up to the oldest. You don't think too hard about this or you're going to get too stressed out. People are honking at you to get out of the way and as you're about to drive off to get the passenger, you see someone run over to your car. They get in the back and say "Hi. Not much time for chit chat but I saw the flashing (text-style:"blink")[taxi] sign on the top of the car and it didn't look like anyone was- anyway uh I'm in a bit of a rush, can you step on it?" [[Step on it]] [[Ask questions]]

Fuck it. You couldn't deal with the pressure or the workload anymore, you'd become fed up with your job. You also really wanted to do something to show your boss that you can't treat people like dirt constantly. It was only you two that were on shift tonight anyway so it's not like you're going to hurt anyone, now that would be bad. You knew the guilt would be worth it for just that fleeting moment. You searched around for something flammable. Ha ha! You knew exactly what to go looking for. This place is filled with cars right? Which means they need gasoline to run? Well you're hoping at least, cars aren't really your expertise. You searched for about 20 minutes, inside and outside, and you finally found some gasoline. You also found a lighter in your bosses office, you were all set to go. You started to pour the gasoline on the floor, but suddenly thought "what am I doing?" do I really want to go through with this? [[Yes?]] [[No?]] You were running through every scenario and you didn't know what to do, This decision could change the rest of your life.

"What I drive and you email?" You nod. You're wishing, you're hoping. This is one of the most unlikely senarios, the longer he takes to respond, the more you know it's not going to happen. "Fine. If you can do all this work in the time it takes me to do this first ride, then we can switch for the whole night?" You? What? He took you up on your offer? You accept without hesitation and you quickly sit down in his chair before he can change his mind. He leaves the room and you finally have some time to do this You have a lot of choice, nobody's watching your every move anymore. You can make things easier for yourself and [[cancel a few rides]] or you can [[answer the emails]]. You're not sure whether your boss will let you swap for the rest of the night, you never truely trust his word. On the other hand, you know that he'll have less work to do if you do his emails, he might warm up to you?

Yeah, of course! That's it. You say nothing to your boss and leave his office. Your problem didn't really get solved but first you need to stop panicking before you make any rational decisions. You went back to your small office and looked around for something, anything sweet! Andddd of course, nothing. Oh wait! Pizza! I mean it's not sweet but surely it can't be that bad, any food is good right? Surely that'll help a little bit? Meh it's kind of stale, it's fine you think. You gotta stop ordering from that pizza place, you complain every time. Okay you've eaten and you honestly feel bet- oh no You're?...Choking?! Oh god Stop choking! [[Smack your head on the desk to push the pizza out]] [[Run back to your bosses office for help]] [[Hope for the best]]

(text-rotate-z:333)[(text-colour:red)[SMACK]] WAIT- Okay you did it Well I was going to say Aren't you already dead? What's really going to happen if you didn't fix this? Perpetual choking? That does sound pretty bad actually Okay Continue Oh my god? It WORKED? Do you have a concussion? You have a bruise. How can you have a bruise, you're nearly transparent? Whatever, you have one, you don't look so hot but hey you did it! You're not longer choking on pizza. Note to self: Chew more before swallowing Okay what's next? Oh actually doing the job I guess? Is [[a drive]] really the best idea right now?

You weren't so sure you could fix this yourself, I mean how do you even stop yourself from choking? You didn't really want hurt yourself in process and the safest option was getting help. You went back to the office As you entered your boss, not looking up at you, said "What do you want now?" Obviously you couldn't respond You just stood there choking How could he not hear you? He isn't moving. You can't [[fix this yourself]]. Can you?

You didn't seriously think this was going to work did you? You expected this to fix itself all on it own? What. It is?? How is that even- Oh wait no you're choking again oh okay. Well I mean I hate to say I told you so but... I told you so. You didn't get to become a ghost cab tonight because you were too busy dying. :(

You're not going to die again, you don't want to go through that. This wasn't even supposed to happen tonight. You're supposed to be driving, you wish you'd gone earlier. But that doesn't matter right now. You need to fix your current problem. If he won't notice you then you're going to have to make him. You put your hand in front of his computer so he'll have to notice you. Which would've been a great idea if you weren't semi transparent. Throw something at him? Oh grab that pen! You grab the pen closest to you and throw it. NICE! You hit him right in the middle of his forehead. He turns to face you, to yell at you, but his face changes when he sees you choking (kind of impressive you managed to do this all whilst choking, but that's beside the point). He gets out of his chair and tries to help. Woah he does it? You're saved! Not only does he save your life? He also says you can take [[the night off]]. He feels really awful about his behaviour and says you don't have to do the rides tonight, he'll take care of it. You can always decline his offer and [[go driving]] anyway. Hey I mean you'll get paid a lot if you go out, but staying home doing nothing also sounds pretty good, this is a tough choice...

You decide to take your boss up on the offer. You're not in the mood to 1) do overtime and 2) drive. You walk home and sit on the couch. Maybe it was a good thing you choked on that pizza? You wonder if your boss is going to be as friendly tomorrow. You doubt it. You cook a late dinner and turn on your laptop. You continue your favourite show from where you left off. Although you weren't the ghost cab tonight, you think your day turned out pretty good. You can tell people you've had both a death and near death experience! You spent the rest of the night relaxing and eventually falling asleep on the sofa. Life is good :)

"I actually think I want to go out still, i-if that's okay?" He quickly responds, still trying to convince you not to go but as you keep inisting he finally gives in. There is a catch though, he's going to come with you. He wants to make sure no accidents are going to happen again. He doesn't want you dying mid journey. You say "N-no it's really fine" but he won't take no for an answer. Maybe it was better when he didn't care. The two of you go outside, get in the car and check the list. You can pick the customer who [[rang first]] or you can pick [[someone random]].

You go through the list of callers and you find the first one, it's the right thing to do, mostly since this person called you nearly an hour ago now. You aren't getting a tip you know that. You find the details of the first caller and get on your way, it was an easy pick up. Well it was, until they started talking. "You know you were EXTREMELY late. an hour with no call back? no explanation? quite rude actually!" You apologise but you don't mean it This is going to be a [[long ride]].

You couldn't be bothered to go to the top of the list so you just closed your eyes and picked someone random, I mean what's the harm in that! You picked the passenger up and it was a simple pick up, they said hi, seemed nice enough. It wasn't too far to go so you were pretty sure you'd get a tip for this one. Well maybe take that back. You heard police sirens behind you as you crossed into the city, you assumed they weren't for you because you hadn't done anything wrong, well I guess driving under the speed limit isn't exactly safe. I'm sure it's fine. If you're really that worried I guess you can [[pull over]] but you're pretty confident you're not their target so you think about [[continuing]] your route.

You don't really know what's going on but you don't want to miss out on a tip so you step on it. Maybe you can get to the next passenger quicker this way? You're speeding up when you realise, you never asked where they wanted to go. You have literally no idea where you're driving. You pipe up and ask "Oh h-ha yeah I don't think I ever got your destination?" The passenger responds "oh right, uh the bank? The royal bank. But we might need to pick up some friends along the way. That's [[okay]] right?" You're [[not so sure]] you feel a little uneasy about this ride.

You don't feel so safe in this ride, you want to ask questions before you go anywhere. I mean you need to find out the destination. Before you start driving you pipe up and say "Uh can I get a destination first? I can't really go anywhere without that information" They roll their eyes and say "The royal bank. Can you go now please? I'm in a hurry!" Something still feels kind of off about this ride, you feel kind of [[okay]] about the ride although you feel a little uneasy, maybe it'll pass? You always have the option to [[decline the ride]] and maybe nows the time to get out of this?

"This ride was only meant to be for one person, I don't feel comfortable picking up multiple passengers on the way. I barely feel comfortable with this ride considering you jumped in my car randomly." "You're a taxi aren't ya? Isn't that what taxi's do? Uh pick up people?" You nod but don't respond "Oh ya gonna ignore me now huh? Well I should probably let you know I've got a gun on me, so I think you're gonna wanna do what I say" [[Do what he says]] [[Call his bluff]]

The uneasy feeling passes over you and you say "That's fine, just remember the fare goes up even if we're stopped" The passenger doesn't seem to acknowledge what you said, they just ask you to go faster. You're already going pretty fast but you agree, if you don't have to do overtime because of this, it'll be worth it. You're speeding around corners when the passenger yells "(text-style: "emboss","condense")[STOP]" You break as fast as you can, the two of you get jolted forward a little You notice 3 other people getting into the car. I guess you should've noticed they said "friends" not "friend". This is going to be a squishy ride. The three friends- wait is someone getting in boot? Let's hope you can just get this ride over and done with soon enough. You start driving to the bank again and finally arrive. A ride that should've taken about 30 minutes only took 10 thanks to you cutting all those red lights! You turn your head to the back and say "O-okay that'll be 41.50" but the passenger says "hey think you can keep it running? we're just going to be one second. I'm sure this won't take long?" [["I can keep it running, sure, just be quick"]] [["No. Sorry I can't keep it running. I'm pretty busy today"]]

"Yeah, that's the plan" they smirked as they left the car They left before you had time to think about what they really meant by that, although you defintely started to feel uneasy when you saw them all putting on masks. Well shit. They're going to rob that bank aren't they? You've just driven a group of people to rob a bank, how did you let this happen? I guess they didn't exactly shout it from the rooftops, how could you know? Maybe if you put everything they said together you might have been able to figure it out? What are you going to do? You have to make a choice, you can [[stay put]] or you can [[drive off]] but you have to be quick, they're going to come out soon. (live: 6s)[ (go-to: "Uh oh") ]

"Fine. Leave then. You won't get your money though, it's all in there, see?" Oh cool, great in fact. They're going to rob the bank. You won't get paid unless you wait for them, but do you want stolen money? No, that's what I thought. Hm how do you get around this? Oh! I mean you do have some choice in the matter, you know they're robbing the bank or you have a pretty good idea so I suppose you could always [[call the police]] on them? You're going to get paid from the next customer anyway so you can just [[leave]] if you feel uncomfortable. You can't really wait for them though, you can't get arrested, it would be a nightmare. How do they even process ghosts in prison? Not like handcuffs really work. Stop overthinking and make a decision.

"Hey yeah I'm not sure I'm going to be able to continue this ride. I don't feel super comfortable." you try to say this as calm as possible, you're not willing to risk an angry passenger. "What?! I haven't even done anything? This is bullshit!!! Do you treat all your clients this way?" "Please exit the vehicle." They scoff and say "You're gonna regret this, remember I know where you work." You get threats pretty often in this line of work so you're not that scared. It's definitely something you never really get used to though. You try to drive off and realise all your tyres have been slashed, oh how wonderful! And in the middle of the road, how convenient! I guess you're taking a detour, it's going to be a little rough but you have no choice but to [[push it to a garage]].

You had started getting calls in first so this felt like the right choice. Plus the longer you leave people the lower your rating can go down. You don't have such a great rating right now, so maybe you being the only driver tonight will actually work in your favour? You worked your way through the list and found the first caller, luckily they told you their address on the call so this was going to be an easy ride. You made your way to their location and found them. They hoped in your car and you asked the most important question "So where are we headed to tonight?" As they were putting their seatbelt on they responded "Oh- yeah uhm what's it called again.. Oh right, The Phantom Castle on uh ghoulish avenue?" You didn't think that place was open anymore, was a good restaurant when it was though. Maybe they reopened, who knows. You start driving but soon realise it's going to be a long ride, about 45 minutes. You have the opportunity to [[make conversation]] or [[turn on the radio]]

You heard a couple of angry customers on the phone, so you're deciding to start with the customers on the app. Hopefully you won't get any angry riders? You scrolled all the way down to the bottom of your notifications and found the first rider. It looks like a short ride so you're hopeful it'll be over quick. You make your way to the rider and you pick them up. You don't have to make conversation at all thanks to the app! You say hello out of courtesy and start the ride. You make your way to the destination with ease and your rider gets out. That was easy! You're hoping all your rides will be this easy today, you're not hopeful but hey at least you got off to a good start! As you drive off to meet your next rider, you get (text-colour:red)[(text-style:"condense")[slammed]] into by another car. (text-colour:red)[(text-rotate-z:352)[(text-style:"wavy-underline","condense")[Ouch.]]] Oh god, your car? What if your car is wrecked? You can [[check your car]] or [[find the culprit]]

You decide to make some light conversation, maybe you can make a bigger tip because of it? Or maybe you'll just make the passenger feel more welcome! "So it's pretty cold tonight huh? Weather's been all sorts of flip floppy lately ha ha" You awkwardly say "Hm yeah I suppose so" they say. They smile at you and go back to looking at their phone I suppose they just want to get to their destination quickly, makes sense. You can always [[continue the conversation]] if you really want to, or you can finish the drive [[in silence]].

To lighten the mood you decided to turn on the radio, it's going to be a long ride and you can't stand silence for too long. You get to the castle and start driving up to the door. It takes a few minutes longer than you thought it would, mostly because of how steep the driveway is. This place certainly looks the part. You don't remember it being open again, but you don't really keep up to date with the city much so it's not a surprise it slipped your radar. "Okay welp looks like that'll be uh 55.86 for the journey." They get their wallet out of their bag and pull out the money, they pay you and get out of the car. Before the go inside they come up to your window and say "Hey this is really random but you wouldn't want to [[come in]] or anything would you? You can totally [[say no]] I promise I won't be offended"

I mean what's the harm right? They're never going to find out the truth and you can just lie to your boss and say they cancelled their rides. It's fine! You sent emails, messages on the app and even texted people back. By the time you had finished you'd pretty much cancelled everyone's ride for the night, Uh whoops! You were only meant to cancel a few but by the time you started doing it you got too invested and couldn't stop yourself from sending just a few more. Eventually "just one more" became another and another until you'd sent about 50 more. You had left 1 ride left. This is going to look suspcious to your boss so you're going to have to come up with a great excuse when the questioning starts. You'd been staring at this one ride for nearly half an hour, you realised you shouldn't have cancelled as many as you did, you were sweating with anticipation. Just as you started to reflect on what you'd done you heard the door opening. Okay this was it. "So I just had an interesting time out. I was about to pick up a passenger, you know, our job and they get in the car right? As they're getting in they tell me their ride was just cancelled, which is weird because I sure as hell didn't do that, now hm who else has access to that stuff?" You pretended to be oblivious, "What? Me? I would never do that kind of stuff!" "See, I just don't believe you." [[Delete the evidence]] [[Own up]]

You just wanted this night to be over and you couldn't deal with the possibility of having to lie, your stomach was already in knots over your workload, you didn't need stomach ache fueled by guilt too. You went through his emails and started answering them to the best of your ablities, so many emails were coming through, you didn't understand how he was getting so many emails in a second. You kept seeing emails come through that you knew were personal, from the summary you could tell you weren't supposed to look at it, although it was pretty tempting... [[Look at it]] [[Ignore it]]

You pull your car around to the side of the road and check it. You do a full 360 and check the entire car out. You can't find anything? Nothing's wrong? That doesn't make sense? A car smacked into you? There has to be at least a dent? You get back in the car and try to start it again, it won't start. You get out of the car again, check it all over before looking in the engine, just in case you missed something. How is this possible? The car is covered in dents? Two doors are broken? How did you miss this when you looked the first time? There's no way you can fix this on your own, you aren't talented enough for that nor do you know enough about cars. You have a couple of options that seem to be your only options [[push it to a garage]] or [[you can leave it where it is]] and call your boss to pick it up, hey it's his car!

There's no way you're just going to let this person get away with it, luckily you see their car in the near distance. You know exactly what type of car you're looking for thanks to your quick decision making. If you'd waited a few more minuted you almost guarentee that you would have lost the culprit. You drive after them, luckily they seem to be a pretty bad driver so it's not hard to keep up with them- Well it wasn't anyway, it seems like they noticed you getting a little too close so they decided to speed up. You keep to your current speed because going any faster could be dangerous. You know this place like the back of your hand, so you think of any way you can catch up to them, you realise there's a [[shortcut]] around here somewhere although it might be safer to [[stick with what you're doing]].

You're experienced, you lunge straight for your boss and instantly know you're in control. You've done this before so you quickly get used to the body feeling like bricks. You want to cause chaos, I mean you're usually the one cleaning up his messes so now he can clean up yours! Seems fair enough. You've got a list ready and have done for a while, you've been waiting for a moment to get your just desserts. First you want to [[give everyone the day off]] just for the next few days, see how your boss likes to work on his own for a bit!

You didn't really know how to do this but seriously how hard could this be? (text-colour:red)[(text-style:"expand","shudder")[Just jump at him]]! You jumped. Well you lunged actually. The last image you saw was his face looking worried but honestly it was sort of funny so you think you're going to revel in this for a little bit longer. You lift his left arm and you defintely know you're in control now. You thought this would go much worse than it di- Oh well you can't walk properly, why do these legs feel so much heavier? You walk past the mirror and you're walking like a robot. Let's just hope nobody asks about it. Well what do you do now? Didn't really think this part through huh.. I mean I guess you're the boss now right? You can just [[go home]] if you want, who's going to stop you right?

You try again, maybe you didn't hear you properly? Maybe they're nervous? "Yeah we're expected to get like a snow storm soon, didja know that?" They nod but don't respond You turn around to face them for a second, maybe that's the problem, they have to look at the back of your head to talk to you. As you turn your head, you say "Hope everything is okay back there, this car is a bit old ha ha" As your laughter fades the car starts slowing down. You're puzzled and your customer doesn't look very happy, they start looking around the car. I think they think this is planned. Hey this car may be breaking down in the middle of nowhere but you need tips so you wouldn't do this on purpose. You pull over to the side of the road and get out, You say "I'm so sorry! This has never happened before. If you want to call for another taxi I'd understand" They looked at you from inside the car, annoyed, but got out "I would do that. If there was an service here. This day has gone from bad to worse urgh!" You look apologetically at them. You feel really bad but you can try and make it all better, maybe you can [[get this car running]] again? Or I guess [[comfort them]]? Anything's worth a shot, nothing can get worse than this, right?

You sit in silence, it's clear they don't want to be bothered and you're not about to push your first customer of the day. You still need that tip remember? You keep chugging along until you hear a strange rattling in your console, you should probably open that up, although you do need to keep your eyes on the road. You ignore it for a while longer, you just want to get this trip over and done with. It's rattling like before, but it almost seems like it's getting louder by the second. [[open the compartment]] [[Leave it alone]]

You don't think talking to them anymore will do any good, doesn't seem like they have much interest in talking to you at the moment. You pop up the hood of your car and you check the engine. You don't know much about cars but you can definitely tell something is wrong, I mean it's not supposed to be smoking, or at least not this much. You're not sure how you're supposed to fix this, but without service there's no chance you can call a repair company. I guess you're going to have to figure out how cars work. After looking at it for a while you think that [[changing the battery]] might be a good call, let's hope you're right.

Something's clearly wrong and you don't think you can just ignore them and fix this car. "H-hey, I'm not sure if I'm overstepping any boundaries here, please tell me to give it a rest but are you doing okay?" you finally said "Ha aside from the current situation? No not really. It's weird, you're like the first person who's asked me how I am in weeks. I'm trying to get to a party, My brother's engagement party. He's getting married to the girl I love." They blurted out You didn't know what to say, you get why they've not exactly been in the most talkative mood. [[Hug them?]] [[Say some profound bullshit]]

You wrangle your hand around the engine and pull out what looks to be the battery. You had a spare one in the back. The sun began to set as you walked to the back of the car. It was pretty all things considered, not an ideal situation but hey you gotta make the most of the little things right? You did feel a bit unsettled though, you weren't sure if it was just the time of day or if something or someone was at play. You brushed it off because the only person nearby was the passenger but they had started pacing around trying to find phone signal, surely it was fine. You've always been a bit paranoid. [[Be cautious]] [[It's probably nothing, you're just paranoid]] (live: 20s)[ (go-to: "Bonk") ]

There's no chance you're doing this alone. I mean you've not exactly had the best day and this kind of is like the tip of the iceberg. You need help and hey at least you can get your coat this way. You go back inside and yell "CAR STOLEN!". Your boss comes out of your office and goes "what?" and you repeat. Your boss goes "OKAY OKAY OKAY" and rushes outside. He forgets his coat but this time you remebered yours. You ask "What are we doing?" and he gets into a car, ignoring you. You get into the back. Why didn't you get into the passenger side? It's too late to think on your stupid decisions. This could help anyway, maybe you'll see the car behind you? Your boss gets out the map and starts planning a route out. You have no idea what he's doing but you go along with it because you don't really have much of a choice. You get the nerve to speak up "w-wh-where are we going? do you know who stole the car" "I got a pretty good fuckin' idea" your boss says out. Before you put your seatbelt on the car stars moving, you just jolted back a bit but steady yourself. You're keeping an eye out the back to see if you can spot it "Ay kid make sure to keep an eye out for the licence plate [[ACCC 420]]"

You couldn't think, each option was too difficult. Nothing would get that car back soon enough, or you'd fuck it up. Maybe your boss was right, maybe all those times he's yelled at you it was warrented. Maybe you should just stay here for a while. It's warm in here. Sleep tight prince. (text-style:"blur","condense")[ZzzzZZZz]

You feel tears welling up in your eyes again. You really can't catch a break today, can you? You don't even think about telling your boss, it's not worth it, you already know what he's going to say. You get in the only other car out front and drive off. You're not sure which direction to go in but you're pretty sure you're going the right way. There's not much if you drive backwards before your workplace. Acheron city is just after your workplace, it makes more sense to go that way. You don't have to think out loud like this but it helps to keep you calm sometimes. You hope you'll be able to find them. As you're driving along the highway you notice someone stood in the middle of the road. You turn your head to the side a small bit to see if they're actually real. They are. You can't avoid them and you end up stopping. They run into the back of your car and you begin driving again. "Y-you can't just do that you know. Why did you get in!" They respond "Well I was a bit lost, and you have a flashing (text-style:"blink")[taxi] sign on the top of the car. Thought this would be my best bet, you can charge me up I know I was a bit inconvenient ha ha!" They don't seem at all worried or panicked, they're acting like they did a very normal thing. "I'm busy you know! How did you know I wasn't picking up a customer?" "Well were you?" "N-no! But that's not the point" "Well okay, what is the point then?" they press You're getting more annoyed by the second. You don't like this passenger. "A car of ours got stolen, I was trying to chase it but I think I've lost it thanks to a certain incident..." "Maybe it was fate that I got in this car! I'm a private investigator, I've been needing a new case to sink my teeth into and I think this might just be it, what [[information do you have at the moment]]?"

You tate a note of the licence plate, you already knew the car was red but the licence plate number slipped out of your mind. It was nice having your boss be a normal guy for a second, he wasn't yelling. It was okay. You hoped it stayed this way for a while. You two had been driving for a while at this point, the sun was setting and you had driven much further than Acheron City. You looked up and noticed a street sign (text-style:"superscript","blur")["NOW ENTERING CARDINAL" ] Your eyes were getting heavy. It was late, you knew that much. Maybe taking a [[short rest]] wouldn't hurt? But you did need to keep an eye on the road, maybe best to [[stay awake]] for a while longer?

"Well I uh know it's a red car, and the licence plate is ACCC 420 but that's pretty much it. It's registered under my bosses name. Does any of that help?" "That's more helpful than you realise actually" You assume they took a laptop out of their bag because you can hear a lot of typing. "Okay turn right here" You're puzzled but hey if this gets the car back you're not going to miss this opportunity. "Okay drive straight for a while, I managed to check some cameras on the highways and I think I found it, although it looks like it's going far out of the city, maybe driving to the next city over?" You were confused at how someone could do this so quickly, again you followed their instructions no matter how long this would take. "Ah hm shit. I think I've hit a dead end. There are two very similar cars on these cameras but one went to a [[service stop]] and the other continued on the [[highway]]"

You aren't pushing this car on your own, it's going to take too long and you're definitely not strong enough. You wanna call your boss to pick it up, but the more you think about it the more it sounds worse and worse. You know you're going to get yelled at for this, even though you're trying to do the right thing. You're off to the side of the road, you have time to think now, you can [[call your boss]] or you can [[find a mechanic]] on the app. I mean you're bound to eventually find a passenger headed to a garage? It's worth a shot

You open the compartment, it's too distracting to ignore. You'll only have your eyes off the road for a second so it'll be fine. You look away from the road and open the compartment, you rumble your arm around there for a minute or two, feel a sharp prick and quickly pull your arm out. As you pull your arm out you feel your car running over a pothole. Oh well this can't be good, at least you didn't crash though! You feel your car slowing down, uh oh. I guess a flat tire really does stop the show huh? As you feel the car slowing down you pulled what seems to be a raccoon out of the compartment. It's friendly? You'd have thought it would've been attacking you by now, maybe scratching out your face or your car? But no, it's just a little puppy almost, aw how cute. "Uh so we've got a flat tyre. but it's fine because I've got a spare in the back" Or so you hope. You wonder if your boss took the spare out of the back, he did say he was going to but he also says a lot of things that he doesn't end up doing. Hm do you feel confident enough to [[check for a tyre]]? Or you gonna give into capitalism and [[call a mechanic]]?

You're pretty sure it's going to distract you too much, and you don't really want to lose focus on the road. The rattling gets louder and louder, you keep ignoring it although I'm pretty sure even your passenger is wondering what's going on. "I don't know what that noise is, probably just some items rattling around in there ha ha" you know this is a lie, that compartment was empty when you did a sweep last night. The passenger gives you a nod but they definitely don't believe you. You drive for a little longer, the rattling is almost unbareable by this point, but you're almost at your destination. Just as you're about to pull in to the destination you hear a click, sounded like a compartment opening. You see the compartment slowly open, you feel the last 30 minutes flash before your eyes. A raccoon pounces at your face. (text-rotate-z:355)[(text-colour:red)[OUCH. FUCK. OW! ]] OKAY OUCH! "WHAT IS THAT!!" you heard the passenger scream "I GUESS A RACCOON BUT IT'S HARD TO SAY WHEN IT'S CLAWING MY FACE" you scream back "CAN YOU GET THIS THING OFF?!" you've tried pulling it away but it's insanely strong. Why is it SO strong? "WHAT? WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?" "JUST PULL!!!" "OKAY! OKAY!" They start pulling the raccoon along with you. You finally get it off after what feels like forever. Oh aw it's kind of cute ac- NO WAIT IT'S EVIL IT'S CLAWING THE ENTIRE CAR. This thing is the worst. [[Open the door]] [[Try to tame it]]

You're not wasting time, you've got passengers to get to and you don't have the energy to do overtime. You know there's a shortcut around here, you've used it before, you're sure it's this shortcut you've used. It should be just up on the right shortly or maybe it's the right turn after this one? Hm well you know it's one of those two options but you're not entirely sure. You're just going to have to pick between the [[right]] or the [[left]] turnoff. You're pretty confident you know the right option.

You don't want to risk anything, you're chasing someone potentially dangerous so you really think it's just best to stick with what you're doing. You speed up a small amount but not too much, just enough to keep them in your line of sight. You really don't want to chase them too far outisde of Acheron city but you have a feeling that's the way it's going to go. Can you even be bothered to keep chasing them? You have other customers, is this really worth it? Your boss is going to be pretty mad if you don't get any other rides done, then you'll probably get stuck with overtime tomorrow as well, maybe even the rest of the week. [[Keep going]] [[Go back]]

"Let's go the service stop!" You say with confidence, it's pretty late at night and how many cars are going to be there? It's not like service stops are really that big? You turn the car into the "Weston service stop" off the highway. It was a pretty small rest stop, you'd been here a few times before so you were pretty familiar with it. Thankfully there were a small amount of cars around, easy to find the car. Or so you hoped. You parked up and said "Okay so what do we do now? Just go and look around for the car?" "No need! I can do it all from this laptop. They got cameras here, it'll be easy peasy!" The PI told you. It was pretty quick because only a few moments later you got a hit! "Oh I think I found it! I can't make out the licence plate all too well but it looks like it, I mean I see a couple c's and a 4 and a 0!" You get out of the car and go scouting for it, it seemed to be on the north east side of the rest stop. "I'm just gonna stay here! You don't need me much anymore for this" Luckily you took your keys out of the ignition, oh- oh no oh no you didn't. Okay great let's hope two cars don't get stolen. It'll be fine! You're overthinking it! You get over to the north east side of the rest side and find the car that matches the description. You have the keys so you try and wait? for the culprit. I mean you don't want people to see you stealing back your own car. It seems safer to wait. You waited for about 15 minutes until you see someone walking towards the car. "Hi sorry do you mind, you're leaning on my car" they say as they approach. "I'm pretty sure I'm leaning on ''MY'' car considering you uh stole it?" They throw a punch at you, dropping all their shopping in the process. [[Punch them back]] [[Call your boss to let him know]] [[Do nothing]]

"Continue on the highway!" You say with confidence, you know a service stop could be a good idea but it could also be a dead end, at least this way you can always turn back if needed? You went down the highway for a while, not spotting anything. You eventually made it far out of Acheron City and were coming up on the next big city, I guess the PI was right. You left a message on your bosses voice mail to let him know what's going on. You didn't want him to worry...about the car. You had been driving for a while when you start to feel really sleepy, [[resting]] wouldn't hurt? You thought it was safer than continuing anyway.

He can't know. You have to delete it all, every email. All of it. How are you supposed to do this? He's standing right there. Fuck fuck fuck. You can do this, just talk to him and do it on your phone. Okay. Hide your phone under the desk and delete it all, this should work? "You know I'm pretty disappointed in you. You're seriously one of the bes-" You drowned him out and did the occasional nod whilst retaining eye contact. There is an art to this and you've got it down. Oh no. Did he say something important, should you not have nodded? Oh god. Okay it's fine. [[Ask him to repeat]] [[Continue]]

"Okay, alright. Damian, I did do that. I-I'm honestly kind of sick of the way you treat me. That's it okay? You're an ass to work for. You're fun to work with. I just wanted to do something. I couldn't stand it anymore." "Oh I" "I felt like you had to know, this was my boiling point. I understand if you want to uh fire me. I do, I get it" "No. You're like my favourite employee. I don't know why I've been so awful to you. I've had my issues and family stuff recently but I feel like we've never got on. I didn't know why. I mean I guess I did but. I didn't want to believe it. Maybe that was it. I didn't know what to do." "I care about you Dam that's why I'm telling you. I was just scared I guess." you felt so good telling him how you felt. This wasn't really the best moment but hey I mean at least it's out there "Fuck. I-" "Are you okay damian?" "I have feelings for you alright?" "What." "Yeah okay. Fuck okay this wasn't how I wanted to tell you. I just- since we're getting things off our chest." "[[I feel the same way Damian]]" "[[I'm sorry but I don't feel the same way.]]"

A quick look wouldn't hurt right? You double check to make sure the door didn't open, your boss walks quietly, you can never be too sure. You read the subject line (text-style:"expand")(text-style:"emboss")["Your brothers release from prison"] Hm maybe you should stop reading, this seems...I guess one line wouldn't hurt (text-style:"emboss","expand")["Hi Damian, With your brothers release from prison having since passed, I wondered if you were showing up to dinner on friday. Since you didn't show up to the prison last month. I have to talk to about will details from your father. Also Birdie won't stop calling. Tell that girl you're not interested or I'm going to lose my mind. You've been seeing her for 2 years, at least have the decency to break up with her. Why is she calling the home phone? Did you change your number and 'forget' to tell her. God sake. You're so...annoying, disappointing, so on... anyway... Get back to me asap. I sent this email to your work email and your personal email because I know you like to ignore me sometimes. Anyway Ciao." ] Ahhh you feel pretty bad right now. Reading that wasn't the best idea. But you know what, it's too late now. You're pissed for Damian, this person doesn't sound very nice. They deserve a piece of this, you should probably let Damian respond to his own emails. But maybe he doesn't need to see this one. (text-style:"emboss")[[Respond]] Leave it (Hm seems like this choice doesn't work...I suppose you're going to have to respond...)

It's not your place to look, although you want to, it wouldn't be fair. I mean you wouldn't want someone to read your personal emails would you? You keep answering work emails and so far you've answered nearly all of them! You're doing great, you just need to keep the momentum going before your boss gets back. You heard the door open, your heart dropped to the floor. You had one left. You have to finish one more. Your keyboard is too loud to sneak around this, he's gonna know you haven't finished. You've been honest with him this far, you don't want to start (text-colour:red)[[lying]] and telling them you've finished it all when you haven't, he's gonna find out eventually... Just [[be honest]] it's what you're good at.

Yes. You wanted to do this. This had to happen. It would make everything better. You hoped. You hoped. Working here got harder and harder, today was just the last straw. You lit the place on fire. You ran out, you called the fire brigade, you called them too late so you knew they'd never make it on time. You lied and told them that you called earlier but the service must have cut out. You had just been out on a drive, you got back and everything was on fire. You didn't know what happened, or who would do such a thing. The police were called due to the suspicious circumstances. You were taken into custody, not as a suspect but as a witness. Or the closest person to that. "We just needed to ask you a few questions." "Okay, that's fine." "Now you mentioned you weren't there when it was started. A nearby neighbour heard you yelling before the fire started, can you explain this?" Maybe you were a suspect. "Must have been the nearby walkersby." You lied through your teeth. Luckily because you were a ghost you couldn't sweat, because you would be sweating so much right now. "Where was Damian Argeevus? The owner?" "I'm not sure, he stepped out before it happened" "He stepped out?" "Yes." you snapped a bit but you were getting annoyed "He was in the building you know. He's in the ICU. Look kid-" "I'm not a kid" you said "Okay well look, there's some evidence not quite lining up here" [[Continue lying]] [[Come clean]]

No! No of course not! Why would you do this? He's right in that office behind you. He'll hear, how has he not heard yet? Did he leave and you didn't notice? Whatever. You need to clean this up, this isn't you. Why did you think you could do this? He's an asshole sure, doesn't mean you need to ruin his life? Or kill him. [[Resign]] [[Forget about it and move on]]

You stay on the floor for a while. You eventually lie down. This is nice, it's not too much anymore. Maybe you can just lie here for a while, work can wait. It will be fine without you. You start to close your eyes. A short nap won't hurt. You close your eyes here for a bit. It's warm. Goodnight.

You start curating the perfect email "Hey guys" Wait should it start with hey guys? or just hey? or like a collective? Oh god you really gotta make this sound believable or else it's all gonna fail. You're gonna get blamed it goes wrong, obviously this one IS your fault but hey? If jeremy did it? You'd be blamed still. [[Perfect the email]] [[Fuck it we ball (wing it)]]

The trip shouldn't be taking this long, your GPS keeps telling you the wrong directions. You've barely been to this part of the city so you're a little rusty, but you think even you could do a better job than this GPS. "This is ridiculous! It was supposed to be a 10 minute ride!" "Sorry I haven't been to this part of the city much before, getting a little lost here." You say. "It's not really good enough though is it" They start their rant and continue yelling at you for about 20 minutes. You butt in "Well if you had stopped yelling at me I think we'd already be there" you didn't think this would come out of your mouth. You thought it but you didn't believe you'd say it. Luckily you muttered it so maybe they didn't hear you? "I'm never ordering a taxi from you useless people ever again" Okay so they definitely heard you After you got yelled at for a while again you finally made it to the destination finally and said "okay here we are" The child locks were stuck. Oh no. "Sorry the locks are stuck" You couldn't unlock them. Oh no. Oh no. They were yelling "Unlock these right now before I call the police!" "I am trying! They are stuck!" You called out The both of you tried to unlock them, they weren't opening. They started dialing, you knew it was for the police [[Smack the phone out of their hand]] [[Let them continue]]

(text-rotate-z:352)[(text-colour:red)[WHACK]] "whA???" They scream as you whack their phone on to the floor You put your hand under the chair and grab the phone. What did you just do? Is this a crime? It feels like a crime. You look more guilty this way but you know what, who cares!! You can't go to prison, you'd lose everything, you didn't even do anything! "I'm trying to get you out of this car, the locks are stuck! Do you think I want to be stuck in here as well? I have a job to do! Just sit tight, I'll get it done as soon as I can, I just don't know how to fix it. Also if I wanted to kidnap you surely I would've locked the doors earlier?" "How do I know you didn't?!" "I wouldn't lock them on purpose. I work for a company, our ratings would tank which equals no business." They go quiet. You can make sense when you need, it's just not very often that your brain and mouth work together. "Hm okay..." Maybe smacking it with your elbow will work? (text-rotate-z:352)[(text-colour:red)[SMACK SMACK SMACK]] The car started to wiggle bit as you hit the car door with an immense amount of force but before you knew it you heard some sirens behind you. You whipped your head around to the back of the car and it looked like they had paged? the police? "My girlfriend's brother actually works for the police, so maybe think twice before smacking my phone out of my hand. I paged him and he's here, clearly. You're not very good at kidnapping" "That's because I wasn't kidnapping you." They knocked on the window and asked you to get of the vehicle "Yeah.. about that. My locks are stuck, I can't get out." They looked puzzled, they asked you to click the lock to open the door You did it, but obviously the door wouldn't open. Because it was stuck. They ask you to stand back and come back with a big torch, they're going to break your window. "WAIT WAIT" You really didn't want to fork out the repairs for this. Aaannndd it was too late, glass was everywhere. "My hero!! thank you for saving me!" your passenger began kissing the police officer she paged. ...None of your business but aren't they dating his sister... "0 Stars!!!" "I kinda assumed you'd do that. No problem, I'll just let my boss know so he can respond to your claims of kidnapping appropritately. Have a ghostly day!!!" You did an exaggerated smile. You were fed up. This day wasn't your day. You walked away from the car and left it. You walked home. You thought about getting a pager again. Weird day.

I mean the police are going to get here and see the car is stuck, so you thought best not to make the situation worse. "Oh wait! Maybe I have something to help, hm okay" You looked all through the car, ah ha! You found it! You found your hammer! You had an emergency roadside kit just in case and to think you weren't going to pack a hammer! "Move away from this window!" (text-colour:red)[(text-rotate-z:352)[CRaSssshHH]] Okay you did it! You broke the window, now see if you can open the door from the outside. Huzzah! Freedom! You managed to get out of the car and open the back door! You're both free! "See I wasn't trying to kidnap you." "Yeah yeah whatever, want a smoke?" "No I'm good, thanks." You almost considered it for a second, but this situation isn't nearly stressful enough for you to take up smoking. The police arrived as the two of you stood outside the car "I heard there was an attempted kidnapping!" Yelled one of the officers "Yeah yeah misunderstanding. Okay bye now!" They started shooing at the police officers. They eventually walked away although you heard a faint "...are you sure everything's okay?" They ran back over to you, impressive in heels and handed you a card. "Call me sometime?" and kissed your cheek as they spoke. ??? How did you do that ??? You got someone to give you their number without even flirting with them, this whole day has been weird. You checked the card: (text-colour:#f38ff3)[[(text-style:"emboss")['Bunny Holden Planner to the stars ‧₊˚✩彡 +1 517-461-6894 Call me ;)' ]]] Thanks for the offer Bunny, you think you might just do that.

You'd rather not be in trouble with the law today, you just want to get everything thing done quickly. No time for dilly dallying. The police car quickly parked up behind you What??? You hadn't done anything wrong, this was weird. You heard a knock on the window and pulled it down. "Do you know why I pulled you over?" "..uh no?" It's not like you were going over the speed limit, your lights are all working too?? "ahahaha it's me!" Me? "Me who?" You didn't recognise them, were you supposed to? "It's Orken!! Orken Duval! From Hatchets high!?" Oh god. Not him. Anyone but him. How did he even get into the police academy?! "Oh ha hi Orken." "Not still mad at for something I did 15 years ago are you?" Yes. "No of course not. haha. Did you need something? I'm really busy-" "Yeah actually. I wanted to take a spin with you. Leave your car here and come with me." Well that didn't sound terrifying. "[[No thanks Orken.]]" "[[Only if it's short, I'm busy]]"

You know you haven't done anything wrong, you always check the cars before going out on a drive. Hopefully they'll go away soon. Your wish came true, they'd obviously found their target and stopped trailing behind you. You looked through the app whilst you were stopped at red list and picked a random passenger. You basically picked the person closest to you. It wasn't a great system but you're working aren't you? You parked up and waited. Hm weird, they're not here. Says they're supposed to be right here. Hm. You drove around the block in case it was listed wrong. You couldn't find them, anywhere? You called Damian just to double check "Hey Damian, I found a passeger, says they ordered it from outside the mall. I can't find them anywhere. You sure it was right?" "Yes it says they're waiting outside the harlequin for you. If you can't find them, move on to the next person. Bye." Chipper as always Damian. You decided to park up. But I mean if they're inside shopping, you might as well go inside to find them? It's only decent of you. Oh no.. you're buying a parking ticket.. oh no you're walking inside the mall.. oh n oooo... Why not! You can do a bit of shopping and then maybe find the help desk to make an announcement! You could move on to the next person but where's the fun in that! You decided to pick up a few things, why not make an annoying situation fun. You walked into store and found a few things you'd like, ghost fits that would suit you! Very bold colours, needed due to the transparency of you. You were paying. When the cashier fainted. Uh? What? ... You stood there unable to move, what are you supposed to do? "Is anyone a doctor here?!" You said nothing, saying no is weird when all they're looking for is a yes. They must have mistaken your silence for a yes? Which doesn't actually make sense, but they start pushing you towards the cashier, as if you're going to fix this???? You really don't want to be doing this, you're not qualified and if you kill them then you're fucked. Why did they take nothing for a yes !!! This isn't how this is supposed to work. Oh god okay uhm Mouth to mouth?? You try mouth to mouth, it doesn't seem like it does anything... Hm okay uh you check their pulse although you're not sure how so you sort of grab their cheeks and wiggle them a bit, it seems normal? "What are you doing?" You shrug "You're not a doctor, what are you doing?!" Now YOU know you're not a doctor, they should've understood that from the silence. "Uh you uh pushed me to do this?" "Well we found a doctor. Or a better doctor." "I'm not a doctor." They all give you an evil stare but before the "real" doctor even does anything the cashier wakes up. Oh what was that? You weren't helping? Hm that's what I thought. You walk out of the store and get a milkshake. Well I guess you're just going to have to stay shopping for a while, I mean you can't that milkshake into the car...oh no what a tragedy (have fun)

If you don't stay put what are you going to do? Will they find you and kill you? Highly doubt they could do the second part of that but hey what do you know! Not much, you can't say you've ever been in a situation like this before. Maybe you can just wait it out, it doesn't mean they're actually going to do- oh the alarm has gone off okay well you're pretty confident they're actually doing it. Next thing you know you see all 4 of them run out of the doors and rush back into the car "DRIVE!" one of the them yells at you. You don't how to tell them that this car doesn't go that fast. "Uh- this uh car doesn't uh go that fast uhm..." "Ah don't worry about that, our good pal marty fixed that up for us. Ain't that right?" Marty flashes a smile. You press on the acceleration. It goes much faster. This seems dangerous, but also kind of fun? Nevermind, not fun anymore. The police are on your tail, there are too many people in the car to think properly. "Subway, food!" One of them yells, somehow you don't think that's possible. "GO FASTER!" one of them yells. You keep going forward. You need to lose the police before you do anything. You can't believe you're seriously doing this but you don't have choice, what are you gonna do otherwise? Jump out? Yeah unlikely. You kept driving, and driving and driving until you were so far out of your city you didn't even recognise where you were. The news had it plastered everywhere. Details you didn't know, apparently one of the robbers attacked serveral people in the bank. You couldn't come clean. You'd already driven several hours out of the city. You decided that the best case was dropping these guys off at a motel and driving off somewhere. You needed to leave this loose cannons behind, you might have to be on the run for a while. This all seemed a little intense for wednesday night. Urgh you're going to need a new car.

You can't do this! You can't wait for them, you can't get caught up in this. You don't have the strength for prison, you're a crier. It wouldn't work out. You also don't owe these guys anything! Who cares if they get caught, it's not your problem, maybe they shouldn't have asked a random taxi driver to wait for them as they stole money. Did they honestly think that would work out for them? You drive off and try to forget what happened, maybe get an ice cream, seems like you might need it.

The alarm seems to have been triggered. You wait. Maybe it's fine. Okay yeah it's definitely not. A swat team surrounds your car. Uh oh. If only you'd made your choice a bit sooner, ah well it's okay. At least you don't have to see those other guys again.

You drove a little bit away from the bank, you know don't want them to be able to hop, gotta keep that distance. You get far enough away where you can see the bank but they can't see you. You made an anonymous call to the police and hung up when they started asking too many questions. Hey you did a good thing, you're a good person! Or mostly! You didn't help them rob the bank and you didn't drive them anywhere so that's pretty good! You feel like you've done enough today. It's pretty late since getting her took a while but you want to go home. If you boss gets made at you just say you almost got caught in the middle of a bank robbery, it's technically not a lie! That should get him to leave you alone, you hope.

You'd rather not be paid, mostly because they're all active criminals but also because you don't want stolen money. Well you'd probably love stolen money, if you know, you could use it but yeah that's not really how that works. You've got a lot of customers to get through today so I mean you're getting paid anyway, it's not worth it. You drive off and hear the alarm for the bank going off. You have good timing it seems. You can forget this ever happened, maybe the rest of your day will be normal. You can only hope.

"SuuurEE man! Whatever you say, just don't hurt me okay?" Your voice squeaked with fear. "Nobody needs to get hurt, you just gotta do what I say" "Yeah sure, I need to fill up on gas though, is that okay?" Your tank was empty so it wasn't lie, what's worse, running out of gas or having to fill up? "Ugh I guess, just make it quick." "Of course." You're scared shitless but you have a feeling it's going to be okay. You got this. The nearest gas station was very close. You got there in 5 minutes, roughly I mean you weren't exactly keeping a close eye on the time. "Uh hm s-snacks? Do you want snacks?" Hey if this guy gets hangry who knows what he'll be like. "No. Yes. I don't know. Be quick!!!" He was annoyed, I mean why pick a taxi if you want to rob a bank, surely you should have to think about this. Like at least get your licence, it's kind of the most important part, well that and masks. You walk into the store, you pick up some snacks and pay for the full tank. As you're paying you say as calmly as possible, without looking suspicious to your little friend. "Hi! Yeah just these and also someone has a gun pointed at me in the back of my car, oh okay 25.50, seems like that's gotten cheaper, yeah if you could press the panic button that'd be great. Please don't freak out, he can't know. Nice meeting you!" As you're about to leave you see the cashier press the panic button, they ask if you should stay in the store and honestly you're not sure. If you do go outside then he'll want you to drive off as quickly as you can but if you don't then they'll know you did something. You think you have a plan, pretend your tank didn't fill up properly so you need to refill and then you'l have to go back inside because the card machine isn't working. Before you get out of the store the police show up, not like they can drive away, with what licence? They get cornered immediately and start yelling "BITCH!!" and other lovely phrases your way. You almost died, well if they had a gun, you still don't really know if they ever had one. You thank the cashier and buy some more snacks. You're going to sit in your car awhile, just snack for a bit. You're not sure you can drive another person for a little while. You did good. :)

"You don't actually have a gun though do you? You're just saying this so I'll do whatever you want, right?" Their face turns pale, you don't think they were expecting for you to call their bluff. "O-of course I do" they shakily say "Where's your big persona, not so big now are you? I've had a lot of shitty customers you know but you kind of take the cake. I have a job, things to do." They don't know what to do. They start crying. Crying? Really? You were about to rob a bank and you're crying oh god. They get out of the car faster than you have time to think of a response. Oh well I guess that sorted itself out. Maybe you can find another customer, the night is young after all! It's time to check [[the app]] or start with [[the callers]], having some random person hop in your car isn't exactly the best idea. As you have experienced, hopefully the next passenger will be a little better.

It's better to be a little cautious. You've been watching too many horror movies lately, you're sure it's fine. You walked to the back of your car and you didn't see anyone. Until you did. You honestly didn't think you could jump that. You flew into the air and jumped straight out of your skin. You saw someone crouched beside your car. Why? You're already having a bad day. How do you get someone to move. Okay Okay maybe just say some words out loud first, might help instead of just standing there. "Ha ha hi...sorry this is my car.. I need to get into it.." I feel like that could've gone worse, at least you didn't scream at them. "My baby!" Your what now? No no this ISN'T your parent. You know that. Who the hell is this? "haha no...?" "NO NOT YOU!! my baby!" Okay you can say as much as you like but we're all still confused. "My baby! Missing!" Ohh okay see more words is good. "Sorry but you could you move over a bit, I've got to get into the back here." The person slightly moves their head over, giving you just enough room to open the boot without bashing them on the head. "Hm yea thank...you" You open the boot and heard a loud crying noise "MY BABY!" WHAT?! Did they put their baby in the back? How did they get in? You're not sure you're going to get the answers to any of these questions. It was completely empty other than the baby, can this baby fix the car? If not, you're in trouble. "You're not a mechanic by chance are you?" You say to both the parent and the baby. Hey it's worth a shot! "My baby!" The person calls out as they hug their child I guess you're not getting an answer. Your passenger gets out of the car and begins to walk towards the back, they say "Oh I didn't realise your kid was here sorry!" "This isn't my kid" This isn't your kid! Can ghosts have kids? I mean I guess? I mean how would that even work? Like think about that for a second? Okay no no focus, stay on topic. "Oh. Uh are they here to fix the car?" "Car?" Oh come on, you know what a car is, what is this the 1800s? "Yes the car? Can you fix it?" "Hm okay yes car" They get closer to the car "oH no no- the front, the battery's dead." you probably should've said that earlier. They walk to the front of the car, take a long look and kiss..is that right? Kiss the engine? What is your life right now. It shines and glimmers for a moment, it looks like nothing changed although you get asked to start the car to see. The car coughs and splutters for a moment but it works? Okay but how? "How did you-" as you turn around to face the person with the child and ask how they fixed this, they'd disappeared. Your car was fixed but you were more confused now than earlier. I guess you have a working car now? Okay don't think about it too much or else it might break again "Looks like we can get going again, sorry for the hold up" and the two of you contuined your ride into the night. Was this night going to get weirder? Anything's possible.

Horror films were a staple in your life but this was just silly, you had nothing to be worried about! It was the time of day messing with your brain, it's fine! You walked to the back of your car, nothing to be seen or heard. You knew there was nothing to be afraid of! You open up the boot and found the spare battery! You knew it was back here! You're so good at this job! If only your boss could see you now, he'd be amazed, you know what maybe it's better he's not. You can imagine him being amazed, ahhh no yelling, sweet bliss! You went back to the front of the car and replaced the battery. Hey maybe you weren't so bad at this type of stuff! A hidden talent maybe! You got back into the car and called for the passenger "Hey it's all fixed and ready to go again" "Urgh finally" Breaathhee this would all be over again and hopefully you'd never have to see this passenger again. You drove for a while until you felt something, something felt wrong with the car. Again? Surely it was just your imagination playing tricks on you? The car stopped, just in the middle of the road. There was smoke coming out the front, you yelled to the passenger "Get out!" They looked annoyed but hurried out once they saw the smoke. The two of you backed away from the car, trying to avoid all the cars as you did so. The engine caught on fire. You called your boss and the emergency services. Before you could even finish your calls, you heard the car explode. Well at least you know for certain that you can't fix cars?

A hug seems like the right choice, who needs to fix the car, this is definitely more pressing, definitely. You move to hug them, they seem to have needed this. They cry as soon as the two of you hug. You don't say anything, neither do they. You realise you needed this hug more than you thought too, it'd been a while since you felt loved. You feel loved now, even if you're never going to see this person again. It helps. It seems like the two of you really needed a hug. Stay in this moment for a while. You're loved.

You thought hugging them would be too personal, so you thought of something profound and meaningful to say. "Things do happen but it's the way you make them change and move that makes you a good person" What? You realise what you just said, that's not profound, even you don't know what it means. You were so panicked on thinking of something good to say that you actually said the worst thing, well okay no the worst thing would probably have been "your brother deserves her more" yeah that would've been awful. At least you're just a silly guy, you weren't mean! Your brain just didn't connect with your mouth, kind of important in these sitauations. Hopefully the passenger doesn't hate you after this, that would be pretty bad. "Uhm yeah, I guess? Thanks?" Okay they're just as confused as you. Kinda hoped they'd have some insight into this but whatever. You slowly move away and get back to fixing the car. The passenger begins crying and ranting at you, oh boy, better hope this car can get working soon...

You wanna keep it, you really do but it's going to ruin this car, and potentially your face. Well more so your passengers face, I guess yours doesn't matter so much. "Okay mind out, I'm going to open the door and let it out. It's gonna be fine, just stay calm" You open the door and the raccoon gets out. You feel sad, it was just a little guy. No worries I guess this random stray cat is going to take a ride instead. Hmm maybe you need to start an animal taxi business, now that sounds like a money maker alright. The cat and the passenger ride happily together (you had to lie and say you knew the cat, you already the lost the raccoon you couldn't lose this sweet guy as well!) You made your way to their destination, it was pretty easy and quick. They thank you and say goodbye to the cat. As the passenger leaves the car, it seems the raccoon wasn't gone all along. The raccoon hops back in and the cats stays. You're seriously going to have to think about starting an animal taxi business. You don't have a passenger in the car right now so you decide to give it a trial run. One night won't hurt, your boss can drive around if he really has to! Tonight's going to be best ride of your life, onwards ta-cat-xi!

Everyone has bad days and maybe if you were stuck in some random person's car you'd also claw at it? Well not literally but you get the point. "GET RID OF THIS THING!!!" the passenger screams "IM GONNA TRY AND TAME IT!!" you shout back "WHAT THE FUCK! NO! IM LEAVING, LET ME OUT!" you really want to, you do, but if you let this person out of the car then won't the raccoon just follow them? I guess only one way to find out? You hold the raccoon by the hand? paw? thing! You hold the raccoon by the thing and pull over, you open the door and let the passenger out. Sure you lost business but you might gain a new friend so who's the real winner? (It's not you) It definitely bit your hand a bit but hey friendship can start off rough sometimes! You start talking to it like it's a dog, baby voice n all. You found some food to coax the raccoon into loving you. Although it's not the best idea it does seem to be working. The raccoon seems to like you. After about 30 minutes of feeding it, it climbs onto your lap and falls alseep. Aw! It isn't evil after all! Just misunderstood. You had one last thing for the raccoon before you set off again. You rummaged through the car and found a hat! Perfect! You were looking for this. You place the hat on the raccoon head. What a perfect fit! And so cute! You gently lift the raccoon onto the passenger seat as you start the journey again. The raccoon wakes up and sits upright. This is the best. You do not know how you would continue without this guy. You're sure the rest of the night is going to go well. With the raccoon by your side what could go wrong!

"Okay I'm gonna go check for that tyre, gimme one second" You're almost postive your boss left it in the back, why would he take it out? He'd at least replace it right? Okay you found one! You were a little worried, I mean you're worried nonetheless because now you have to change it. You have no idea how to change a tyre. You give it your best shot. This tyre is pretty hard to get off hm...you keep turning it and turning it but your hands don't feel any give. You keep trying, no harm in that right? Your specialities in cars include: - changing the oil - that's it You're a good driver! That's all that matters!! The passenger gets out of the car, looks at you all puzzled and asks "What are you doing?" "Uh..c-changing a tyre?" "That is not how you change a tyre" Well could've fooled you! "Uh well then I don't know how to change a tyre...ha" "Okay I can fix this, lucky for you I have talents in many areas. One of those areas is mechanics! I've fixed about a dozen tyres." You move out of the way because you're about to be more in the way then you already were. You watch them fix it and they're so quick! It's done before you even got to blink! "Oh woah! You really are a wizard huh?" You say as they get off the floor "hahah sure." They seem more upbeat then earlier, maybe your charm..no definitely not you have no charm, maybe your idiocy helped them lower their guard! Yeah that was probably it. "Okay let's get this show on the road" You both get back back into the car and you continue the journey, you make it to their destination in record time. They get out of the car and then pop their head by your window "Hey thanks, for having a flat tyre. Took my mind off things. Here's a tip, you were probably the best driver I've had in a while" You thank them and hope they have fun wherever they're going "You too!" they say as they rush off Who knew a bad incident could turn into such a good one? That was probably the nicest ride you'd had in a while. You forgot nice customers existed. You drove off and knew you'd have thoughts of this ride for many years to come. Hopefully the next passenger would be the same.

Unfortunately we all have to make money, you opt for a mechanic because honestly, it's easier. You don't want to sit here for whoever knows how long trying to change a tyre. You're not exactly the best at this kind of stuff. You'd probably break something, it's safer for everyone involved if you're not. The mechanic says they'll be there as soon as they can, although it doesn't seem like that's going to be very soon. "Uh okay so I called a mechanic and they'll be here as soon as they can, but that doesn't look like it'll be soon. Sorry.." "Really oh god, I have to get somewhere soon! No taxi comes out this far, you were the only company who does." You felt pretty bad, but I mean raccoons do what raccoons want, they're creatures of the night! Try as you might they have too much free will. "I'm really sorry.." They sit beside the car and cry a little "My brother's going to think I don't want to come to the wedding now. My relationship with him will be ruined. I guess it already is" They sob harder You sit beside them "I'm sorry ahaha this is so lame!" "It's not lame. We have all bad days. It's okay. I'm sorry the car broke down." "It's fine, it was never really about the car honestly..." "Do you want to just sit here for a while and talk? or not talk. It seems like we're gonna be a while. But you can text your brother. It's fine. He'll understand, these are extenuating circumstances" you chuckle a bit "Yeah..that actually sounds pretty nice" The two of you just begin to chat. You get along pretty well. Even if things didn't go super well, at least there's a silver lining. It's as a good a night as any, this made up for the raccoon and the tyre situation. You don't think you're going to move for a while.

You thought about it for a moment, just as the passenger was walking away you piped up "Uh yeah actually, I'd love to!" They turned around to face you, suprised at your response. "I'll be honest I didn't expect that from you." "Haha yeah, I think I just want a break for a bit. Oh what's your name by the way? I don't think I caught it!" You're almost positive they told you before and you forgot, whoops! "Ah- yeah It's Aero, nice to meet you properly" A small smile lifted across their face as they spoke. You said that it was nice to meet them and you mentioned you'd not been to a party this big in years, probably 10 at least. "What?! Omg I'm a big party animal so I honestly could NOT imagine that wow! That's so cool! This is gonna be a little intense for you in a second hahaha" The two of you walked in the door and you saw the inside of this place, You could barely remember this place used to be a restaurant. The lights were so bright it kinda hurt, but this was what you wanted. You really wanted to be here. As your eyes were getting used to the smoke and the lights you felt a hand grab yours and noticed Aero leading you to the dance floor. You hadn't danced in a while, and when you did it wasn't that great. This time was different though, the music was right and the lights hit the dance floor perfectly. You were having a great time. This could not be better. Aero pulled you close for a minute and whipsered "Oh I forgot to mention we're all dead." "Like ghosts?" You asked. "Yes exactly! I hope this doesn't freak you out, I think you're cool!" "I'm a ghost too, I died like 15 years ago hahaha" You were meant to be at this party, you'd never seen this many ghosts before. There are a few where you lived but nowhere near this many. "Omg you're dead too?! Omg this is so perfect!!" It was. The two of you danced for a long while, you'd never felt this alive since your death. It was exhilarating. "The fun's about to begin in a second!" "WHAT?" You yelled, you could barely hear them over this music. "Just wait here!!" Okay. Wait here. You can do that. Aero came back out a second later with drinks, "Drink this!" they said. [[Drink]] [[Decline]]

"Ah no thank you, have a good time though!" you wanted to go in but you also really didn't. Parties aren't really your thing when you're not at work but you're on the clock so it would be a little tricky to explain why you're not picking up, doing your job or what that loud music is in the background. It was too risky. You decided to just drive back to work, you're sure [[the app]] was a little backed up. It might be good to switch it up before taking one of the callers again, who knows if you'll be able to resist a second party.

Your eyes were getting heavier and heavier by the second. You thought it wouldn't hurt to take a short nap, I mean Damian's not going to notice? You laid your head down and closed your eyes "You've been watching the back right?" Your eyes shot open "Hm?" you mumbled "Were you asleep?! oh woah huh I guess it is kinda late..." You wanted to go home, it sucked but maybe the pair of you could just file a police report, it's there job to find stuff like this right? So maybe you can turn around, you'd been looking for a while. You're not good at stuff like this when you're sleepy. "How about w-we turn back? File a report?" "I wanted to find him myself. Fucking bastard thinks he can just get away with anything. I don't want him to go back to prison." What? ... What do you even say in response to something like that ... you stayed silent "Ah yeah shit. So I know my brother, Lucas, stole our car. I wanted to see him face to face to yell at him, I haven't seen him for like 6 years. Of course he wouldn't call me like a normal person. To get my attention my brother likes to do crazy shit like this." "You're right though, we probably should head back. I don't think I can drive for too much longer. He's not worth it anyway." The two of you turn around, still keeping an eye out just in case. You get to talking about your families, it's actually really nice? "THERE!" you call out "Sorry to interupt but I see the car!!" "Are you sure?!" "Yes 100%! He's turning off! Go left!" Damian swervs the car left and speeds up, this isn't as safe as you'd like but you're gonna get the job done! The two of you catch up to the car "Okay take the wheel a second." You grab the wheel "MOTHERFUCKER. SLOW DOWN. LUCAS IT'S DANGEROUS." Damian calls out. The car immediately slows down Damian slows down your car too Damian gets out, so does Lucas. You stay in the back, you're not sure you should get involved with something like this. It feels personal. You're not trying to eavesdrop, it's just a little hard when both of them begin yelling. "FUCKING HELL? WHAT-" You could only make out a few words at a time, it didn't seem like the two got along. They both slapped each other, you looked away for a while. You felt weird watching this, especially since the two hadn't seen each other for a while. You got out your phone and waited until it was over. Damian slammed the door open and closed "That guy I swear, he really knows how to push my buttons. He's driving the car back to work and then you can go, I'm sorry, for all of this." "Okay, no problem. It's cool you don't need to say sorry. Hey my family isn't perfect either." Damian nodded and smiled. You had never really seen him smile before. It was weirdly comforting. Then he started the drive back. It was going to be a long night. :)

You stayed awake, you couldn't risk losing the car. Damian turned left, he turned right, he turned left again. He wouldn't stop turning, why would he just stay on the main road? "Aren't we better off on the highway?" He didn't answer, he grumbled to himself. He kept turning corners going around bends, he wouldn't stop. "Damian it's fine, it's okay." "It's not! He's my fucking brother and he couldn't be bothered to talk to me? He had to steal something from me?!" Damian started driving faster and faster, he eventually caught up with a car that looked similar. He was getting ready to ram into it. "DAMIAN NO!" you called out, if not for his sake, maybe yours? "I'm in the car too! We don't know if that's your brother. Okay pull over." "What?" "Pull over!" He pulled off to the side "What did you want?" "I'm driving from now on, get in the back. You're not fit to drive right now." "Oh fuck off." "I'm serious, switch." He realised you were serious and got out "Was I really that bad?" "You were about to ram into a random car, yes. I think you should call your parents, tell them about lucas. You can't fix this alone. It's just a car Dam, we can get it back." Damian cries a bit and agrees He starts calling his parents as you pull over. "I can't- I can't do this anymore. Lucas is back, he stole a car. I know, I know I just can't fix him. Ever since dad died it's been really hard. He doesn't get it. I don't want him to go back to prison but he can't just do this stuff to get my attention." "Uh huh yeah okay sure..." Damian ends the call "Okay?" You didn't really know what to say, that call sounded pretty intense. "Yeah, I'm taking Lucas to my parents house. They live about 2 hours from here so I'm gonna be shutting the place for a while. I'm gonna call Lucas and tell him. I'm sorry. I really wanted to find him, it's just been really hard." You empathised. You get this was hard, he wanted to fix it. It was something he thought he could do alone, seemed like he'd done this a lot before. He called Lucas' phone and they spoke a while. Damian kissed your cheek and said "thanks for all this killer, couldna done it without you" You drive for a while longer, searching for Lucas, you don't find anything so you find a nearby cafe. You two are starving and plus it might be nice to spend some time together outisde of work. You want to get to know him, you feel like this was meant to happen before, all those years ago when you joined but things got in the way. You can't wait to get to know the real Damian. :)

You take the punch but before they can walk away you punch them much harder than they hit you. "First you steal my car then you punch me in the face?" "Do you think that's actually going to work out for you?" No response You called the police, you were going to let them go before, it was a car sure but it also didn't mean that much to do. It was annoying. It was more annoying because you knew your boss would care a lot, you didn't want to lose it because you'd probably get fired. You did this for Damian. You started calling the police "Please don't." They pleaded for you to not call the police "And why not?" "They'll send me back, I just got out." Surely they don't want you to just let them go. You feel bad. You start feeling really bad. But you don't know what they're capable. You're not scared but you don't feel safe just letting them leave. "You have to promise me you'll stay away. Or I'll do a lot worse than punch you, I can assure you." You ended the call They ran away. They didn't want trouble, although you'll probably never find out why they did this. You honestly don't want to look at these cars ever again. You walk into the diner and sit there. You order some food and text your boss. He deserves to know. You don't know if you made the right decision, there's not much you can do about it now. You can't go back and change your decisions. (or can you?...) All you can do now is sit here and eat diner food.

Just as you're about to dial your bosses number, your phone starts ringing. You're stood in front of the car door so they can't escape off again. "Hey Damian, I was literally about to call-" "Why the fuck are one of our cars all the way out in Weston?" "Yeah see- someone stole one of our cars so I found a PI and he helped me trace it down and I found the culprit!" "Why didn't you call the police you idiot!" "Well you can't really rely on the police nowadays Damian, have you not seen the news?" Damian begins to yell at you for a little while longer. You endure it, as you have done every time before. You cut him off this time "Okay Damian what do I do now? I have the car, I'm not interested in getting lectured. Can you get here to take the other car or not?" "Wow okay big shot. Yeah I can get there in 10 if traffic is good and there aren't any speed cameras about. See you in a sec" You stood up to your boss for once, it felt fucking great. But now you've got to keep this guy entertained whilst Damian's on the way. You have the perfect change to [[get some answers]] out of this guy. Maybe understand what he was up to?

You take the punch because you can't do anything. You can't move, or rather your body won't move. You're not a fighter, you can't throw a punch, you drive for a living, you have weak muscles. It's not worth it. You stand still for a while, feeling kind of ashamed. You see behind you the thief is getting back into the car, you want to stop them, you really do, you just don't have enough energy. You sit on the floor. You call your boss and let them know what happened, he asked if you're okay. He asked if you're okay? You're a bit taken a back but you respond and say you don't really know. You get back into the car and stay on the phone with Damian. You get comfy and say that you're not sure how quickly you can get back. You're tired. You just let them get away? Why did you do that? You sit in your car and just start crying with anger. You're pissed. Why did you just stand and do nothing? You can't stop thinking about what you didn't do. Maybe you can go back and fix it? But what's the point, you did the best you could. It's not your fault why are you upset with yourself. You call Damian again. You just need to talk to someone. You decide to stay on the phone for a while. That sounds nice :)

"So what we're gonna do is stand here for a while until my boss gets here." No response. "I want some answers." "Why did you steal our car" No response. "You're kind of a piece of shit, like really, do you know how much work we lost yesterday because of this?" No response. "You could at least be helpful now? After you've done the damage?" No response. You hear a car coming up behind you. It didn't feel like 10 minutes? "OH of course! How didn't I see this coming. WOW!" Damian called out as he got out of his car. "What?" Does he know this person? Maybe you can get some answers, okay sit back and let it unfold, don't push this. "Well I'd like you to meet my shithead of a brother, this is Lucas." OH. Wow okay yeah damn. "Why'd ya do it then huh?" "Fuck you that's why. You left me alone. I wanted to ruin something you care about," "I DON'T CARE ABOUT THIS. I just had to do it because our fucking dad died and I guess I'm the only responsible one." "Oh boo hoo. If you were really that stuck you could've called me? Asked me for help." "You were in fucking prison Lucas. What help could you have given me?" "Fuck you." "Yeah okay buddy. You know stealing breaks your parole right?" "Of course you're a narc as well." "I was actually going to fucking say get out of my sight. I didn't fucking call them you piece of shit. Fuck off before I actually do." Lucas looks worried. He looks around before walking off in case the police are coming and Damian lied. "I didn't lie. They're not coming. Just stay away from me." "Hey I'm so sorry about this. I knew he got out but wasn't sure he was still living in the area. You didn't really know what to say. You just realised what had happened, it didn't really feel real until this moment. Your knees gave way a little bit. Damian caught you before you fell onto the floor "You okay?" You nod, unsure but not wanting to cause anymore problems for the day "Let's ride together, get a tow truck or call one of the others in to get this car? Just want to keep my eye on you." You nod. That sounds nice. You didn't really want to drive that janked up car back anyway. You get in the car and feel completely unable to think. You're overwhelmed and overloaded. Damian takes your hand (or tries to, transparency is hard to work with.) and holds whilst he starts to drive. You squeeze back and hold it for the duration of the journey. It's over now, you can go back to your normal life. Normal sounds good right now.

(text-colour:red)[(text-rotate-z:352)[SMACK]] You feel an object get whacked into the back of your head. You go out like a light. It's been ... an amount of time, you wake up and feel the back of your head. Oh cool! Blood! Wait where are you? This isn't the road, your car isn't here. You're pretty sure someone's holding you hostage. Oh that's new for a wednesday. At least you don't have to drive anymore, I guess? Is this good news or not? Probably bad but maybe Damian will come looking for you, wait why do you have your phone still? Isn't that like rule one of holding someone hostage? You send a text to everyone you know with your location and small summary of what the frick frack has been going on, just a short little message. Nothing to get worried about. Ah well now you've sent it, I guess you just sit here with your head bleeding waiting for someone to come rescue you. I guess it could've gone worse?

"I think we should sleep for a bit. It's late. I need to call my boss anyway." "Okay I know a good little bnb nearby if you want a proper bed. I mean I'm sure these seats are comfortable but ha a real bed can't really be beat" "Yeah that would actually be perfect." You need a bed, you've been daydreaming of getting warm and cosy under a big duvet. You drive for about 5 more miles until you see the bnb on your left. "This it?" "Yep this is the place!" You get out of the car and slowly make your way inside "Well howdy!! Welcome to the cat's whiskers, how can I help you tonight?" The chipper receptionist said "Hiya, yeah can we get two rooms please." "Oh for tonight, gee well that's going to be rather tough huh!" "I'll pay double your rate" The PI pipes up "Well I don't think that's going to change anything. I don't take well to bribery. It looks like there is one room avaliable though. But you'd have to share." They say as they take the extra money from the PI [[Share the room]] [[Sleep in your car]]

You wanted to keep going. Just because it wasn't the most logical idea doesn't mean that was going to stop you. Your boss was going to mad anyway so what's the real harm? You wanted to waste his time like he wasted yours, putting all this work on you without warning. It wasn't right. It wasn't fair. You were driving pretty poorly, the more you thought about work and your job and your stupid boss the angrier you got. You weren't thinking properly. you just wanted to do this. You found the car up ahead, you sped up a lot to catch up to it. You noticed The kid in the back The kid in the back with their toy You slowed down. Maybe it was an accident? How could you be sure it was mallicious? You were about to ram into a car with a kid in it. You didn't know there was a kid there but you realised you shouldn't be out tonight. You're clearly not in the right headspace for this. You felt such guilt as you drove back. Maybe you could've asked if it was intentional, maybe you weren't in the wrong. You're never going to know. You don't need to solve this mystery.

You weren't sure how close to the car you were, you'd lost sight on it a few times and this crappy day didn't need to be made worse by a bad driver. It's a car it can be repaired. You need to make money. Rent's due soon and without some tips tonight you're kinda screwed. You got back to work, time to find another customer uuurrggh. You were fed up with the passengers on the app and [[the callers]] seemed to be getting angrier, maybe you should sort some of them out before you try the app again.

There's no chance that you're going to find a mechanic, it's so hit or miss. You know there's a reliable and responsible option and you're upset that you have to the mature about this. If you don't call him, you know he's going to find out and then you'll be in even more trouble. Fuck fuck fuck! It's cool, it's fine! You got this! You take a deep breath and call your boss Oh dear god, this is the worst possible outcome. Being an adult sucks. No being a mature responsible adult sucks. The phone begins to ring, over and over again. It rings for about 10 minutes before he eventually picks up "Yes? What is it now? Did you fall into a pond full of pink lemonade" UUrrrgghhhh "Hi Damian. No ha. I wish. Uh so the car broke, well someone rammed into it. I guess? It's like dead though. I think I need help. Fixing it? Or something? Look I don't need your attitude, I just need help. Are you good to help? It is your car after all" "Yes. Fine I'll help. FYI it's not my car, it's my dad's and he's dead so I don't think he'll mind too much." //click// With that the call ended. I guess you weren't getting much work done today. You're probably going to be waiting a while for Damian. He's a bitch. I'm sure he's not. Just to you. This job isn't all that fun.

You're not in the mood to get yelled at. Plus your idea sounds much better anyway, you're a genius! You scroll through your app, looking for a rider who is going to a garage. You find one! You better hope they're a mechanic! You put a message on the app letting all riders know they have to meet you at your location, it's unconvential but the right duck will find it's way! You accept the "mechanics" ride and they make their way to you, Luckily they're close to you, or this definitely wouldn't have worked. You hope so hard that they are a mechanic, please oh please. They hop in the car and say "Weird that you put people have to meet you here, isn't that the whole point of a ride app, they drive to you?" "Ha..yeah about that." Here goes nothing "My car is fucked. Like completely. I don't suppose you're a mechanic?..." you sound like a douchebag but you don't have any choice right now. "Oh okay. This all makes sense now. Uh yeah I mean I'm in a rush but I guess I can take a look" "Great...this thing won't move so I can't actually drive you anywhere ha ha.." They roll their eyes a bit and get out the car. "Oh wow. This really is fucked." So it is fucked! It didn't change again, weird. "I will pay you so much money to fix this! My boss can't know, he's kinda stern ya see?" "Well I mean I guess?" THANK GOD! They hit the car once. They move away. "Uh so it's fixed? Which doesn't make any sense. At all. But it is. It's fixed?.." AH HA! Someone else! You're not just making it up! "Well didja still want that ride?" They nod and get back in. And. It. Actually. Works. How??!! You drop them off and then stick around. Someone else around here might need a ride, you never know! You love procrastination, you're probably gonna be here a while. You need more friends anyway! You got this!

You need to fix this car, you don't have time to waste waiting for somone to show up. The sooner you can get this done the sooner you can get back to getting tips. You're pretty certain you're not going to avoid having to do overtime. You start pushing your car to the nearest garage. It might be okay, maybe it won't take too long? As you start pushing the car you hear people behind you honking, you're getting a bit annoyed, it's not like you can help it. You gesture for people to go around, but everyone seems to ignore you. The won't stop honking, you eventually lose it and yell "IF YOU DON'T LIKE THIS, THEN HELP ME! IT'S NOT GOING TO GO ANY FASTER WITH YOU HONKING AT ME!" Everyone stops honking, nobody was expecting you to react that way. Someone gets out of their car and starts pushing with you. "Hey. Is it cool if I help? I heard you a second ago. Sorry about everyone honking at you." Someone else gets out of their car and helps you, they don't say anything but you appreciate it. You three have been pushing the car for a while, eventually the two people who came to help you start arguing. "No dude that's such a narrow mindset" says one of them "Dude who even ASKED you bro?" the other chimed in Weren't they supposed to be helping YOU? Why are they arguing, can't they just shut up. [[Tell them to shut up]] [[Ignore them]]

"SHUT UP!" You didn't think you'd be yelling that one but hey, you know sometimes you don't know that your limits broken until you speak? Or whatever the phrase is. "DUDE NO! What was her sister? A PRINCESS! GROW UP DUDE! GROW UP!" "Can you guys shut the hell up?!" These were probably not the best guys to help you with your little issue, do they even know each other? Are they just like this? Those are unfortunately the things you're going to be finding out. "Can you guys please give it a rest. Like I don't care. Do you even know each other?" "We have never met before." Okay so check on the "just like this" "Okay well it's really annoying with you guys just yelling my ears. I don't care who is who and what is what okay? Just push! You keep letting go. It's annoying" "We're doing this out of the kindness of our heart and you're so rude!" "I have a job! You're taking too long!" You're angry, these two idiots couldn't push a walnut if their lives depended on it. "Fine! We don't need this! We're leaving!!" Weirdly saying that in unison but whatever! It's not like you needed them anyway! Fuck em! Since nobody is helping anymore and you're //cough //pretty weak, it seems like this is going to take up the rest of your day. Oh joy! No tips, probably no pay for today either. I'm probably a distraction, I'll uh leave you to it. Enjoy?

If you ignore them, it will all be over soon. Just drown em out. You're good at that, I mean you've probably not heard anything your boss has said in days! Smile and wave boys, that's your motto. If you yell at these extremely muscular people then they'll probably leave and you'll be left to lug this car around, we can't have that! You're too weak! I mean...you're growing! Every so often you hear "GROW UP BRO!", "IT WAS FIVE FEET APART!", "DUDE IT WAS MURDER! DON'T DEFEND HIM! IT WASN'T JUST MYRRH!" It was tiring. You were bored. Although those could all be sounds on some app that only let you make 6 second videos, this was real life and you needed to be somewhere, like 10 minutes ago. You couldn't yell at them, I mean you wanted to push this alone even less so you'd tolerate some stupidity. It was a rough 45 minutes. You'd been doing most of the work by this point, You were sweating so much, but you'd almost made it so what did that matter? Beavis had stopped pushing, they were stood by the side of the car yelling at each other, slowly moving when the car did. "OKAy we're here!" You said, gasping for air. "You guys can totally leave. I don't need you anymore." "What no way dude, you've been like a total eye opener for us bro. Like for real. We see the world differently now." What are they talking about? You literally did nothing. You literally ignored them! Whatever "Cool. Whatever, I need to pay for these repairs, soooo...." Take the hint. Please take the hint. Please. "Oh well here's some cash dude, no worries. See you on the flip side brah" You cringed so hard but hey you got like 500 in CASH! Okay maybe your car should break down more often. You're going to spend some of this cash after you pay for all these repairs, I mean what your boss doesn't know won't hurt him!

This has gotta sound perfect! Tomorrow Damian can't find out. Hm okay How would Damian write this Ah you've got it! (set: $typewriterText to "'Hello. Damien here. I'm pretty tired of the slacking going on here, I guess you guys need a break or something? Take tomorrow off. If you don't I'm gonna be angry, more angry than usual. I think I need a break from seeing some of you as well. See you. - Damian'") {  (set: $typewriterPos to 1)  |typewriterOutput>[]  (live: 25ms)[  (append: ?typewriterOutput)[(print: $typewriterText's $typewriterPos)]  (set: $typewriterPos to it + 1)  (if: $typewriterPos is $typewriterText's length + 1)[ (stop:) ] ] } (live: 10s)[ (stop:) Perfect!] (live: 10s)[ (stop:) This should go off without a hitch!] (live: 10s)[ (stop:) As soon as you send the email you start getting a lot of texts from your other co-workers.] (live: 10s)[ (stop:) "Is damian okay?"] (live: 10s)[ (stop:) "Does he actually mean take the day off?"] (live: 10s)[ (stop:) You respond back with something alluding the fact that nobody worked tonight but you and he's pissed about it. A lie never hurt anyone and hey you've already sent the email, what's another little lie going to do?] (live: 10s)[ (stop:) You've sent the email, now what? ] (live: 10s)[ (stop:) I mean you're definitely going home. There's nothing left for you to do. If only other people showed up for work tonight. ]

If anyone comes into work tomorrow then you're going to be in trouble, you almost guarentee it. But you really want a day off, so you're going to send a generic email and hope for the best. You may have made the mistake of sounding too much like yourself. Oh you also signed off with your name instead of Damian's... This is going to end badly. You know you're about to get a bunch of texts in from your co-workers. Uhhh in your panicked state you think the best idea is to put your phone in the safe and hide under the desk. Now you can't see what everyone's saying. You don't think you like possessing people anymore. This day didn't go so well. Tomorrow will be better. Breathe into a paper bag, sit under this desk for a while.

You decide to go home, you're just not in the mood to deal with anything right now. You know you're going to have to deal with this tomorrow but right now you can revel in your new found freedom. You buy a bottle of wine for the night, why not treat yourself right? You get a fancy steak to eat and you have a great meal. You get home and eat your meal on the couch, hey it's your house right? Your rules! You definitely drank too much wine, even with the dinner you know you're a little tipsy, drunk even. You send a text message to your boss, you search all through your phone until you find "(text-style:"blurrier")[DAMIAN BOSS]" it's pretty blurry so you're not sure this is the right person. You hope so because you've written out a pretty harsh message. "FUc YOU!!! fuccc you douchebaggee!!! JusT kiddi love u reall y ahahaha <3 kissy kiss.. i drank a ltitle. okay see u tomorrow or something srry i left. u scarE me someti me . i feeL like am never gud enouf for u . do u luv me like i lvoa u ? " You hit sent. It felt mean when you typed it out but you're sure he can handle it. Maybe it wasn't as bad as it seemed. Hopefully tomorrow he will be understanding. Sleep tight prince. Tomorrow will be better.

"You must have the wrong person. I honest to god have told you the truth continually." "We can keep you in here for 24 hours. Maybe you should've got a lawyer maybe they'd improve your lying." "I'm not lying." you were anxious. fuck. fuck. why did you do that? You know why you just want to stop your brain from freaking out on itself. You need to remain calm or you're never getting out of here. If Damian dies in the ICU then you're fucked. You sat in the interrogation room for an hour, probably, you thought it felt like an hour. Maybe it was more? Less? Hard to say. "We have enough evidence to charge you, thanks to your finger prints and ya know the weapon of choice?" FUCK. It's fine. Just find a really good lawyer and it will be fine. They have nothing on you. Fool them, trick them. You got this. They took you back to your cell. You knew a lawyer, a good one at that. It was going to be a tough call and hard to swing it but you thought you could do it. "I need my phone call" you called out Your cell was opened and you got brought over to the phone. (text-style:"blur","expand","fade-in-out")[5555 9301925 ] You dialed the number, the only number you could remember right now. You needed this to work. "Yello?" "Hi. Draven? Is that you?" "What do (text-style:"bold")[you] want?" "I need you. You're the only one who can get me out of this! I can't do this alone" "Fucking hell. Fine. But this isn't for you. I know you're at the police station, I know what happened, I saw it on the news. This would break your parents. They've been so good to you, why did you- you know what I don't care. Be there asap" You waited a short while and saw Draven walk in. The two of you got put into a conference style room. "For starters. I don't wanna know if you did or didn't do it. I don't care. You need to lie better if you did and if you didn't then you need to get better at looking that way." "I-it's good to see you cousin." "Yeah whatever. Okay so they have no confession right? No real evidence?" "Uh about that, they might have the lighter and my fingerprints on that and the gasoline tank" "Jesus christ, you didn't even WIPE it?" "Hey I don't do this regularly!" "It shows." "No confession is good. Okay as for the lighter. You took up smoking recently, even if you didn't. You had been so stressed at work you'd been smoking, you must have misplaced it. Gasoline, cars are around right? Well last thing you'd done had been filling up the cars with gas. As for any "witnesses" just say they're confused as you weren't in or whatever,, get someone to testify in your favour. You have money don't you?" "I told them I wasn't in when it happened, I just got back when I found the fire. and y-yeah I have some savings.." "Okay well stick with what I told you, it lines up with the fact you were out. You won't have any savings after this. You're lucky you can actually get out of this. See you soon cousin." Now all you had to do was spend time with your cousin a few more times and you'd have perfected this. Hopefully Draven can find you someone to pay off. Now it was time to perfect this for [[the trial]]

"Okay. Okay I admit it. I did it. I forgot Damian was inside, that wasn't my plan okay? You have to believe that." "Was that really so hard?" "Stand up please. We're charging you with arson and grievous bodily harm. You better hope he wakes up. Or else you're going down for a long time." You've been cuffed again. Maybe you could've gotten away with this, maybe this was always how it was meant to be. They've got you now, no getting out of it. Stay safe prince.

You can't do this. It's too hard. You don't feel right being here knowing what you almost did. "Hey- uh I need to talk to you for a minute" you call out "Ur still here? Okay cool uh what did you need?" you could feel the passive aggression from a mile away. This is going to be tough. "I need to hand in my notice." "What? Where is this coming from? Is this a joke? You can't just leave? What?" Damian sounded genuinely upset. "It's a sudden development. I am leaving. I can't be here anymore. Thank you for the opportunity, it has been a pleasure working with you. Goodbye Damian." "No." He stood by the door "No. You can't" "Let me go. I am going." "No." "PLEASE!" "NO!" "I ALMOST SET THIS PLACE ON FIRE OKAY? I CAN'T BE HERE!" "I DON'T CARE!!!" "I COULD HAVE KILLED YOU" His face dropped "Exactly. I need to leave" "N-n-no please. I- there's nobody else," His eyes well up with tears. He begins to sob into your shirt. "I am a danger here. We are not good together okay? We work poorly. I can't be here anymore." You pull him off of your shirt and walk out the door, you get in your car and getting ready to leave (text-style:"shudder")[BANG BANG BANG ] You looked over to your right and saw Damian banging on your window. You cried as you turned your key in the ignition. You cried as you knew what you'd be leaving behind. You cried because you knew he couldn't run this place alone. You knew he was a bad person, a dickhead at times yeah. But it was still sad. You held a warmth for him in your heart, even though you didn't like him most of the time, you held a place for him. You would remember him forever. It was raining outside. You almost drowned out the sound of Damian hitting the window. He was soaking. you could see from the corner of your eye. He walked to the end of the lot and stood there. "You can't leave. Don't leave!!!" He yelled [[Drive past him]] [[Get out of the car]]

You just need to move on. You need to get back to work and forget this ever happened. You start cleaning the place up. You need to make sure everything is the way it was, you've gotta take this secret with you to your grave. Can you keep a secret for that long? You're not sure anymore. Maybe you're not the person you were. Maybe you don't deserve to work here. Maybe you're a bad person. Maybe you're overthinking it, sure you made a bad choice but you didn't actually go through with it? No you're fine. It's fine. Nobody got hurt. You understand what you did wrong. It's going to be fine. You spent the next half an hour making sure the place was clean and back to the way it was before. "Oh hey. Didn't realise you were still here" Damian? He was here the whole time? Can you imagine what would have happened if you had done what you were planning? It's fine. Stop thinking about it. You didn't do anything. "Oh yeah ha- still here, just about to head out." "Okay cool. See you in a bit." Why is he being nice? Does he know? Maybe he doesn't? You're overthinking. You can't believe what you were going to do. The thoughts. The guilt. It's all in your head. You don't think it will ever leave. You're not sure how you're going to work today but it's fine. You know that the longer you put it off the more pain you'll feel. You can't look at Damian at the moment. Maybe it's better you go out for a while. [[It's time]]

"Is this real?" "Yes Damian. It's real. I didn't know how to tell you this. It's been difficult. But I've had feelings for you for a really long time, I just didn't know how to tell you" Damian kisses you. You kiss him back. You feel so warm inside. Your heart has never felt more full, you are content. More content than you have ever been before. "I don't want to waste our lost time Damian. I've known you for 10 years. I've been in love with you for as long as I can remember. I remember walking in here for my first shift, you were here, I think training Vickie. But you looked over at me with those eyes and I just knew then." "I love you. I've loved you since that day too. I have never felt more happy than in this moment." [[5 years later]]

"I kinda thought so." "I'm sorry." "No need- you've done nothing wrong. Well in regards to this" His face moves into a slanted smile. He feels awkward, you can tell. "Do you want me to stick around. Despite everything I don't wanna leave. Plus I feel like I owe you a bit, for fucking things up." "Yeah.. I could use an extra pair of hands." You two get to work, you clean things up and everything seems like it's going to go just fine. Maybe this was the right choice. Maybe there is no right choice. You did your best. You told the truth, that's what matters. You feel at peace :)

"What did you say, sorry I missed that?" "I said I want to see your emails. I don't trust you. You just nodded at me, does that mean I can check or..?" "No you can't." "And why's that? because you're hiding something?" "Fuck you maybe?" "Oh you're fiesty now is that it?" "Fuck. You." He pushes your chair out of the way and reads your emails anyway "Hm looks clear." You sighed with relief "You thought I was done? I didn't even check the deleted folder yet." He opens it. He sees it. He walks away. "??? is that it?" "I can't actually look at you I don't know. I think I'm going to quit. I can't do this anymore. Maybe I'll sell this place? I just can't be a boss anymore, no matter what I do I just ruin it. I'm a bad boss and I don't treat people well. I'm going to go. It was fun working with you for a bit I guess." Your face fell to the floor, what? He's just leaving? What will you do without him? You stand by the door and watch him leave, you don't intervene. You wish you had. You feel lost. You wish you stopped him. You wish you did something, anything. This isn't your fault but you feel like it is. :(

This is your last chance. You can't lose this job. Keep going. It's the only way. This is the only thing that makes sense right now. You're sure he didn't say anything important anyway. "Are you even listening to me?" oh you heard that one. "Yes of course. What do you take me for?" "You haven't responded to anything I've said for the past 5 minutes. You just keep nodding." "What do you want me to say Damian? I'm trying to work on YOUR shit." "BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T WANNA DO YOUR JOB!!" "Whatever." He peers over your desk and snatches your phone out of your hand "Oh fuck me. I knew you weren't paying any attention" You couldn't say anything. You didn't have an excuse. . . . He was still stood there, not moving, just giving you a death stare. If looks could kill, you'd surely be dead by now. "Fine. get out of my sight then." "Okay. see you tomorrow." "No I don't mean see you tomorrow. I mean you're fired. You cancelled rides without my permission and then lied about it? Not even just lied though, you had to DELETE what you'd done. What is wrong with you?" "What's wrong with me? You're what's wrong with me. You're like a little splinter that never goes away, gets into your hand and you can't find it anymore. You know it's there still because it hurts all the time. It's always. just. there." you say "Oh so I'm just a pain?" Damian starts to cry as he says this "Don't you dare make me feel like the bad guy. Yes I fucked up but I've been here for the past 10 years and everyday you treat me worse than the day before. You know what, I'm glad I'm fucking leaving. You don't deserve me." Damian kisses you. [["Why did you do that?!"]] [["Wh-what?"]]

"Uh we'll take the one room." you say "Okay well right this way!" The pair of you follow the receptionist. The spiral stairs are a little difficult to manage but you do it, just about. "Okay well here we are! Room 66!" You were confused, this place only had about 10 rooms, if that. Why was this numbered 66? You thought about it for a while but you ultimately couldn't be bothered to ask the receptionist about it. You know they'd talk for a while. They handed you both keys to the room and let you in. It was pretty small but cosy. You could tell there was a lot of heart put into this place, it felt loved. There were two beds. You had really hoped it wouldn't be a double, you're sure this PI is nice n all but you don't know each other all too well so you weren't that comfortable sharing a bed. Luckily you don't have to, the uncomfortable thoughts faded away as you claimed your bed. "I'm gonna head to sleep pretty soon, did you need anything before I did?" "Nope! I'm gonna stay up for a while longer so I can get anything" You hoped this PI would get some sleep but you knew in your heart they were probably going to stay awake the entire night. You got into bed and started reading a small portion of a book you always leave in the cars. You felt your eyes closing and before you knew it you were out. "Good morning!!" Your eyes barely opened as you heard the chipper voice call out to you. "Uh yea morning" You grumbled back "So I've been watching the parking area all night, just in case. I didn't have much hope and when it got to about 1am I almost gave up! I didn't and I'm glad I didn't, because at about 1:30 I saw a car pull in and it matched what we were looking for, mostly I mean it is dark. Luckily they reversed in so I could see the licence plate, and sure enough yep!" "We need to go down there, we can't let them get away!" you shot awake, you might actually be able to sort this out! You left your boss a message as the two of you walked downstairs. You handed the keys back to the front desk and headed outside. It was only 6am so you assumed you had a bit of time to wait before the culprit showed their face. You weren't even sure if you wanted to wait to yell at them to their face. You had the keys to this car on you, you could just leave without a trace? "Okay I'm still half asleep but why don't we just take the car back, maybe we each drive one? That's really the best bet. If you steal a car though I will lose my mind." You mumble "It's your call" [[Take the car]] [[Wait]]

"You take the room, the car's pretty comfy." You really don't want to share a room, especially with someone you met a few hours ago. It makes you feel a bit off, something is weird about this place, maybe it's the lack of sleep talking. The car isn't comfy in the slightest, but you'll take any sleep over no sleep. You walk out of the bnb before the PI can respond to you. You're too tired to care. You send a drowsy voicemail to your boss, just keeping him up to date. After you send the voicemail you get into the car and start pushing down the back seats. You kept a blanket in the back just in case you ever got stuck somewhere. You're a pretty paranoid driver, despite y'know driving for a living. You get comfy and hey you know what? This isn't so bad! It's pretty nice in here, and you have the entire space all to your self. Ahhh freedom at last. Your quiet surroundings make it easier for you to fall alseep, you're out like a light. (text-style:"shudder")[BANG BANG BANG ] You get joulted awake, it looks like the receptionist is banging on window mouthing for you to get up? Can't have people sleeping here? Something like that anyway. Well it's clearly day time so you must've slept the whole night, which is exactly what you were hoping for. You pull the seats back up and make sure the car is as it was last night. You get out of the car and stretch your legs, okay everything's looking good. Time to get the PI I guess! Just as you're about to walk back inside you walk past a red car, you're pretty sure it's not the right car but you need to check this out, just in case. You walk to the back of the car, sure enough it is the missing car! You did it! You call a tow truck to see if they can tow it all the way back. You wait in the parking lot for the tow truck, whilst waiting you realise you were meant to go and wake the PI. You're not sure if you can do that, something felt off last night. The sooner you get this car back the sooner you'll get that lecturing over with and honestly it's not like you and the PI are friends, or even really know each other? What's the harm? The tow truck arrived and said they can tow the car all the way back, you give them the address so they can put it in their GPS. Before you get back in your car you write a note for the PI, letting them know you're grateful for the help but you're on your way back now because you found the car. You leave the note at the front desk and get back in your car. You would see if the person who stole the car was around but honestly? You don't care. You had an exciting day but you had to get back to the real world. Your stupid job. You drive back quickly, so quickly in fact that you make it back before the tow truck. You're not sure if that's a good sign or not. "Hey Damian. I'm back. Sorry about the rollercoaster." There was no reply. Huh guess he wasn't in. You sat on the floor, you were exhausted. Maybe you didn't sleep as well as you thought. Maybe you can just take a break here.

"I love you. I've loved you since the day you walked in here. I can't handle this anymore. I-I don't want to fight okay. I only started running this place because my dad died. I never wanted to do that. I grew resentful of him. When I saw you happy and living this perfect life, I wish I could be you but then I wished to be with you. I got wound out and asked you to leave, when it left my mouth I knew I couldn't see you leave without telling you, or showing you." tears ran down Damian's face. You wiped the tears from his face "Okay okay. Let's just take this one step at a time? Let's make this place better, we need to be a better team before we can even discuss being together. We need to work together better, we can do this." The two of you walk into Damian's office, where you both plan out how to make this all work. Maybe not romantically but maybe this place can become better, maybe you can properly work together. Maybe, just maybe"

It was your wedding day. 5 years ago you said you loved Damian, you never looked back. You were waiting at the arch for him. He was supposed to be here any second. It was going to be perfect- It already was perfect. The music started playing and there he was. Walking down the aisle looking more handsome than ever before. You started to cry. You started weeping. This was the happiest moment of your life. This is the best outcome you could've hoped for. You're so glad you chose to tell him how you felt all those years ago. He was now stood beside you, also crying. "Hi!" he said. "Hi!" you said. It was getting to the end of the ceremony, you opted for no vows so you could tell them to each other in private. "You may now kiss your spouse!" the officiant called out You were married. This could not get any better. You wanted to stay in this moment forever. You might just do that.

It was the day of the trial. You wondered how this was going to go. You were sat in your seat with Draven.. Where's Draven? He's supposed to be here. Fuck fuck what? It's fine, you have a witness. You can't represent yourself, you just can't. The trial starts, you have some good rebuttles. Some time passes and you hear the doors open behind you "Ah Mr. Dexter how nice of you to join us" "Sorry Judge. My alarm didn't go off." "Just get seated please." Draven sat next to you. "Where the FUCK were you?" you whisper as best you can "Fuck you" he says back The rebuttles continue, your witness is due to stand any second. They got called to stand and gave their testimony. "Yes on the night in question, I saw the defendant at green's bay park. I saw a taxi and saw them get out, I assumed they were just dropping off a passenger, nothing more nothing less. It was at 10:30pm." They get thanked for their testimony and get sent back to their seat once more. You get anxious again and feel weird. You don't feel right. It's too late, you wished you could [[come clean]]. A part of you wanted to hear the verdict, it wasn't long, maybe you could hold out, see what [[they say]]?

"STOP!" you call out "What the fuck are you doing?" Draven says as he pulls on your arm trying to get you to sit back down "I lied. I did it. I set the place on fire. I paid that witness to lie. It's all a lie, I can't do it anymore." "You do understand what you're saying don't you?" The judge calls out "Yes entirely. I deserve to be held accountable" You get handcuffed and led away. As you leave the courtroom you look back and see Draven crying, sobbing in fact, smacking his hand on the desk "NO FUCK. COUSIN WHAT DID YOU DO? DON'T DO THIS" You will think about that for the rest of your life, that moment will never escape you. You feel free. You feel bad. You wish you could go back and re-do all of it. [[Start]]

It's time, you'd been waiting a while, but you're glad you didn't have to go back to the cell and then come back another day. You wanted this over and done with. Draven looks at a juror and nods "What's your verdict?" The head juror stood up Wait That was the juror Draven looked at. What did he do. "We have unanomously decided on a verdict." "A verdict of" "Not guilty" WHAT. You You're free? No. No. Damian. You get out of the hand cuffs and leave the courtroom, you spend a while not knowing this is real, you do some press and then run off. You head to [[the ICU]]

You head to the hospital "Hi. I'm looking for Damian, uh uh I can't think. In here for arson? He got hurt, a few weeks ago? I want to see him" "Oh okay hm are you family?" "Yes. He's my b-br-husba-bro-husband. my husband!" "Hm that's weird, no husband listed here for him." "We're estranged. Anyway can I see him?" "Room 12, right behind you" You walk into room 12 and see him lying there. Maybe you did this all wrong. This shouldn't have happened. Maybe it should have. You don't know anymore. You look at him. You start crying. You didn't know he was there. You really didn't. You cried, you stroked his cheek and cried softly into him. You wanted to be here a while.

You walked outside, guilt pounding in your chest. Ready to drive? Or as ready as you could be. You knew you had to get this done, so you just pushed all the previous thoughts out for a while just so you could get this done. Tomorrow is a new day you thought, it helped a bit. You got into the car and got ready. You checked the app to see who'd booked a ride, you also had a lot of callers listed down. There were a lot of people to get through but you just had to make a decision. You had to start with [[the callers]] or the people on [[the app]].

You couldn't just drive past him? What were you thinking! You rushed out of your car into the pouring rain, you ran to him. You stood beside him. He kissed you in the rain. [[Kiss him back]] [[Hug him instead]]

You cried as you drove past him. You had to leave. This was better for everyone. You wiped your eyes so you could pay attention to the road. You hated this. You wish you could go back to before you made that stupid decision, but you couldn't. You made your choice and you had to live with it. Maybe in a few years you'll forget about it all. Maybe you'll be able to move on. What were you talking about? It's not like you loved him you didn't love him. (text-style:"expand","buoy")[(text-colour:#ea2a63)[You did.]] You loved him. You fucking hated you loved him. He wasn't good to you. He wasn't good. You couldn't help it. No matter how much you thought of the things he did that irritated you, things you hated. You still loved him. You cried more and more with every thought. You were never going to see him again. You had to move on. This was a good decision. You're not good for each other. You got home. You stopped crying. It was okay, or it would be one day. You got some ice cream and turned on a sappy romcom. It would be a long night. You'll be okay. Get some rest. </3

You cried as you drove past him. You had to leave. This was better for everyone. You wiped your eyes so you could pay attention to the road. You hated this. You wish you could go back to before you made that stupid decision, but you couldn't. You made your choice and you had to live with it. Maybe in a few years you'll forget about it all. Maybe you'll be able to move on. What were you talking about? It's not like you loved him you didn't love him. You didn't love him! Of course you didn't! What were you thinking?! You couldn't love him, he wasn't a good person. He did things that irritated you, things you hated. You still hated him. This was just a weird bottle of emotions. You felt less and less sadness with every thought. You stopped crying. You were never going to see him again. Good. This was a good decision, you shouldn't have worked together. You're not good for eachother. You got home. You had stopped crying a while ago. It was okay, it was okay right now. You got some ice cream and turned on a random movie. It seemed like this night wouldn't be as long as you thought, you thought about going to sleep soon. You needed some rest. It was okay now and it would be okay tomorrow. Get some rest. ZzzzZZz

You kissed him back. Of course you did. This felt right. You probably weren't good for each other but you couldn't think about that right now. Tears streamed down your face as you kissed. "Damian. I-" "You don't need to say anything okay? I get it" You kissed him again. You didn't know this is what being in the perfect moment felt like. This was what was meant to happen. You stood in the rain together a while longer. After a while of standing and embracing and kissing the two of you went inside. You got some hot drinks and chatted, about everything. If this was going to work then you both needed to change some things. You wanted it to work. You stayed chatting for hours on end. You were happy. He looked happy too. <3

You hugged him, a warm embrace. You had deep feelings for him even if they weren't romantic. "I'm sorry." "You don't need to say sorry. I need to say sorry." "You don't. You really don't. I'm so sorry. I don't know why I tried to do what I did but I can't leave. You're right." "I can't do this without you." "I know. I just don't feel comfortable, knowing what I almost did." you started to cry a bit as you spoke. "I know. It was a shock for me to hear that-" "I didn't know you were still here! I would never have thought of it if I knew you were here." "I can't exactly say I've been the best boss so I wouldn't have blamed you" "You aren't a great boss but you wouldn't deserve that!" "I dunno. I think maybe we should get some help? Therapy" he chuckled. You knew he meant it though. The two of you hugged for a while longer and headed inside. It had been a long day. You were okay though. Damian needed you and you needed him. <3

"Let's leave. I don't have the patience to deal with this scumbag." you're too tired for this and you can barely be bothered to talk to the PI, you don't think you could handle someone else. "Yep okay sure. I can drive one of them if you still need." "Yeah take the one we came in." You chucked the keys to them. "Follow me." You were stern, not because you wanted to be but because you had to be. You needed this car back. The pair of you drove back, luckily it was only just an hour. It wasn't so bad. You checked at every turn off to make sure the car was behind you, it was. You didn't know why you trusted this random PI so much, but in your defense the last 24 hours had been pretty wild so it made sense to you in a way. You were almost back, you were a little afraid of what Damian was going to say but the sooner you do it the sooner it'll be over! You both parked up and walked inside "Hey Damian, man uh we got the cars back, I don't know if you saw my messages but uhm yeah! No problem!" "I better get going now, thanks for uh this ride I guess? I had a lot of fun." The PI handed over their card as they left You wanted to ask them to stay but they'd already helped so much you couldn't ask any more of them. "Where the fuck were you!" "I sent you a voicemail?" "You can't just TAKE OFF! You were supposed to be here, you needed to finish your job. You had overtime!" "Dude listen to the voicemail before you come yelling at me." "I did listen to the voicemail." "So you know I was trying to get o-our car back?" you started raising your voice a bit, you were getting annoyed. "Maybe come ask me for help before running off? You could've got hurt! How did you do this alone???" "I didn't!! A PI helped me, see." You show the card off (text-style:"condense")["Elijah Corvale PI at your service 5555 07682" ] He takes a quick glance at the card and then scoffs and throws it out "Okay cool back to work then?" You want to know what all that was about but you don't care. You have the car. You can avoid Damian for the rest of the day, hopefully don't get stuck in the middle of his mood. You get back to your desk and get started with work. Back. To. Answering. That. Damn. Phone.

"Let's wait, I wanna see this loser." "Are you sure?" "Yes." "We can go now, I'm sure they won't notice." "Dude I want to stay. What's up with you?" "Okay don't get mad." "Too late." You're not in mood for games, you've already got one asshole to deal with, now two? "I paid someone to steal your car." "What the fuck?" "Okay in my defense my nephew was supposed to be out driving today. I thought it would be kind of funny for him. But we started getting along, and I didn't have the heart to tell you." "Yeah started." You call your boss and tell him everything, he says he'll be there as soon as possible. "Okay cool Damian'll be here soon." You and the PI wait for a while. It's a long while. It feels almost too long. You try not to think about it. Before you think about it anymore you hear a car pull up behind you. Thank god! "Hey- what the fuck are you doing here?" "Yeah this was the guy that stole the car, well paid someone I guess. They say you're their nephew?" You want to get this out quickly so you can just leave. You're tired and over it. "I am. This isn't fucking funny Elijah. You're a piece of shit, I mean my parents always said but I didn't really think you could be that bad. Okay well I've called police, or did on my way here." "Have a nice life 'uncle'" You start driving back, luckily you're in two seperate cars. It would be pretty awkward otherwise. You feel kind of stupid, for letting it get this far. I mean you didn't know any better so how could you have prevented this outcome? You just think, the drive isn't too long but you just need this time to think. You feel pretty weird. You're kind of out of it. You woke up barely an hour ago, you're just going to take it easy the rest of the day. Answer the phone, probably do some overtime. You hope the rest of your day will be boring, it'll make up for the past 24 hours.

"H-hey Damian! Uh so I finished the work" "Wow you really are good at this huh? hahaha" "Yeah uh.. so can we switch for the whole night?" "You can just take the night off. It's surprisingly slow." "A-are you sure?" You're hesitant, he never gives you the night off with no catch. Something is off, but what? He's being nice, no need to read into it. "Yea, see you tomorrow." You call out goodbye as you leave. You walk out of the door You turn around You see him. He's crying. He's drinking. He's not doing well. [[Stay with him]] [[Go home]]

"How's it going email champ?" Damian calls out as he walks through the door "Uh yeah about that, I have one left. I didn't finish. Sorry." "You actually did a lot more than I was expecting, one isn't going to hurt." He chuckled He's in a weridly good mood? Maybe a drive helped? You can count on one hand the amount of times he's ever seemed this upbeat. "You okay? You seem different.." "Happy you mean?" "Hahaha I guess..." I mean he's not wrong, we were all thinking it. "I dunno, I missed actually being out there, I'm stuck behind a desk all the time. It's boring. I mean this job is hard enough when you want it but when you don't I guess it's different" Did you make this place untolerable for him? Was it your fault? You thought you were a good employee, maybe not super fun but fun enough to be around... "It's not about you, it's really me being handed this place when my dad died, this wasn't my plan in life I guess" It's like he can read your mind, at least you don't have to ask these questions out loud. You couldn't do that. Maybe he just knows you well? "Maybe it's because we've worked together for so long but it feels like I can tell what you're going to say before you say it." You nodded, it probably was that. Being honest was the right call, you feel closer to Damian? I guess you made the right call. It would've been weird to lie about one email, he's clearly understanding... well today anyway, best not bring this up tomorrow. "I feel closer to you too. I'm glad you didn't lie." What? You didn't say that out loud... "I know. Look I've been wanting to tell you, I didn't know how. It shouldn't have been that weird considering you're a ghost but ... It felt weird, intrusive. I tried my best to hide it but when I was out on a drive I guess something changed. I've been a dick I get that, I don't know why, maybe it was because I could hear everything people said about me. Which made me worse. I don't know... Hahaha I'm rambling.." You hugged him. You were grateful. You felt like you could connect with him better now. You felt like you actually knew him. Maybe working here wasn't so bad after all.

It's not really your place to step in and sure yeah, if he wanted you to know he probably would've told you, but maybe he doesn't know how to say it out loud. Maybe it's painful to talk about, maybe he just needs someone to notice. You'd feel too guilty about leaving, even if he said you could go, you just can't. You go back inside. You sit with him, He cries. You cry a bit. He talks to you. He stops drinking. He hugs you. You hug him back. He starts talking about what's going on. You're there. He's going to be okay. You're there. You hope this helps.

It's not your place to step in. If he wanted you to know he would've told you. Sure you feel a bit guilty or bad about leaving but he said you could go home. He said it. ... You made your way home. You didn't feel super great about leaving him but he probably didn't expect you to see him like that. Just forget about it. You do that. You stop thinking about it. He's probably fine.

Fuck it. He'll thank you later. (set: $typewriterText to "'Hi. You're not a nice person, this email was pretty rude. You need to learn how to ask people stuff without being condesending. Damian is great at his job, maybe respect your son(?) more. He'll send a second email probably. I might get fired for this but I hope your face drops to the floor reading this. Learn some manners dickhead. Sincerely, The ghost who works with your son. Piss off <3'") {  (set: $typewriterPos to 1)  |typewriterOutput>[]  (live: 20ms)[  (append: ?typewriterOutput)[(print: $typewriterText's $typewriterPos)]  (set: $typewriterPos to it + 1)  (if: $typewriterPos is $typewriterText's length + 1)[ (stop:) ] ] } (live: 16s)[ (stop:) Well that felt good. ] (live: 16s)[ (stop:) The door open. You'd answered hardly any emails and Damian'll probably be pissed off that you answered this personal email, it's time to pack up your desk. It's for the best. You wanted to let off some steam, maybe working in a place with other people's emails visable isn't the best idea for you.] (live: 16s)[ (stop:) He came into the office "What are you doing?" ] (live: 16s)[ (stop:) "Uh yeah I didn't answer many of these emails, I think I got through like 2. You should probably check your emails, you've got an angry person in there." You were pretty calm considering you're going losing your job.] (live: 16s)[ (stop:) "Oh god, not her again." He moved past you and read the email, his face didn't seem to change all too much] (live: 16s)[ (stop:) "Oh thank god! You responded. I was really hoping I didn't have to deal with this."] (live: 16s)[ (stop:) Wait? he's happy? Well that wasn't the response you were expecting.] (live: 16s)[ (stop:) "My mother is a witch, I ignored her for a while and this is what I wanted to say. Thanks. Take the night off."] (live: 16s)[ (stop:) You did something bad and got rewarded for it? This really is the life! :)]

"Why not?!" Ahh there he was. The Orken from school. "I'm just busy Ork. I've got a job to do, maybe some other time? Sorry." You rolled up your window and started driving away. He followed you. He was directly behind you. You couldn't cause a crash. Not today. Luckily after a few miles he got bored, it seemed that way anyway. You couldn't see his car behind you anymore. You wanted to drive far away and never come back. Maybe a ride would take your mind off of it? You could maybe relax? Surely he wouldn't come back if you had a passenger. He's only after you after all? You got a message from your boss saying the calls are piling up, you'll take one of those, [[perfect timing]] you thought.

"Yeah yeah it'll be short! Of course!" You didn't trust this guy but what could you do? You just reverted back to the kid you were in high school. You couldn't stand up to him. You had to be stronger than you were before. Stand your ground. "Okay you can just hop into the passenger seat. It'll be short. I promise." "Sure." You wanted to be stern so he would take the hint. "So this is what you got up to huh? Sorry about the accident 15 years ago, didn't mean it" "Accidents" are slipping down some stairs, accidentally double booking events. He killed you. That's not an accident. "Hey actually can I just get out now?" Was what you wanted to say but all you could muster up was "Okay." "Not going to talk much huh?" Orken looked annoyed, what was he gonna do? Kill you again, good luck with that. He was driving into the woods. These looked familiar. No. Not here. Please no. "I wanted to come back to the place where it happened and apologise properly." "It's really fine. We don't have to." He started speeding up. "I want to." He said. His voice was becoming much more agitated. He was angry. "No I don't want to. I don't need to come back here Ork. It's fine," It wasn't fine but you wanted this to be over already. Lying was your best bet. Anything to make him feel better right? He was well over the speed limit, you were scared. Very scared. You didn't know what to do. You wished you would crash or something would happen to him. (text-colour:red)[Push his head into the dash.] the thought wouldn't leave your mind. You wanted to, so badly. He deserved to feel the way you did. You lost your self. You are just a former shell of who you were. If you do this, you'll be no better than him. You couldn't. You couldn't think. You heard sirens behind you. Thank god. Please pull us over. Please. They asked Orken to pull over. Thank you. "Fucking hell really?" That was the Orken you remembered. As soon as the car parked you got out and said "Thanks for the ride Orken! See you around yeah?" He tried to get you back in, luckily he couldn't grip you. That was certainly a plus of the whole ghost thing. "GET BACK HERE." he yelled. You ran. You ran so fast. You ran until you couldn't see any cars behind you. Orken didn't drive too far so you managed to get back to your car. You don't think you can do any more rides tonight You turn back. This wasn't how this was supposed to go. He wasn't supposed to be out. You cried as you drove. You were away from him now, it will be okay. <3

You checked through the list of callers and found the first one,, luckily they told you their address on the call so this was going to be an easy ride. You made your way to their location and found them, it was pretty easy. You wanted easy considering the headache you'd just had. If you could sweat you'd be doing that right now, luckily you couldn't. The passenger hoped in your car and you asked the most important question "So where are we headed to tonight?" As they were putting their seatbelt on they responded "Oh- yeah uhm what's it called again.. Oh right, The Phantom Castle on uh ghoulish avenue?" You didn't think that place was open anymore, was a good restaurant when it was though. Maybe they reopened, who knows. You start driving but soon realise it's going to be a long ride, about 45 minutes. You have the opportunity to [[make conversation]] or [[turn on the radio]]

You picked right because obviously it's the right turnoff. It's always the right turnoff. You're pretty good at directions so you're not worried. Should you be? You turned right and headed into a wooded area. Trees covered a lot of the sky so you could barely tell where you were. Your gut was telling you this was wrong but your gut was unhelpful most of the time so you took no notice. It was kind of late out It is pretty dark here Maybe you should turn back? Maybe double check on your phone? No signal. You've stopped the car in the middle of the woods. You didn't think you drove too far in but you can't see the exit of the forest nor the entrance where you came in. You're directly stuck in the middle. How do you get out? Are you sure this was the right turnoff? As the night sky grows darker and darker you become increasingly more paranoid. You keep thinking you hear noises on the side of the car, scraping noises, clawing. It's not really there, you're overthinking it, getting in your own head. You hear a car in the distance increasing in speed, the closer it gets the more sure you know it's coming for you. You need to get out of the way. Where are your keys Did you drop them? Find them. Find them. Hurry. Find them. You find your keys stuck under your chair, it takes a second to get them into the ignition, you didn't realise you'd taken them out. Turn the key. Your car turned on again. You steered out of the way. The car behind you grazed your door. You are pushed slightly into the trees. You are okay and that's what matters. You should leave the forest. If you can that is. ༼ つ ╹ ╹ ༽つ

You know this highway like the back of your hand, you know you're right, no question! You took a sharp left turn and headed along the coastal path. You hadn't been round here for years! You forgot how beautiful this city of yours was. You open the windows and let the sea breeze flow in, although it was pretty cold out it felt nice to be smacked with the air. As you were relaxing along the coastline you spotted the car! The car that hit yours was just up ahead! Nobody can resist the beach! You followed the car a bit further, until you couldn't drive anymore and then you got out. Luckily the car was parked in the parking lot with yours so you easily spotted the culprit. Nobody was at the beach, it was so late. It made you a bit nervous but also grateful because you didn't have to search through 100 cars in the dark light. You didn't really like being out this far this late, hopefully you can get things sorted quickly. You did a little jog up to the car and knocked on the window. Hm. Not there I suppose. The sky was so clear you could see more stars than you'd ever seen before, not a cloud in sight. You had a notepad in your car. You thought about waiting for them to show back up but how often does the sky look like this? You wrote a note about the accident and put it on their windshield. Hopefully they'll notice. You sat on the beach, having forgotten what the feeling of sand felt like. You missed this. Work had been so busy lately you'd forgotten to do stuff like this. You might be here a while.

"Bottoms up!" You and Aero downed your drinks at the same time. WoaaHH everything was a little blurry all of a sudden, the world was moving a little too fast for you. The lights dimmed as the main event was about to begin. Aero grabbed your arm again and started leading you to another room. Although their grip was lost as the drink was hitting you harder than you expected. You couldn't walk in a straight line, you'd only had one? "Yeah it's pretty strong for newbies!!" Aero whispered. Oh well that explains it I suppose! You tried to follow Aero but they had multiplied and you didn't know which Aero you were meant to follow. You assumed this party was one of those "drink and possess something parties" which was bad for you because you couldn't really pick out left from right at the minute. You didn't feel great. Aero walked off but presumably felt bad and came running back to you. "Okay follow me" You tried your best, somehow your legs were moving in the right direction this time. Aero took you outside and took you to the pool. They tried splashing you with water to sober you up, although it wasn't working all that well. Aero hopped out of the pool for a minute, not sure what to do next. They walked over to the fence where they spotted the police car. "Shit! We gotta go." They grabbed you by the arm and pushed you through the fence, if transparency isn't useful now then when? You fell through the fence and landed face first on the concrete. Aero held back their laughter as they helped you back up, they held you up and asked "Do you live near?" You shook your head, this place was at least a 45 minute drive from your place. "Hm okay my place is near, are you okay with going there?" You nodded, you needed to lie down, you didn't feel so good, although the fresh air definitely helped. It looks like you'd made a new friend, now you hoped you'd feel sober soon. You didn't expect for that to happen anytime soon though.

"Ah no thanks!" You're having fun and don't really feel like drinking tonight. "How else are you get the fun started? The possession's about to begin any minute!!" Possession? "WHAT?" you heard them but you wanted to make sure you got this crystal clear. "YEA SO LIKE WE POSSESS ALL THE STUFF HERE AND SCARE THE OWNERS WHEN THEY GET BACK!!" oHHH this isn't anyone's house. Ah now you're getting it. You really like Aero so you didn't wanna seem lame but this also kinda seemed like a...crimeee? Like a bit of a crime, breaking and entering? What do you even say in response to that? [["Oh that's so cool!"]] [[Say nothing]]

"RIGHT?!" "I can possess people without drinking random drinks though hahaha" "WHAT REALLY?!" You knew you could but you'd not done it in a while, you'd probably be a little rusty. "YEA HAVEN'T DONE IT FOR A WHILE THOUGH" The lights dimmed as the main event was about to begin. Aero grabbed your arm again and started leading you to another room, you assumed something was about to happen. "Okay you possess that lamp and I'll possess this lamp!! So we're next to each other!!" This was not what you assumed but this was still pretty cool, you'd sort of missed doing "ghost" things. You possessed the lamp and Aero soon followed. You two couldn't really move for a while, or else the whole illusion would be ruined. The house was dark as you all waited for the owners to get back. It seemed like forever, eventually you heard some distant noises, you assumed it was them, you were ready to pounce. The door to the room you were in opened, you heard some people talking as they came in. Now was your time to shine! SCARE TIME! You jumped out of the lamp and pulled a gruesome face. You thought you'd be scaring some normal homeowners, but when you took a proper look you realised it was a couple of police officers stood over you. "You're going downtown! We got a call about a house party and to think we almost left!" You fell out of the possession as fear covered you. You got herded out the door, before leaving you noticed Aero got out of the lamp, they blew you a kiss on your way out. It was kind of worth it.

You nodded but didn't respond. You didn't think it was cool but you didn't want to say anything that could've come across as mean. It's not your thing but I guess you don't have to be rude about it? Some crimes make sense, maybe you're just misunderstood on this one. The lights dimmed as the main event was about to begin. Aero grabbed your arm again and started leading you to another room, you assumed something was about to happen. "Okay I'm going to possess this lamp!! Hide!" Maybe this was fun? You're on lookout, make sure nobody gets caught. You hid under the bed in the centre of the room. You waited for a while before you heard the front door open. Soon to follow was the door to the room you were in. You thought it was the homeowners coming back but you heard a walkie talkie and assumed it was the police. If you move from your spot you'd ruin it for the whole gang. You stayed as still as you possibly could. You weren't entirely sure why you were doing this but whatever, you were and it was too late to back out now. You waited for a while until you were sure they were gone. You got out from under the bed and called for Aero. "I think I'm going to go now, thanks for inviting me in!" you whispered Aero looked sad that you were leaving but respected your decision, they kissed your cheek as you left. You gave them your number and blushed as you left the house. You hoped they would call you. You'd not had that much fun in a while. Although you're going to get yelled at by your boss, it was worth it.