Chapter 38

Three-sentence synopsis: A thoroughly freaked-out Kris (due to ghost stories with Tao and Chen the night before) follows Leigh to the convenience store because he's too scared to go by himself.  Leigh returns to find Chen sleeping in the bathroom as he's too scared to face ninja-Tao in his bedroom.  Tao eventually calms down and then walks in on Leigh in the shower, which gives him almost as bad a freakout as ghost stories, and he goes running off to tell Kris.

1. The deal with Kris, Tao, Chen and things to do with ghosts: (fandom joke) Even if you haven't watched Showtime, you probably already know that Tao's scared of ghosts and the like.  Kris, like Tao, doesn't fare well in haunted houses, whereas Chen just doesn't get freaked out at all.

2. The Ring: (The Ring reference) The Ring is a 2002 American remake of a 1998 Japanese horror film called Ring or Ringu based on a 1991 Japanese book by the same name.  Most people agree that the Japanese version is scarier and freakier (some say marginally while others say hugely), but both have their... is "merits" the right word for the horror genre?  Either way, one or the other usually makes its way onto lists of "best/top X/scariest horror movies of all time", and you really don't want to watch either one alone in the dark, especially if you remember the time of video tapes or actually have a few knocking about your house still.  Bearing in mind that The Ring (take your pick for which version) is widely regard