Kris and I sat by the game machines just watching his mother from a distance. From here, we could see that she was trying hard to smile and maintain a happy face for all the players on her table but she was tired.

“Let’s go,” Kris said and stood up, heading towards the others.

I followed after him and he pulled Chanyeol, Xiumin and Kai has he walked past. Lay was already at the exit.

“Are you not going to say anything to your mum, Kris?” Lay asks.

“There’s nothing to say to her.”

Then we left the casino and back into the open air but it was as equally as busy as it was inside. Kris walked ahead while the others followed. I trailed behind, tired and hungry.

“Kris, where are we going?” Chanyeol asked, his shoulders slumped forward from fatigue.

“I have no idea.”

We somehow wandered into a shabby, grungy area where buildings were worn down and isolated. Graffiti painted every corner of the walls and overgrown weed littered every part of visible soil. Something didn’t feel right when we walked past an alleyway. Before I could turn around to see what was lurking behind me, something hard swung around my head, knocking me over and then everything was blurry. I could still hear voices, all five of them including the sounds of fists and metal poles being thrown around. The throbbing pain was getting louder and louder in the back of my head, I reached back to touch it, only to see it covered in blood.

After a while, the fighting #stopped, and then there was only silence, then a sob.  

“Mum.”

It was Kris’s voice. What happened?

“Raine, are you alright?” Lay asked, “I’m so sorry, there were so many of them so I had to put you down here in – omg, you’re bleeding.”

Kai ran over and got me onto Lay’s back. We ran over to where Kris was but by the time we got there, his body has faded, leaving only his face slightly visible.

“Bye,” he said, before disappearing altogether.

I didn’t understand what happened but my sight was out of focus and then I out.

When I woke up, I was in my bed in the café. The back of my head was still hurting but there was a bandage around it. Lay was asleep on the chair beside me, his head resting on my hand. I moved a little and the bed creaked, waking him up.

“You’re awake, does your head hurt?” he asked.

“It’s alright,” I said quietly, “Is Kris…”

“Yeah, he’s gone.”

“What happened?”

“We were walking around the area but someone attacked you. They were ‘ghosts’ like us, living between life and the afterlife. We must have stepped into their territory or something but there was a fight. Don’t worry, no one was hurt. During the fight, Kris’s mum walked past the alleyway. I guess we were visible because his mum saw. Kris turned around to see her but one of the guys had a metal pole in his hand. He was about to hit Kris but his mum ran forward and it hit her instead.”

“Is she…”

“She didn’t make it.”

I closed my eyes in disbelief. It all happened in such a short time span.

“Is Raine alright now?”

I opened my eyes to see Kai standing at the end of the bed. Xiumin and Chanyeol came in afterwards.

“I’m fine,” I answered, “I’m so sorry about Kris.”

“It was unexpected,” Xiumin said, “I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly, one second she was at the end of the alleyway and next she was on the floor covered in blood.”

“At least Kris saw his mother and said goodbye before he left too,” Chanyeol added sadly.

There was a moment of silence. Everyone was quiet but not for long. The book sitting on the bedside table flicked open and a simple pencil drawing appeared. It was map.

They all gathered around and looked at the map. There was a little red dot in the middle of the page.

“Are we supposed to go there?” Kai asked.

Before anyone knew what to say, the word ‘yes’ appeared on the opposite page.

“I guess we do need to go there then,” Xiumin said.

As soon as he said that, a timer appeared underneath the word ‘yes’. There was two hours.

“Can you come with us?” Lay asked me with a worried look on his face.

“I can, it doesn’t hurt that much,” I assured him and stepped off the bed and slipped on my shoes.

“I’m getting old guys, too much adventure for my age is giving me a backache,” Xiumin said jokingly but continued to walk down the stairs.

“This place isn’t that far,” Lay said, “I think I know where it is.”

Sorry everyone, it has been so long but I'll try and update more. It's nearing the end anyways.