｡˚⛓˚｡⋆. CROWBONES

"Our meeting time is 10 PM. So, where the fuck are they?"

Dior scratched her hair in annoyance because of her friends who were not yet in their meeting place. The squad decided that they would meet at 10 PM at the store near the notorious haunted house called Crowbones.

The squad loves challenges... And of course, they would not pass up the opportunity to enter the most famous haunted house in Metro Manila.

At this point, the squad should be more afraid of their friend, Dior, who is currently erupting in anger.

"Hades got stuck in traffic," Prada answered while holding her phone. Hades was on the other end of the line.

"Apollo told me that he's with Hades, Gucci, and Tiffany," Hérmes reassured his friends — especially to Chanel and Dior who had their brows furrowed.

"Where did you even find out about Crowbones?" Chanel asked as she crossed her hands. Even though she was used to it, she hated it when Hades was late. She had to get a bottle of water from the side before she got angry.

"It trended noong isang araw," Prada said. "Everyone who dared going there never came out daw."

"What?!" Chanel choked on her water. Ares was quick to give the girl tissue. "You're telling me there's a chance we can't get out too?!"

"Chill..." Dior chuckled while comforting the latter. However, it was quite ironic for her to say that especially since she was really annoyed just earlier. "It's a challenge for us, Chanel!"

"Did you not look at the tweet Ares sent last night?" Zeus asked before sipping a drink from his San Mig Light beer. "Hay, Chanel."

"I slept after Apollo bid goodnight," Chanel answered. Silence then engulfed them. Among all of them, it was only Chanel who was worried. It was not in her plans to enter a haunted house to celebrate the end of the school year.

"We're here!" Apollo greeted while carrying a... Cooler?!

"Why the heck do we have a cooler?!" Chanel was frantic because she could not wrap her head around the reason why her friend had a fucking cooler. The girl scoffed in disbelief as she saw the smiling faces of her friends.

"Did you not see the GC?" Tiffany asked after Ares greeted her with a peck on the cheek. "We promised that we'll drink the beers in Crowbones!"

"Why, Chanel?" Gucci asked. "Are you scared?"

Hades' eyes immediately darted to Chanel, wherein it was evident that the latter was avoiding his. They were really not prepared to face each other after everything that happened.

"Should we just hold this off?" It would take a fool to not notice gaano ang pag-aalala ni Hades kay Chanel. "We can just go to another place. Poblacion! Or Tomas Morato?"

"No," Chanel did not even think twice. "Let's go."

While the squad celebrated, Hades could only sigh. The ten friends then prepared to leave and head to Crowbones.

"You know what..." Apollo started as they all began to walk. "I did not see the GC after I slept so I have no idea what we're going to do today. But you said that Chanel is scared!"

"We're actually going to visit your twin," Dior teased. Just as what they expected, the banters were going to start. "His face is really scary."

"Only my twin looks scary!" Apollo really held on to what he said which is why the majority furrowed their brows.

"You're so fucking stupid." Hérmes rolled his eyes and massaged his forehead. Apollo still did not know why, though.

There's no trace of fear visible in the squad because of their courage to head over to a place without any light or people to even ask directions to.

"Do we have flashlights?" Ares looked at them. By instinct, he stood at the back of the group while Chanel positioned herself in front, especially since they both stood as the squad's parents.

"Don't tell me we'll use our phones!" Prada panicked. She actually forgot to charge her phone before coming here.

"Team Doraemon has flashlights here," Hades answered before opening his bag full of flashlights.

"Team Doraemon?" Gucci curiously muttered while clinging on to Zeus.

"For your information, guys," Apollo interjected. "We were late earlier because we made sure that we brought everything we needed here. It's better to be prepared!"

"Safe sex, guys!" Hades and Zeus chanted which made Gucci and Prada look away in shame. Chanel blushed at that, especially when her ex just mentioned sex.

"Honestly, I don't know why the fuck are they my friends," Dior whispered to Tiffany. Ares, who was just beside them, laughed upon hearing it.

"I have a feeling Dior is talking shit about us," Hades jokingly accused. "I thought she's just like that only when playing Valo!"

"You're all shits." And of course, Hérmes is Dior's knight in shining armor, who is vowed to shield her from any accusations. He was head over heels for her.

While some of them were exchanging banters, Ares silently distributed the flashlights from Hades' bag. It was better to be safe for them.

After a few minutes, they continued walking. Heck, they don't even know what the said haunted house looked like.

"Fuck, we're walking for miles," Apollo complained as he looked around. "I thought the store was just near the haunted house?"

"Who even decided that we'll meet by the store?" Gucci nervously asked. Her asthma was slowly creeping up out of fear.

"Prada!" "Zeus!" "Tiff!"

And then, blame was thrown left and right.

"Stop it!" Chanel mediated. "We won't get anything out of blaming each other. Let's keep moving. Do we have a GPS? Team Doraemon?"

With that, the squad looked at their phones.

"Ask us first if we have phone service," Zeus sighed.

They had no choice but to walk until they could find any sign of life or structure. Because as of now, only streets were in sight. The road was even far more scarier than the haunted house.

"Is it just me or are there too many crows?" Prada whispered.

"Let's just go home. What do you think, guys?" Tiffany suggested. She felt something was wrong. "We can just go to BGC. That'll suffice, right?"

No matter how she tried to put up her strong shield, her voice was evidently laced with fear. It felt weird for her... Tiffany Lamanie was always up for challenges.

"I agree," Ares sided with his girlfriend. "Let's go back here some other time?"

"G!"

And with that, the group set trail back to the store. It was another hour of torture for them because of how far everything was. To ease the boredom, they opted to gossip.

"I heard a guy from Applied Mathematics is interested with Prada," Dior said. "Lucas is the name?"

"That's my friend...." Hades butted in before looking at Prada. "Is he flirting with you?"

"Ynigo too!" Gucci blurted out. "He's asking me Prada's number. But don't worry! I didn't give it."

"I'm not interested, okay?" Prada let out a small laugh. "I'm not healed yet."

It was as if bad air passed which made everyone silent. All of them know so well the reason why Prada was wrecked. It was a memory they wanted to bury in the depths of Earth.

"Fuck," Apollo stopped to catch his breath. "I'm tired. We have been walking for almost two hours now."

Because of that, the group decided to pause and rest for a while before continuing walking. It felt like they were walking for days.

"You want water?" Dior offered Hérmes. The boy smiled before shaking his head.

Hérmes did not pass up the chance to look around and observe the place they were in currently.

His lips parted with what he noticed.

"There's something wrong..." The groups' heads shot up with what Hérmes said. Goosebumps enveloped their bodies when the boy pointed at the crows in the nearest tree.

"We have been passing by this street hundreds of times. They're the same crows we saw for the past two hours."

In just a snap, everything turned dark. The only thing they heard before fainting was...

Let the crows kiss your death.