"I feel like I'm trapped in a pastry shop. It's a nightmare. At first, I was keen on the idea of three chefs being here to bake to their hearts content. But do they have to do it all night, too?" Kevyn said standing outside of the cafeteria with Pricilla, Andar, Shyko and a few other campers.

"It's like a concert of sweet smells. Who knew this sort of haunting from ghosts would be so entertaining," Shyko added with a broad smile. "I want a lesson in baking. It's got to be better than the routine I've been doing to get to sleep. It's making me seem OCD. But I'm not. I thought if I did everything precisely the same way at the same time I'd trick my brain into boredom and fall asleep and stay asleep and hopeful not sleepwalk for a change. I know I was betting too much on such a thing. But I was out of any good more helpful ideas. It's said, 'baking is good for the soul'. Might help with my parasomnia a bit," she shrugged one of her shoulders as she entered the cafeteria.

"The cafeteria is supposed to be locked up for the night," Andar said to the ghost chefs as he followed behind Shyko.

Mixing bowls with stirring spoons moved through the air like a spider building its web. The dual oven on, opening and closing. Aprons moving about in synchronization in the only way three chefs who've been in a kitchen with each other many times before, doing simultaneous baking projects could do. Flour, butter and other ingredients being added with strategy on a sixpence of air and space as if this were a show of marionettes on Broadway. Pots and pans brewing with confections all the while clattering, banging and clanging away with the baking utensils like a garbage band's debut.

"Can you teach me how to bake? Or do we start with baking etiquette first?" Shyko asked.

"Are you kidding?" Andar asked.

Shyko glanced over her shoulder at Andar. "No."

"They're baking all hours of the night with no regard for the rest of us."

"Stop making a fuss. They're not going to be here long. I want to learn something new."

Andar groaned and folded his arms.

"Hi, I'm Shyko," she said with a wave, but afterwards turning away sheepishly a bit embarrassed she was greeting thin air.

"I'm Benjamina Kafoshi," a young woman's voice said with a twirl of the spoon as if it were a wand and she was casting a spell.

"Selasi Herry. At your service, Miss," a young man said removing his chef's hat, taking Shyko by the hand and kissing it. Shyko shuddered even though the gentlemanly act was like a breeze or a butterfly touching her.

"Rosegf Stybbs. If you want to be a student of baking, you'd better start with the basics," another young man said getting a carton of eggs from the fridge, open the carton taking one egg and cracking it in such a way as if it were an art form to it.

"What's it like to be bakers in the afterlife?" Shyko asked.

"We get a bit restless. And baking helps. Without it the afterlife is pretty boring for us," Benjamina answered.

Pricilla whispered to Kevyn. "What do you say we go to the show and support Stevfan?"

"Sounds good." Kevyn gestured to Andar to come over. "Do you want to join us to see the show live and support one of our best mates?"

"Absolutely. It has to be better than being round this lot," Andar whispered, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder.

"You think she'll be all right in there?" Kevyn asked.

"Yeah, she's comfortable," Andar said glancing over his shoulder at Shyko smiling from ear to ear.

Several hours later, the game show started again.

"We're back and Monasugar is in the lead with one-hundred twenty points answering correctly twelve out of twenty questions within a total of one minute. Violynn in second place with one-hundred points answering correctly ten out of twenty questions within a total of fifty seconds. Stevfan in last place with eighty points with eight questions answered correctly out of twenty questions within a total of forty seconds. We'll up the ante. This time it'll be forty questions to answer instead of twenty. Each trivia question answered correctly within fifteen second intervals will be worth twenty points. Since Monasugar is ahead he'll chose the first question. This is the last round. This is only an hour show. Will either of them be able to do it? Who will be the first to get four-hundred points? Good luck, contestants!" the robot host Mubry said as the players' game screens flashed with their existing scores before becoming solid on display.

The ball read the question Monasugar picked. "What movie on April 26, 2019 was released in theatres, breaking many box office records and becoming the highest grossing movie of all time?"

Well done, Monasugar choosing a question from the future, Stevfan thought as the timed ticked away.

I should know this one my family and I had distant future movie tickets to go to the cinema to see it. Why can't I remember? I feel so stupid. I shouldn't have picked this question, Monasugar debated. A beep sounded startling him to attention, signaling his fifteen seconds timed out.

"Violynn, Stevfan you haven't timed out yet either one of you can steal," the robotic host interjected.

I've never been to the future. I don't know. After this, I'll plan a trip to go might be a bit of fun, Violynn conceptualized as five seconds passed on her timer.

"Avengers Endgame," Stevfan said going in for the steal.

"Correct," the ball confirmed.

"Stevfan has one-hundred points," the host announced.

I remember my cooking class took me to the future on a day pass for my seventeenth birthday to see that movie at the cinema, Stevfan recalled.

Pricilla, Andar and Kevyn got there when all the rounds of the game finished and a winner announced.

"Since Stevfan was the first to get four-hundred points, he'll be the first to make his dish. Each contestant will have one-hour to prepare and make their dish. Each dish will go through a select blind judging panel. Whoever's dish is picked as the winner by the judges will receive the $10,000 cash prize," the host of the show said at the end of the game.

The live show went off the air and as the live audience left, Violynn scoffed. "What? This is was just an elaborate way of tossing a coin to see who goes first to make their dish. This game show was never about winning the money," she said with disdain, her arms folded and brows furrowed.

"Correct," the host answered.

"I wish I could sue for the time I wasted in this scheme," Monasugar said sighing with a groan.

"It's not a scheme. The rules were clear. It's your fault if you misunderstood," one of the producers said to Monasugar.

"I must admit I feel duped as well. But now that I think about it, it did specify To compete for the monetary prize each contestant must answer correctly a series of trivia questions and make a unique dish which will be blindly judged by the show's select judging panel. The first one to reach four-hundred points will have a chance to present their unique dish for judging and to win the money if their dish wins over the judges," Stevfan deduced.

"I suppose we three went a bit daft at the mention of money being involved," Violynn added.

"The limo is outside waiting to take you three back to the house. Go home and rest for five days. You've earned it," the producer told them.

Violynn and Monasugar headed for the limo.

"We're so proud of you," Kevyn said to Stevfan as she came up to him to give him a hug, followed by Andar and Pricilla.

"I haven't won anything really just first to do my dish."

"Yes, we overheard," Andar said patting him on the back. "Do you know what you're going to make?" he asked.

"Yes, I thought about it quite a lot before I first arrived here. Where's Shyko?" Stevfan asked.

"She's learning how to bake from the best," Pricilla said with a smile.

"I'm jealous of her already. If I'm lucky, I'll get a chance to bake with them. You three got to meet them. You must tell me what they're like in person."

"We'll leave that to you to form your own opinion about them," Andar said with an expressionless look on his face as Stevfan tried to study it.

"I'd better go. I hope to see you lot after this is finally over."

Almost a week later, the live baking competition began. A large timer hung from the ceiling to monitor each bakers timing on their dishes.

After three hours passed with each baker having an hour, the blind judging started. In a corporate meeting room in an attic of the house, upstairs were children. The gallery landing was sealed off from the lower floor and only accessed through the opposite side of the house. The ghost faery children and their living alien duplicates looked through a rounded viewfinder in the floor, big enough to see their dish but not the contestants themselves. Stevfan's was up first. Then Violynn since she gained three-hundred points in the game show. And Monasugar last.

"The results will be tallied and the winner will be announced tomorrow afternoon," the host Mubry said through the PA system. "Thank you, contestants. Goodnight."