Chapter 4.

Hi

Chapter 4.

***

Willow quickly dropped the ticket on the counter and gave it a horrid look.

She summoned the courage and walked over the counter after grabbing the ticket.

"Just cappuccino?" Piper was talking to the customer who nodded without looking up at her as she was engrossed with whatever she was doing with her phone.

"Hey! Piper!" She called out to her who was still attending to the customer.

But Piper did not hear her as she jotted down what the customer wanted in a small book.

"Is that all? Ma'am?" Piper asked as this time, the customer looked up at her.

"Yes, can you just go and get on with it?" The lady spoke with her shrill voice.

"I am sorry ma'am, I will get on with it right away"

"Do not call me ma'am, I am just 26!" The customer scowled at her as she nodded.

"I am sorry," with that, she left the customer as other customers were staring at her while she fixed her gaze on her cellphone.

Willow studied the customer as her red hair reminded her of the red-headed nurse. The girl had freckles on her cheeks and Willow noticed that her teeth were with braces with she responded to Piper.

"Weird" she murmured and walked up to Piper who was preparing the coffee for the red-headed saucy girl.

"Hey, Piper! What's up with the redhead? I noticed you annoyed her on purpose" Willow spoke to her as she smiled.

"Yeah, you are right. Bitch was concentrating on her phone when I was talking to her. I wanted to see her ugly face"  She giggled as Willow rolled her eyes.

"You are just being overdramatic" 

"And, Piper, I would like to talk to you when you are back"

"Yeah, sure. I would be right back. I have to give these to the bitch,"  She winked and took the tray of cappuccino to the red-headed girl.

"Here you go" she dropped it on her table and left.

Willow waited at the counter until Piper returned, she glanced at Hazel and Billy who were attending to other customers.

Piper started cleaning the water on the counter with a towel as Willow watched her.

"So, go on. What do you want to talk about?'

"Yeah! Right. It is about the Halloween show, I think-- I think I would like to tag along" she confessed as Piper stopped what she was doing almost immediately and glanced at Willow.

"Are you sure about that? Don't just pull my legs, young lady. Some minutes ago, you were indifferent" she continued what she was doing.

"Piper! Look at me!" Piper stopped what she was doing again and looked straight into Willow's eyes as she brought out the ticket from her jean pocket.

"I am serious. I want to attend this show" 

"Okay," Piper gave her a weird look as she remembered how crazy Willow could be after she told them about the mysterious masked doctor and the corpses at the hospital.

"So, what made you change your mind?"

"Piper, this ticket. I know this ticket. Because I held one three years ago. This was the same ticket my sister gave to me the night she went missen. She asked me to be her partner, I blatantly refused. It was this same ticket. And Samara told me that the show was to start at 9 PM. Now take a look at the time of the show on the ticket" Willow was so serious as she showed an uninterested Piper the ticket.

Piper did not want to hurt her feelings, so, she just glanced at the ticket to see what Willow was showing her.

"Do you know that man that gave you the ticket? Maybe if I talk to him, he might know what happened to my si--"

"Come on, Willow! How do you expect me to know that man that smelt like the devil himself? Did you see him? That is absurd!"

"Yeah, you are right" she cast her face down.

Piper studied her and folded her arms. She sucked in air and sighed.

"Okay, so, what is your point?"

"If I go to the show, I might find out what happened to my sister. I know so" she blurted out as Piper concluded in her heart that Willow was losing her insanity.

"Were you given any pills from the hospital?" She asked.

"What?" 

"Did you take your medication this morning?'

" I do not understand. Are you trying to suggest that, I am going insane?" Willow was hurt.

Piper noticed that the customers were now interested in their conversation as she held Willow's hand and they went over the counter.

"Willow darling. I am trying to look out for you. I am not saying that you are insane or something. I am just scared"

"You are talking about an innocent ticket as if the show had something to do with your sister or something. The cops said that she might have eloped, I see nothing in a harmless ticket. Please, Willow, you have to take it easy on yourself" 

Willow was surprised that Piper would say a thing like this as she just stared into space without uttering a word.

"Last night at the hospital, you spoke about a masked doctor and some corpses, white skin, green veins, and black spots with some sort of chemicals I do not know about. But when we broke into the room, there was nothing there. Can't you see I am just trying to help you?"

A flicker of tears ran down her cheeks as she sniffed and wiped it off.

Piper handed her a tissue which she refused to take. She breathed down and held Willow on her shoulders.

"Listen to me, Willow. I am your friend, let me help you. We are going back to the hospital after work today. You really need medical attention" Piper suggested ad Willow flinched.

"I am not going back to that damn hospital. I know what I saw and I can swear that I was not hallucinating. If you do not believe me, at least I do trust and believe in myself."

"Something is going on in that damn hospital! Here! Take a look at this!' She said and removed her shoes and placed her foot on a stool as Piper watched her.

She removed her stockings and removed the plaster too.

Piper flinched when she saw that the sole of her foot was decaying. It had green maggots coming out of it now.

"How would I explain a thing like this to anyone? If it gets worse, I might have to get my leg amputated!" 

Willow noticed the terror written on Piper's face and scoffed.

"Do you see that I am not crazy now? You were there last night, this wound was fresh as I was pierced by the broken pieces of glasses on the floor. You saw the nurse take care of the wound with her first aid kit. She even used methylated spirit on it and--"

(Was that thing a methylated spirit?) She thought as Piper was just starting at the decaying foot weirdly.

"I do not know what the hell is going on. But I think we need to get rid of these maggots" Piper was in terror as she left Willow who was deep in thought.

She tried to remember the color of the chemical that the masked doctor was mixing.

"Doctor Richard" she murmured under her breath as Piper walked up to her and placed a bowl of warm water on the counter, she made Willow sit on a stood as she used a towel, dipped into the warm water, then she started using it to clean the decayed part.

She used scissors from the first aid box she brought and started using them to carefully pick out the green maggots from the sore.

"I am sorry" She muttered when she saw Willow wincing her face.

"It was not this bad this morning, it just kept spreading"

Hazel walked up to where they were as she dropped the plastic cups she was holding in a waste bin.

"For the love of Mike!" She exclaimed when she saw the maggots that Piper was carefully placing in a goblet.

"Billy! Come over here please!" She exclaimed before she could stop herself.

"What the hell happened to your foot?" She blurted out as she ran and puked into one of the sinks.

"I know it is nasty" Willow shrugged as Piper used a ball of cotton wool, dipped in methylated spirit to dress the sore.

"Look at that!" Billy was taken aback at what he saw.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"I will be fine"

"Well, you do not look like someone that would be fine!"

He took the goblet that had the maggots and studied how they were dancing inside the goblet.

"I have never seen anything like it before"

"What the hell is this?" He murmured and took the goblets, and began walking away.

"What do you want to do with that?" Hazel who was still puking, managed to say.

"I have to take this to the lab and study. I have not seen anything of this nature before" he left as Piper finally dressed up the wound and bandaged it.

"That would hold for a little while. We have to be checking it from time to time to remove the maggots and we would have to take care of it before it gets bad" Piper spoke as she washed her hands while Willow wore her socks. She began putting on her shoe.

"Thanks," she murmured to Piper who was cleaning the place up. She glanced over at Hazel whose face had become pale and white.

"You would be fine" she patted her back as they heard the bell at the door ring.

"I would take that," Willow said and walked to the door only to meet the boss.

"Oh my Gosh, Willow. I never knew you would come to the shop today. How are you feeling now? Are you okay?"

He quickly turned to Piper who was coming out from the counter.

"Is she okay?" He asked her as Piper was busy cleaning her wet hands on a towel.

"Hi, boss. I am right here, standing in front of you. And I am fine" she smiled and Hazel and Piper relieved him of what he was carrying.

"Come here!" He pulled Willow to a hug as she shone her eyes. That had never happened before.

She knew that their Boss who was in his mid-thirties and who also has a wife and a little girl of 4, was in love with her. But she kept making sure that she ignore his feelings.

"Did you see the flowers I sent you? I am sorry I could not come to the hospital. Well, you were discharged quite early. I was hoping to come and check out on you today"

"Oh, I was just tired of the hospital. And yes, Hazel gave me the flowers, it was lovely." She smiled.

"I am glad you are here anyway" she was just hoping he would stop with the pleasantries as she was getting uncomfortable.

Her joy could not be overemphasized when the doorbell rang. She quickly rushed to attend to the customer before Piper would do that.

"You are welcome sir," she smiled at the customer and heaved a sigh of relief.

***

Work at the coffee shop was over that day as they entered into Billy's car except for Willow of course, who insisted that she wants to ride on her bicycle even when Billy suggested that the bicycle should be kept in the booth of his car and she should enter the car.

She blatantly refused.

"Willy, you have a sore on your foot" Piper had reminded her.

"I know, and I am fine. Race you guys to the shop!" She winked and started riding ahead of them.

"Come on, let us go. Bitch is crazy!" Piper sat properly in the car as Billy ignited the engine.

When they got to the mall, they saw Willow's bicycle parked right outside. Then they alighted from the car and started walking toward the mall.

At the outside of the mall was a huge scarecrow that had the head of a pumpkin.

Billy hit the head of the pumpkin and it made Piper and Hazel laugh.

"Come on, let us get the damn costume!" They entered the mall.

"Where the hell is Willow?" Hazel asked as Piper walked up to a costume she liked.

She took the scary pumpkin costume and started fitting herself in.

"You want that?' Billy asked.

"Nah! I am just checking it out" she returned as Hazel walked around the mall until she saw a Nun deluxe costume.

"Come to mama" she smiled.

***

Willow walked around the mall as she was looking for the type of costume her sister wore three years ago before she got missen.

She walked to one of the sales girls at the counter and inquired.

"Umm... Please excuse me. Where can I get a Maleficent Costume set?"

Without looking up at her, the salesgirl responded.

"At the third row"

"Okay, thank you!" She muttered as her eyes darted to a ticket on the counter.

She gazed at it for a while as she noticed it was the same ticket as hers, there were two of the tickets lying on the counter.

"Excuse me, where did you get that?" She asked pointing at the tickets and this time, the sales girl looked up at her.

"Do you want one? I was asked to come with a partner. My kid brother, Joel would not be able to come with me because he is sick of the flu"

"Oh, no. I have mine too. A friend of mine invited me. And I am sorry for your brother's illness" The sales girl was now interested in her.

"I was just wondering, I would like to see who is issuing the tickets" 

"Oh" The sales girl frowned at her.

"He has something that belongs to me" she added as the salesgirl wondered what type of business she would have with a man like that and gave her a bizarre look.

"Okay. He just left, if you could hurry up, you would catch up wi--"

"Thank you!" Willow left her before she could complete her speech.

"Hmm, strange!" The salesgirl shrugged and continued what she was doing.

She raced outside as some thoughts ran through her head.

(If I could meet him, if I ask him politely, he might have a clue of what happened to Samara) she thought.

"Watch it! Will you?!" A guy which she bumped into yelled at her.

"I'm sorry!" She said without looking back as she got outside the mall.

She looked around the busy street as her gaze finally fell on the short thickset man who was waiting for a taxi. He was still putting on that same black cloak and that creepy bowl hat and was waving the stick that seemed like a magic wand to cabs that were driving by.

***

TBC