It had been an hour since then and yet, the girls, all except Kana, still couldn't stop laughing. Gwen was in tears, Stacy holding her belly, Susan trying her best to stop and Jane still muttering between her laughs,
"Did you see his face !! Did you see it?!?"
Kana sighed, it would take months before this incident could be forgotten. She was all clean now, and softly wishing no one else saw her. It didn't matter actually, no one would believe Steve, and her friends wouldn't tell anyone, but then she remembered Steve's disgusted face and thought,
Well, at least one good thing did come out of it, Steve won't be bothering me anymore.
"Are you enjoying yourselves ??"
The laughter ceased immediately. The girls snapped their heads in search of the owner of that cold voice. A voice so cold, it seemed like death itself. So plain, so dry, a wasted source. An old man stood behind them, too close for comfort.
"Why don't you girls help me out, my stall's not getting a lot of customers.", he said, this time, in an almost normal voice.
The girls looked at each other, unsure, and as if it were rehearsed, all of them looked at Kana at the same time.
"Come on, did I scare you all enough already ???"
Kana sighed, she knew it was an obvious provoke.
"Yes",she said,"Yes, you did."
The old man looked a bit disappointed.
As he turned to leave, Jane spoke up, more out of pity than curiosity.
"Wait, what stall are you from??"
The old man looked exited again.
"It's just around the corner. Come along !!"
He began trotting away. The girls looked at Kana, 'just around the corner' was a phrase she warned her friends about numerous times. Person 'A' would invite someone around the corner where there was a high probability for an ambush or an abduction. It looked too unrealistic at first, but the girls actually did face an encounter once. It was only because they were aware of the ambush that they could get away, or they would have been unaware organ donors by now.
Even so, sometimes, it was really not an ambush, so Kana began following him.
Around the corner was indeed the stall they were promised, "Maximilian's Mind Mystique".
"I know, I know, such a weird name, right?? I cringe too every time I see it. Just call me Max."
"So, what are you??", Stacy asked.
"Truth be told, I was once a child entertainer. I just loved children so very much. The problem was, I couldn't have any. Well if you do want to know my story, you can come inside."
The girls looked at each other.
"Well, why not ??", Gwen said, "We have nothing better to do anyways."
"So I decided to be a teacher. I was a qualified one too. If you want, you can look in that cupboard over there. All my qualifications are in there. Anyways, what then happened was an infection. It almost took away my throat, but the docs were able to help and I got this really cool voice instead. You heard it right?? The scary one. That gave me an idea to open up a little scare shop. And lo, here I am."
"So you're a fake??"
"Well you could say that, but let me tell you how I work. No, I have a better idea. Let me show you."
Max lead the girls behind a curtain in his stall. "This is where the magic happens..."
The room behind the curtain was filled with monitors and cables, the girls were awed.
"Lately, no one comes here, so I decided to close this thing down and go work for Cambridge."
"What !?!?"
"It's true, I have already been accepted to teach there, so I just wanted to share my secret here with someone. Look!! Someone's coming!!"
The girls looked at where he was pointing, a monitor, that showed six kids in front of the tent they were in. Kana recognized all of them, they were all school mates.
"Watch what I do from here."
Max stepped out from the curtained room and welcomed all of them inside. He told them all to take a seat. Pillows on the floor.
Max began in morose voice.
"Listen, don't tell me why you're all here, I already know. For now just sit in this room. I'll be back."
The group of four guys and two girls looked around, smirking, it was obvious they all came here to try and expose a fake.
Max came back in the room full of technology and put on a pair of headphones. He pointed to a gadget with many earphone jocks. The girls quickly used their own.
He played back the recording of them discussing in front of his stall, and then googled all the names he heard on a different monitor. Then he saw some footage of the group from an earlier time.
The girls were impressed. He was going to use the information they uploaded online against them.
And it wasn't technically spying too, it was all within legal boundaries.
After noting down several points and surfing several websites, Max made his was back to the gathered group.
"Whom should I begin with ??"
