“Alright diesel, time for you to go back into the closet.”

  Fortunately, all three slept solemnly without anything to worry about; mostly on diesel, but they weren’t relatively worried about her getting hurt since they were all together last night. If they keep it up at this pace then they wouldn’t get caught, which was their main purpose.

  Endowing diesel with crackers and water, the usual essentials, the two boys get themselves ready before going to school. They were planning on doing more investigating, obviously with an internet-savvy classmate of theirs to help them at least get somewhere with the investigation, and then hopefully come back home to diesel not outside the perimeters of the elder boy's bedroom.

  “Let’s hope another anomaly doesn’t fall in front of us.”

  “True.”

  “I can’t tell if you took that seriously or not…”

  “Huh?”

  “...”

  The younger friend sped-walked away from his friend.

  Upon reaching their school, the two boys had found the tech-savvy classmate they were going to commence their investigation with. Just by looking at each other, they unanimously agreed to go up to him during their free time, or after school.

  But would they be able to?

  During their congregation after school, when they were able to get some free time to ask for help, the elder boy was very apprehensive; again, mostly on diesel. But this time, he was fidgeting a lot, unable to get rid of this burdensome gut feeling that something is somehow wrong. He didn’t tell his younger friend because that would only worry him, if it even would, but he knew that he and his friend made sure everything was perfect. Diesel has her necessities, she was confined in his room, she was positively comfortable, and overall relatively well provided for. He just couldn’t help feeling that something was wrong. Regardless, he didn’t want to ruin this opportunity after learning that their tech-savvy classmate doesn’t come to school often.

  Not much was uncovered other than the fact there were more appearances of the deformed baby, slowly becoming more altered, near more dead bodies before fully disappearing. Both the elder and younger friend glanced at each other knowing why she fully disappeared. As for the rest, again, it was redundant and pretty much unsolicited news regarding people and their animosity against police when it comes to anomalies.

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  Thanking the tech-savvy classmate, the both of them paraded back home, passing by junkies lacking propriety, the elderly propensity to display their inclement emotions, police patrolling the area, and families bonding earnestly. And yet all these people don’t realize anomalies are real. Don’t realize one elder boy lowering his head down almost like he is shameful for something, and the youngest trying to assimilate amidst the crowd while hiding something confidential.

  While one is apprehended by the imaginary tenacity of their gazes, the towns folks didn’t care, they were just boys walking home.

  Looking slightly above him, glancing at his elder friend, that’s when he noticed something was up, and out of concern asked him what’s wrong. The elder boy fervently looked around making sure nobody was near before confiding with his friend.

  “I just can’t help but think something happened to Diesel…”

  The younger boy scratching his chin: “I’m sure she’s fine. I’ll buy you a drink to calm your nerves down a little.”

  The elder boy nodded before gesturing to continue walking home.

  The younger boy felt a little dejected, since he was also planning on getting a drink for himself too, but his friend’s feelings matter more. You might as well call him considerate.

  Resuming their walk they finally reached their destination, and once again, the elder boy was enveloped in trepidation again. He didn’t want to step foot inside, let alone open the door, anxious he might see diesel loose and creating a ruckus, or blood… no, he mustn’t think like that. He’ll only create sleepless nights for himself, besides, it’s not like diesels visage will change in such a short duration of time. It’s not like time elapses that quickly for her to start becoming more unamiable, technically, he doesn’t know whether she’s friendly or not, ‘it’ just accepted his embrace somehow. Surely she’ll start conforming to humanity once she’s used to them, for sure.

  The elder boy continues to stand in front of the door, hesitant to open it. Seeing the situation, the younger boy tries to ameliorate his friend's frantic state. Grabbing his arm, he starts soothingly speaking to him, reassuring that everything will be alright, and joking around how the reserved, studious elder is all of a sudden breaking his character.

  “If you want, can I take care of it until you’re stable enough to take her back?”

  “No, it's fine, you have a dog. Don’t want to put your pet in potential danger.”

  The younger boy shrugged, still not convinced that diesel will do anything. He opened the door creating suspense for his elder friend who was not relieved from the stress he was feeling. To his surprise, the house was kept well. The boys entered their humble abode worry free, now the only thing they had to check up on is diesel.

  Going upstairs, they checked every corner just in case she came out of the bedroom, but everything was still normal. All the doors upstairs were closed and untouched, finally making the elder boy calm his nerves. Everything was normal. His room was normal. But where was diesel? The panic settled in between both boys. They started opening all the rooms, checking each and every crevice, and then they finally got to the bathroom.

  Centered in the middle of the bathroom tiles, diesel was present, adjacent to vomit with discrepancy to normal human vomit; a thick consistency. Following the vomit, there was a single finger covered in the residue of the vomit.

  “Oh shit…”