Chapter 3

Stanley stayed there for a while and watched Jasmine until she finally disappears from his sight when suddenly he heard plastic sounds.

He begins to search where the sound came from. And saw a big black plastic bag moving. He approaches it.

"BOOM!" Harris startled her by shocking him with a wrapped black plastic bag all over his body.

"Woahhh!"

"Ahahahahaha! Look at your face. So, funny!" Harris said while laughing at Stanley's frightened face.

"Oh! crap! I almost had a heart attack..." Stanley said as he sits on the sand holding his chest.

"Hahaha! I'm sorry ... I just want to scare you because I saw you standing like crazy there." Harris said as he built him up from the ground "By the way, is there anyone here? You look like someone is looking..." he asked curiously.

"U-umm... Nothing... I just saw a cat climbing on the fence over there. So, I'm just watching that cat..." Stanley replied with a mixture of lying as he rubbed the dirt on his pants.

Harris wondered "A cat?" he said with mixed astonishment on his face.

Stanley swallowed quietly "Errr. Ya ... Something like that." He replied as he averted his eyes from Harris.

Harris seemed to be getting serious.

"What do you mean by the cat you saw? What color is that cat?"

"Wait, why do you seem interested huh? It's just an ordinary cat." Stanley replied as he looked back at Harris and tapped him on his left shoulder "Come on, let's try to open the door in front of your house with the use of that wrench that your holding." he added and marched towards the front door.

"I'm not kidding..."

Stanley stopped and faced him "Hey, what's your problem?" he asked as he walked back to Harris.

"Hahahaha! I got you again!"

"Geez! You are crazy! I think You should go to the mental hospital!" Stanley said with annoyance.

Harris did not respond as he seemed suddenly to be not on his self.

*Flashback*

A 7-year-old boy was happily playing on the playground until he noticed a kitten watching over him. He approached the cat and massage it's head "Hi there kitty, where's your mother and father? you should not be here alone..." he said to the kitten.

"Harris, honey! Let's go home now... It's getting dark already." Said Harri's mother.

"Ohh, yes mommy!" Harris aggressively replies "Bye Bye kitty... I hope we could see each other again. Go back to your mother and father okay?" He said to the kitten and run towards his mother.

Harris noticed that the kitten is following them while walking.

"Mom?"

"Yes, honey?"

Harris stopped walking as did his mother. He turned to the cat and marched towards it "Uhmm, Can I take this kitten to our house?" He asked with mixed pleading on his face.

His mother walks towards him and looked at the cat "Wow, what a cute kitten!" She said while petting the cat's head "Oh well, Yeah, sure honey. You can take this kitty in our house then." she said with a smile on her face.

"Yehey! Thank you, mommy! I promise I will take care of this kitten. I will name this kitten Murphy."!

2 years later

Murphy is 2 years old already while Harris was 10 years old at that time.

One day, at the grocery store, while shopping, they met a suspicious man. That man tried to take Harris's mother's belongings but, she resisted. The holder threatened his mother with a knife but, he did not scare her. The holder triggered and positioned himself to stab Harris's mother. Suddenly, Murphy jumped to catch the knife approaching Harris's mother. The cat sacrificed to save Harris' mother.

"MURPHY!!!" Harris shouts in shock as he witnessed what just happen to his lovely brave cat.

"M-m-murphy... Please wake up! Murphy..." he pleaded while crying and hugging his dead cat.

A few hours later Harris decided to bury Murphy in the vacant lot of their house on its side. After that, he's always looked at where Murphy was buried every morning after he woke up.

After 1 month, Harris dug into where Murphy was buried.

His 5-year-old sister approached him "Brother, what are you doing? Why are you digging murphy's tomb?" she asked with a teddy bear in her hand.

"M-Murphy!!!" Harris said in shock.

*Murphy's body was missing*

**********************

Jasmine and Lance are having too much fun in the bar. The two are dancing together like there's no tomorrow with other people. When they get tired they decided to sit down for a moment at the counter in front of the bartender and drink wine.

"Lance... Do you have a problem? Why did you suddenly invite me at this time? Have you not been like this before?" Jasmine asked with mixed surprise.

Lance stop in the middle of drinking the wine "Hmm? A problem? Ahaha! I don't have a problem. I just want to feel what's other people from this world are doing." he answered while smiling at Jasmine and continued to drink.

(Huh...? Other people from this world doing? What does he mean?) Jasmine said in her mind talks to his mind.

"Hey! Let's dance again!" Lance said and pulled Jasmine back to the dance floor.

Due to high tension, Jasmine bump with a guy while dancing "Oh! I'm sorry..." She said while bowing her head to the guy.

The guy smiled "It's okay..." he said "Please, don't bow your head" he added.

"Ohh, Ummm... Okay. I am sorry again."

The guy gesture to shake hands "By the way, I'm Marky and you?" he gently asked.

Jasmine accepts the handshake.

"I am Jasmine."

"Nice to meet you, Jasmine... Hope to see you again if there's a chance." Marky said with a smile written on his face.

"U-umm... Nice to meet you too, Marky."

*They smiled at each other*

***************

Stanley repeatedly tapped Harris because he noticed it was not in itself "Harris ?! Hey! Harris ?! Are you okay?" He shouted for Harris to hear it.

"Ah... HUH?! What? Why? What happened?" Harris said in shock.

"Silly! What happened to you? You suddenly became silent and blankly stare in space."

"Ohhh... Umm... Nothing Nothing. I just remember something" Harris said as he looks down and rubbed his eyes.

"I see...Let's go inside then. I think you're just tired."

"No, I'm not. Okay. Let's try to use this wrench on that door. Because that annoying sister of mine is deaf! does she not even hear someone is knocking. Geez!"

Stanley tried to open the door by using the wrench "Whew! Finally it opened!" he said happily.

"Oh! Good Good! Now, I will go upstairs to knock on the door of my deaf sister! Wait for me here..."

*Stanley grabbed Harris arm*

"Hey, I think she's sleeping already! Just let her sleep!"

Harris insisted and headed to his sister's room. He knocked loudly but, he didn't get any response. And no one is opening the door. Harris decided to use the key to open the door, so he searches for it.

Stanley followed Harris "What are you doing? Your sister was sleeping already!" he said with feelings of afraid.

"I do not care! And I need to check on him. I am his only family and his only older brother. Our mother has died as well as our father. So we're just the two of us together now." Harris said while looking for the key "Oh! There you are! Finally, I found you!"

Stanley starts to panic, he doesn't know what to do because he knows that Jasmine is not in there and she even begged him not tell to her brother that she left.

Harris uses the key to open Jasmine's room "Gotcha!" he said as the door finally unlocked.

Stanley closes his eyes while Harris is slowly opening the door. Then, they heard a sound on the 1st floor.

*Sound of broken glass*

Harris was shocked "What was that?" he said.

"I don't know... We both here on the 2nd floor..."

Harris stop entering Jasmine's room and decided to check what was happening on the 1st floor together with Stanley.

"Geez! It's just a glass. I think it slips since it was on the edge." Stanley said and cleans it.

"I guess so? I feel hungry. Let's eat something. I'll cook food and let's drink some beers."

"That sounds good!" Stanley said excitedly.

*******************

Jasmine suddenly collapsed inside the bar where she is, with Lance.

"Jasmine! Jasmine!" Lance said while he's tapping Jasmine's cheeks.

Peoples' attention on the bar are all on Jasmine, they're staring at her full of curiosity.

Marky approached "What happened?" he asked while looking at Jasmine.

"I don't know! She suddenly falls and lost consciousness!" Lance answered anxiously as he is worried about Jasmine.

Marky checked her pulse "I'll call an ambulance!" he said while dialing the contact number of a hospital to his cellphone.

"Hey, I'm her friend. I can take her to the hospital alone." Lance respond.

Marky looked at Lance "Ahh, really? I don't believe you..." he said while trying to lift Jasmine.

Lance feels annoyed with Marky because of his arrogance towards him.

A few minutes later an ambulance came to take Jasmine. The first aider asked who's the closest person to Jasmine and who's willing to come and serve as Jasmine's guardian. Lance and Marky both raised their left hand. But, the first aider said only one guardian. Lance insisted that he's a close friend of Jasmine but, Marky also answered that he's a close friend of Jasmine because he's not believing Lance.

The first aider left with no choice and choose one of them. He chose Marky.

Lance feels upset, So he decided to follow the ambulance.

As the ambulance headed for the hospital, Jasmine slowly moved her head and slowly opened her eyes then looked at Marky who was looking at her.

"M... Mur... Murphy...?" she said as she moving her hand to touch Marky's face.

A few minutes later an ambulance came to the hospital. Jasmine rushed takes to the emergency room.

Lance parked his car and hurried to go inside of the hospital and search for Jasmine, he saw Marky talking to the Information Staff. And decided to approach him.

"How's Joy?! Tell me?"

"She's inside of the emergency room. And why are you here?"

Lance suddenly punched Marky in the face "Who do you think you are ?! Huh! You just met Jasmine for the first time. Then you act as you know her for many years? !!!" He said angrily as he took off Marky's collar.

Nurses and other people in the hospital are looking at them as they were shocked.

Marky removed Lance's hands from his collar and wiped the blood that came out of his nose when Lance punched him "I don't have to explain myself to you..." he said calmly and didn't fight back.

Lance was trying to punch Marky again but, he stops as he saw a familiar person sitting in the wheelchair with a man pushing her.

The nurse approached the woman who's sitting in the wheelchair "Hello ma'am how's your feeling now? is your head still hurting?"

The man whose pushing the wheelchair smiled "Yes, she's feeling fine now. I'm taking her now to her room now. .." he responded.

"Okay sir Yosef, go ahead. We will pray for the fast recovery of miss Ruth."

"Thank you. We gotta go back to her room now. She needs to rest for a while." Yosef said as he continued on their way.

Lance stare at Ruth until her shadow disappears from his sight.

(It can't be...!)