Chapter Nine

Noise erupted from the direction of the bathroom and the group watched as Helena, Lucy, and Alex hurriedly made their way back to the table.

“I think we should be going now,” said Helena to Kenny.

“There’s a fucking lunatic with a 12 gage automatic in the bathroom,” yelled Lucy.

Just then the bathroom door exploded open and there stood Matt Addison, muscles rippling and rifle reloaded.

“Nobody move!” he yelled.

Helena felt her hand being tugged and looked down to see Kenny crouched on the floor.  She looked around for the rest of the group and realized they had all followed his lead. Kenny held a finger to his lips and motioned for her to crouch down quickly.  The group quietly crawled out of the back door and into safety.

“Who was that guy?” asked Jake.

“I’m calling the department,” said Karen, “I’ll stay here. You all find somewhere safe to go.”

Kenny walked the group down a quiet alley. “You guys know of any place nearby where we can crash?” he asked of Randy, Jake, Lucy, and Alex.

“That’s not going to work now Kenny?” said Helena.

“We just need to lay low until tomorrow Helena,” said Kenny.

“It is tomorrow Kenny,” said Helena.

Kenny looked down at his watch and saw that it was indeed one o’clock in the morning.

“Fuck,” he said.

“I know,” she agreed.

“How are we gonna get back now?”

“They’re acting strange again,” said Alex.

“He’s been weird since this morning,” said Jake.

“Kenny, do you know something about what’s going on?” asked Randy, “Because you’ve been acting awfully strange all day today. Calling everyone by different names. Acting like you’ve never seen us before. Is there something wrong?”

Kenny looked at Helena, asking her for permission to share their story.  She shrugged, not seeing how they could avoid not doing so.

“Okay listen. I made a wish, last night, to change my friends and family. You guys basically. And it did. Apparently, Helena and I were the only two people not affected or you guys are putting on one elaborate as hell practical joke.” He paused for a moment waiting to see if any of them were gonna say “Gotcha” just then. “Anyway, we don’t know how to fix things back but we’re trying because this world is just weird.” He sighed, as the girls just continued to stare at him, “I don’t know it’s like we fucked with the cosmos.”

Helena’s eyes lit up suddenly, “What did you just say?”

“Huh…oh something about this being weird,”

“No, after that…the cosmos. I have an idea,” said Helena, turning to the girls, “Do any of you have a car?”

“I do,” said Lucy, “It’s a truck.”

“Great,” said Helena, “I need you to take us someplace.”