Wake

"Are you ready?" Zen said. They looked at me from across the driver seat. We were at the funeral home's parking lot.

"No," I said. "But when will we be ever ready to face a friend's death? How about you?"

"Nope," they said. "But we need to do this for Bea and for her parents."

"I can't imagine how much her parents are going through right now," I said. "Their reaction to Bea's death is still fresh in my mind. Their faces just-"

"Yeah," they said.

"Words aren't even enough to describe what we witnessed," I said. I sighed. I grabbed my bag that was resting beside my feet.

"Let's go?" I said.

"Yeah," they said. I opened the door to my right and stepped out of the car.

"That's a huge crowd," I said, looking at the paparazzi by the entrance of the parking lot a couple of meters in front of me. They were being held back by numerous body guards.

"How did they even know what church?" I heard Zen say. "None of us shared publicly or anything since Bea's parents wanted a private wake."

"The stalker fans," I said. "They're probably the ones who circulated the information."

"Yeah," I heard Zen say. "Good thing Bea's old company was ready."

"Good day sirs, let me escort you in," I heard someone else say. I faced left and saw a bodyguard beside Zen.

"Thanks," I said. Zen grabbed my left hand and held it tight. The bodyguard started walking and we followed them.

"The company is still doing a lot for her huh," Zen said.

"Of course," I said. "Bea was their number one artist so it makes sense." But wouldn't this many cost so much? I thought. We reached the bricked walkway towards the inside of the funeral home itself. Flashes started to make my eyes squint.

"I don't know how Bea managed this," Zen said.

"Me too," I said. "Always getting their eyes flashed all the time, people following them everywhere. I guess they're her fans."

"Fans?" Zen said. "Fans would know how to give her proper respect by not doing things like this." The bodyguard opened the door to the funeral home. We walked in and heard the door close behind us. The room was small and only had several people inside. I looked towards the casket a few feet to my northwest, at the back of the room. Bea's in there huh? I thought.

"Dos, Zen," I heard someone say. I looked towards the voice and saw that it was Maine. She was waving her hand from the third row of chairs from the other side of the room. Around her was our other friends.

"We should go there," Zen said. "Before Maine gets any louder."

"Do you think she's drunk?" I said.

"Most likely," Zen said. We turned right and then left at the last row of chairs.

"We should sign the guest book first," I said as I saw it by the right door. We walked towards it and signed our names.

"Dos, Zen," I heard someone say behind me. I turned around.

"Hi po tita ," I said. I grabbed her hand and pressed it against my forehead. I let go afterwards.

"Hello po," Zen said as they did the same.

"Thank you for coming," tita said.

"We wouldn't miss being able to say our final goodbyes to Bea," I said. She grabbed my right hand and pressed it.

"You know, you two were her closest friends," tita said. "She was always talking about the two of you and how you guys helped her so much with everything. She said you two were like her older brothers."

"She was like a little sister to us," Zen said. "Her bubbly personality always cheered us up when we were down."

"I'm happy to hear that," tita said. She smiled at us as her eyes turned red and get filled up with tears. We should change the topic, I thought. Before she cries even before the ceremony starts.

"Where's tito?" I asked. "We should go mano to him as well."

"You can do that later, he's still busy talking to other relatives," tita said.

"I see," I said.

"Oh right," tita said. "Has Helen contacted any of you?" Huh? I thought. Me and Zen looked at each other then back at tita.

"Not yet," I said. "She hasn't contacted you?"

"No," tita said. "We've been waiting and texting her about what happened but she never replied back. I think she's one of the ones we're waiting for right now besides some relatives." That's weird, I thought.

"Let us ask ask the others," Zen said. "We'll be right back."

"Thanks," tita said. She pressed my hand again before letting go and walking towards a relative behind her. We walked across the carpet in the middle to the other side. We turned left at the corner of the last row and stopped by the fourth row. Snow and Virginia were trying to stop Maine from standing up and saying something - Snow was covering Maine's mouth while Virgina was pushing Maine down through her shoulders. Asterion, Oceanna, and Scorpius were in deep discussion. Flounder, Pan, and Rammie were writing something down on a piece of paper.

"Hey guys," I said. Asterion, Oceanna, Scorpius, Flounder, Pan, and Rammie, stopped what they're doing and looked up at us.

"Hi," Scorpius said. Oceanna and Asterion waved their hands.

"Yo," Rammie said.

"You guys took long," Pan said.

"Yeah, did someting happen?" Flounder asked.

"Hey Zen and Dos," Snow said. "Sorry, just a bit busy here."

"Yeah," Virginia said. "Hi you two."

"Is she-" Zen said.

"Yeah," Virginia said. "We tried to stop her but she was drinking the whole way here." I sighed.

"And no nothing happened," I said. "We were just the farthest from here."

"Right," Flounder said.

"Did you guys try to sober her up?" Zen said.

"Yeah," Virginia said. "She kept swatting away the water bottles."

"By the way, tita wanted to ask if Helen has contacted any of you?" I asked. Everyone froze, including Maine.

"Helen hasn't contacted them?" Snow asked.

"No, according to them," I said. "How about any of you?" All of them shook their heads except Maine.

"Fuck Helen," Maine said. Snow and Virginia quickly covered Maine's mouth with their hands. Everyone in the room looked at us.

"Sorry," I shouted.

"Maybe you guys should bring her out for a bit," Zen said.

"No," Maine mumbled.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Virginia said. "Flounder, help me out here."

"Why me?" Flounder said. Virginia looked at Flounder.

"Okay," Flounder said. Virginia and Flounder stood up. They grabbed Maine's arms and put them around their shoulder. They started walking to the other side, towards the side door we went in from.

"There's a garden outside," Snow said. "Just turn right once you get out."

"We'll go tell Bea's mother," I said. Where the fuck is Helen? I thought. The rest nodded and went back to what they were doing. We turned around and looked for tita.

"There," Zen said as they pointed to her. She was standing by the front door with tito, talking to some guests. They look familiar, I thought as we started walking towards them. We passed the last row, turned right halfway, and continued walking.

"This is weird," I said. "Did something happen to Helen?"

"I doubt that, Helen can take care of herself," Zen said.

"But where is she?" I said.

"I don't know," Zen said. What the hell is happening? I thought as we arrived in front of tita, tito, and the other guest.

"Hi tita," I said. "May we talk to you, about what you asked earlier?" I waved to tito beside her.

"Uh, Dos, Zen," tita said. "This is Bea's Manager and the CEO of the company." CEO? I thought. Wow. I turned left and bowed to them.

"Hi Sir Robert," I said. Zen waved.

"Hey," Robert said. "This beside me is Maxine Liu, my boss.

"Good day ma'am," I said.

"Good day ma'am," Zen said.

"Good day to you as well," Maxine said. "You must be Bea's bestfriends, Dos and Zen?"

"Yes we are," I said.

"Bea always talked about you two," Maxine said. "She said you're the two greatest people she knows." Awwww Bea, I thought.

"Yeah," I said. I looked towards tita.

"So what were you going to talk to me about?" tita said. "It's about Hel-" I looked towards Robert.

"Its fine, my boss knows," Robert said.

"Is this about Helen?" Maxine said. "Yeah, go ahead. Bea told me about her herself."

"Yeah," I said. "Uhm, so I asked our friends if she contacted them but they said no."

"So she's missing?" tito asked.

"We're not sure," Zen said. "But no one has heard from her since before Bea's death, unless the two of you did?" Zen looked at Robert and Maxine. They shook their head. So where is she? I thought.

"Should we wait for her?" tita asked. Zen and I glanced at each other.

"Maybe not tita," I said. "We're not sure if she coming, so it might be better to start the ceremony already."

"That's true," tita said. "If she is coming, we don't know what time."

"Yeah," I said.

"Okay," tita said. "I'll go talk to the altar server and tell the priest we're ready." She left and started looking for the altar server.

"Wasn't Helen with Bea at the studio that day," Maxine said.

"Right," Robert said. "They left together to prepare for the celebration party." Oh, I thought. So that means the last person seen with Bea is Helen.

"Let's just hope that she arrives," tito said.

"Hopefully," Robert said. "Bea risked her career just to be with her. I think she owes it to Bea to come to the wake." Tito nodded. I felt Zen tug my arm. Robert is right I thought, I thought. Helen wouldn't miss this.

"Uhm," I said. "We're going to go back to our seats. The priest might come soon."

"Okay," tito said. We bowed halfway and turned around. We started walking back to our friends.

"Oh," I said as we stopped behind the last row of chairs. "Let me call Virginia and the others to comeback then go to the restroom."

"I'll go with you," Zen said.

"No," I whispered. "I want you to fill in our friends with the Helen situation and have them start thinking where we can find her before the priest arrives."

"Baby," Zen whispered. "We talked about this. Bea's dead, there's no kidnappers, and if there are, Helen would not be one of them."

"Babe," I whispered. "Don't you find it weird that Helen isn't here, at her girlfriend's wake?"

"I do," Zen whispered. "But her being here is mostly likely because of something else, not the reasons your thinking about."

"Even if none of us had heard from her ever since that day?" I whispered. Zen sighed.

"Okay," Zen whispered. "I'll ask them."

"Thank you babe," I whispered.

"Yeah, yeah," Zen whispered. I went in to kiss their cheek but they blocked it with their hand.

"Are you crazy?" Zen whispered. "We're at a wake."

"Okay," I whispered and stepped back.

"Later," Zen whispered. I nodded.

"Be right back," I said. Zen nodded. I let go of their hand. I turned around and walked across to the left side. I treaded behind the last row of chairs and turned right at the corner. When I reached the middle row, I turned right, opened the door, and stepped out onto the bricked floor. The bodyguards still stood attention at the pathway in front of me. I turned right. I walked a few more steps before I got a glance at the small garden. Maine, Virginia, and Flounder were laying down at the grassy center, talking. Maine seems to be sober now, I thought.

"Hey guys," I said as I walked towards them.

"Oh hey Dos," Maine said as she sat up. "What's up?"

"The ceremony is about to start soon," I said.

"We should go back in then," Virginia said as she sat up. Flounder did the same. I put my hands out.

"Before that," I said. "I need to tell you something." I sat down on the grassy center in between Virginia and Flounder.

"So, none of us heard from Helen since the day Bea died," I said. "Even Bea's parents and her manager. Tita kept sending her messages but she hasn't gotten a reply."

"What?" Virginia said. "That's weird."

"None at all?" Maine said.

"Yeah," I said.

"That's not like her," Maine said. "As far as I know, Helen is always in contact with Bea's parents. Mostly for updates especially when Robert wasn't there - for security purposes cuz you never know what can happen since Bea was a superstar. But she would always reply to tita's texts." I nodded.

"I see," I said. "Do you know where can maybe find her?" I can't tell them about the note, I thought.

"Let me think," Maine said. "Wait no sorry, my heads throbbing again." Maine laid back down on the grass.

"Just send it in the group chat when you're able to," I said.

"Yeah," Maine said. "I will."

"Let's go back now then," Flounder said. "The priest might already be there." He and Virginia stood up.

"Can I stay here?" Maine said.

"No," Virginia said. "The ceremony is about to start." Virginia pulled Maine up and made Maine's arms go around her and Flounder's shoulders.

"I'll catch up with you guys," I said as I stood up. "I need to use the restroom."

"Okay," Flounder said. The walked past me, dragging Maine. I stepped out of the grassy center and onto the brick walkway to my left. I walked towards the restroom at its end. What the fuck is happening? I thought. I pushed the door open and went inside. I made my way over to the cubicle by the left corner.

My head is starting to hurt, I thought as I unbuttoned and unzipped my pants. Hopefully we find out what's really going on. I zipped and buttoned my pants. I flushed the toilet. The lights turned off.

What the? I thought. I felt for the door in front of me and pushed it open. I stepped outside the cubicle. The lights flickered.

Shit, I thought. I ran back in the cubicle.

What was that? I thought. The lights turned on. I stepped out of the cubicle once more.

Where did it go? I thought as I looked around the restroom. Was that a ghost? Am I being haunted? I took a deep breath.

No, I thought. That can't be. I'm sure I heard the door open. I'm being followed.