Chapter 23: Chapter 23

She had gotten up early and went down to the kitchen since she couldn't sleep again, more like a routine she had had enough of cooking pasta and frying the chicken, when Louie came downstairs with Stacie. "Good morning Ruth" Louie greeted.

"Morning Lou" she greeted him back.

"Morning Ruth" Stacie came into view taking a seat on the high chair,

"Morning" she grumbly replied, it was obvious in her tone, Stacie chest tightened.

Ezekiel and Danielle came in afterwards.

"What's cooking?" Ezekiel asked after he greeted her

"Pasta and chicken" they replied, she and Louie laughed, we said it together she told him still laughing.

"Stacie can you please wake up the sleepy heads?" Ruth asked.

"I'll be back in a second" she stood up to leave "Please bring my phone on the bed" Louie told her.

She knocked on Ivan and Patrick's door, opening it slightly and peeking her head inside the room, "Ivan" she screamed he almost jumped out of the bed causing Stacie to laugh.

"Hey," he said angrily "I'm sorry, but Ruth asked me to wake you guys up, breakfast is ready" "He’ll be down soon" she added and left.

She stopped in front of Ruth and Jasper's room, banged she knocked and peeked her head inside, but Jasper was already awake.

"Good morning, " she greeted and didn't wait for his reply before she added "Ruth wants you downstairs, breakfast is ready," he nodded and she left for the room. She was sharing room with Louie, and as she walked to the dresser table she heard a voice saying, "SLEEP" and she did.

Each one of them took a seat on the kitchen table, plates and cutleries beside their plate, while Danielle and Ruth dished the food. Patrick still felt sleepy and was dozing. Louie poked him with his fork.

"Stop it Louie" Patrick angrily said.

"Did you not have enough sleep?" Louie teases him.

"I don't know, don't ask me," he answered with a wave of dismissal.

Louie laughed out loud, Ezekiel joined him, "You guys were just too loud, that you couldn't keep your moaning down." Louie said holding his stomach and hitting the table.

"I bet Ivan gave it to him good that's why he couldn't keep his voice down" Ezekiel said facing Louie, Patrick face turned a shade of tomato red, he was a bit embarrassed.

"You are such a screamer man." Louie said earning a hiss from an embarrassed Patrick.

Ivan on the other hand, tried hard not to laugh; he kept drinking water so he wouldn't laugh. The guys noticed except Patrick but said nothing.

"Hey, that's enough" Ruth shunned the laughers, "Start eating, but wait," she held her hands out "where is Stacie?"

"Maybe she got herself busy, let's eat, she will come down soon" Louie quickly replied, as he couldn't wait to start eating. Breakfast ended as soon as possible. The girls cleaned the kitchen while the boys stayed in the parlor to jam to some rap songs.

"Let's play fucking problems, because Drake's is in it." Ezekiel said he was a fan of Drake. "I’m going to check on Stacie" Danielle told the guys.

"Its been thirty minutes, and she's not down yet, her food will get cold," Ruth voice was laced with worry, even though she's still mad at the girls, she couldn't ignore the feeling that tugged at the back of her mind, what if something's was wrong with her and they could not save her.

After what happened to her, she was more conscious and at alert. It was always the question of "What if," shrugging the feeling off.

She followed Danielle, to go check on Stacie but her mind could not shake the feeling off, "What if something's happened to her?" The door to Stacie and Louie room was slightly ajar, Ruth peeked inside and saw Stacie laying on the bed and felt a bit relieved.

Danielle spoke first, "She's sleeping, just wow," they turned to go back but Ruth stopped, "Is she really sleeping?" She couldn't ignore the voice in her head, so she went to where Stacie lay, and held her hand, the body move not, she shook her, Stacie didn't move, laying still.

Danielle rushed back downstairs to call the guys up. Louie barged into the room, jumping on the bed, he shook his girlfriend hard but she wouldn't wake up.

"What do we do?" Louie asked sitting on the bed and holding her hand.

"We wait for her to wake up." Jasper replied.

"True, we wait for her to wake up, just like we waited for Jasper and Ruth to wake up" Ivan added in agreement.

They were all waiting in the room, none of them left. Silence enveloped them, as they welcomed the silence, everybody took positions either on the bed, floor and backs rested against the bed.

One hour and half had gone by and Stacie had not woken up.

Ivan checked for a pulse and placed his palm on her chest, she was fine, but her pulse was normal. He looked at Louie and said nothing.

"And we wanted to let you girls know that we will leave tomorrow, and we should pack our stuff today and fill the bus with the fuel we brought along, but as for Stacie only God knows." Ezekiel said in a low voice. He scratched the back of His neck and heaved a sigh.

"This place is too creepy." Louie added, "That’s why we must tomorrow." Patrick said furiously.

"Once she's awake, we must leave." Ruth and Danielle said at the same time, they looked at each other and looked away.

"Let's just hope she wakes up before noon, if she's awake before 12pm, we can still leave." Ivan said calculating the hours they'd spend driving down to Michigan.