Dead Awakened/Episode 7 (old)

This is an extended preview of Episode 7, which will be released between September 5-6.

This Night Knows No Bounds [PREVIEW]
Neya waits outside the room’s door, intently looking at it, while Yasmin and Bruno wait beside him.

“It’s pretty much a straight-forward test—just wants you to know that you read the book.” Yasmin looks to Bruno, who was exempt from today’s testing; this was his second day in the class after all, and it just had a professor change no less. “You’ll be fine, dude. Just read a summary or two—book’s fairly easy.” The two had just finished the exam—they were allowed to leave early, but Neya awaits Annberlin to finish.

“Where are you guys headed after this?” Bruno asks. In true roommate-to-roommate fashion, the two answer, “Work.” at the same time. Both Yasmin and Neya share a quick glance. “What about you?” Bruno shrugs. “Home, studying, I guess.”

“How’s your aunt’s house, by the way?”

“Pretty cool, more or less. She’s police.” The two look at Bruno. “Yeah, I know. I think I’ll be in good hands.” Nothing to feel guilty about—apart from the thing she brought up earlier. “She seems nice…” This settles it for the two. “Just don’t forget about the party,” Yasmin bids, “I can text you the address…”

Bruno’s managed to keep a phone all this time—courtesy of his friend in Arizona. It’s been pretty much his old phone, just a change in sim card…

The room’s door opens, and out comes Annberlin, who pauses at the sight of the three before settling eyes on Neya. “So…” Neya walks up to Annberlin’s side and looks at the other two. “We’ll just meet at the apartment later, right?”

“Yup,” Yasmin simply replies. The pairs head their separate ways, Neya and Ann on one direction, Yasmin and Bruno on the other.

“So where do you work?” Annberlin brushes the side of her hair and struggles to look at Neya without a smile. “This one new tapioca place. Just opened—it’s only a part-time thing and I know the owner, so…”

“How long’ve you been staying here?” Yasmin and Bruno head outside of the building, to the direction of one of the campus’s gated exits. “About a week. Been living in that shelter for a while, but I knew I had to move out eventually…” She knew for a fact Bruno ran away, but she doesn’t quite want to call him out on it anytime soon. “City’s pretty nice,” Yasmin responds. “Used to be foul—but it eventually just got quiet. You know how long your aunt’s been staying here?...”

“Nah, would be a bad idea if you stay.” Neya had just learned that Annberlin’s got nothing else to do until the party. “Four hours of sitting there? Nah, just—wait for me to text you, I guess.” She’s already got her work clothes on—all she really needed to do was remove her jacket and wear an apron.

“By the way…” Mimi, along with Antonia, Yadier, and others, watch as the bazaar’s last patron packs itself up. “It starts at around six, maybe seven. Sound cool?” She looks at the rest of them and get a general look of agreement. “Will Cassanova be there?” Antonia teases, elbowing Mimi’s waist while at it. Mimi chuckles through the ooh’s and ah’s. “C’mon Mims, you two are a thing. You can’t deny that.”

Wasn’t it only Leon’s tía who was in on this? She had no idea it was the whole bazaar. “Don Juan will be Don Juan, guys—I’m pretty sure he’ll find somebody new to hold tonight.” This thing was a joke to her—a running gag—and nothing more. “Speaking of which…” Leon’s truck arrives at the parking lot. Mimi looks among them, Antonia especially. “You sure you don’t have a car?”

She shrugs. “Primo fixing it as we speak.” Mimi sighs, heads over toward the pick-up’s direction. The group before her starts to wail again, but Antonia silences them in time.

A bus stop and two blocks later, Neya reaches her new work place; a small, one-floor milk tea joint at the edges of the financial district. It was just about starting its afternoon shift—there was already one person inside of it bustling through the place.

Neya strolls in, removes her jacket and receives a nod from the only other person—Kevin, the son of the owner. The owner, her mother’s Korean-American classmate back in her grade school days. Kevin disappears from behind a room in the counter for a second and comes out with a neon-orange apron. He throws it at her and she catches it with ease.

It only took about twenty minutes for Yasmin to prepare for a work; a drop of the bag, a change in wardrobe, a hairstyle tweak, and she was set to go. She dons a dark-blue collared shirt, dark pants and chucks. She insists on standing near one of the bus’s rear doors—her workplace wasn’t far from here.

Downtown had its share of hidden gems—this strip the bus drives through was no different. Decades-old businesses, niche restaurants, art exhibits—they were all still here, barely changed. This area was its own world.

The bus halts, and Yasmin steps out, along with a few others. She heads to the direction of a two-story building with the show time billboard display just above the entrance—the title was in French, and she couldn’t quite understand it… but this was normal. Perrico Cinema is a place for foreign films, too.

Annberlin sits down alone on a bench, overlooking a pond and some trees. She was in one of the non-developed areas uptown—this happened to be a park in the making.

A phone was in her ear—in the other hand, a smoking cigarette. She puts the phone down and pockets it. She didn’t need to go to that gala, now that she had a plan she couldn’t lie about; a party, with Neya.

With time creeping up on her, seeing her already felt like a much better choice to spend time. Even if she had to wait. But she didn’t want to seem too hasty with it…

She returns puffing her cigarette, leaning forward on her seat and resting her elbows on her lap.

The milk tea joint soon gets its fill of customers; teenagers, mostly Asian-American, looking to get a quick refreshment to start off this weekend. Neya is busy manning the blender, while Kevin, the boy from earlier, takes the orders through the cash register. There was a decent line—enough for Neya to not worry about a thing. Right now, though, she’s blanking out on what to mix the mocha with…

“Kev—” she calls in a loud whisper. Kevin leaves the cashier for a second and observes what she’s struggling with. “Hazelnut, then pearl, Ney,” he tells her right away—Neya was currently paused with an unfinished ice mocha in one hand and a cup of tapioca in the other. She processes it for a second, finds the ingredients, and resumes completing this concoction.

Yasmin heads to the worker’s office, puts her jacket in the locker and looks at the shift board. She was… at the box office today. Oh, just for—the 3-PM showtimes. For the rest, she’s in clean-up. She exits the office, heads for the entrance and finds Nancy already in the booth. “Hey, I’m relieving you,” she tells her with a tap of the shoulder. The blonde-haired, freckled girl turns to her and makes a bit of room. “What’s our showcase for today?”

“Just—a bunch of French black-and-whites,” Nancy simply replies. “It’s old people night, Yaz—easy.” The two chuckle at each other. “Manager in today?” Nancy shakes her head. “Cool, no special screenings.” She hands the box office to Yasmin and bids her good luck.

Past the old engineering plant, there was a canal where Mimi and Leon like to frequent. It was quiet, borderline wild from all of the overgrowth surrounding it, trees included. This canal and the plant were abandoned twelve years ago.

“Time’s the party again?” Leon asks, sitting at the edge of the canal. Mimi stands to his left, arms stuffed in her jacket pockets. “Five or six.” Leon nods, swings his feet while at it. He looks to his sides and grabs a pebble. “I think tonight’s the night.” He looks up at Mimi and throws the pebble onto the murky stream. “Donna’s breaking up with me.”

“What makes you say that?” She furrows her brows. “It’s—done, Mims. She knows I’m dumb.” She continues to look puzzled at him; after a moment of pause, the two chuckle in unison.

“She asked me about who the Axis powers were and I said Russia was one of them. She just laughed at me then walked out—” Leon settles at a steady pace of pebble-throwing, while Mimi keeps her hands in. “Man, even I would’ve fucking said that—” she responds, prompting Leon to look up at her. “Curse word, Mimi?”

“Shut up…” Work at the bazaar today was a little frustrating; she may have become liberal with her vocabulary a few times already. Leon continues to glance at her a few times. “Hands out of your pockets,” he asks out of the blue. Mimi once again furrows her brows, and puts her hands up. Leon pauses, says, “Oh,” then returns to the stream. “Sorry… I know it’s been a while...” He starts to look suspiciously at her pockets; she sighs, turns sideways in both directions to give him a quick peak of its empty contents.

“Anyway… Donna likes to be the smarter one when she’s gettin’ bored. But—come on! She’s hot—and smart, too—what more could you ask…” Leon laughs. It was true—but if this was how she was going to make him feel… “Yeah—it’s done.”

Neya thought the pace of new patrons would soon slow down—but Kevin was right. Halfway through her shift and the customers haven’t changed. Some have even decided to sit around for hours on end—they’re freaking nuts for not being bored by now. Sure, they have friends around—but come on, make some room, people.

Fortunately, things have become a tad easier; Kevin’s older sister, Erica, came in for work today to help Neya. The way she’s teaching her has pretty much accustomed Neya to about six drinks already. Thai tea and green milk tea were pretty popular.

“Okay… thai iced tea, root beer float, iced coffee…” Kevin continues to pile on receipts to the two. But with Erica here, Neya has nothing to worry about.

The hour coincides, and Yasmin leaves the box office to another worker. She assumes her next role as a custodian, mop and wheel bucket in tow. The guests have been tidy, but that was no surprise—as Nancy said, they were mostly senior matinee patrons.

With her role not quite needed just yet, she decides to choose a movie to watch. Eight theaters, and she notices the only English-title film; a re-showing of Event Horizon. She scoffs, settles for the movie next to it instead; Jules et Jim.