Killa hauled her heavy bookbag into the IHOP. Pulling all nighters on nothing but coffee and the occasional donut sucked eggs. Med school sounded like a great idea, but the Pre-Med course load was hell. While her friends were sleeping, Killa was reading about chemical reactions and human biology. Loved what she was doing, but she missed her previously busy social life. Finals were especially grinding.

Luckily her friends were cool about how busy she was and kept telling her they'd all go on a road trip over the summer. Two more weeks, just two more weeks and she'd be free. Killa settled in at her favorite table and wondered if she'd see any of the strange regulars tonight. One of the things she looked forward to was the weird people who came into the IHOP in the middle of the night.

Killa had claimed as her own the poorly lit table in the back of the restaurant and always dressed as unobtrusively as possible so she could people watch when she needed a break from her books. With her hair tied up in a pony tail, a ball cap on, a baggy sweatshirt and painters pants she wasn't going to attract any attention. There were some real characters that came in here; she liked to watch them but she didn't want them to pay her any attention.

Her favorites were two twins that looked like they might be albinos. That got her attention, from her genetics class she knew how rare that particular combination was. She wasn't sure if they were albinos though, because their eyebrows were darker than their hair. Plus, their lips and nails were an odd color. The nails looked like polish, but the lips looked like, well, it looked like that was their natural color, sort of corpse like.

They were fascinating; the way they moved together, the fact they almost always wore silver, light gray or white clothing together-they seemed closer than her friends the Monroe twins, almost like they were deliberately trying to creep people out. She wasn't afraid of them, although it seemed like everyone else was except their regular waitress, Betty. (People would get up and move if the twins sat next to them.) Killa did somehow recognize that they were dangerous, but they didn't seem that bad. Like big jungle cats, not really evil, just predatory and maybe a bit unpredictable. She was just going to look at them anyway.

She couldn't figure out their clothing. Most of the time they wore the same outfit: a trench coat, tie, shirt, boots, waistcoat and matching pants. But sometimes they wore a simple casual outfit, a pair of gray pants or faded jeans topped by a crisp white shirt or, t-shirt. Was the outfit they usually wore a uniform? Where would you work that required you to dress like that? It was strange.

Last night they wore jeans and matching gray sleeveless tanks. She'd trouble concentrating on her studies because she kept looking at their smooth well-defined muscles and skin that looked as soft as cotton balls. She thought they'd caught her stealing glances at them--they started stretching and flexing in totally unnecessary ways. They were lovely, if a bit odd.

Once Killa got into her books though, the world closed around her and she noticed nothing. She didn't see them leave, didn't see the slightly bigger one steal a glance at her over his shoulder as he left, didn't see the other one staring at her as he paid. And, honestly, wouldn't much have cared. She just liked to look; the twins were a puzzle, not much else. If she'd seen them paying her that much attention, she'd probably have picked a different IHOP to study.

A couple of weeks ago she asked Betty, her regular waitress, about them Betty told a story that was pretty unbelievable. One night, four AM, about a year ago, those two came in for the first time while the cook was taking out the trash. Betty was the only one in the restaurant for about five minutes. She seated them, then went to get them coffee; when she came back, one of them was gone, but the other ordered pancakes for both. She walked back to the kitchen to start their pancakes and there was an honest to goodness ghost floating over the grill. Betty said she freaked out and started screaming her head off, couldn't stop screaming, was rooted to the ground in absolute freaking terror.

As the figure wafted up into the vent-a-hood, she noticed that she could see the outline of clothes on it. The cook came running in and saw the feet disappearing last of all, crossed himself and started praying. Right about that time, she heard muffled laughter. When she turned around, it hit her. She recognized the clothes, and the ghost's hair as well. The twins were both back at the table. The ghost was one of them. They were ghosts. Betty said she grabbed her purse and headed for the door, would've left and stayed gone if the manager hadn't picked that moment to come in and beg her to stay "just 'til the end of shift. Please oh please Betty." At first she kept on heading for the door, screw the manager. But after seeing them smirk at each other as she passed their table, she refused to let them scare her off from her job. She also refused to wait on them, shouting, "I'm not waiting on freaking ghosts, no way, not for 2.18 an hour." But eventually she did.

Betty finished the story by saying that after the ghost incident every time she reluctantly checked them out they slipped her a hundred and told her it was for her, not the waitress. She decided that she could live with ghosts that were clean and tipped well. Eventually she became their regular waitress, it was easy work. They were unfailingly polite, meticulously clean, and never tried to chat her up. In fact, they had chased off a couple of drunks that were harassing her one night by simply walking up and asking "Is there a problem?"

"So what do you know about them?" Killa had asked her after the story. "Do they talk to you?"

"No, nothing besides what they want to eat. They don't talk much to each other neither. Maybe they don't have to." Betty shrugged her shoulders then smiled. "You don't fancy them do you?"

"Umm, no, especially after that ghost story. Brrr." Killa made exaggerated shivering motions.

"I dunno, might be worth it as long as they stay solid in bed." Betty laughed. "Though I'd not be the one to try it."

"I've too much work to do to have a living boyfriend, a dead one is too complicated for me. I'm happy to watch them. Maybe they'll do their ghost routine sometime I'm here. I'd love to see a ghost." Killa said.

"Not like the one I saw, no you wouldn't." Betty shivered, then changed the subject "So, what are you having?"

Betty told her that story over a month ago, and so far the weirdest thing she'd see them do was wear the same clothes all the time. That was pretty weird since they had to be thirty or thirty-five. Her friends the Monroe twins, Bill and Ted, quit doing that in elementary school. It was freaky to see grown men dress alike. Maybe that was why they did it.