Mack's POV
We had spent last night down in the lobby, playing card games with RL- Receptionist Lady- and having an all-out prank war with the rest of the hotel staff. It turns out Japanese people can be very mischievous. The manager wasn't happy, but he got over it.
Now the sky was shining a dark blue, the sun just barely peeking over the horizon. Streaks of pink and orange lined the blue.
It was too damn early, in my opinion.
I rolled over, fully intent to go back to sleep.
And then the phone rang.
I cursed multiple times under my breath, and beside me, Max cracked an eye open.
"'Lo?" I managed.
"You have phone call!" Announced RL cheerfully, and I wondered if maybe, just maybe, she was addicted to crack cocaine because no one was that cheerful on four hours of sleep.
"Mm kay," I replied.
There was a click, and then Dr. Lee began to speak.
"I'm terribly sorry to wake you so early," he apologized, "but the Convention is spending the night in a supposedly haunted hospital that's been shut down for years tonight, and I was wondering if you'd like to come."
Instant panic shot through me.
"That is, unless you are frightened," he teased, a smile in his voice.
I rose my eyebrows at Max; she called the shots.
She rolled her eyes and shrugged. Gee, thanks for the specific yes or no, Max.
"We…will consider this. What time is the Convention leaving?" I answered.
"At seven tonight." He said. "We'll be here until three, when everyone is leaving to prepare, then meeting back here at six. We'll take the busses we took yesterday."
"Alright. Thanks for calling," I said, resisting the urge to beat my head against the headboard.
"Cheyenne, about your father and his work-" he said quickly, and I cut him off.
"We can discuss it tonight, perhaps, if we decide to come."
"Of course," he agreed reluctantly. He was getting antsy, that was for sure.
"Good bye," I chimed, and hung up the phone.
I buried my head in my pillow, which smelled like the hotel soap we had used when we showered last night and moaned loudly.
"Why can't the Convention be normal, and have a bunch of lectures or something?" Max asked, sounding like she dreaded this just as much as I did.
"A freaking closed down hospital, that's no telling how old? Are they freaking kidding? The vibes alone would probably be enough to bring me to my knees. I have a bad feeling about this…" I complained.
Max pursed her lips, considering. "They're getting suspicious, Mack. About the work your scientist father supposedly did. If this is gonna work, they can't doubt us."
I sighed heavily. "I know. So we're going?"
Max nodded slowly. "I think we should."
"Okay." I said.
I glanced at the clock. 6:15 in the morning. Ugh.
"What do you want to do today, until it's time to go?" I asked quietly.
Max frowned. "I don't want to stay at the hotel. Staying in one place for too long feels risky, you know?"
I grinned. "Can we sightsee? Please? We haven't had a chance to since we got here."
Max groaned. "On second thought, the hotel sounds nice."
"Please, Mack? This place is so historical and cool, and there's so many things to see and do…" I begged. I wanted to learn. I wanted to marvel.
Max huffed out a breath. "Fine. But we need a schedule. So make a list right now of places you want to go, because I refuse to let the kids run around one of the biggest cities in the world like wild things all day."
I squealed, and leaped out of bed to get Fang's laptop.
I crawled back into bed, where Max was now sitting up, not looking very happy at all.
"Oh, cheer up, Max, it's not like I'm taking you to get your teeth pulled." I said reproachfully, and she stuck her tongue out at me.
I went to Google and typed in Things to do in Tokyo. Within minutes, I had an extensive list.
"Well, the Imperial Palace is a must," I muttered under my breath. "But only the East Gardens are open to the public, and that's not till nine. So we'll go get breakfast at eight. Thank God it's Wednesday, if it were Monday it wouldn't be open…"
Max's expression didn't change, but her vibes were anxious and tense.
"Then at ten we'll go see a play at the Kabaki-zu Theatre. That should take us to noon." I decided.
"Theatre? Really, Mack? I know you're into drama, but I doubt the kids will sit through that. Actually, I doubt the kids will want to do any of that." Max said quickly.
I rose my eyebrows at her challengingly. "Go ask them."
She scowled and stalked off.
"Then, after we eat lunch at noon, we'll head to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum at one…" When I saw the listing a few below that, I screamed.
"What?" Max gasped, running into the room with Angel and Nudge.
"There's a Disneyland here! There's a Disneyland in Tokyo! Oh my God!" I shrieked, clapping my hands like a five year old.
Gasman, Fang, and Iggy ran into the room as well. The kids' faces lit up.
"No. No way. We've already been to a Disneyland." Max said firmly.
"But I haven't!" I protested.
"We get to do fun stuff today? Together, as the flock?" Angel asked excitedly.
"Oh my gosh, this'll be so cool! We can take pictures and everything with the camera Mack bought that one day. And we can ride roller coasters till we puke, and meet all the Disney characters, and-" Nudge said.
"And if there's water rides we can go on those! Dude, Iggy, man, we could set off that one little bomb under the slide pools and created a massive wave explosion!" Gasman enthused.
"No setting off bombs, period!" Max yelled.
"Oh, can we go, please, Max, please?" Nudge, and Angel turned on the power of the Bambi eyes.
Max caved. "Fine, whatever, but you do what I say!"
They whooped and cheered.
"So from two until six we'll go to Disney." I nodded firmly. "Then we'll go meet the Convention and go to the stupid haunted hospital."
Fang rose an eyebrow, his questioning vibes washing over me.
"Oh, that's right, you guys don't know. Dr. Lee called, he wanted to know if we wanted to spend the night in a haunted hospital." I informed them.
Nudge and Angel's eyes widened. Gasman whooped again.
"Haunted? Like, ghosts?" Nudge asked fearfully.
Max rolled her eyes. "There's no such thing as ghosts."
"Tell that to the psychic." I muttered.
Her eyes widened too. "Oh. Right. Creepy."
Then she went into leader mode. "Okay, everyone go get their overnight stuff packed! I suggest the most comfortable stuff possible."
Everyone scattered.
I threw a pair of ripped jeans on, and a white shirt that hung off my shoulders. I would need to be in character when we met Dr. Lee tonight.
Then I put something similar into my backpack for the next day, and a slinky little slip to sleep in. I'd have to watch my wings, but maybe it would help to coax some more money out of Dr. Lee.
I stuffed a blanket in as well, and the camera, as Nudge had suggested, along with some makeup and my hair brush and my cell phone.
I was ready to roll.
It wasn't long before we spilled onto the streets of Tokyo. I was elated to find that there was no reason not to hold Iggy's hand. He intertwined his fingers with mine jovially.
Angel and Gazzy skipped ahead, looking into store windows and inquiring about street vendor's products. Nudge walked beside Fang, chattering away, and Max was scoping out the area for possible threats.
It was gonna be a good day.
After we had eaten some suspicious sausage and eggs for breakfast, we headed to the Imperial Palace.
The old stone bridges and the pamphlets with the maps inside explaining every area in English welcomed us. There was an actual moat- okay, moats as in plural- around the property. The gardens were distinctly Japanese.
There were ruins from the bombs from World War Two, which Gasman and Iggy found fascinating. I did too, but for different reasons.
Angel and Nudge marveled over the flowers and the pretty fountains. Fang and Max just walked around and talked in low tones.
We climbed to the top of a hill and plopped down, letting our wings out since no one could see us from way up here. We reveled in the sunshine, and took pictures of the wonderful view of the Imperial grounds and the ruins and a guard tower and each other.
We met a little Japanese girl at the bottom of the hill, and she and Gasman immediately hit it off and played for a long time. She could speak a bit of English, because she "lived at the Palace, and when you live there, you hear and learn a lot of things."
When we decided to leave there, we went straight to the theatre, stopping for snacks along the way.
The kids made fun of the outlandish costumes for the most part, while I watched the performers in awe. Women weren't allowed to act, which really pissed Max off, so she spent most of the two hours we were there criticizing the play and the Japanese government in general.
Iggy fell asleep. Fang sat stonily beside me.
We left there at intermission at noon, and went to go get lunch. The kids wanted to skip the art museum and go straight to Disney. I kind of wanted to, too, until Fang spoke up and said he really wanted to go see the art.
Kind of stunned by this, we all shut up and went to the museum.
There were six galleries, and you had to pay to get into each one, which Iggy declared was a rip off. There were no signs in English, so everything was pretty much guess work.
Max watched my brother study the paintings with fascination. With every hushed word he spoke, her eyes grew a little wider in awe.
Maybe there was a side of him none of us had had access to before today.
Finally, at two in the afternoon, it was time for Disneyland.
"We're going to Disney, I get to see Mickey," I sang, doing a little dance right there in the ticket line.
"What are you, four?" Fang asked, giving me a disgraced sort of look.
"Shut up Goth Boy, and take my picture in front of the gate," I demanded, handing him the camera. Iggy snickered.
I posed and the camera flashed, and Fang handed it back to me in something kin to disgust.
The day was steadily growing hotter, and I wished I had brought sun block. God knew my vampire pale skin couldn't handle it.
Once we got through the ticket line, and into the gates, Max pulled out a map.
"Okay. So there's different places to go, apparently. In the actual theme park, there's Westernland, Critter Country, Fantasyland-" Iggy cracked a perverted joke here that I slapped the back of his head for- "Toontown, Tomorrowland, and World Bazaar, which is where we are now."
"Let's go to Adventureland," Gasman said. "They have Pirates of the Caribbean there."
"Is that a fun ride?" I asked eagerly.
"The funnest!" Gasman enthused.
"Funnest isn't a word, but okay." I agreed.
So we headed off to Adventureland.
By six that night, we had about five hundred photos from the day saved on the camera's memory card, and had bought a couple more from all the rides we had been on.
I had went through the Haunted Mansion in Fantasyland in order to prepare myself for tonight. It had been kind of cool, actually.
I had a feeling it wouldn't be anything like the real, haunted hospital, though.
"Hey, Max, if we leave the hotel we're at, can we stay at the one here?" Angel asked.
"Maybe," Max said, because she just couldn't say no to Angel.
Angel smiled her creepy little smile.
And off we went to the Convention.
Okay so maybe this was a filler too, but it was a better one than the last one, right? I thought so. Hint: remember the little girl Gasman played with.
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