You're Cute When You Scream

*Randi’s POV*

Ok, I’m not going to lie…I feel super bad for leaving Myra alone to work at the CD shop, but this was the first party I’ve been invited to in like 2 weeks, and let me tell you, that is one hell of a big deal. And to top all of this off, I was going with Katie. Her cousin was the dude who was having the party, which of course meant that we got into the bar for free and without an ID check.

“So, I have to know…is this cousin of yours hot?” I asked anxiously, turning into the parking lot.

She shrugged, “I guess, I mean I don’t exactly sit there and think about the hotness of my relatives.” I rolled my eyes…I bet her cousin is super hot and she’s just denying it.

We both smirked as we walked past the security guard, flashing our VIP passes. Katie dragged me through the massive crowd all the way to the bar. A girl with dark brown hair was spinning around on the barstool, chatting with the bartender…and then there was a very hot guy with long shaggy black hair scanning over a text message he just received while taking a sip of his beer. Oh hot damn, he must be Katie’s cousin.

Just as I was about to walk in his direction, Katie pulled me toward the girl, and I’m guessing she must’ve missed my completely obvious confused expression, seeing as she proceeded with the introduction. “Randi, this is my cousin, and host of the party, Michelle,” she said, pointing to the girl.

“Oh,” I said flatly out of pure disappointment, “nice to meet you.”

“Well, geez you don’t seem too happy to be here,” she said, jumping off the stool. “Anyway, I have to go meet with the band before they perform. I’ll see you two around!”

Katie waited until Michelle was out of sight before turning to me with a look of slight anger…or maybe it was just the lighting? I wasn’t sure. But after hearing her voice…let’s just say it wasn’t the latter possibility. “What the hell was that, Randi?! She’s the one who got us in here for free and you treat her like that?”

“Hmm, maybe because I thought that it was your cousin Michael not Michelle?” I replied sarcastically.

“I don’t remember ever saying her name…”

“You didn’t. I snooped through your mail before you saw it and I read the invitation super fast, and because I sped read, I guess I mixed the letters up.”

“Oh,” she laughed, “that would explain why you were asking if my cousin was hot. You kinda scared me for a minute there.” I laughed too. Wow, this was not the way I thought this party would start off.

“Alright, now that that’s clarified, how about a drink?” She nodded anxiously in response. Like I said, it’s been far too long since we’ve partied.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the guy next to me said, setting his beer down on the counter.

“And why not, may I ask?” I inquired, amazing at his rudeness and eavesdropping.

“The show is about to start. Judging by way you girls look, I’m guessing you’ll want to be right up front. I heard nothing but good news from this band.” This guy sure is a bold mother fucker, I’ll give him that.

“Oh, thanks, but no thanks. We came here for my cousin not some lame ass band.”

And with that I pulled Katie away from the bar without our drinks, unfortunately. Although we didn’t exactly get far considering the lights just went out minus the spotlights and people were crowding around the stage in an obnoxious attempt to form a crowd. Who could have Katie’s cousin gotten to come here that was so popular?

Michelle leaped onto the stage, earning a cheer from the crowd, and grabbed the microphone. “Thanks so much to everyone who decided to come here and party with me! I’m almost positive that this band will be worth your time. From sunny California please welcome, Avenged Sevenfold!”

Everyone in the building went berserk. How could this Avenged Sevenfold be such a huge band, and yet I’ve never heard of them? Katie and I exchanged shrugs before turning to the stage. A female’s scream erupted through the speakers followed by dueling guitars. This wasn’t half bad, I’ll give them that.

The stage was dark, and we were so far back that I could barely even see the guys performing. And on top of that, they were all looking stupid wearing hats and sunglasses indoors. The crowd began screaming along with the lyrics. They were somewhat chilling, to say the least, and they really really reminded me of, well you know what. “SCREAM! SCREAM! SCREAM THE WAY YOU WOULD IF I RAVAGED YOUR BODY! SCREAM! SCREAM! SCREAM THE WAY YOU WOULD IF I RAVAGED YOUR MIND!”

At the end of the song, the singer stared down the crowd and waited until their applause died down. “Thanks so much New York, it’s good to be here. So, that last song of ours was actually written for someone and I think our guitarist would like to say a few things.”

“Thanks, dude. Yeah, so that song goes out to a very good friend of mine. Her name is Myra and I think a lot of you may know her. I get to see her after this show tonight and I can’t fucking wait. So what do you say we rock this place till there’s nothing left?!”

Once again, the crowd went wild. I, on the other hand, went pale. T-there’s no way that that could be those evil monsters up there on stage…someone would’ve recognized them from the news reports, right?

“Hey, Randi, do you think that maybe those guys were talking about our Myra?” Katie asked excitedly, totally oblivious. The world around me started spinning and I felt like I was going to hurl at any given minute. “Randi? You don’t look so good…”

People had started moshing now, constantly banging into me. I gripped Katie’s arm. “Listen to me Katie, we have to get the hell out of here now! Those guys are the same ass wipes who kidnapped us! Obviously they know where we are and they basically admitted that they’re coming for Myra tonight.”

Her eyes grew wide in fear. “You can’t be serious. Do you think they know that you’re here?”

“I don’t think so, and I’d rather keep it that way.”

She nodded and immediately turned around trying to make a path for us. I, for the time being, stood in place glaring up at the stage. They’ve got some nerve standing up there acting like normal people when in reality they are far from it. I turned to leave as Katie tugged at my arm. I glanced over my shoulder once more and saw Vengeance elbow Shadows, indicating that we just got ourselves caught.

I cringed as I heard the guitars and drums suddenly stop and Shadows’ voice reverberate off the walls. “Sorry folks, we’ve got some bad news. Something came up and we have to end a little sooner than planned. Thanks for coming to see us!” Then they absolutely abandoned their instruments and jumped off stage. Oh shit, they were running through the crowd. They were coming for us.

“EXCUSE US!” Katie showed shoving past people, most of who barely even moved. How about we try my plan.

“GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY!” I screamed elbowing people out of the way.

“Well, that’s one way to go about doing it,” Katie said, leaning up against the wall to actually breathe.

I mimicked her…because you may or may not know it, but running for your life through swarms of angry fans isn’t exactly a walk through the park. Once we were outside, I realized that we won’t stand a chance unless we do something fast. Katie, practically reading my mind, started to lead the way toward the alley across the street. “Are you insane? Don’t you know that alleys are the cliché no-no in horror stories? That’s like where the bad guy lives,” I gasped.

“Why would they be in this alley though. It’s not the one near the bar, therefore they have no reason to be there.”

“They’re evil monsters, they don’t need a reason to be there.”

“Randi, if you keep complaining you’ll only slow us down,” she sighed. I rolled my eyes…I did not like this idea one bit, but I still followed her. I have two words for you: big mistake.

The sound of someone stepping in a puddle echoed off the walls and the sound alone felt like it was choking me. Paranoia was really not being my friend right now… “Did you hear that?” I asked shakily.

“Um, yeah I did considering it was my foot that just stepped in a puddle. What’s up with you, Randi? I’ve never seen you like this before.”

“I don’t understand it either. I’ve gotten over what happened to me, or at least I thought I did.”

She couldn’t respond because we both heard the sound of a tin trash can lid clattering on the ground and a cat’s screeching meow as I came flying forward, running to get the hell away from something. We both remained frozen at the moment because this time we knew that neither of us did anything. “Well, well, well look what we have here boys – a couple of hookers trying to play hard to get.”

Katie didn’t know what we were up against here, so I guess I’m going to have to swallow my pointless fear and face them. I spun around and glared at them. “Well, well, well look what we have here Katie – a couple of pieces of shit trying to get an ass-kicking,” I said, mocking them. Ah, it felt good to be myself again.

“Nice to see you haven’t changed one bit,” Zacky smirked. “I’m sure we’ll all enjoy the opportunity to teach you some manners. It’s never too late to learn.”

“Yeah, and what better time to start than right now? Why haven’t you introduced us to your little friend yet?” Shadows asked, staring down Katie who was obviously scared shitless right about now.

“This has nothing to do with her, so you better not touch her!” I shouted, standing in front of her defensively.

Zacky slyly replied, “Oh, I plan on doing more than just touching her.” He had this sick look of pure lust glazing over his eyes. It made me want to puke for the second time tonight.

The air around us was undoubtedly thick and tense. Neither one of us had taken a step forward. We were trapped, fighting against Shadows and Vengeance…oh well, at least it was fair in numbers. Well, looks like I’ll have to put my brilliant acting skills to use. “Haha you better watch out! Wouldn’t want that fire escape to hit you,” I shouted, while making a scraping noise against the dumpster next to me to at least sound remotely like a falling fire escape. They both glanced up, and signaled the moment for our escape.

I grabbed onto Katie’s hand and pulled her forward. “They’re getting away,” Zacky growled, seeing through our lie.

“I’ll handle this,” Shadows replied, throwing that lid from earlier in our direction.

I was able to dodge it, but it made direct contact with the back of Katie’s head knocking her down right in front of me. I tried to stop myself from running to avoid tripping, but it was too late. I went skidding forward across the cold, wet, rough pavement until I was stopped by a wall. Wow, Katie would pick the alley with the dead end.

My vision was becoming a little blurry and my head was pounding way too hard. There’s no way I can let them get me this easily. I have to save Katie…and Myra. I forced myself back to my feet only to be met with a nasty glare from Shadows. “I’m surprised you’re still standing after that. I could’ve sworn that’d you’d end up knocking yourself out,” he said with a brief chuckle and slightly evil smile.

“Oh, I’m so sorry to disappoint,” I replied, sounding somewhat sincere, before I took all the remaining spit in my mouth and emptied it out on his face. “There, now that was entertaining,” I laughed.

He slowly wiped the spit from his face, then his eyes pierced through mine. “Wanna see something even better?”

And without even letting me answer, he gripped the back of my head and slammed me into the brick wall conveniently near my head. My hair got twisted and caught in between his fingers, which made the pain even harsher when he pulled me back. My scalp felt like it was burning, but my face felt even worse. He threw me into the wall at such an angle that my nose probably broke on contact.

Blood oozed from my forehead where my skull was slightly cracked open. It dripped into my eyes, causing me to twitch each time it happened. And of course, my nose contributed some crimson fluid as well, spilling all over my white shirt.

“How about one more for good luck?” he grinned, with blood splattered in a dotted line across his face.

I was about to interject, but of course he didn’t care. He repeated the process again, and I felt myself pass out on contact. I can’t believe they got me so easily. I just can’t…let…them…do this…again….I’m sorry….Myra…and Katie….blackness.
~*~
I didn’t know that I was already too late. Myra had been thinking nearly the exact same thoughts at the same moment. We’re all going to die…this time for real.