A Sea Of Dead Drives Men Insane

-3 Weeks later-

“Hey, Monte! Pass me a beer will ya?!” I shouted into the kitchen, relaxing fully into the hammock I was swinging in. Max was sat in the deck chair by my side, sunglasses on against the glaring summer sun, glaring down on Monte’s grassy back garden. Rob was sprawled out on the rich green grass, sun cream evident on his skin that glistened in the sun. It had been 3 weeks since the Epitaph studio attack, and since Monte and Robert survived, we’d all been inseparable, and decided to take the summer off, to cool off from all the hype, while it was still hanging around in the air,. The media had definitely picked up on it all, so we decided to avoid all the interviews and pictures and all that while it was still today’s news, while they all still wanted to know. We knew it was going to blow over soon.

Monte entered the garden, with 2 beers and 2 smoothies for Monte and Rob, since they had to eat healthier by doctor’s orders. He passed me a beer, and I cracked it open with my teeth, catching the escaping foam in my mouth. I heard Max do the same, and he sighed, shuffling in his deck chair. The garden was silent except for the hose spraying in next door’s garden and Rob clearing his throat.

“Guys, just before you take a swig of your beers and respective smoothies,” Rob smiled, sitting up. We all looked up, Max took his sunglasses off and glared into the sunlight at our friend we were truly thankful to still have with us. “I’d liked to propose a toast, to Max and Craig, for saving our lives. We’re real thankful to still be here, no thanks to that bastard Ronnie,” I shook at the sound of his name. We all raised our glasses and bottles, and drank to life.

“What actually happened to him?” Monte asked, standing beside Rob, taking a swig of his yellow smoothies. I really didn’t wanna talk about this. I sensed that Max didn’t either as he replaced his glasses and looked up at me. Well, faced me as if he was looking at me.

“I don’t even know, maybe he’s still at Epitaph,” Rob said, downing his smoothies.

“But surely the cops would have visited it? Checked it over?” I felt the need to add, trying to get the image of a cold, blue, dead Ronnie lay in the middle of the wrecked studio. Even though, he wasn’t supposed to be dead.

“Yeah, but I’ve heard no news that he’s been taken back to prison or anything...” Monte replied, taking his seat next to Rob.

“But that’s not the point anyway, what if I fucking killed him? Then I’m just as bad as him in the first place aren’t I? If not worse!” Max suddenly exclaimed out of the blue, leaving us all in silence. He got up out of his deck chair and stormed off. I considered his point, and he was right. I looked at Rob and Monte, and they knew it too. I rolled out of my hammock, and went after Max into the kitchen.

“Max, calm down, I stopped you before you killed him. I would have known if you’d have killed him, he’d have stopped breathing.” I tried to comfort my friend.

“I’m just scared, Craig. I’m not a murderer as much as the next person, even if he did deserve it,” Max almost snapped, splashing his slightly pink face with water.

“I know, Max. But I know he’s not dead. Don’t worry, it’s fine. I promise you.” I looked into his eyes, hoping it was reassuring. This had been eating him for a while, I noticed.

“Right,” He smiled. “I’ll be ok, maybe I should ring the cops and ask them if he’s being treated in hospital or something just to make sure. I’m sure he’ll have been found, if not by the cops at least by some Epitaph official,” Max seemed to reassure himself. I placed a friendly hand on his shoulder.

“Good idea,” I said. “Now lets just enjoy the day, yeah?”

Max nodded, and took out his cellphone, which I guessed was my queue to leave him alone. I walked back into the garden and to my hammock, throwing myself into it and leaving it rocking for some time, enjoying the ride.

“Is Max alright?” Monte asked, so I looked over and nodded.

“Yeah, he’s good. He was just scared Ronnie hadn’t been found and he was dead that’s all, he was calling the cops to see if he‘d been taken to hospital,” I replied, swiping my beer from the grass as I swung from above

“You say it like you don’t want him dead,” Rob said casually. I stopped drinking and considered the comment. I did want him dead, yeah but not for Max’s sake.

“Well, I do but, I don’t, but only ‘cos I don’t want Max to have killed him,” I said.

“What, so you wanted to? Mabbitt you sick child...” Monte joked, making me laugh. It felt good to laugh after so long in not being able to laugh freely.

“Haha, No, I don’t want Max to go down do I?”

“No of course not,” Monte said abruptly as Max entered the garden again, and we relaxed innocently.

“How’d it go?” I asked, as I watched Max pocket his cellphone and put his sunglasses back on.

“It was fine, Ronnie’s in hospital, but they told me he’s being sent down again. Not even without a court case! ‘cos they did tests and he’s mentally unstable, but we already knew that,” He said the last part with an odd satisfaction. “They don’t know how long he’ll be sent down again for, but there making sure this time he has no connection with the outside world like he did last time. No phone, no internet, no visitors, by request of the one and only,” He smiled, pointing at himself. I wanted to kiss him.

“Max, I love you,” I said, shaking his hand.

“Who would visit Ronnie Radke anyway?” Monte snorted. We all laughed, falling into a moment of pure bliss.

Do you ever have those moments, where you lay down in the sun, drink in hand, surrounded by good friends, and you just think, “Wow, life is good,”? Well, I’m having one of those now. I stared up at the sky as I rocked lightly in my hammock, not a cloud in sight. It was as if the world knew I was free of Ronnie Radke. No more phone calls, no more letters, no more e-mails. Just me, the guys, the sun, beers and laughter.

Well, that was my idea of fun anyway.

But I couldn’t help but sense, that now life would be somewhat boring, now Ronnie couldn’t contact me. What would happen in the next chapter of Craig Mabbitt’s life? Would he find love, finally? Or would he enter the 8th circle of hell?

I certainly knew one thing, now all those demons were off my mind.

I needed to get laid.

And I could probably say the same for Max, too, who had now moved in to my flat permanently. He said he enjoyed living with me too much, so much he sold his flat and now he had a bunch of money, so we bought a load of new stuff to upgrade my flat. Mainly Xbox games, but that’s not the point. I was glad to see I still had my best friend by my side. Who also needed to get laid, should I mention. I know he denies it all the time, but I so caught him looking at porn on his laptop. It was as if I’d caught my little brother doing it, I just laughed it off though. Man needs to do what he needed to do I suppose.

But yeah, right now, at this very moment, life was peachy.

But how long would this moment of bliss last?