This Aint a Room Full of Suicides

The setting sun was warm on my face and the pink sky bathed everything in a warm glow. The wind whipped through my fluorescent aqua blue hair and I closed my eyes and leaned all the way out of the sunroof, relishing the moment. I looked over at Raven, her shockingly pink hair streaming back as well. She raised her arms up high and sang out joyfully with the music pumping through the car…
Heat burns my skin
Never matter bout the shape I’m in
I’ll keep you safe tonight….

I laughed and joined in, my older alto voice mingling with her tiny soprano one. We were so blissful that we didn’t hear the screeching of tires and notice the car slowing. Suddenly it swerved and abruptly stopped, slamming me against the roof of the car. The music was gone, there was eerie quiet for a moment but suddenly the sound of lasers ripped through the air. When I looked up, Draculoids were everywhere. I ducked down and saw Summer Fever slumped against the steering wheel, bleeding. Dollface and Greyson were equally broken, laying motionless in the backseat. I felt a sharp pain in my arm and snapped my head up to see Raven’s terrified face. A burst of light hit her and I watched in horror as her face morphed into an emotionless, gaunt, ghastly pale mask. She turned to me with empty eyes and spoke to me in an eerie, monotone voice.
“Look at me, Sparkler. Look at what they’ve done to me. What you’ve done. You killed me, Spark…”

~~~

“Sparkler, Spark, SPARKLER HEART! wakeup goddammit SPAAAAARK!”
I bolted upright to see Dollface’s concerned brown eyes and two strong hands gripping my shoulders. I was shaking and my shirt clung to my back, sticky with sweat.
“Sparkler, chill. It was just a dream.”
I relaxed and Dollface let go of me. Concern turned to tiredness in his eyes. As I flopped back down on my bed, he leaned back against the wall and sighed.
“God damn it, Spark, there’s no way anyone’s gonna sleep around here with your screaming…”
“I’m not trying to! Jeez!” I retaliated. “And Summer and Grey don’t seem to have a problem with it…” I grumbled indignantly.
Dollface’s gaunt, scarred face softened slightly when he saw that I was still slightly shaking. He awkwardly patted my leg under my thin blanket, and said, “So what do you dream about, anyway?”
“Same as always. Raven.” I replied.
“Yeah I know, but what about her?”
“I dunno, her being angry at me, becoming a fucking BL/ind. zombie, her being taken again…” My voice trailed off and I took a shaky breath. I didn’t like being so weak. I tried to hide my encroaching tears from Dollface, but he surprised me by pulling me into a firm hug. My cheek pressed against his shirt and I smelled a lovely combination of sweat, dirt, and coffee. I didn’t mind, it was practically the perfume of the Zones. Being dirty was a part of life; running water was a luxury we didn’t have.

Dollface pulled away, yawned, and shuffled out of the room, muttering something to me about going back to bed.
“Yes, mother.” I said, and grinned when he flipped me off over his shoulder. I lay back on my lumpy mattress and watched the earliest rays of dawn creep across my ceiling until I dozed off again.

~~~

I woke up to a lovely burning sensation on my eyelids. I opened them and squinted, the blistering sun burning my retinas. I grunted and rolled over and out of bed, stretched, and winced when my back cracked. I ran a hand through my unruly, stringy, aqua hair and shuffled into our dusty kitchen.
“Look aliiiiive, sunshine! We’ve got shit to do!” Summer Fever said when she saw me, grabbing my wrist and twirling underneath it.
I grunted a ‘mornin’ to my over-caffeinated friend and opened up the dilapidated cabinet. Much to my dismay, it was empty.
“Awww, come on, who took the last-“
I turned to see a smug Dollface clutching the last can of Power Pup and shoving a final spoonful into his mouth.
“uuugh! Fuck you! I’m hungry!” I grumbled, trying to snatch the can from Dollface.
“Sorry, girl. We’ll just restock today! I’ll call Dr. D to see if anyone local is around to supply us.” Summer said, twirling her fiery hair between her fingers. Just then, a groggy Greyson shuffled in, yawning and scratching his head. He wrapped his arms around Summer’s waist and rested his chin on her shoulder.
“Mornin” he mumbled in her ear, and kissed her cheek. “Where’s breakfast?” he said, straightening and discovering the painfully empty cabinet.
“Sorry, loverboy, looks like your dear Summer Fever and her lovely brother have hogged the last of the Power Pup for themselves. So we’re gonna have to go on a raid before we can eat.”
Greyson pouted and took a sip of Summer’s coffee, who whined and snatched it back. I knew coffee would only make me hungrier, so I tried to resist the lovely homely scent…
To resist my craving, I went back to get dressed. I grabbed my army green vest and aviators, and laced up my dusty gray combat boots. My vest was worn and sun-bleached, and covered in multicolored duct tape in various stages of peeling to cover upo bullet holes and rips. One side had a pocket for my purple gun, and the other was completely covered with song lyrics. Raven inscribed Danger Days, our old favorite album, in its entirety onto it a long time ago. I didn’t really like to hear that music anymore for two reasons: it made me miss Raven too much and also I had issues with the Fabulous Killjoys themselves. We hadn’t heard from them ever since their youngest companion, Sunshine, was taken by Korse. However, their faces are still the only ones on the wanted posters.

When I had slung my vest on along with my neon purple jeans and put on my Aviators, I was ready. In the kitchen, I saw Dollface and Summer equally suited up. Greyson, of course, was staying behind. The lazy arse. I don’t understand what Summer sees in him.

Summer had on her brutally cut up highlighter-yellow t-shirt that said FEVER on it in big block letters along with her classic red skinny jeans, dusty chunky boots, and Aviators that matched mine. She struck a pose with her scarlet gun and pranced out the door, Dollface chuckling and following after her. He had on his leather jacket with yellow caution tape striped all over it. We all hopped in our car and sped off, Dollface at the wheel as usual.

As the endless desert horizon stretched before us, Dollface floored the gas pedal. Summer Fever jammed the Danger Days CD in and she leaned out of the window as NaNaNa began pumping through the car. She threw her arms out and let her hair stream. Dollface rolled his eyes at her and pulled her back by the leg. “C’mon, if you fall out I’m not turning around to get you.”
She sat down in a huff.
“Soooo, is there any particular destination of this trip? Did you talk to Dr.D?” I said drily to Summer.
“Nope!” she said. “Lets just see what we find in Zone 6! I don’t feel like going all the way to the city.”
“Yeah, I’m fuckin hungry…” I said, gazing out the window and tapping my foot to the music.

We drove and drove. The desert seemed endless. When Danger Days ran it’s course, I put on Paramore and relaxed. After a while, a dune finally broke the monotonous horizon. Several dunes. That’s how I knew we were in Zone 6. Fear fluttered in my chest. Zone 6 was dangerous: the dunes were an easy hideout for Draculoids and other BL/Ind. creeps. I also was aware that the home of the Fabulous Killjoys was around here. Of course that’s why Summer brought us to this place.

When we reached the dunes, we left our car. I nervously stepped out and exchanged wary looks with Dollface. Summer of course was energized, but she knew the dangers of this Zone so she kept her cool. Or as cool as she possibly could be.

Guns at the ready, we started to wander and look for some form of life among the dunes, the high noon sun burned overhead. Just as I was beginning to get bored, the all-too-familiar sound of a laser ripped through the silence. I whipped around to see a stunned Summer Fever frozen with her dropped gun in front of her and a look of terror on her face. “Shit…” I mumbled, knowing that the single fluke gunshot would be a sure signal to any Dracs around.

Sure enough, five jet-black haired, bloody masks popped out of the dunes and all hell broke loose.