We Come out at Night

It’s been two days since we found out Lucy wasn’t pregnant. Aden and I were still being quarantined in my room, our temperatures still at averaging at about 101.4. Our throat felt like we were swallowing razorblades instead of saliva, it was horrible.

Today Zacky, Brian and Matt were flying in. Since we weren’t contagious, we said we would join Lucy and pick them up. They called us and told us that their flight was on time and that was about three hours ago, since I slept so horrible the night before, I decided I would take a nap and that Lucy would wake me up about a half hour before we picked them up.

After picking them up, Aden and I were going to be having a rather busy day. Since our tonsillitis was so severe, the doctor set up an appointment for us to get our tonsils removed. Thankfully for us, we could still tour since we didn’t sing or have a huge part in screaming, that was Lexi and Lucy’s positions.
I fell asleep rather quickly without taking Nyquil, which was something I didn’t expect. When I fell asleep, I had my iPod on the dock and it was playing ‘L'Via L'Viaquez’ by The Mars Volta, a band I just recently got
into. While I napped, I had a very strange dream.

I was standing backstage with Aden as our boys performed. We were singing and bobbing along with the music, laughing and cheering as they went on. The strange events started to take place when they finished.
As they came backstage, Zacky, Brian and Johnny took off their guitars and bass, handing them to the Berry brothers. The strange thing was Brain and Zacky looked devastated. We walked up to console them, but as we went to put our arms around them, they walked right through us. Aden and I looked at each other, extremely confused. We walked after them to try to make sense of it all.

“Guys,” Matt started, as he put his arms around Lucy, who had tears streaming down her face, “I’m really sorry about the girls. I miss them too. And you guys know we can take some time off if you need it. We can wait-“

Brian held up a hand, cutting him off. “No. Aden and Joanna wouldn’t want us to stop the tour. We’ll finish it out for them.”

The conversation went on but Aden and I looked at each other in disbelief. Why were they talking like we were dead. We saw Lucy and Matt walking off, we decided to follow and investigate. They lead us to the dressing room. Once they were inside, Lucy started to sob. Matt sat on the couch with her and held her as she cried. We walked over to hold her too, she was our best friend, but once again, we went right through them. So we waited to see if they said anything. A moment later Lucy got herself together enough to hold up a conversation.

“I don’t understand how that could happen to them. Of all things to die from, they had to go from that! How is it possible for people to be allergic to anesthesia?! It’s not fair! They never did anything to deserve that!” she said starting to sob again.

Matt held her close, rubbing her back and kissing her on top of her head. Aden and I looked at each other, but couldn’t speak, our faces sending questions and answers.

“How the fuck, does someone die from anesthesia? Really? And them! They never did anything to deserve that!” she continued.

Aden stood there in silence, staring at each other. I saw tears streaming down her cheeks. I wiped one away, and I noticed I was crying too. We died, and our friend was sitting here crying, grieving over us. It hurt us to stand there watching her crumble.

“Joanna.” I heard from behind me. I turned and saw Zacky standing there, staring right at me, holding a hand out with tears streaming down his face.

I looked at him but couldn’t speak, no matter how hard I tried. He called my name again. “Joanna.”

I closed my eyes and reached out to grab his hand.

“Joanna.” I heard as I felt him kiss my cheek. I opened my eyes and was looking at my iPod dock. I was in my room.

I rolled over and Zacky was lying on his side, propped up on his elbow, his other arm draped over my hip, and he was smiling down at me. I grabbed his face, making sure he was real and that I could actually touch him, making for damn sure that I was real, and very much alive. I exhaled a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding in.

He furrowed his eyebrows, keeping the smile on his face. “You okay?” he asked.

I swallowed hard, feeling like I had a mouth full of razorblades go down. I tried to answer him but my voice came out really raspy and I went into a miniature coughing fit. He reached over me and grabbed my cup of green tea. I drank it like I haven’t had a drink in a week. He chuckled. “Stop being sick.”

I cleared my throat and found a very small amount of my voice. I had to practically scream. “I’m trying. I gotta get these bitches removed today.” He chuckled again. “Wait, I was supposed to get you.”

He kissed my forehead and made a face, “You still have a massive fever. And yea you were but Lucy didn’t want to wake you just yet; she said you slept horribly last night, so she let you get a bit more. Aden was still asleep on the couch when we got back.”

I shrugged, and felt the aches still there. I took some Advil, with great difficulty. He sat up Indian style on the bed and looked down at me. “What were you dreaming about? You seemed really upset. You looked like you were crying.” I sat up and told him my dream, and as I told him, I felt like I was going to cry again. He looked upset and pulled me into a hug and kissed my head.

“That’s horrible babe. You have nothing to be afraid of though. The chances of people dying from anesthesia are slim. You’re not allergic are you?” he asked, not sounding too sure of himself on the last part of his statement.

“No, I’m not allergic, I’ve had surgery before and anesthesia was used, I was fine.” I assured him.

“Alright then there is nothing to worry about.” He said smiling and kissing me on the lips.

We got up and walked to the kitchen where everyone else was. Lucy made us tea, my throat thanked her. As we drank the tea, I had to tell the girls about my dream. I was still a little shaken up by it, and I had to talk to them about it. I needed the reassurance from them to make me feel better.

“Dude, you know we have had that shit before, we will be fine.” Aden said to me in a raspy voice that matched mine.

“Yeah, you know I won’t let those doctors fuck with you or let anything happen to you. I’d kill them before they had the chance.” Lucy said smiling and giving me a big hug. Matt backed her up on it, saying he would make sure they knew what they were dealing with before performing the operation. I smiled and gave him a hug. Soon after Aden and I got some stuff for the car ride together; juice, cough drops, more juice together, we were well on our way to the hospital to get our bastard tonsils taken out.

Once we were there, we filled out our paperwork and got changed into these hospital gowns that were horrendous. They made me want to vomit, and the smell of a hospital could never help. I personally thought hospitals, doctors offices, and even a dentist’s office (no matter how minty it may smell) all smelled horrible to me.

We got into our separate rooms, and I laid on the bed, trying my hardest to get myself to calm down and to stop myself from being nervous. I kept having my dream pop back into my head. I kept shaking it away. As the anesthesiologist put the mask to my face, I stared at a poster on the wall to focus on as I drifted off into their chemical induced sleep.