Lost In Stereo

Zo was running. She had no clue where she was running to or who she was running from. All she knew that she was running. She was in some sort of weird dark hallway that smelled like a hospital and was dirty and falling apart. The walls had huge cracks in them and even had large hole showing what was in the rooms that the walls hid. She sort of wished that the holes weren’t even there. Inside the rooms there were scary looking equipment and people lying in beds with scared expressions.

So maybe it actually was a hospital. But why she was there? She honestly had no clue. There were distant voices calling out but she couldn’t make out words. All the voices were mixed together and saying different things at once. Zooey figured that if she even tried to figure out what they were saying she still wouldn’t be able to.

But then she stopped dead in her tracks when one voice carried out above the others. She knew that voice. Chills consumed her as she realized she finally knew why she was running. She was trying to answer the call of the voice. All the other voices disappeared and all was left was that one voice. Something buzzed in her hand and she looked to see she was holding her phone. There was a new text message on it and when she opened it, there was only one word written.

Hurry

Picking up her speed as the voice got more frantic she tried to keep her breathing calm as she continued down the hallway. The stupid thing didn’t even seem to end and she didn’t even know where she was going. All she knew was that she had to get to the room. Fast. She was running out of time.

“Zooey!”

No. It’s happening. She’s not going to get there in time. Forcing herself to go faster, she took a right turn even though she didn’t know why and started to bolt down another hallway.

At least this hallway was better than the other one. It was bright and didn’t have any damage and there were actually normal people in it. She noticed that most of the people were nurses in brightly colored scrubs and as she passed them they gave her sympathetic looks. She wished they would just stop staring and tell her what the hell was going on.

Then as if her body didn’t belong to her, she started to slow down. She tried to force herself to run again but nothing would work. Her legs wouldn’t listen to her anymore. Then she stopped in front of a closed door and took a deep breath. Reaching out, she took the handle of the door and twisted it slowing pushing it open.

When she walked in, she saw that it looked just like any other hospital room. But there was nothing in it. There was no bed no monitors no equipment, just a empty room with the sun coming in through the open window brightly. And there was also no one else in the room.

She started to panic thinking she had the wrong room when something caught her eye. She looked to the middle of the room and watched with wide eyes as something that looked almost like smoke started to appear. She wanted to take a few steps back as the smoke started to materialize into a figure but her body wouldn’t let her. She was stuck in place as she watched the smoke turn into a little boy.

No. Not just any little boy. Do.

“Oh my god,” Zo heard herself whisper but she hadn’t even realized that her lips had moved. She was too busy staring at her little brother in the middle of the room.

He was floating about three feet off the ground and was wearing a hospital gown. His hair was in its usual messy way but he didn’t look sick. He looked like he had before all the treatment. A normal healthy looking little boy the only hint that gave away he might be sick was the hospital gown.

“Why?”

Zo stared at him for a few more moments wondering what he meant and was about to ask but the boy continued.

“Why?” He repeated. “Why weren’t you there when I died? Why weren’t you there holding my hand as my lungs stopped working? Why did you go off shopping with Penny while I lay sick in the hospital? Didn’t you love me? Didn’t you worry about me every day? Why weren’t you there?”

Horrible sobs shook her whole body as she broke down and cried. She felt her legs starting to give out but for some reason she still couldn’t move.

She was about to answer him when she heard someone calling her name. She looked up to look at Do, but he hadn’t said anything. He was just floating there staring at her with a judgmental look on his face.

Then suddenly the room started shaking and Zo gave out a scream as Do suddenly disappeared. She didn’t even have a chance to tell him. Tell him that she was sorry and that she didn’t mean to abandon him. She needed to tell him. She had to tell him.

But he was gone and he would never know how much she loved him.

“Zooey!” The voice called again and she gasped as she recognized the voice. She would know that voice anywhere….

She woke up with a start and stifled a small whimper as she felt someone shaking her. She took in a quick shaky breath and rolled over and squinted her eyes at the figure next to her. There was something tickling her cheek and she touched her hand to her cheek and realized that they were tears. She must have cried out in her dream and started crying.

“Zooey, what’s going on?” The voice asked again and she relaxed realizing that it was Alex. All she could do in reply was whimper as she felt more tears come to her eyes. It had felt like it had been real, but it was only a dream, but she couldn’t help but hate herself for it. “Move over Zo,”

“W-what? Why?” She asked shakily as Alex climbed into her bed forcing her over to the wall.

“Because it’s freaking cold out in the hallway and I want to make sure you’re ok.” He replied as he pulled the blanket over him and then pulled Zo close to him.

She sniffled again as she took his shirt in her fists and buried her head in Alex’s chest allowing herself to relax. She took in the amazing scent that was Alex and allowed herself to relax and forget about the dream. Alex didn’t ask about it and she knew that he would give her time until she felt ready to tell him. He just held her close to him as she started to fall asleep again praying that she didn’t have another dream like that.

The next thing she knew was that there was a loud beeping noise waking her up. Someone grumbled next to her as she tried to blink the sleep from her eyes as she tried to find the source of the noise.

“Oh my God Zo! Make it stop!” Alex said next to her as she finally found her phone. Wait, what? Why was Alex next to her? His bunk was above her.

Then it hit her. The dream last night and Alex crawling in her bunk to hold her when she woke up from it. He must have stayed with her the whole night. But thankfully, she couldn’t even remember the second dream she had. And she was taking that as a good thing.

When the phone was finally off, she sighed and let her eyes close again. They were really sore from crying last night as she figured that they looked just as bad as they felt. Allowing herself five more minutes, she finally got up and crawled over to Alex when she heard the rest of the crew getting up for the daily set up.

It was already the fourth day of tour and she was starting to get a little more comfortable with everything. Colussy had taken her to a few interviews and acoustics shows so she could be ready to do them on her own and now also knew how to help the rest of the crew set up if needed.

She grabbed a few things from her bag and went to go change. When she came back to her bunk, her curtain was closed and she just rolled her eyes as she pulled it open. Instead of only seeing one person there like it had been when she got up, there were now two. And she would know that black head of hair anywhere.

“Really Jack? Why are you in my bunk snuggling with Alex?” Zo asked as she shoved her pajamas into her bag. Jack groaned and snuggled more into Alex who was now against the wall with his eyes closed and not seeming to care that he was spooning with Jack.

“Mm, my bunk was cold and Alex wouldn’t move so I can to snuggle with him.” Jack replied sleepily as Zo just rolled her eyes and saw Vinny walking over with a amused expression on his face.

“Aw look. They’re finally out of the closet!” Vinny said as Alex flipped him off and Zo started to laugh.

“See I told you Jalex exists! I can go read some fan-fiction to you if you have any questions on sex or anything?” Zo teased as both Alex and Jack’s eyes snapped open and stared at her with wide eyes.

“Please for the love of God Zo do not start reading fan-fiction again. I will get the duck tape out and shove you in a closet.” Alex warned as Zo laughed again not really believing his threat.

She noticed the signature evil look in Vinny’s eyes. “Ooh kinky!” He said as Alex threw a pillow at the merch guy and missing horrible.

She followed Vinny out to the front of the bus where the rest of the crew already were getting their first cup of coffee for the day. After being on tour for only a little less than a week, she had already drank more coffee than she would have in a month and was beginning to realize that she was going to become a caffeine addict. But who was complaining? Coffee at six in the morning was the only thing that really kept her awake for the day.

“What was going on out there?” Flyzik asked as Zo and Vinny shared a amused look and she shrugged innocently.

“Alex and Jack are just spooning and I offered to read fan-fiction to them again if they had any questions on sex.” She replied as Alex yelled at her to shut up.

“What do you mean again?” Colussy asked.

She gave them her best innocent look as she continued, “oh nothing. I just decided to read some rather detailed stories about Jalex a while back.”

“Hey! That’s a good idea! I’ll have to start doing some research on that! We could have a nightly story time!” Vinny said as everyone laughed at him.

“Vinny, you do that and I will come after you in the middle of the night and cut your dick off!” Alex yelled.

“Yes and then stuff it down your throat!” Jack added as everyone just rolled their eyes and continued drinking their coffee.

After they were done, they all went to the trailer to start loading everything in. There were what seemed like a billion boxes full of everything they needed and finally once they were all in and put in the proper places, they started to unpack them and set the things up.

“Hey Zo!” Flyzik said and she looked up from where she sat helping Jeff set the lights up. He had a small smile on his face as he handed her some papers. “Do you mind staying with the guys for their interview today?”

She shrugged, “Not at all. Who are my victims?”

“Jack and Alex,” He replied as she scanned over the paper. There were three people coming in to interview them. “Their first is in a hour so you have my permission to do whatever you need to get them up.”

She smiled as she headed back to the bus to get them up. She knew Alex was still asleep since he was still dreaming about some party that was going on at their apartment. When she finally got them up and into the dressing room, the first interviewer was already there and they sat down and started to answer their questions.

When the interviews were done and set up was also done. They all went to explore the current town they were in. Somehow they had all gone off into smaller groups and she ended up going into different shops with Jack and Alex.

The show came and went and once they were finished, they went to pack up. Once they were finally done, they all got back on the bus and ended up turning some music on and start a dance party. Zo was just glad there was beer. The dream was still on her mind and she was willing to do anything to forget about it. She still hadn’t told Alex about it but he didn’t push her to tell him either, so she just left it at that and went to join Jack in dancing like an idiot.