Trace Your Shadows

THEN

“Fi? Fiona? Helloooo?” There was a hand waving in her face, followed by an obnoxious scoff. “The lights are on, but nobody’s home, I see.”

Fiona grinned at this, looking up at her long time friend with fondness. “I’m right here, Lex,” she answered with a grin, tuning out of her thoughts and into the conversation Lex had been trying to have with her.

Lex huffed loudly. “Really? Because it doesn’t seem like it. Where’s your head been at lately, girl?”

“Just, you know, the usual stuff. School and training, it’s taking it out of me,” Fiona offered, hoping her friend couldn’t see through the half truth presented to her.

Narrowing her eyes at her friend, Lex frowned. “You’re putting far too much effort into this ‘being a perfect student’ business. It’s making the rest of us look bad, so I suggest you cut it out. Anyway, now that I’ve got your attention, I asked if you were busy this Friday?”

“Mmm, no actually. I usually have training first thing Saturday morning but considering this is the last week before summer break, I'm free. What were you thinking? Movie night at yours?”

Lex laughed at this, shaking her head. “Nah, I was thinking something a little more adventurous. My brother let it slip that they’ve got a bunch of bands lined up to play at The Grind for this Friday, top secret stuff to keep out the riff raff but now that we know, I don’t think we should let an opportunity like this go to waste, do you?”

“Is it an underage event? Will there be alcohol? Where even is the Grind?” Fiona rattled off immediately, chewing at her bottom lip anxiously at the thought.

The Grind was one of those illusive places, kept secret in order to avoid unwanted attention of the police, and a place where those considered cool on the scene got together to play or listen to gigs in some underground hole all night. Loud music, smoke, and alcohol, basically, and it didn’t exactly seem like a good time to Fiona.

“Fi, really? Quit your worrying, would you? It will be fun, I promise!” Lex tried, sighing when she noticed that Fiona still didn’t look all that sold on the idea. “Come on, Fi, this is a big deal! To find out about one of the most elusive events on the Chicago scene and not go is like, a crime! Nothing bad will happen, we’ll just go along, listen to some bands, talk to some people, have a good time. You’ll be back at home all tucked up and safe before you know it!”

Fiona laughed at this, admiring her friend’s dedication to the cause. “Alright, okay, so if I were to say yes, how exactly do you propose I manage to get my dad to agree to me going to this?”

“You’re almost seventeen, that’s like, practically an adult! It’s time to start living like the teenage you could be, and just do it!” Lex paused for a moment before shaking her head. “No, don’t do that, your dad will lose his fucking head. How about we go for ‘you’re staying over at mine’ ploy, huh? Just get him to drop you off, we’ll get ready at mine, have an awesome fucking night, you stay the night and then you go home in the morning feeling like a total badass.”

“Fine, okay, you’ve worn me down, I’ll go,” Fiona agreed finally, laughing when Lex jumped up and down in victory. “And this better be as good as you say it will be, because if my dad finds out and I get grounded for, oh I don’t know, forever for some shitty band in a smoky basement, we’ll no longer be on speaking terms.”

Lex wrapped an arm around her friend’s neck, jostling her with an excited grin on her face. “Don’t you worry my dear friend, Friday night will be legendary I promise.”

Fiona had tried to believe her friend, really she had, but the whole night seemed pretty sketchy. Yet she felt like she owed it to Lex, who had been her friend for as long as she could remember and who Fiona had been, guilty, pushing aside in exchange for training and her new obsession with all things Pete Wentz. At least this way, she could get out of her head for a little while and make her friend happy, a double win that she could live with.

*

That night, Fiona fell into a restless sleep, tossing and turning and barely even leaving the realm of consciousness. She was stuck inside a merciless nightmare, one that she knew wasn’t real but she still couldn’t get away from. Distorted images, cries for help, screams, flashing lights, and the sticky feel of cooling blood on everything she touched seeping through her mind until there was a sudden noise from outside her bedroom that pulled her from such a terrible dream.

She was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, her breathing erratic, and when she moved to a sitting position, she read the clock beside her bed to find out that it was four in the morning and why the hell was she even awake? Sighing loudly, she tried to lie down and steady her breathing, not sure where her subconscious found such a horrible collection of images to scar her with when she heard that same sound that woke her, a quiet tap on her window.

It’s nothing, she told herself, just her imagination overacting after a nightmare. She shook her head, trying not to get worked up when she heard it again, a more persistent knocking now and she talked herself up, convincing herself that if she went to her window and saw that there was nothing there, she could return to her bed and actually get some decent sleep.

Padding over to the window, Fiona raised her hand to pull back the curtain, hesitating momentarily. Don’t be stupid, she thought, ripping back the material and only having the good fortune to be able to stop herself from letting out the scream waiting in her lungs.

Because sitting there, on the first floor roof outside her window, was none other than Pete Wentz himself.