Slowly Fading

Despite her best efforts to look on the bright side, Abigail remained miserable. She couldn't shake the feelings of regret that were swallowing her up, she knew that everything was her fault, and now there was nothing she could do but grin and bear it as she faced the consequences.

As she entered the airport she sighed. Her flight had landed sooner than it had been scheduled to, so that meant that she had around an hour to waste before her father would even be anywhere near ready to pick her up. She decided that the best thing to do was to go for a smoke, her cases weren't ready to be collected yet so she had plenty of time to indulge in the habit she knew was bad for her, but yet craved to badly.

Leaning up against the smooth yet surprisingly cold exterior wall of the airport she allowed herself to sink down so that she was hunkered over on her knees. Abigail was tired, cold, nervous but most of all alone. She was never usually alone, not really. She always had friends to talk to, things to do, people to see… but now it was just her. Of course it wouldn't be for long,her father would pick her up soon, and then she’d never be alone, she’d have the other band members and their assorted girlfriends around her all the time, but still she’d be facing the year in the mindset of being alone. She had no friends to lean on, her mother wasn't there to be a shoulder to cry on anymore either, she would have to toughen up and do things for herself this time around.

Placing a cigarette between her slightly rouged lips she smiled to herself. She remembered the way her mother had always given out to her when she had spotted her daughter taking a quick drag. She had begged Abigail to give up smoking, calling cigarettes nothing more than ‘sticks of cancer’, but Abigail never listened. Her father was a smoker, that was one of the only things she knew about him when she was a little girl, and now that she was all grown up she felt that smoking was possibly the only thing she had in common with the man that had supplied half of her DNA.

Once her cigarette had burned itself out she decided to wander back inside. Feeling the sudden blast of heat that met her at the door she suddenly realised just how cold she had been, so pulling her jacket tighter around her body she headed straight to the back collection point.

‘’Oh for fuck sake.’’ She muttered to herself through gritted teeth as yet another suitcase came through the black and grey flaps on the conveyor belt. She had been waiting for what felt like an eternity and still there was no sign of her bags. Feeling her pocket vibrate she pulled out her mobile phone and swiftly entered her three digit code to unlock it.

’We’re in the parking lot’ The message that her father had sent was short and not particularly inviting, but never the less she quickly typed a message pack and stuffed her phone back into her jeans pocket as she spotted the first of her suitcases making it’s way out.


Dragging her cases behind her, Abigail slowly made her way to the car park. She looked around her in every direction, desperately looking for some sign of her father, or even one of his band mates, but found nothing. After a few minutes it dawned on her that she didn't actually have any idea what kind of car she was indeed searching for. Pulling her phone out for the second time she quickly typed a message to her father.

‘What car do you guys have?’

’We don’t have a car, we have a bus, we’re outside the parking lot.’

She silently cursed herself as she read the reply. Of course they’d have a fucking bus, they were on a fucking tour. Within a matter of minutes she had spotted them, a large black bus with the word Sevenfold scrawled on in grey lettering sat only meters in front of her. Her heart raced as she looked at what was to become her home for the next few months, but she knew really what was worrying her was the prospect of living with a man she had barely conversed with in the past five years.

Slowly she edged closer to the bus, cases still rolling along side her. She could hear the sound of laughter and chat coming from somewhere inside, but she couldn't quite pick out exactly what was being said. Taking a deep breath she stretched her hand out and braced herself to open the door, her heart was beating fast and she had to tell herself to steady her breathing as her nerves rose to n all time high. But before she got the chance to pull the door open it was flung agar and a tall man with jet black hair spiked up in a style that was truly his own appeared.

‘’Abigail! You’re here already!’’