My Living Nightmare

“Put it off,” I complained, hiding behind Sapphire’s back.

“There’s just a thirty minutes left in the movie Al, now shush,” she replied.

“But-”

“Shush!”

Unbelievable… she was hushing me.

I was beyond scared. Even though I put up a tough façade I got frightened really easily. Although all the things I seemed to be scared of are supernatural and didn’t exist.

Go figure.

“Sean?” I whimpered.

“It’s nearly finished Alex, relax.”

There were really no reliable people in this room, excluding me.

On the screen there were six kids hanging around a campsite, all of them wasted. It was a dark, cloudy night and they were making a racket, throwing empty beer bottles around and making out.
Then they heard a scream.

“Wha-what was that?” one of the drunk girls slurred.

The guys just ignored them and continued drinking and messing around. That was their mistake…

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” I screamed, as one by one the teenagers disappeared and skull-cracking shrill screams were heard.

“Why’s Alex screaming? Sean, what are you- oh…” Jamie ran through the door, and trailed off. He looked at the TV screen, and the three of us, and back again. And then, just like the two next to me he erupted into a fit of laughter.

“What’s so funny?” a teenage guy asked, walking through Sean’s now open door.

He was Jamie’s height, and had wavy brown hair and grey eyes. He was cute, and he always reminded me of Sapphire.

“Hey, Matt,” Sapphire said, after her laughing fit slowed down enough so that she could speak.

“Sapphire? What are you doing here?” Matt said.

“Visiting Alex,” she explained, pointing at me nonchalantly.

“Hi, Matt,” I said when I finally stopped screaming.

“You guys know each other?” Jamie asked.

“Unfortunately,” Matt said, winking at me.

“So how do you guys know each other?” Jamie asked. We had left Sean’s room and were now sitting in the kitchen around the island.

You have got no idea how glad I am that we weren’t watching that movie.

No idea whatsoever.

“That crazy chick over there, not Alex, the other crazy chick named Sapphire, yeah her, well she’s my cousin,” Matt babbled.

Well, was that a long explanation or what?

“Wasn’t that the briefest description ever,” Saph said sarcastically, almost mirroring my thoughts. “Hi, I’m Sapphire, Alex’s BFF,” she said extending her hand towards Jamie.

He shook it and then turned back to face us.

“Well, now that we’re all acquainted with each other do you think you guys could explain what all the screaming and laughing was about? It was kind of alarming to walk into the house and hear all that noise,” Matt said.

“We put on a horror movie,” Sean said explained.

“Aah,” Matt said knowingly.

“If I have nightmares tonight you know who I’m going to blame…” I muttered crossly.

“My best friend gave me the best advice
He said each day's a gift and not a given right
…”

The lead singer of Nickelback sang while I hummed along under my breath.

“Put off the music already! It’s been on a loop for an hour!” Sean begged.

We were still in the kitchen chatting about nonsense.

The perfect time for revenge for the movie…

I was annoying them endlessly with my choice in music and they couldn’t do a thing; since I warned them that if anyone of them threatens my car again I would, very nicely, behead them. I mean, what did the car ever do to them?

And they didn’t know where it was coming from. You see, while they were amusing themselves exchanging so-called “funny” tales and memories about me and horror movies, I had slipped my cell into one of the kitchen drawers.

Perhaps having the same playlist play over and over again was cruel…but then again, that’s life. It was karma; they did something horrible to me, now something horrible was happening to them.

Besides that, all they had to do was leave the kitchen if they wanted the music to stop ringing in their ears.

“I like this song,” I said, smirking.

And anyway, it wasn’t like listening to my music was torture, I knew for a fact that they listened to the same things that I did. Well, except for Sapphire. But I listen to her crap, so she should listen to mine too. It was only fair…

“If today was your last day
and tomorrow was too late
could you say goodbye to yesterday? “

“Okay, I’ll make a deal with you. If I sing one of your songs with you, you put the music off. Is it agreed?” Sapphire Parker bargained.

Oh hell to the no!

“There is no way I’m singing in front of anyone,” I said, holding my hands up in front of me. “Not a chance in hell!”

“Please; this song is killing me.”

“No.”

“Alex.”

“Saph.”

“A-lex-an-dri-a.”

“Sapph-i-re.”

“I’ll buy you ice-cream.”

“Done. But I get to choose the song,” I said.

Yeah, I gave in too easily, but can you really blame me? It’s ice-cream!

“Fine.”

“Black Velvet- Allanah Myles,” I said, choosing a random song that I knew wouldn’t make me sound nails on a blackboard. I dug into one of the drawers and took out my phone.

“It was in there the whole time?” Jamie asked incredulously.

“Yep,” I nodded. “Okay Parker, you start, we do the chorus together and every second verse is mine. One, two, three, start.”

“Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell
Jimmy Rogers on the Victrola up high
Mama’s dancin’ with baby on her shoulder
The sun is settin’ like molasses in the sky
The boy could sing, knew how to move, everything
Always wanting more, he’d leave you longing for,” she sang.

The whole time she was singing I was busy freaking out. I never sang in front of people. She was the show girl; I was the one in the shadows.

I started backing away to the doorway, slowly and silently.

It seemed Sapphire knew what was going through my mind though, because just before it was time for me to sing our piece she held up my car keys. That was very strange; since I’m sure they were in my back pocket…

“Black velvet and that little boy’s smile
Black velvet and that slow southern style
A new religion that’ll bring ya to your knees
Black velvet if you please,” together we hit the chorus, with me looking at the floors which had suddenly become very interesting.

Then it was my turn.

”Up in Memphis the music’s like a heat wave
White lightning, bound to drive you wild
Mama’s baby’s in the heart of every school girl
“Love me tender” leaves ‘em cryin’ in the aisle
The way he moved, it was a sin, so sweet and true
Always wanting more, he’d leave you longing for…”

It was chorus time again.

“Black velvet and that little boy’s smile
Black velvet and that slow southern style
A new religion that’ll bring ya to your knees
Black velvet if you please.”

I was really envious of Saph. She was smart, she was pretty, she could sing, she had a wonderful close-knit family and yet not once did she take advantage of all of it.

“Every word of every song that he sang was for you
In a flash he was gone, it happened so soon, what could you do?” she sang, her eyes on me, seeing that I was still admiring the floor.

Again Saph and I hit the chorus in perfect unison.

“Black velvet and that little boy’s smile
Black velvet and that slow southern style
A new religion that’ll bring ya to your knees
Black velvet if you please.”

We’ve been friends since forever and we knew each other like we knew ourselves, like we knew the back of our hands. The only problem was I didn’t know my hand that well, so how could she?
We climbed through the next part as one.

“Black velvet and that little boy’s smile
Black velvet and that slow southern style
A new religion that’ll bring ya to your knees
Black velvet if you please.”

I felt somebody lifting up my chin.

Up until then Sapphire had been singing with me, but now she kept quiet. That traitor.

“If you please, if you please,” as I looked into Sean’s eyes my mind was in a muddle. “If you please…” I ended.

The song faded and the music ended. I backed away from Sean, my thoughts all in disarray. Instantly a scowl graced my face and I looked back down at the floor.

“Hoot, hoot!” Matt and Jamie cheered.

I lifted my head to look at them, a fake smile plastered on my face.

One thing was running through my mind. I didn’t know what it meant, but it kept repeating itself over and over again.

Why do you fight it?