Lost in the Shadows

It was Christmas time according to Heidi. She was being paid for the first time and her check looked beautiful. Even after paying her rent for her apartment, she had a couple hundred dollars to spare. She bought a new wardrobe for herself and some accessories as well. Every outfit she bought made her feel like the flower child that she wanted to be with an extra spunk to it. She bought a fitted leather jacket and a jean jacket from a thrift shop down the way.

She bought a pair of high heels to wear at night when she had no work to contend with. For the first time in weeks, she felt like a princess rocker chick.

Heidi leaned against a candy shop as she waited for the motorcycle gang to come. Her skin was radiant and her strawberry blonde hair glowed around her blue eyes. Of course, she had no idea if they would come but she hoped she would get a chance to see them again. In all honesty, she wanted to see Marco.

She delicately sucked on her red lollipop as she waited for them to mark their presence. It seemed that they came through around the same time every night. The boys finally came riding up on their motorcycles once it was completely dark out. She was standing under a light so they would hopefully see her.

Dwayne was the first to see the beautiful doll faced girl as she took the lollipop out of her mouth. They all stopped and were in awe of how innocent she looked. David looked back at Marco and took a deep breath. Paul was clearly amazed by her transformation and was basically drooling out of the sides of his mouth. Dwayne nearly had her clothes taken off with his eyes. Marco pursed his lips after looking at her and placed his attention on the water.

Heidi threw the lollipop out and walked over to him. “Mind if I come with you guys?”

Marco bit his lip and refused to look at her. Heidi would have never engaged with Marco all night long if she knew that he was going to ignore her.

The native American glanced over at her. “You can ride with me.”

Heidi gave Marco one more chance to let her ride on his motorcycle and then dropped the situation. She wished he knew why he was acting like such a brat. They had a great time a few nights before and he certainly was not mad about her kissing him.

Once she saw he would not give her a response, she went over to Dwayne and got on behind him, wrapping herself over him. The roar of the bikes showed the people of the pier that they were coming through and burst off into the speed of light. The more she road on the bikes, the less she minded. It was a nice feeling to catch her hair blowing through the wind.

She held onto his leather jacket, which had a cheetah on the one arm, as tight as she could and looked at how the boys raced on the sand. Marco sped off passed everyone which encouraged a battle of the bikes to go to their premium.

David was not one who liked to be in last place. He cut Marko off trying to throw him off his bike and teach him a lesson but all that happened was Marco slowed down. Heidi looked behind to see Marko trying to speed up as fast as he could. Paul was in second place even though he was doing zig zag motions and throwing his bike back into the air.

At last they stopped in front of the sunken hotel. She never really had the opportunity to sink her teeth into this place. She hopped off the bike and looked around the place before running down the giant hill to get inside. “Woohoo!” The girl cheered in awe as her voice echoed back to her.

As soon as she laid down on the couch, she was met by David squatting in front of her. “You’re in an enthusiastic mood. I like that in a girl.”

Her heart significantly slowed down and she sat up with her elbow. “What do you mean by that?” Heidi raised her eyebrow.

“I don’t mean anything bad by that. I just think it’s time that you should be happy. Your wealth in life calls for a drunk session.”

All though she wanted to trust David since it was Marco’s friend, she somehow would not stomach it. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Paul took a couple beers out of his satchel that he wore and handed a beer to everyone. “Let’s not make her drink, David. If she wants to be the outcast, then let her be the outcast.”

David stood up and popped the top open with his teeth and began drinking his beer. “Fine. She doesn’t have to drink then.”

Heidi stood up after looking around for Marco. She went around a booth to find the bejeweled bottle. “What is this, David?”

“You really want to know what it is?” The three boys stopped having fun and laughing and came a bit closer. “That’s blood, Heidi.”

She laughed lightly as he said that as if it was real. “You guys are so childish.” Heidi held it out to David. “You first. I insist.”

The mullet Rockstar took the bottle and lifted it to his lips, locking eyes with her before guzzling a large amount down his throat. He closed his eyes as if he had just drank the sweetest best drink in the world. It looked like David could see all the galaxy in the liquid that raced into his brain.

He did make it look tempting. These boys were like a bunch of older brothers who wanted to pull one over on their little sister and scare her. It would be a shame for Heidi to see them win the game. The bottle was not filled with blood. It was just a game. She quickly took the bottle from David and pressed it to her lips for a good few seconds.

The boys danced around the more they drank alcohol. Heidi went to Dwayne and grabbed his hands, putting them up in the air, and bouncing around. She felt a new brew of life in her bones. That day was the best day of her life and she felt like she deserved it. This was the prime of her life and she had no intention of wasting it.

Dwayne twirled her around and the thicker they got into the night the more the voices came to her. “Heidi, Heidi, Heidi.” They called to her louder as the night went on but she overlooked it as if the voices were not there. Through the night, Marco never came back into sight and so she had fun with the three boys she did have to celebrate with.

Once they were done dancing, David put a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go out there and have some fun before the night is done.”

She gazed into the dark abyss of the cave before she would go anywhere to see a less than pleased Marco with his arms crossed and leaning against the doorway.

David cupped his hands together. “Come on, sad boy. You’re coming with us too.” With that, David left the cave and everyone else followed except for Marco and Heidi.

Heidi folded her arms. “Mind telling me what’s going on with you?”

Marco took a deep breath. “Nothing is wrong.”

“Can we not make this weird, please? If this is about the kiss then I am truly sorry. I don’t want to lose a friend just because of one stupid kiss.”

“Heidi!” He yelled. “This isn’t about that. You’re different. You bought a new wardrobe and you’re acting different. Why’d you drink from the vile? Did you drink just because David thinks you should? Now you’re just following the crowd?”

“What?” She was shocked by him talking like this. “For one, things are going right for me for the first time since I got here and nothing bad has happened all day. Also, what’s so bad about drinking some wine a little bit?” Heidi walked closer to him and focused her attention on one of his art patches on his jacket. She spun the fringe around her finger.

Marco put a hand on the side of her neck and looked at her lips. “You just drank David’s blood.”

“His blood?” Heidi shook her head. “I didn’t drink anything, I promise. Not a drop of what was in that bottle touched me.

He sighed in relief and kissed her forehead and held her in for a hug. “Promise me you won’t ever drink from it. I swear, it’s not wine.”

“I promise.” She closed her eyes as she got close to him. “David lost my trust already. Ego-centric pricks have always given me a bad taste.”

Marco held her so close that he might almost pop her. “Good. No one should completely trust David.”

Once they pulled apart, they went outside and got on his bike.

The motorcycle gang flew away from the cave and back into the general vicinity of the boardwalk. David led them to a cliff. About 30 feet out was another cliff on the other side.

“What are we doing here?” Heidi stood for from the edge and almost wondered if the walls would collapse on them.

David looked over at Paul and nodded to him. “Would you like to go first, Paul?”

Paul was clearly excited to be the first one. He jumped from the cliff with a yell. Dwayne and then Marco were the next ones to go. She ran to the edge and looked down to see where the guys were but they were ‘safe’ on a rickety fallen wooden bridge tied together with rope that had become a ladder. The fall was never ending and Heidi’s stomach did flips.

“No, no way. I’m not going down that.”

David sat down and grabbed the ropes. “Come on. You’ll be all alone and we won’t be able to get you after this. You’ll be all alone and you won’t get to see what we see. Don’t you want to be one of us?”

Heidi rolled her eyes and looked away from him. “I’m wearing a skirt. All guys are the same. Give them the opportunity and they’ll look right up there. I know you don’t like me much but I’m almost sure that you’d be more than happy to steal a peek.”

“We aren’t dogs, Heidi.” He then fell down the rope ladder and Heidi was unable to comprehend what was going on.

She made sounds and paced as she sat down and held tight to the ropes. She began climbing down and tried to keep modest but her skirt flew wherever the wind wanted it to. She yelled and shook a bit as she climbed down slowly.

Paul looked up to see her underwear and yelled happily as he shook the whole thing. Everyone screamed but the boys seemed to enjoy the adventure. Heidi held on as tight as she could and closed her eyes. “Stop that!”

After what seemed like an eternity, they were all on the ground. There were rocks all over the place and Heidi folded her arms, never wanting to do that again.

There were rocks nearing the sides of the cliffs but as it got into the median it became a large river. She walked to the edge and touched the water with her feet. It was so dark out and the water seemed endless. “Why are we here?”

There was a loud screeching coming from behind her. She looked between the canyons and saw millions of little bats fly above her. She smiled as she saw them. They all hovered into one giant black mass in the sky as they flew out into the ocean, engulfing the dark sky. It was like a surreal painting on drugs. A few bats danced around her head but she showed no fear. There was something cute about these little creatures making a blast out of their night.

Heidi looked over at the boys who were smiling and laughing just as she was but they seemed to have seen this extraordinary piece of life in their lives. She was sure that no matter how many time she went down there, she would never get bored of seeing these sweet creatures fly into the night sky with their little voices.

The night went on and they created havoc around the town. Heidi was unable to remember much about just what they had done but she remembered having her head on Marco and holding him tight as he drove her through Santa Carla.

Somewhere in the middle of their night, it seemed as if she had lost her mind and became a new girl. There was no part of her left where she was a homeless person trying her best to just live. She was thriving.