Yellowstone.
Simply Yellowstone.
It was beautiful. I couldn't believe that we were camping here! I stared into the night sky, just gazing at the stars. Couldn't see those in LA. I sighed happily, enjoying the warm feeling of being outside with my friends. Said friends were sitting around the campfire laughing and drinking away. Cat tripped and spilled the cup of instant noodles on Beck. I joined the others in laughing as Beck tried to get noodles and broth off of his face.
"Found the drinks?" Andre asked, chill as always.
"Yep. All here." I said, passing around the large bag. Everyone reached in and grabbed a bottle. I wasn't really big on the whole drinking thing, but what the heck? We're in Yellowstone! I was suddenly rudely shoved to the side. Before I could say or do anything about it, the resident mistress of pointless cruelty sat down right next to me. The pale eerie brunette.
Jade West.
Jade who would never voluntary sit next to me. She freaking hates me!
I glared/looked at her questionably because I doubted that there was anything that could make her voluntarily sit next to me. Jade glanced at me and without even taking the bottle of vodka away from her mouth, she shrugged. Obviously I wasn't going to get a straight answer out of her. I huffed in annoyance, and then cheered at Robbie's suggestion of a drinking game. Jade, Cat and I all immediately shot down his suggestion of spin the bottle. We all remembered how weird he got after Cat and Trina had staged kissed him. Who knows what he would do after drinking rum?
Beck, looking cool and relaxed against the log suggested truth or dare. That passed with everyone.
"Me first! Me first!" Cat yelled. She hiccuped and giggled lightly. "Uhmmm Tori!"
"Dare." I said. What? It's a drunken Cat dare. Not like getting a dare from Jade.
"Streak into the lake!"
My jaw hit the ground and Jade started choking as she tried to laugh and swallow vodka at the same time. I pounded her on the back partly to help her out but also to buy as much time as I could before handling Cat's dare.
I was blushing furiously. "Can I pass?" I asked. The answering No nearly deafened me. "She's scared." Jade said, wheezing and trying to smile. "I am not!" I snapped. "I am not!" Jade mocked. "I don't sound like that! How many times do I have to tell you?!"
"Don't know. But I do know that you're streaking and diving into the lake."
"Am not!"
"Are too."
"Am. Not."
"Are. Too."
"I. Am. Not."
"Yes, you are."
"No I'm not!"
"No, you're not!"
"Yes I am!"
"No you're not Vega!"
"Yes I am West and that's that!"
Jade was smiling and the others were roaring with laughter. What was so funny? Why was Jade smiling? I replayed the conversation in my head and realized what was so funny. I had dived head first into one of the most simplest idiotic things straight from loony toons. "You said you're going to do it. So hop to it." Jade said smugly. There are times when I want to smack that smirk right off of her face. This is one of them.
Jade opened her mouth, no doubt to insult me again when I cut her off. "No cameras!" I snapped, glaring pointedly at Robbie. Robbie nodded a bit sourly. I ducked behind a tent to get out of my clothes. I couldn't believe that I was going to do this. But what was the alternative? Listen to Jade's mocking again? I really hated how she could just push all of my buttons without even trying. I wish I could do the same to her!
I just got out of my bra when I heard a loud crack. I froze thinking that someone was about to peek when I heard Cat's voice. "No cameras Robbie!"
"That was a three hundred dollar-"
"She said no camera. That means no camera you damn perv." Jade's icy voice cut in. Robbie grumbled but Beck and Andre also joined in getting Robbie to shut up. Sinjin might have said something, but if he did then he was drowned out by everyone else. I took a deep breath and started running. I ran past the other camps as fast as I could before crashing into the water. Which was freezing by the way! Teeth chattering I climbed out of the water and ran back to our camp. I dried off and got dressed. Everyone cheered and I blushed.
"Didn't think you would do it." Andre said cheerfully. "Neither did I" I muttered. Jade kept right on smirking at me. I ignored her and payed attention to the game. "Robbie's turn." Beck said.
It took Robbie a second to think. Jade's elbow hit me in my ribs. "Five bucks says it'll be something about sex." she whispered. I thought about it. Even with that much drinking from earlier and now, maybe he could surprise me. "I'll take that bet." I whispered back.
"Jade! Truth-" Robbie began.
"Truth." When everyone looked at her in shock, she gave a very defensive "What?" Jade never chose truth. Ever. Even Cat who knew her the longest was shocked. Heck, Beck was stunned and he had freaking dated her!
"Uhm. Well have you ever-" We'd never find out what the question was, because something far away exploded. We all jumped and stared in shock. "What the fuck is that?" Jade said, pointing at what looked like stars rising from the ground, trailing smoke..
"Uhh I don't know, but it looks like it's coming this way!" Andre said, his voice starting to rise whenever trouble was happening. He was right tough. The stars were flying right at the campground. "Run!" Cat screamed. We all started running. Or tried too. Drinking for a while and then drinking some more did not make for great coordination.
We didn't get far. Somebody screamed to get down and I dove to the ground. I glanced up and the star thing slammed into ground. Through the awful screaming and roaring and agonizing heat, I saw Jade get cut to pieces. Shrapnel I think they call it, hit her in the back and she slammed into the ground, bleeding all over the place. Cat ran screaming in pain and fear. I saw Andre get thrown into the air before something hit me in the head and I blacked out.
I woke up in the morning with my head screaming. I groaned and rolled my head and then screamed in fright. Some emergency type worker was an inch or two away from face. "Got a live one here!" Someone helped me up and carried me over to an ambulance. "My friends! Where are my friends?!" I yelled. I screwed up my eyes shut and grabbed my head. It hurt. So much. I couldn't even begin to describe the pain. It hurt that much. It was beyond agony.
I rolled on the gurney holding my head. I felt anger, sadness, fear...heart break? What the fuck is going on?!
I tried to focus my thoughts but I couldn't. All these voices! Everyone talking at once and I can't ignore them! Can't believe anyone survived how do I help these people what the hell happened did I leave the oven on shit I don't get paid enough for this When's the Charger's game?
I held my head trying to get the sounds out of my head. Everyone just shut the fuck up! I think I yelled it. Or screamed it. The mind-sounds stopped. My head stopped pounding. I sat up panting and opened my eyes. Panting heavily, I sat up and looked around. The campground was blackened with ash, the trees that were still standing were stripped bare. It looked like hell.
A man ran by, and I grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Where are my friends?" I demanded.
"I don't know. They probably went ahead to the hospital."
Probably? What? I needed to know for sure. "Take me to someone who would know! Now!" The man blinked for a second before nodding. "This way." As we walked, I started to hear things. It wasn't just regular people talking. There was more to it. I was hearing voices..inside my head! One big blast of whatever couldn't have screwed me up that badly? Could it?
While I tried to sort that out, the guy lead me to some people sitting behind a couple of those prop up tables. "Here, they'll help you." He stood off to the side and I walked up to the people who I guessed to be missing persons or something. All the while I was still feeling..well everything. All these emotions and the people always talking it was going to drive me insane! Then suddenly, I felt a wave of relief wash over me.
"Tori!" I turned at the voice and did a laugh/cry thing. Was there ever a moment that I thought that I would be happy to see Jade of all people? I hugged her and she even hugged me back! Our joyous reunion was ruined by the guy that brought me to the table shaking his head and asking where he was.
"Umm you brought me over here to find my friends?" I answered.
"What are you talking about?"
"Doesn't fucking matter. Lets go Tori, I know where the others are." Jade snapped. She grabbed my arm and yanked me forward. As happy as I was to see Jade, I really wanted to know how she wasn't dead. Screwing any form of subtly, I asked her flat out. "How are you still alive? I saw you get shredded!"
Jade didn't stop and didn't say a thing. For a time there I thought she just wasn't going to answer. "I don't know. I felt the metal or whatever hit me. I know I died." She chuckled morbidly. "I guess I didn't actually stay dead." She glanced back at me. "Why are you holding your head?"
"It hurts." I hissed.
"Try and keep it together. Beck's hurt pretty bad. They air lifted him out of here just before I went to find you."
"You didn't go with?"
"Not enough room. Andre and Cat went with him to the hospital. We're going to meet them there."
I struggled to keep up with Jade, fighting through the emotional waves hitting me. I couldn't even tell what I was supposed to be feeling. Jade for a wonder noticed that I wasn't doing all that well and slowed to a stop. "Do we need to find a doctor?" She asked.
"No. No there'll be doctors at the hospital."I focused as much as I could on getting the noise to stop. I don't know how long it took or what happened, but all I do know that the voices and emotions stopped. I gasped in relief and felt the pain ebb away. I stood up straight and laughed happily.
"The fuck is so funny?" Jade demanded, staring at me like I'm insane.
"I'll explain later. Come on, they're waiting for us!" I took the lead and dragged Jade with me. Someone's gone batshit. "I haven't gone batty!" I snapped in annoyance. After finally getting everyone around me to shut up, I wasn't in the mood to deal with Jade's attitude. "uh who are you talking to?" Jade asked in confusion.
"You of course! I'm not batty just happy."
"Happy people are batshit and I didn't say anything."
"Yes you did."
Jade didn't say anything, but I swear I could actually feel her confusion. I glanced back and her mouth was closed in her usual scowl but she wasn't saying anything. We reached the truck and everyone piled in. Jade got in the driver's seat and took off. I sat in the back next to Robbie who looked stunned and Sinjin wore the same look. This is supposed to be the part where I help them, but how the hell do I do that? I glanced at Jade and did a double take. Her leather jacket and the shirt underneath was riddled with holes. Some were small but others were huge and but the one thing they all had in common was the dark red stuff all around them.
"Jade, are you hurt?"
"No."
"Are you sure? Because-"
"Sinjin, take a look. Am I hurt?"
Sinjin jumped, but he looked her over and said "No cuts. Perfect skin as always." Jade shoved him back into passenger seat and said "See? I'm fine." She glanced in the rearview mirror and said "Check on Robbie." Robbie protested that he was fine, but it was half hearted at best. I don't know how long the drive was, but we finally reached the hospital. Jade cut off what seemed like a dozen people when she parked and had Robbie, Sinjin and I all holding onto dear life when she had cut the corners at insane speeds. (I don't know what's with that woman; sometimes it seems like she doesn't care if she lives or dies)
Jade grabbed a shirt from the back of the truck and we all followed her inside. "Which room is Beck Oliver in?" she snapped at the receptionist. The woman blinked before her eyes narrowed as she typed on the computer. The receptionist didn't seem to be in a rush to tell us, and even the most blind person could tell that Jade was getting madder by the second. "He's in room 402." I said before this could break out into a massive argument. Before anyone could ask me how I knew that because I really didn't know how myself. We reached the room and bulldozed our way in. Beck was sitting up right and looked beaten up, but he was alive and awake! We all rushed forward and hugged each other and laughed. Andre had his left arm in a cast and Cat had her ankle in a splint.
No one else was really hurt though and when the doctor came and said that we would have to go, I convinced him to let us all stay in the room with Beck. We stretched on the yoga mats talking the night way, all relieved that we all got away (relatively) unharmed.
One by one, everyone but me fell asleep. I was worried that if I stopped concentrating then I would hear all those people talking again. I didn't want that. I sighed and left the room. Maybe a soda and or coffee would help me thing. It took some work, but I found a soda machine. I turned around after grabbing my drink and had to swallow a scream because Jade was right there, glaring at me.
"What?!" I demanded.
Jade folded her arms across and stared me right in the eyes.
"How long have you been able to read people's minds?"
Here it is. The first chapter. Not really sure how I feel about this chapter. Do be kind and let me know will you?
Also a bit of warning, this story is going to get dark. Stuck in the abyss of nightmares dark. Why? Because I care.
Love
-C.H.
