Sheep go to heaven, Goats go to Hell
We don't own this SHIZZ, because the Packers are owned by the city of Green Bay and they won't sell them to me!
(I plan to write more than this, but I guess it is pretty sad.) I DO NOT ENVY GHOSTS!
It was a day like any other, the lime swirls of ectoplasmic energy were drifting lazily through the blackness of the Ghost Zone. Purple doors hanging in the air seemed perfectly innocent, at least as innocently as the Ghost Zone could be.
I was through one of these doors, in a lair of the coolest flame and edgiest of modern rock that Ember lounged. It was difficult for her to put into terms how long she had actually been in the Ghost Zone, or really how she was finally able to realize the extent of her powers as a Ghost of the Zone, but she strung together the facts of her life previous the best way she could.
She drifted off into slumber on her electric blue rug of skulls and cross bones, into memories that she could never hold together. It was, at best, like picking up handfuls of sand, as fast as she picked it up, it would run through her grasping fingers, leaving only a passing feeling of grit between them.
The days of August were creeping quickly toward Ember as the local concert scene was finally to start into full swing. She couldn't help the rush of giddiness that seemed to embrace her at the thought of spending more time with Ethan, the bassist from her band. She was filled with high hopes for the summer. They were done doing parties and open mike nights, they were starting to get closer to the type of attention that meant something to music labels.
Ethan was Ember's secret hero; he wasn't just the bassist, but a great sound guy. When he set up the kits and amps, there never was a problem of feedback or being lost in a wall of sound. She shook herself free of her thoughts as she spotted him at the tables of a small coffee shop near to where they would be playing later on the in the month.
"Yo! Ethan!" she smiled as she tried to squash the feeling of fawning over him too much "How's it looking in there?" she said as slowed her walk as she neared him.
He seemed to regard her warmly as words spilled from his lips about their newest venue. She couldn't remember the words, but it didn't matter because he was smiling at her.
Before she knew it the dream shifted to a different time, it was later in August now; they were setting up amps and laying out wires. She remembered working hard at passing out fliers and putting up posters, really setting the stage for a packed show. She felt nervous and giddy as the minutes ticked away closer to show time. Ember looked around the bar finding it had a unique charm to it, she grinned as she climbed on stage. She looked to Ethan and beamed at him, still trying to squash down the feeling of her infatuation. Slowly excitement melted into worry as only a handful of people came to hear them play. She played just the same as ever, full of fire and emotion as if the room was brimming with people rather than just the handful.
The Scene shifted again, this time to the coiling of wires and rolling the amps off the stage.
"What's with the attitude? It's not my fault no one showed! I pounded pavement to get the word out!" she snapped as Ethan grumbled something under his breath. It seemed such a petty spat, the looks on the other band members was both pitying and annoyed, as if it were possible to have the two emotions at once without one over shadowing the other. Despite the turn out, they were asked back. She was thrilled; to have another shot at the room would be a triumph.
September would roll around quicker than they would know it and they would be sure to have the whole bar packed with people ready to listen to her music.
She felt her heart pound with unexpressed emotions. It was getting harder and harder not discuss her mounting feelings for Ethan. They went from taking every moment to talk and laugh together to snapping at each other. She felt like her guts were twisting and she couldn't help but think she would talk to him the next day about it.
The Scene shifted to setting up again, it was late September now. This time they had lighting and people were streaming in. Their hard work was paying off. Ember felt everything was running higher than she could of expected for the little stage of the bar. She was tasting a tiny kiss of success, and with that she could finally work up the courage to tell Ethan that she loved him, even if they did fight over music as much as they loved the music. Nothing could have prepared her for this night. She was standing on stage, the crowd humming and her band mates were getting to the stage. Her drummer handed her a frothy beer which she took a drink of and set on an amp. She turned to see the crowd and saw Ethan come into her view. She smiled at him and he smiled at her and then her illusions smashed as she saw him holding some other woman's hand. He turned to her to kiss her lips and she had the nerve to radiate happiness. She never saw that her face wrote every line of her broken heart to her band mates, or that they took it in as heartbreak of their own. Then that's when time slowed for Ember, She remembered the curve of his face and how the lights seemed to reflect a halo in his hair. Each step he took brought him closer to the stage, each step was that fatal second that could of changed everything.
In the first step he took, the guys working on the lighting turned to gawk at the crowd of people instead of securing it to the scaffolding with zip ties. The second step was a passing shoving match for space near the edge of the scaffolding, the third step was when he was in front of an amp, which Ember took the second between steps to blink away her tears and rip a screaming cord from her guitar which threw him into the shoving match. Just one step in a different direction, a falling away instead of toward, one life or many others; It was the ironic question of what is a miracle for some and a tragedy for others.
She didn't really remember the rest of her dream.
It was the same feeling you get when you wake up from a dream, for a few seconds you remember what it was about and you have the feeling that something just didn't happen the way it should have, she yawned and felt her hair flare up as her arms protested the stretch after sleeping on her rug. She didn't usually want to leave her lair, but she had to get to a stage, a stage that should have had her name on it.