Ghouls

“Um, can I help you?” grunted an overweight man in a high visibility jacket that smelled of sweat and cigarettes (I guess not every American is as cheery and happy as the others I met so far...)

“Oh, yes, I’m here to pick up my dog; Hudson Smith..”

“I’ll go get him,” the large man said bluntly as he faced his back to me and slugged off.

A few moments later the man came back with Hudson, I was glad to see that the man, that I had found was named Paul by looking at the badge on the desk I suppose he was supposed to be wearing, was having some difficulty as Hud pulled him back, not wanting to leave. Although, I was fairly heart-broken by the fact he was so scared he didn’t want to go. It was that moment, though, that the terrified dog pulled his head up and saw me. His eyes lit up, his face turning from dropped and distressed to high and happy. He then tugged away from the security guard, almost pulling him to the ground as he freed from his grasp, as he bounded towards me, almost knocking me over as he leaped up to me. He reached his head up, licking my face violently as he wept, obviously upset that we’d spent so long apart; usually we were never apart for more than a few hours, he even shook from the trauma and excitement.

“So, I’ll just let you take him then.” The man spoke as he dusted himself off.

“Oh, is there no fine or anything or?”

“Oh, right, yeah...” he shot me a quizzical look, probably because I actually offered to pay, “uh, that’s $50 for transport and $10 for care.”

“Oh, surely care would come into the price as a whole; you wouldn’t fly an animal thousands of miles across the world and not care for it..?”

“If you’ve got a problem, take it up with the manager.” I was beginning to think this man was incredibly rude.

“Oh, well, okay then...”

I took the $60 Id kept in my back pocket to give to the bafoon I stood in front of, passing it to him. He arrogantly snatched the bills from my hands to check them against the light, making sure they were real. My angst was almost at its peak; if this man could get any more obnoxious I was going to flip.

He turned his body back to me, a shit eating grin on his face, “okay, have a nice day!”

I was about to lose it when I heard Cam call from behind me, informing me it was time to go. I reluctantly turned to walk away; an over excited Hudson pulling me along. Cam was no better right now; he was ecstatic to see him, finally. Hud jumped up to Cam, his paws reaching just below his shoulders, their eyes almost level.

“Aaaw, Lau, he’s so pretty!” (words I never expected to leave my big brothers mouth, when not talking of his girlfriend) “he’s got such ace eyes! Just like me and you, ay?” he mused, tears forming in his eyes.

“Aaaw, Cam!” tears now began to form in my own eyes, pulling my two favourite people into a close hug; Cam and Hud were basically all I had left now.

“Okay, okay, okay, let’s go!”

Cameron ran down the corridor with Hudson, proudly showing him off to Jade; she squealed and said hello and such as Hud jumped and licked the both of them. Eventually, I caught up and as I took my dog, followed the happy pair to the car.

As we all clambered in, Cam quickly put the radio on, some heavy metal radio station blasted through the speakers. We pulled out of the parking space just as the last song ended and one of mine and Cam’s personal favourite songs began:

“White man came across the sea,
He brought us pain and misery -”

Iron Maiden, Run To The Hills. The both of us screamed as we chimed in, singing to every word.

“ - He killed our tribes, he killed our creed,
He took our game for his own need,
We fought them hard, we fought them well,
Out on the plains, we gave him Hell!
But many came, too much for Cree,
Oh, will we ever be set free?
Riding through dust clouds and barren wastes,
Galloping hard on the plains,
Chasing the redskins back to their holes,
Fighting them at their own game,
Murder for freedom, the stab in the back,
Women and children are cowards, attack!
Run to the hills! Run for your life!
Run to the hills! Run for your life!”

The song ended and we all exhaled, coming down from the excitement of screaming along to one of our favourite songs, Jade giggling a little bit that me and Cam knew all the words and never once seemed to stop for a break. The stop was short-lived though as one of my new favourite bands came on; Avenged Sevenfold. The killer guitar riff to Beast and the Harlot shattered the speakers as the maniacal drums pounded so loud it pulsed through every body, through the car.

“Dude, these guys are ace!” I squealed, ever since I’d first heard them I’d bought all three albums and was quietly peeing myself at the thought of a forth.

“Oh, yeah?” Cam grinned like a madman. He was hiding something, I knew it.

I shot him a quizzical stare, “yeeaaah, why d’you look like that?”

“Like what?!”

“That fat-ass grin on your face! What are you hiding?”

“Nothing...”

“Liar!”

“I am not a liar!”

“Bollocks! You always lied to Mum when you did something wrong; you blamed it on me and Mikey! That or Sam!”

Sam and Mikey were my other 2 brothers; Mikey and Cameron were full brothers; they were only mine and Sam’s half brothers. We all shared the same Dad as Mikey and Cameron’s Mum died in a car accident when Cam was just 2 months. Our Dad struggled pretty badly and our Mum had just come out of a dead relationship and they ended up hooking up. They then pretty swiftly, as Cam and I are only 18 months apart, got married and had me! Sam came along a lot longer; we all tease him and call him the ‘accident’ because all of us older ones were planned whereas he wasn’t...we aren’t particularly nice siblings to him but he’s the baby so he has to deal with it.
“Well...that’s because there’s no one else to blame!”

“Oh, come on! Just tell me who you work for!” I shot him my pistol finger (my hands were in the shape of a gun...)

“These guys!”

The shouting stopped as I tried to work out what he’d just told me, “sorry?”

“You heard! These guys!”

It was then that the perfectly defined solo of Synyster Gates kicked it. My heart skipped once...maybe twice.

“Are you serious?!” I was squealing again.

“Yes!”

“Oh my fucking God!”

The car shook with our conjoined excitement. Cam beamed as he watched me practically jump out of my seat I was so happy.

“I cannot belieeeve you work for Avenged Sevenfold!” I gripped my hair, pinning myself to the chair as I tried to calm myself down.

“Yep. They’re all pretty fucking rad, you’re gonna love ‘em!”

“And they’re going to love you!” I heard Jade chirp in from the back seat.

“Aaaaaawww, I can’t wait!” I suddenly started to get extremely tired as my head hit the head rest and I yawned.

“I know, I know; I’m excited for you to meet them too but, Lau, you’re obviously tired. Get some rest before we get to Huntington.”

“Huntington Beach?” it was then it clicked. Cam had said he’d moved there but I’d never put the two together; Avenged were from Huntington.

“You know it,” Cam said calmly as my eye-lids closed and I began to drift off. I was going to like it here... really like it.

Notes