Sshh, Be Quiet

Chocolate eyes scanned the computer screen in front of him, reading a random news article he found on Google. With things in his personal life becoming hectic, he had distracted himself by becoming fascinated with ghost stories and all things paranormal. His head began to hurt from staring at the screen for some time. Sighing, he closed the laptop, and leaned back in his chair, lighting a cigarette. He inhaled the nicotine deeply, leaning back a bit further and closing his eyes as he exhaled the smoke. He had been alone for a while, which was suddenly broken by his bedroom door bursting open, killing the silence and startling the man who almost fell out of his chair.

“Dude, Brian, get dressed, we’re going out.”

Brian spun in his chair glaring at the shorter man in his doorway. Black hair, snakebits, and a ring through his nose, dressed all in black as usual.

“Zacky! Do you know how to knock?”

“No. Now get dressed, we’re bored as hell and need something to do.”

“Fine, I will, when you get the fuck out of my room.”

Zack rolled his green eyes and walked out, closing the door behind him. Brian got up and changed into blue jeans and a black t-shirt. He pulled on shoes and a fedora before he went downstairs where his friends sat around the living room of their shared house.

“Okay, so where are we going?” he asked, seeing the four men just sitting and chatting.

“Yeah, where, Zacky? You ran and got us all up to go out, and we don’t even know where to go,” Matt said.

“Guys, we need to do something. We’re going insane with boredom here,” Zack said.

“Well, you have fun figuring out where to go. There’s a 40 in the fridge with my name on it,” the youngest of the group, Johnny, said before he disappeared from the room.

“Zacky, you wanted the time off,” Brian said, smirking at his friend.

“Brian, shut up,” Zacky said, throwing a pillow at Brian. “We all wanted the time off, and right now we need to do something, otherwise we’ll have to listen to Jimmy singing about grapes giving him a boner some more,” Zacky said. “That’s not fun.”

Jimmy responded by throwing his own pillow at Zacky. Brian went and sat out on the porch to finish his cigarette. He began thinking. They did need something to do. The band had taken a couple of months off, and were scheduled to go back into the studio in two weeks to begin recording the new songs they had written. Once his cigarette was done, he stomped it out, reaching into his pocket for another one. He frowned at the empty pack before hopping into his car and driving to the small drugstore down the street. Inside the store, Brian was surprised to not see the usual clerk that they knew as he stepped up to the counter and asked for his usual pack of smokes.

“You're Synyster Gates, aren't you?” the young lady behind the counter said as she handed him the pack.

He smiled wider as he noticed the small deathbat that was tattooed across her wrist. He lowered his aviator sunglasses. “The one and only.”

“I just moved here and started this job, I never knew this would happen. I love your band. They're probably the best thing to happen to me,” she gushed for a moment before
stopping. Her cheeks then turned red. “Sorry to gush like that.”

“Not a problem,” he said, still smiling.

“Would it be a hassle to ask for an autograph, or a picture or something?”

“Of course! How about both?”

The girl smiled as she pulled her phone from her pocket, switching the camera on and taking a picture of the two of them. After a moment of thinking, she held out her tattooed wrist and a pen, watching as Brian scribbled his autograph just above the tattoo. “I'm getting this tattooed over after I get off work today,” she said excitedly. “Thank you so much.”

“My pleasure. I'm sure we'll meet again, and I'm sure you'll see the others. We come here often.”

After saying goodbye, he got into his car and headed home. While driving, the idea hit Brian like a slap in the face. Fan interaction? It would be different, but something to cure the boredom. He ran back inside and up to his room to think. He turned on his laptop, surfing the internet quickly trying to think.

“Come on, where was it?” he asked himself, frantically searching through his history. “Aha.” He pulled up the webpage and he read through it. His recent fascination of all things paranormal had led him to a house in Huntington Beach that was supposedly haunted. Brian thought it would be something interesting and different. He printed it out and ran back to the others, who were absorbed with the TV.

“Hey guys, you know how we need something fun? I’ve got it,” he said, flashing the paper.

“Gates, what are you talking about?” Matt said, cocking an eyebrow.

“Something interesting. Something fun. Something pretty different than what we’re doing right now. You know that old house on 28th street?”

“Oh, I know that one,” Zack piped up. His love of horror movies had gotten him searching weird things on the internet as well. “I heard that years back people who researched paranormal stuff would go check it out. They'll stay there for a week doing research and stuff, but then they sort of...umm...don't come out.”

“Wait, are you saying Gates wants us to risk our lives by staying in a haunted house?” Johnny asked nervously.

“Dude, ghosts aren't even real. It's all shit that people put on the internet to make other people believe them. None of that shit was even on the news. So we can go prove these articles wrong. What if we invited some fans, and we went in on Sunday?”

“Why fans?” Matt asked.

“Like I said, something different. We could search the house for stuff. According to these articles, some sick asshole lived there back in the fifties, lured young girls there and...well...he was a sick asshole. Eventually he'd just kill these girls, and some people say that the ghosts of these girls stay in the house. Of course, ghosts aren't real, so as I said before, we go prove that the house is normal.”

“I'm all for the crazy idea for the sake of our insane boredom, but inviting random fans to hang with us?” The singer raised an eyebrow.

“Hey, you yourself said that we need to meet more fans, Matt.”

“Well touche. I’d normally call you crazy, but this actually sounds interesting. Let’s try it. I mean if something crazy happens, we can always run out, right?” Matt said as he stood up next to Brian. “Let’s put out a message for nearby fans to e-mail us.”

“I’m on it,” Brian said, running back upstairs.

He got back on his computer, signing into the band’s Facebook page. He posted a blog, and planned out how he would pick who would come with.

“Call me the king of the weird ass ideas,” he said to himself, wearing a proud grin.

“Ok, king of weird ass ideas,” someone said from the door.

Brian turned and saw Jimmy there. “Well, it’s better than hearing you sing the ‘grapes in the mouth’ song,” he said, turning back around to read some of the comments that were already coming in.

Notes