Sshh, Be Quiet

The sudden noise from the basement had snapped everyone to attention. “Was that? Was that a fucking gunshot?” Stephanie asked.

“No, it couldn’t be. Brian come with me,” Zack said, running towards the basement door.

The two men ran down the basement stairs, leaving the three shaking girls nearly hugging each other in the living room. Minutes had passed with no other noises or even words from the basement.

“I need to go down there,” Lisa said, trying to stand up.

“No, sit back down,” Stephanie said, trying to get her friend back to the couch.

Lisa limped towards the kitchen to the basement stairs. Once she heard the commotion from the basement, she had no intentions of turning back around. “No, I need to see what happened.”

Stephanie followed, trying to coax her best friend back to the couch. “Lisa! You’re going to start bleeding again! Get back here.”

Ignoring the pleas of her friend, she grabbed onto the railing and slowly hopped down the stairs on her uninjured leg. She had seen Matt standing there completely still with his back to them. Brian and Zack were trying to talk to him, but he was unresponsive. There was too much focus on Matt that nobody noticed her until she had interrupted them.

“What the fuck is going on down here?” she asked, nearly falling on Zack as her wounded leg was giving out underneath her.

“Why the hell are you down here?” Brian asked as Zack caught her before she fell.

Before she answered, she regained her balance, leaning on Zack. “You guys were down here for a while, and...” she trailed off as Matt had turned around. “What happened!?” She gasped as she looked behind him and noticed that Johnny was laying on the ground with a pool of blood around his head. “Is he...dead?” Her free hand covered her mouth. "Oh, God. Not again."

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out. He won't say a word, and that was the first time he's moved since we got down here.”

“Zack, get her out of here,” Brian said worriedly. “Matt, I know you can hear me, now just give me the gun.”

Lisa gasped as her eyes fell over the singer's body. He stood there, staring towards them blankly. As soon as her eyes fell on his hand, she moved behind Zack. “Whoa, where did he get a gun?”

“That's what we're trying to figure out. Now get the hell out of here, Lisa!”

Before she could snap at him for being so demanding towards her, Zack had piped up.

“Brian, she needs help back up the stairs, and I'm not leaving you here alone with him until he snaps out of it.”

Brian slowly stepped towards Matt. He was on the defense just in case the singer decided to try and make a move. “Matt, please give me the gun. I know you can hear me,” he said in a calm tone as he reached and grabbed Matt's wrist. Neither of them made any sudden movements until Brian had eased the gun out of his friend's hand. He took a step back as he removed the magazine from the gun and pocketed it, then tossed the gun into the corner.

“Matt! Snap the fuck out of it!” Brian shouted, causing Lisa and Zack to jump.

At that time, Matt did snap back into reality, and looked at Brian with a blank expression. “What?”

“Jesus Christ, Matt! What the fuck is going on with you?”

“Why are you shouting?” Matt asked as he took a defensive step back. He turned when his foot had bumped against the body behind him. His gaze had fallen to his dead friend. “What the fuck happened?”

“You don't remember?” Brian asked.

“I...I remember a gun,” Matt mumbled after a pause.

“Did he pull it on you?” Zack asked.

There was another pause as Matt was trying to remember. “No. He held it at his head. I was trying to get it away from him.” His voice was monotone.

“Come on. Come upstairs,” Brian said, grabbing his friend’s arm to pull him away.

Matt seemed to not want to budge from his spot as he was still in shock. Zack helped Lisa up the stairs and the four of them went back to the living room. Matt sat in a chair and just stared at his hands. The other five watched him, seeing if he would talk.

“Matt, what happened?” Steph asked.

“I tried to save him, but he shot himself,” he said in a monotone voice, still frozen in shock.

Zack and Brian sat around their friend, while the girls looked at the disappearing band in front of them. There was a long moment of dead silence. As it grew awkward, Lisa got up to go try and find some painkillers. Brian was at her heels, helping her walk into the kitchen.

“I’m sorry about this,” she said, leaning against the counter.

“Thanks. Ugh, shit just keeps getting worse for us,” he said as he shuffled around the kitchen, finding more bandages.

“I know.”

“Come here. You're bleeding again.” He pulled a chair away from the table to which Lisa hobbled over and sat in.

“Are there painkillers in there?”

“Weak ones.” He handed the bottle to her.

“Well some is better than none,” she said between taking two of the pills.

“You need to just lay still and minimize moving around, because every time you do, you start bleeding again.”

“I’m stubborn.” She watched him wrapping more gauze around her shoulder.

“Yes, you are.”

She grabbed the remaining bandages and proceeded to wrap them around her leg. She then realized that she did need to minimize moving around as she noticed the bandages growing more and more red.

“You really need a hospital.”

“I’ll be fine. I just need to sleep it off.”

At the mention of the word ‘sleep’ both of them realized that it was starting to get late. Exhaustion and fatigue were starting to take their toll on the group. The six gathered in the living room in their spots and slowly began to fall asleep. While Lisa thought she was the only one still awake, a dim light came from where Matt was laying. She saw him get up and walk into the kitchen. She wanted to follow him, but didn’t want to aggravate her wounds anymore for the rest of the night. Looking around once more, she saw where Brian was laying, and wanted to go lay by him. She decided against it, not wanting to disturb his sleep, and just laid back down, trying to fall asleep. She couldn’t while she thought about what was up with Matt. Just then, the kitchen light turned off, and he returned to his spot, laying down and soon falling asleep.

Notes