by Holly Hood
“Wasn’t me.” Kidd shook his head. “Now let’s get back to this song before the days over with.”
The music cranked back up and Slade’s soothing vocal drowned out my racing mind. I didn’t want to think something bad was happening again. I wanted to believe it was as simple as the wind like I told them.
Karsen touched my shoulder. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “You ever get a strange feeling like something is not right?”
Karsen shrugged. “Once or twice. The house is old, maybe it was settling or something.” She didn’t even bother to ask why I was so frazzled. And I didn’t want to come out and tell her.
An hour into practice Kidd was bordering on punching someone in the face. I never knew how passionate he was about music. But every time Oz strummed a cord he nearly took his head off claiming they were off.
He even managed to snap at Slade.
“Gees, he’s all work,” I mentioned to Karsen.
“It’s hot,” she said back filing her nails as she watched them.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, I ran out before Kidd could cuss me out in front of everyone for interrupting practice.
“Hello?” I headed toward the sand.
“Hope,” Elliot said. “Can you come home?”
“What’s wrong?” I swallowed. “What is going on?”
“It’s dad. I don’t know what is going on but he’s acting really crazy. I didn’t want to call Nona, so I called you. Can you come or not?”
My hands were shaking. “I’ll be right there. Don’t call Nona.” I took off across the sands without even telling anyone where I was going.
All over
Elliot was waiting on the porch for me. I could see the worry on his face. It wasn’t something I saw anymore. Not since we lived in Georgia, back when our parents were fighting for weeks about the affair.
“Hey,” I climbed up the steps. “Where is he?”
Elliot opened the door. “He’s in his room and he won’t come out. I’ve never seen him like this.”
I looked around the kitchen, lifting an empty bottle of Jack Daniels off the counter. Elliot stayed behind me watching my every move.
“Where is that music coming from?”
“It’s coming from his room,” he said. “He drank the entire bottle and just started screaming and pacing.”
Before I could reassure Elliot everything would be okay Slade came in the door.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were taking off?” he immediately asked me.
“I didn’t have time.” I put the bottle back on the counter, and headed down the hallway. The music grew even louder the closer I got to his door.
I grabbed the knob, it was locked. I looked at Slade. He was still at the end of the hall. “Stay with Elliot.”
Slade nodded. “Sure.”
I wasn’t sure what I was about to find behind his door. But I was scared. I felt helpless, like no matter what I did nothing would ever fix what was going on.
I wasn’t even sure why I thought that at that moment but I did. I knocked three times on the door and nothing. I sighed, hating the thought of having to perform magic in front of my brother.
I closed my eyes muttering to myself, with a wave of my hand the door opened like I hoped it would. I looked at Elliot and Slade one last time before I went in.
The room was dark and I could hardly see a single. I took my time so I didn’t stub my toe or fall on my face. I couldn’t even tell if he was in the room.
“Dad?” I cried out in pain when my shin hit the bed frame.
I hated to do it, I wished he would answer me, tell me everything was okay and I would be on my way. But I knew I needed to. I snapped on the light.
“What the hell is this?” I asked when I saw the walls. I looked around the room finally finding him slumped on the floor on the other side of the bed. He was asleep.
The walls were covered in black writing. When I touched the walls I realized it was my eyeliner. I didn’t understand why or how he even got inside my room. But he did and now the walls were scrawled from top to bottom with a name I wasn’t familiar with.
“Who the hell is Marcus?” I asked myself, moving closer. I turned down his music and kneeled down beside him on the floor putting a hand against his cheek. “Dad?”
He startled, air filling his lungs like it was the first breath he had taken in a long time. But he didn’t say anything.
I helped him to the bed and covered him up. “Dad, what is going on? Elliot called me. He’s really worried about you.”
He took my hand. “I see him. Everywhere.” He dropped his head to the pillow turning away from me.
“Who?” Well that seemed pretty obvious. “Is that why you wrote Marcus all over the walls?” I shook him, trying to wake him up but it was no use he was sleeping again.
Someone tapped on the door. I kissed his forehead and answered it. It was Slade and I was glad to see him. I let him in and waited for him to say something.
He crossed the room, crossing his arms as he studied the walls. “Do you know who that is?”
“I have no idea.” I snapped off the light and went out in the hallway to finish discussing dad’s breakdown with Slade. “We don’t know anyone named Marcus.” I opened my door, cringing at the sight of my entire makeup bag spilled all over the carpet. I dropped to my knees and started picking it up. “When I asked him about it he said he sees him everywhere.”
Slade sat down on my bed. “If you don’t know anyone named Marcus who the fuck is he seeing?”
My mind took me back to Slade’s house. I hated to bring it up. “We brought him back from the dead. What if we brought more than just him back?”
Slade sighed. “What are you trying to say? Your dad is being haunted?”
I nodded. That was exactly what I said.
Slade looked at me. “I guess it wouldn’t be that big of a shock considering.”
I swallowed. That was not what I wanted to hear.
Makeup or breakup
I straightened up rubbing my back as I stared at the wall. I hated painting and the fact I was made me angry. But I couldn’t leave Dad’s wall covered with some mystery man’s name for the entire town to see—or Nona.
I dropped the paintbrush on the tray and sighed. “This is never ending. And Evil Kings are having their first gig tonight.” I blew a strand of hair out of my face. “And odds are I will be covered in paint at the show.”
Karsen nodded from the ladder. She so kindly agreed to help me. I wasn’t sure why because she wasn’t one for physical labor but she did and I was grateful for it. The two of us together managed to hack off at least an hour or two of the time it would have taken me alone.
“What did you tell Elliot and Easton?” She looked at me, rolling white paint across another dozen Marcus’scrawled across the walls. I ignored the white paint smeared under her eye and across her nose and answered her.
“Easton was out with friends. It was only Elliot.” I lifted the paintbrush. “And I told him he was overwhelmed and I would take care of it.”
“And he believed you?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Well, what else is there to believe?”
Karsen scoffed. “That his father is no longer the same guy he was a couple weeks ago. Hope, he sleeps more than he’s awake.”
I shook my head refusing to believe it. “He’s dealing with a lot. I’m sure his body is trying to recover from all the trauma. It will be fine.”
Karsen shrugged not giving in. “Where is he now?”
I winced at the thought of him at work. “He went to work. He said he would be fine.”
“Let’s hope so,” Slade said coming in the room with a bag of food from the taco shack for Karsen and I. Kidd was with him. And I welcomed the break and the food because I was tired and hungry.
I wiped my hands on my sweats and headed to the food. Slade handed me the bag. “You know this would go a lot faster if you use
d magic.”
I rolled my eyes biting into a taco. “It’s not that simple.” I chewed. “What does that fix me repairing our problems with magic?”
Slade plucked a fleck of paint from my forehead. “You having to scrape paint off of you before my show.”
I wasn’t smiling. “Sometimes we have to make sacrifices for the ones we love.” I went back to my taco because I didn’t want to go there anymore.
Karsen and Kidd chatted on the other side of dad’s room while Slade stared me down. I knew he was looking to make a point. I just didn’t want to hear it.
“Did you ever think maybe drinking an entire bottle of jack daniels might have been more to do with this than Jersey?” he asked.
I scoffed angrily. “This has never happened before.”
Slade shifted uncomfortably on the bed. “Don’t you see it? Or are you just too stubborn to admit it?”
Karsen looked at both of us. “Don’t even go there, Slade.”
Slade raised an eyebrow. “What? Don’t say what everyone in this room already knows?”
I dropped my taco and tossed it back in the bag. “Just because we know doesn’t mean anything.”
Slade sighed. “Your dad is an alcoholic. And whether you like it or not he’s probably been one for a long time, longer than when your mother cheated on him.”
Karsen stood up. “Do not go there. Who the hell do you think you are?” She went after Slade, Kidd grabbed her around the waist ending her attempt at clawing his eyes out.
“Let’s take a walk. Let them work out their issues,” Kidd said, leading Karsen for the door. I watched them leave before I even tried looking at Slade.
“I can’t believe you would even say that.” I crossed my arms.
“Someone has to.” Slade crossed his own arms. “I’m not trying to be mean to you. I just want you to be honest with yourself.”
“Why?” I bit my lip. “Because you think that will make any of this easier?” It wouldn’t. I’d been hiding my inner resentment towards my dad for as long as I could remember. Sometimes I even forgot how bad things got when I was younger.
And if I remembered that meant I gave my mother an excuse for what she did and I didn’t want to give her any excuse for cheating on my father and breaking up our entire family and my life.
“I don’t know what it will do.” He touched me, pulling me to him. He lifted my chin forcing me to look at him. “I went through the same thing with both of my parents. They weren’t just musicians they were also big into partying. Maybe you should talk to him about getting some kind of help.”
I shook my head. “It’s not that easy. You know it’s not that easy.”
“It could be a lot easier,” Slade kissed the side of my head.
“I need to finish painting.” I pulled away. “Thanks for lunch.”
He lingered, probably debating on adding anymore salt to the wound I was sure. Who was I kidding he was only trying to help. But it didn’t help, it made me feel like shit.
“I’ll see you tonight?” he asked from the doorway. “I need my biggest fan front and center. My first gig wouldn’t be the same without you.”
I lifted the paintbrush and pushed some loose hair behind my ear. “See you tonight.”
Charge it
I looked down at my watch, there still was an hour left before the gig and I didn’t have anything to wear.
“What about this?” Karsen lifted a long black tank top from the rack.
“It looks like it was shot up by a machine gun.” I sighed. I understood my boyfriend was in a rock band. I knew black was the thing, but I didn’t want to look like I crawled from a grave. I was still a girl for crying out loud.
“What about this?” Erica asked holding up a leather mini skirt. It was her style not mine.
“No offense Erica but that looks like something I would see in your closet.” I forced a small smile and moved on to the next display.
“I have two of these actually,” Erica said throwing it over her arm. “I love leather.”
I ended up buying a pair of high waisted black shorts and a black and grey flannel with a black fedora. Karsen claimed I was bordering on preppy and Erica asked me why I wanted to hide so much. But I didn’t care I was comfortable and wearing what I wanted to wear and that was what mattered.
We paid for our clothes and hauled ass to the door. We still needed to get ready.
“See you guys in a little while,” Erica said taking her phone from her bag to call the guy she had been talking to for a couple of weeks now. I could only imagine how Slade treated anyone who dated his sister.
Karsen threw her bag over her shoulder and we headed down the boardwalk to get home. There was hardly any light left. The surfers were starting to head on home and bonfires were already lighting up the sands of the beach.
I spotted a group of skaters at the end of the boardwalk.
“I don’t know how they do it,” Karsen commented on the kicks and flips as we passed by. “Isn’t that Elliot and Easton?”
We both stopped, taking in the group of kids feet away from us. Sure enough my brothers were hanging out. And I wasn’t happy with what I saw.
“Why is Hutch talking to my brothers?” I demanded.
Karsen shrugged. “I could think of a few reasons, probably none of which you would want to hear.”
She was right I didn’t want to hear any reason, I wanted to walk over there and punch him in the mouth. He never let up. He was forever finding a way to slip into my life and I would be damned if he used my brothers to do it.
Karsen grabbed my arm before I could even get to him. “Just let it go. We have the gig. You can talk to them later about what happened.” She looked the situation over. “I’m sure they will be okay.”
I sighed. “Fine. But if he does anything to hurt anyone else in my family I will kill him.”
Karsen squeezed my arm. “I believe you.”
We went back to Slade’s to get ready for the night. We drink red bull and listened to Pantera while we did our hair and painted our nails.
Karsen settled on beach curls while I went for sleek with a slight curl.
But before I could dive into celebration mode I needed to see what happened with Hutch and my brothers so I made a detour at my house before we headed to the gig.
I shoved the door open and heard the television the moment I came in. The sound of gunfire and airplanes told me all I needed to know, they were busy playing video games.
I cleared my throat hoping that would be enough to grab their attention. When it wasn’t I lifted the bowl of chips between the two of them on the couch igniting a groan but nothing more.
Finally, I lifted the remote wedged in the cushions of the loveseat and snapped off the television. Elliot jumped up snatching it away from me and turned it right back on.
