Every Night

Chp. 3

We both wake up suddenly as Ben opens the curtain in front of my bunk really fast. "Get up sleepy heads!" He says to us, "it's our off day and we're trying to plan what to do."

I let Wayne get out first and he gives me a hand getting down from the bunk. I hid the dragon beneath my pillow because I don't want the others to see me with it again, they think it's childish. Wayne gives me a slight smile, and we walk into the common room.

We sit down together on the couch facing Ben and Platz. Wayne puts his arm around me, and then I look up.

"So," Ben says, "We have an off day today here in St. Louis, what do we want to do?"

Platz speaks up immediately and asks, "What about the Arch? We've never had a chance to go there?"

"You guys up for that?" Ben asks.

Wayne nods, and I just silently gulp my fears down and nod as well, I already messed up at the show last night, I don't need to ruin everyone's off day.

Our driver takes us to the Arch, we got there pretty quickly. It's like Wayne can sense something's wrong with me, because once the bus parks, he says, "Hey Ben, why don't you and Platz go get our tickets, me and Dan will catch up with you in a bit."

"Sure" he says, as he and Platz make their way out of the bus.

Once the door closes, Wayne turns to face me, and says, "Hey buddy, are you okay? You were squeezing my hand pretty tight on the way here."

I lift my hand away from his, it is a little red where I was holding it. "Sorry..." I say.

"Don't be, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, sure. Let's go inside before they go up without us."

"Are you sure you don't need the dragon with you?"

"I'm sure," I sorta snap out, I hang my head down and say softly, "the others think it's childish, and I don't want them to laugh at me...."

"Hey, bring it anyway, and I'll kick their asses if they start laughing at you."

I look back up at him with a small smile, then stand up to retrieve the dragon from my bunk and we make our way inside.

We walk into the lobby to find Ben and Platz waiting on us. Ben sees the dragon in my hand and begins to chuckle a bit. Wayne gives him a death glare, and he shuts up. I grab mine and Wayne's tickets from him and we head over to catch the next elevator up.

The elevator arrives and we climb inside the small pod and take a seat. My head almost touches the top of the pod because I'm so tall. I look out the window behind me and notice we're going up, faster and faster. I'm having troubles breathing because the pod is so tiny it reminds me of my nightmare, with one hand I grip the dragon, and with the other I take Wayne's hand. He wiggles his hand loose and rubs me on the back. He can tell I'm tense and he can see the tears in my eyes. "It'll be alright bud," he whispers to me, "almost there."

The elevator comes to a halt and the doors slowly open. Luckily we are in the first car of the train of elevators, so we don't have to walk up too many steps to be at the top. I walk to the very middle and lean against the railing, looking out the window. It's a nice sunny day and I can see for miles. But even with such an amazing view I still feel consumed with fear and I begin to cry again. Wayne walks over to me and takes my hand, we walk back over to the elevator and he asks the operator to take us down. He does, and shortly the doors close and we're on our way back down.

It's not until we're halfway down that I can control my crying enough to talk to Wayne. He's been holding me the entire time. "It's okay, It's okay." He repeats as he sets my head on his shoulder and rubs my back.

When the doors finally open and we're back on the ground, he walks me over to a bench in the lobby. "What happened up there bud, are you okay?"

I've stop crying but but face is still red and tear-stained. "I....I don't know.... I was looking out the window, and all of a sudden it felt like I was falling, I couldn't tell where I was and everything seemed to get darker and smaller. Part of me knew I was still at the arch, but the rest of me was living in my nightmare, I couldn't take it." As I finished talking, tears welled up in my eyes again and I just grabbed Wayne's shoulder and cried. He hugged me tight and kept me close.

About 10 minutes later the doors to the elevators opened again and Ben and Platz stepped out and walked over to us. Wayne gave them a look that seemed to say, "he needs help, help me take him back to the bus." They all carefully take ahold of me, and stand me up, I hide my face, as I'm still crying, and I don't want anyone to see.

They get me back on the bus and lay me down on the couch. Wayne wets a rag and brings it over to me, laying it on my forehead. I'm so embarrassed, I've ruined everything again.

It's like Wayne could read my thoughts because he takes my hand and whispers to me, "you're fine, it's okay, we're here."

Wayne walks back over to Ben and Platz, they whisper together for a second, and then head to the back of the bus. They return a few minutes later, instruments in hand. They sit on the couch across from me and just begin to play, I look up at them and smile, they're playing Radioactive, the song that rushed us into the big scene. I begin to sing quietly to myself, but by the end I'm singing aloud and all my fear seems to melt away.

Once they're done, I take the cloth off my head and sit up, a little fast actually because it made me dizzy. They all set their instruments down and walk over to me. Ben apologizes for his snarky laugh earlier, and then they all hug me. "We've got you," they say, "and we're never gonna let you fall."

I stay with them for a few more minutes and then head back to the back room, and fire up my laptop.