Short Stories

Alone (Guns N Roses)

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Lyla hated being alone.

She wasn't alone very often, mind you, but when she was it wasn't very pretty.

That's when her thoughts would become too overwhelming and she'd have to practice on Slash's spare guitar until her fingers bled.

She'd clean her room and blast the radio as loud as it could go. That usually helped, even though 9 times out of 10 she'd get a headache.

Duff, her older brother, had shown her a few things on bass so that was something else she could do until they got back at 3am each Saturday.

It was the Saturday night of April 5, 1986 when Lyla figured out why she didn't like being alone so much.

Usually alone at night, she didn't worry about people breaking into the apartment or hurting her, but for the past three Saturdays she'd felt like she was being watched.

She brushed it off, like she usually did. She was probably overthinking it.

1:47am the clock read when Lyla got into bed that night, though she still had a shit ton of homework to do. Grade 10 was kicking her ass but she was just too tired to care.

She'd washed the dishes and practiced guitar. Her room was exceptionally tidy and she was ready to get into bed.

The radio softly played Psycho Killer by Talking Heads as she drifted off to sleep.

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Three hours later she was woken up by a sound coming from the kitchen. She assumed it was just the guys coming back from their gig and went to greet them.

She stopped at the top of the stairs when she saw an unfamiliar figure rummaging through the cabinets. A crowbar was tossed onto the counter.

Lyla felt her heart skip a beat as she quickly came up with a plan to get out.

As she turned to head for the room she felt a white hot pain searing through her shoulder.

Whatever it was hurt worst than anything she'd felt before, something fell to the floor with a clang, but she paid no heed to it. She was determined to get out of there alive. Turning back would be pointless in achieving that.

She hurried through Steven's mess of a bedroom and down the steps of the balcony.

The bar they were playing at was only a few streets over and she knew the bouncer.

Lyla huffed and pushed herself through the crowded city streets. After a 15 minute walk she had found the bar and pushed through the line to get in.

"Hey Robert, it's Lyla," she huffed, trying to stop herself from tearing up as the pain became harder to bear.

"Hey kid, the guys are in the back go on in."

Robert kept his eyes on the crowd in front of him.

She heard all the people in the line groan and shout at her but she didn't care, she needed to see the guys and that's what she was going to do.

After getting a few drinks sloshed over her and a elbow to her side she made it to the back room.

She could hear Duff and Slash arguing over what they wanted to drink as Axl did some vocal warm ups.

That never failed to make her laugh.

"Hey guys," she said faintly as she entered the room. Lyla realized she'd probably lost a lot of blood in the 20 minutes it took to get here.

The boys weren't phased as she announced herself.

"There's kind of an emergency!"

Duff turned and just about fainted when he saw the blood soaking through her pyjamas, "oh gosh! Oh no! Oh— Axl do something!"

Axl looked up from where he was mixing a drink for himself.

"Shit Lyla what happened!"

Lyla leaned against the wall as Izzy and Steven tried to get a better view of what had happened. Slash was passed out on the couch by this time, he'd given up fighting with Duff, knowing he wouldn't get his own way.

"Someone broke into the apartment, I don't know what happened but it wasn't a gun because I would've heard it."

Axl tried to get a better look by pushing up the sleeve of her pyjamas, this only caused more pain.

Lyla squirmed as Axl tried to stop the bleeding with a towel, Steven tried to distract her by showing her the new drum fill he'd come up with. She nodded along to everything he was saying without hearing.

Izzy was trying to calm Duff down as he downed drink after drink.

How responsible, Lyla thought as she squinted through the darkness that was taking over her vision.

Now that she thought about it, she was quite tired. Maybe she'd just close her eyes for a little while.

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"...Duff calm down. She's perfectly fine."

Lyla whined as she tried to sit up. Looking around, she realized she was in the hospital.

Guilt filled her conscience, the hospital bill. The guys barely had enough money to provide for themselves. Oh gosh, if she'd only just stayed in bed and waited for the man to leave.

Lyla took a deep breath, she'd worry about that later. The pain in her shoulder began to throb more and more.

Duff hurried to her side and gently hugged her, "Lyla, thank goodness your alright."

Lyla felt a few tears fall from her eyes as she felt the same fear as she did the morning before.

"I'm scared Duff," she cried, "I'm so scared and I don't even know what I'm scared of."

Duff nodded and held her tighter, careful not to accidentally bump her shoulder.

"Everything will be alright, I promise you."

Lyla nodded and moved over so Duff could sit with her. Axl and Steven were asleep on top of each other while Slash played tic-tac-toe by himself on Izzy's arm while he slept.

"They said it was a stab wound, you got 12 stitches."

Lyla nodded tiredly, unable to process what her brother had just told her, "I'm sorry if I'm too much trouble sometimes."

Duff shook his head, "I'm glad I took you with me, I know it was too overwhelming for you back at home with everyone and everything there y'know?"

She nodded and rested her head on his arm, falling asleep soon after Slash who'd fallen asleep with the marker still in his hand.

Izzy was gonna be pissed.

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