The Collection

Secret

They're the things that claw at the carefully put up walls, begging, pleading to be free, to rip their way through everything and expose the dirtiest laundry that even the most innocent person may seem to have. The skeletons in the closet dancing; rattling as they try to break free out of the hangers which they hang on. Everyone has something which they don't want let out, whether it's a secret recipe or it's some huge thing where they cheated the night before their marriage - whatever it is, everyone has a secret. Even the mothers who will swear that their 'homemade soup' is strictly from scratch, will refuse to let loose the little knowledge that it's from a year old can hidden in the depths of their pantry behind the spices.

Whether it is a childhood experience that is refused to be spilt due to the sheer trauma of walking into his or hers parent's bedroom to see them doing the nasty, or whether it is so outrageously hilarious that is unable to be said in-between the bouts of laughter... Or, it could be so scandalous, that the person who has held the secret, refuses to let loose one word to the humiliation that is sure to be felt. Secrets; everyone's got one.

Children who accidently spilt mommy's favourite nail-polish on the freshly laundered carpet, fathers who forgot that they took their two year old down to the grocer's with him, grandmothers who just now tell their daughter she's adopted... People are full of secrets. So full that surely, one more will bound to make them burst apart at the seams, but end up squeezing a few more in to be locked up tight, so tight that not even the couple who tell each other everything know.

Pages upon pages of black ink scrawled messily in the haste to get it off chests, just to have that dead weight lifted off of their shoulders without the secrets bubbling out over their lips that not even alcohol can expose. Usually secrets are exposed during a late night game of truth and dare which is played whilst getting blind makeovers.

Sometimes, secrets are kept close to one's heart and inside the spongy mass of grey matter situated in bony skulls. But, as they say; loose lips sink ships.

* * *

The crickets chirped noisily as the once clear-blue sky turned ashen grey. Angry looking clouds rolling in as the usual busy streets of Huntington Beach now became deserted. Leaves and discarded bits of rubbish billowed about in the wind, settling by the cobbled stone pathways which piece apart the pristine green lawns which lined the tar and bitumen roads. Picnic's under the trees in the park were cut short, the storm causing people to hurriedly pack up their belongings and scamper off to the shelter of their protective houses. Sea spray mixed in with the lingering aroma of rain, clinging to any exposed fabric of the people who are too reckless to find shelter.

Thunder rumbled through the city, ricocheting off the dark grey clouds and fading off into the distance; setting off the neighbourhood dogs, their barks masked by the roll of the thunder. Moments later, lightning crackled, illuminating the sky for seconds before disappearing. Again, thunder was heard once more before rain started to splatter the pavement in sparsely placed blotches; slowly getting heavier and heavier until it was pouring down, the drops landing on the windows and tin roofs, threatening to burst through.

Holed up in the Sanders' house, the members of Avenged Sevenfold were thankful that they all had decided to arrive an hour earlier than what was expected due to the promise of a continual flow of beer and bagged chips of all different flavours. In what was arguably the 'most important band meeting of the year', they found themselves instead playing in a tag-team game of Call of Duty: Black Ops with Matt and Brian on one team, and Jimmy and Johnny on the other.

Zacky being the only smart one, decided to sit out as brawn and brawnier - Matt and Brian - were on one team, and he knew what had happened last time he stupidly played against the dynamic duo. He ended up with seven stitches no thanks to a rather rough game of Monopoly. Yes, as it turned out, Brian got rather vicious after landing on Zacky's hotel at Mayfair; it turned the man off of board games forever.