The Incredible League of Goth Pizza Haters (RH)

Part 56

---Balz---
"Okay, yeah." I said and hung up the phone before propping my feet up on the coffee table. It was our manager, Josh Korel. He'd just called to tell us that our next tour was a mere four weeks away. We were leaving the day after Valentine's Day. I quietly began to think about what to do for Ryan Ashley for that day. I really liked her, and was thinking of doing something especially cheezy. I would just have to make sure none of the guys ever found out.

My thoughts were interrupted by the thumps and cries that echoed down from upstairs. They couldn't be any quieter? This was the one thing that made me hesitate about asking Sylvia to move in with us, the fact that she was dating one of my best friends and I didn't want to be stuck an annoyed third wheel in their love story. But I've known her for years and she needed a place to stay. Not to mention Rick seemed really happy about her moving in. I also agreed to it because I know they're not an overly annoying couple. Back in ye olden days, Via and I used to switch through movies and romance-shame them on how dumb the couples acted and how shitty the love stories were. It was our thing and we'd made a long time pact that if either of us were to ever get in a relationship where there was too much PDA, gushy mushy lovey shit, or ANY use of ridiculous pet names then we would save each other through abrupt execution. Maybe rehab, but most likely execution.

So far I hadn't been thinking about executing her. So far.

Regardless, I turned on the tv so I couldn't hear them. I shared an awkward look with Dexter. He's been the first pet transferred to this house and I wasn't quite sure if I liked him much. I'm a dog person, condemned to live with two cats.

"Do you condone this?" I asked and he flicked his ears at me. Snob. The wind whipped against the window sills where, outside, flurries of snowflakes fell and were swept along in the frenzy. A blizzard. Another slap of wind came along, rattling the window panes and in an instant the tv turned off along with all the lights. Fuck, are you serious?

I got up and walked around, unsure of what exactly to do. I could hear them again. I picked up a broom from the kitchen and thumped it on the ceiling.

"GUYS! POWER'S OUT!" I called and they got quiet.

"BE DOWN IN A MINUTE!" Rick called and I began looking around for the flashlights Via and I had bought at the store the other day. By the time I'd found them, opened and loaded them with new batteries, Rick and Via entered the kitchen. "Sorry," Rick said, "We were trying to set up the rest of the furniture." I looked at them both. Rick's hair was fucked and Via's neck was marked up. Neither of them would meet my eyes.

"Well, next time you guys are," I used air quotes, "'Setting up furniture', can you be quieter?" I watched Via's face go red as she noticeably cringed and left the room. I don't know where she was going, she didn't have a flashlight and the whole house was dark. Rick shuffled his feet and apologized, and we semi-awkwardly joked a bit before picking up the flashlights and going through the house. We lit candles and oil lamps all around and gathered up all the heaviest blankets to place in the living room. The cold was creeping in fast, with the heating being electric, and we were talking about lighting the fireplace. The problem was that we didn't have any wood.

We all gathered in the living room and wrapped ourselves in layers of blankets. We didn't know how long this was going to last, so to pass the time Rick had an entire stack of books he placed on the table for any of us to read. I didn't read a lot myself and Via looked at the pile with a bit of distaste before she got up and came back with her art kit. I thought about getting my keyboard but instead just settled to listening to music on my phone.

About an hour or so passed of us all doing our own thing and I pulled out my earbuds.

"We're going on tour in four weeks." I said and Rick looked up from his book.

"Really?"

"Yeah, the day after Valentine's Day."

"Hm." Rick said and cast a quick glance over at Via who had looked up from her sharpie art to hear the conversation. "Alright." he looked back at me and I told him all the little details Josh had told me. Afterwards we fell into silence again and then I suggested we all do something.

"We could paint our bodies." Via suggested and both Rick and I made a face.

"We do that nearly every day on tour." I said and she nodded and looked away.

"We could use my oil paints." Rick offered and we all agreed. He slipped from his blankets to go retrieve them and we spent the next several hours painting and joking in the candle light. Via was the first to crash. She dropped the paintbrush in the cup of inky black water and sat back on the couch, laying down and wrapping up in blankets. Night had fallen by then and outside the windows all we could see was darkness and falling snow. The only sounds were the whistling of the wind and occasional creaks that carried throughout the seemingly aching body of the house.

I was next, retiring my paintbrush and laying down. Rick looked at the both of us, shaking his head disapprovingly.

"Am I the night owl now?" he asked as Via and I chuckled as we drifted off.

***

I know at some point Rick fell asleep too because when I next awoke it was to find him asleep and Via standing rigid in the middle of the room, staring somewhere above me. The candles had all gone out, either they burned out or someone had the sense to put most of them out before we all slept. Either way, the room was consumed in darkness. In the gloom I could barely make her out. The white hair was visible but it took me a few moments of confused staring to see her shaking hands and the reflective lights in her eyes. She was looking somewhere behind me, to where the big windows were.

"Via?" I sat up and looked at her, slightly concerned. I'd heard briefly about her night terrors. Was this one of them? "Via?" I called again, slightly louder and she looked at me, inhaling sharply.

"Do you see him?" she whispered.

"Who?"

"The man looking in through the window." I turned around abruptly to look out, my heart skipping beats in my chest. I saw no one, no matter how hard I looked. Only ice and snow and the the stretches of darkness.

"No." I turned back to look at her and she nodded slowly.

"Okay," she said, seeming to gather herself, "You're right. No one there." she slowly sat back down on the couch, arranging the blankets. "A trick of the dark."

"Are you okay?" I asked and she looked at me again, seeming somehow like she had an extra ten years of experience in her eyes. She gave me a small and distant smile.

"I'm just tired. Had a bit of bad dream, don't worry yourself." she wrapped up in the blankets again and laid down, squeezing her eyes shut. I felt for her and a part of me wanted to go over and offer her some comfort while the other part begged for sleep. After a few moments of sitting awake in the dark, sleep won over for me and I laid back down.

***

The next time I awoke was the early morning as all the lights flickered back on and we all sat up abruptly as every electrical device in the house came back to life. I watched Rick stumble to his feet and turn off all the lights and I collapsed back into the sheets, jamming a pillow over my head and falling asleep again.

***

Later that day after we'd all woken up and had some breakfast, Rick and I opened the front door to walk out on the porch and see how much snow we'd collected. It didn't look too terribly bad, a few inches at most and the snow was light a fluffy. I walked over to the far side of the deck where you could see a clear view of the living room windows protruding out from the house and froze, an uneasy feeling churning my stomach.

Though it had stopped snowing by then, there was still a thin layer of fresher snow overtop, nearly hiding them. After a few moments of thinking and staring, I decided not to mention it to anyone, the footprints in front of the living room windows.