A Gift or A Curse

Chapter 18

Matthew paced around the room. He was restless since yesterday morning, when both Jimmy and Blake were gone from his grip. He couldn't concentrate on anything and to think he was a workaholic - that was something that he himself couldn't imagine.

"Dude, you've been walking on the same spot for over 30 minutes. Are you okay?"

He looked up to the owner of the voice. It belonged to Arin who was sitting cozily on a chair with PSP in his hands. They were now in the Warner Bros meeting room, and were waiting for Larry to brief about their new schedule after they had done their Canada tour last week.

Matthew hesitated to tell Arin about Blake - or Jimmy. Because Arin's girlfriend was also there. Matthew didn't quite know the girl as she was a bit too clingy to Arin and didn't communicate much with the other band members. She kept peeking over Arin's PSP and commenting on how he should do the moves whatsoever. So Matthew couldn't just tell him out loud about what was going on in his mind. The girl must have known about Rev's death, but to tell her that he came back from the dead - it was something that Matthew wouldn't do.

"He's missing." He simply said that and hoped Arin understood.

"Who?"

Damn it. "You know who. J."

" J - Johnny?"

Matthew pursed his lips. His eyes darted to the girl and back at Arin.

"You mean - ?" Arin sat up straight. As he met Matthew's sharp gaze, he understood. "Oh."

"What? Who's missing, babe?" the girl asked eagerly.

"Uh, nothing serious, Ann. Johnny's always missing."

"Arin, I know when you lied." Ann - as Arin called her earlier, urged again.

Arin looked at Matthew. Probably was asking for a permission to tell her what happened. Matthew closed his eyes and nodded.

"The thing is, Ann. Don't freak out."

"I won't. What is it?"

Arin took a deep breath before glancing at Matthew again. "Jimmy came back."

"Who's Jimmy?"

Matthew raised his eyebrows at her. She didn't remember who Jimmy was. Hell, she didn't even know him personally.

"Jimmy, the Rev."

Ann stared at him for a while, and then her forehead slowly started to crease as she frowned at him.

"You mean, your drum idol? Isn't he dead or something?"

"Yeah. He came back."

"HOLY SHIT. You saw his ghost?!"

Arin cupped his hands on both sides of Ann's cheeks. "Baby, don't freak out. I didn't see his ghost. I just saw a person being possessed by him. That's all."

"Possessed? This is even more scary - "

"It wasn't anything like that!" Matthew cut off suddenly. He truly wished he didn't have to explain this towards a total stranger but Arin was part of the family, and Ann was a package that came with him.

Ann glared at Matthew. She didn't like his tone. Among all the band members of Avenged Sevenfold, she wasn't fond of Matthew the most. It was a mutual feeling for Matt too.

"Do not tell anyone about this." Matthew glared back at her, fighting with his own piercing sharp stare. Ann leaned back to the chair and crossed her arms on her chest.

"Ask me nicely."

Both Matthew and Arin looked at her in disbelief.

"Ann, what the hell?" Arin turned to her face to face. He knew Ann didn't actually liked Matthew but she had never been this rude to him before.