Halloween

Chapter 6

  Meanwhile, Sasha was delving deeper into her evening. The gang of biker girls plus their newly found member walked down the quiet, cracked sidewalk, Anika specifically walking in the middle of the street with no fear. Ashley nervously motioned for her to come back on the sidewalk, but the smaller girl simply shrugged as if to say, 'No one's coming anyway.'

Moonlight gleamed down on the small group; usually it would reflect right through Sasha's translucent form. An owl cooed, crickets chirped, beetles buzzed- the mundane yet reassuring sounds of early fall rung in the ears of all. The noises and the smell and chill of the crisp autumn overwhelmed the senses, especially Sasha's. The ghost felt out of place in this group physically, but at the same time, somewhat felt right at home. And not just because the girls were wearing the same era of clothing as her.

"So! Where are we all heading, exactly?" Sasha questioned, a grin not leaving her face since she first encountered the group.

Anika looked back at Sasha and shrugged. Then, Dana turned back and smiled.

"We're heading over to my garage to bang out some tunes, girl! We've got a concert in a little bit, so we've gotta prepare a little!" Dana exclaimed, giving a sign with her right hand- the one that universally meant 'rock n' roll'.

"Oh, sweet! I could totally groove with that!" Sasha nodded, crossing her arms. "What do you all play? 'Cause as for me, I can play a pretty mean synth!"

"Whoa, you can actually play that?" Suraya butted in, "I bought one for us a while ago, but we all kinda.. Stunk at it. Well, I can play the keys, but still... I can't figure out all those crazy synth settings. I mean, why is there even one that just says words? It just doesn't make any sense to m-"

"Suraya," Anika interrupted.

"Yes..?"
"Do you hear that?"

"Hear wh-"

"Shh.... It's silence."

For the next minute or so, everyone walked in an awkward silence as Anika kicked a rock across the pavement- that being the only sound despite all of the background dissonance.

Eventually Suraya went and broke the silence once again. "Anyway! Like I was saying, it would be really cool if you joined us later! And now, too! I mean, obviously, since you're like, with us right now and all."
"Oh my gosh, I'd love to! I've never been part of a jam session before, so it should be a lot of fun!" Sasha put her hands together and clapped a few times in excitement.

And so, after a few more minutes of excited chattering among the girls, the band made it to their destination.

Dana pulled up the garage door next to the house to reveal an organized mess of sorts. The left and right walls of the garage were lined with random junk mostly, but the back wall was covered in all sorts of instruments ranging from a banjo to a tiny kazoo.

The band set up their instruments, and Ashley gave the first strum of a chord on her bass. She smiled and waited for the other band members to get ready.

Anika sat behind the drums, Dana picked up her guitar, and Suraya her microphone. Percy sat on the couch on the side of the room, taking out her phone to start recording. The drummer held her sticks up in the air as to get ready to tap off, but then noticed that Sasha hadn't picked her instrument yet. She put the sticks down.

Sasha stood awkwardly for a moment before realizing what they all wanted her to do. "Oh! Right! Yeah!" She quickly scrambled over to the synth pad and got ready to play.

"Okay, Sasha, since we're all 80's themed tonight, it's only appropriate that we play an 80's song." Dana stated.

"Yeah, we're gonna be playing Take On Me by a-ha, of course," Ashley grinned, already greatly anticipating the bass part.

"Well, it's Take On Me with a little Mutiny Matrimony twist! Gotta add some spooky sound effects, if you're picking up what I'm putting down, Sasha," Suraya smirked. "Wink wink!"

"Yeah. That." Anika finally added, putting her sticks back up. "Let's do this."

Anika tapped off, and finally, the jam session had begun.