Enter Night 《Cliff Burton》

1

         "Ronnie!"
I jumped at the sound of my name and almost toppled over my camera stand yet again. I frowned slightly, but kept my voice emotionless. "Yes, mom?"

"Dinner."

"I'll be there in a minute."

"You've been saying that for many minutes."

"I'm almost done, mom!" I yelled, hinting finality in my voice. "Fine, just turn that crap down," As my mother's footsteps ceased down the staircase, I resumed my little task.

          I was setting up a camera to record myself sleep overnight. I had no clue why I was doing this; simple curiosity, I guess. That, and my friends. Not wanting to annoy my mom further, I turned my music down a notch. For whatever reason, Mom hated Metallica and every other metal band. How can someone hate Metallica?

            I finally set my camera up properly. I stretched my back out, only to bend back over because it hurt too much. Cursing under my breath, I turned the music off from my laptop. After one last look at the camera, I went downstairs to have dinner.

        "So Dad, how was work?" I asked through a mouthful of spaghetti Bolognese. "Not bad, how was band practise?" I smiled. "Great! Except Michael spilled his Pepsi on one of the plugs."

          I was the lead singer and bassist of a band my long time best friend Michael and I formed. He played lead guitar and sang backup, and after some great probing around college, we found a good drummer and rhythm guitarist as well - Brian and Pete, respectively. They were both all too eager to be in a female fronted heavy metal band. So far, we hadn't done anything besides performing a bunch of Big 4 and other classic band covers at lunch period in college or random bars, but we all were sitting on some ideas, and planned to record a demo soon.

        If it isn't obvious by now, my all time favourite band was Metallica. I especially loved the Cliff Burton era, as he was my idol; the person who had inspired me to pick up the bass guitar. My bandmates and I were all in college for music, since that was the career we all wanted to pursue. If it weren't for Cliff, this probably wouldn't have been happening. I wished he had lived long enough for me to meet him and tell him all of this. Unfortunately, he was killed in a tragic bus accident fourteen years before I was even born.

          It was Pete's idea to record ourselves sleep. We all agreed to do it during a class break the day before. Pete was always full of crazy ideas, so the rest of us weren't surprised. The next day, we would be watching all the clips together during band practise.

          The moment I finished my spaghetti, I got up and speed-walked right upstairs to my bedroom. The knowledge that I'd be being recorded while sleeping was making me a little uncomfortable, so I decided to play a little bass before going to bed. When I picked it up, the tuning pins got tangled with my long fiery red hair - as usual. I sighed and tried to untangle my curls from it.

         Then I heard it. A low-E note. I looked down at my bass guitar which was where it seemed to have come from. The low E string was vibrating. I sighed and continued to try and untangle my hair. I figured I might have accidentally hit the string as I struggled.

But the note sounded like it was fingered, my brain nagged me. I ignored the little voice, and finally managed to free my hair.

         I started off by playing the main riff from Anesthesia by Metallica as usual. When I finished, I could have sworn I heard clapping. I looked around. Nothing seemed sinister. I decided I was hearing things because of how tired I was, and put my bass down to change into my pyjamas.

         Remembering to turn the camera on, I climbed onto my bed, pulled the covers up, and closed my eyes, already drifting off. By the corner of the bed, the small red light on the camera which indicated that it was recording, flickered once.

A/N: I know this is only the first chapter, but I still hope you guys enjoyed this. :) Lemme know what you think. Constructive criticism is welcomed.
Also, RIP Cliff. We love you and miss you.