Little Red House

Chapter 4 - The Warning

Chapter Four

After we had finished in one note, Ricky had stood up and begun walking behind the stage.

"Where are you going?" I asked twisting around in my stool.

"I need to grab my keys, I bought a few snacks. They're in the car."

"'Kay, be quick!" I slumped my shoulders in a heavy sigh. A bitter taste tickled my tongue as I thought. I was getting so worn out by the daily cycle in my every day life. The world was so dull and colors faded at every moment. Soon enough the world will become black and white. Every day will be stressful moment, a struggle to live. Every day becomes another headache, another pain, another sleepless night full with bitter tears. Everything is a continuous process; Michael's drunken scenes, work, struggle to pay bills, buy food and it all slides down to a night of sorrow. I hated to cry. I felt so helpless and pushed into a dark corner, a trap. Ricky was the spark of life that helped me move on. He gave me hope that there’s still good in the world. Where was he anyway?

"What are you thinking about?" A deep voice echoed in the empty theater.

Startled, I jerked back and the stool tipped backwards. My breath was stolen as I crashed down with the stool on top of me. Pain shot up my spine, I grimaced. I heard heavy footsteps hurrying up the stage as I lay there, moaning in an awkward position. Bad luck seemed to track me down easily. Someone had lifted the stool and I pushed myself up in a sitting position.

"Gosh Ricky, you scared-" I stopped as I came face to face with the bluest eyes I had ever seen. They swirled in an iris of sapphire and shone in sparks aquamarine. Ricky's eyes weren't blue. A young man kneeled down in front of me. He was dressed in dark jeans and a grey sweater. His hood was down and this time I could see the full face of the hooded man.

"I-It's you." I stared at him in amazement. He didn't look as evil as I thought he would, though he was dangerously handsome. The hooded man was young and looked quite innocent. He peered at me in pure curiosity.

"You looked so sad," he simply stated. My eyes widened in disbelief. This guy had been basically stalking me, scaring me at work, appearing in my car and all he states is his observations of my sad expression.

"Back off," I snorted and stood up, "Stupid kid, scared the bananas out of me." I mumbled and rubbed my back.

He smirked and pulled a red apple out of his pocket. The man bit into it with ease as he stood there, eyes boring into me.

"What? If you came here to scare me for the third time, it worked. You can leave now," I was definitely annoyed by his strange behavior. The man suddenly stood straight. His features stretched in a serious expression as if he had remembered his purpose of scaring me.

"I came here to tell you, to warn you."

"Warn me? Are you going to scare me again? You know, it's too early for Halloween."

"It's Steve."

"Steve? Listen, I think you got the wrong person. You need to go. Ricky will be here soon."

"Ah, Ricky. It's strange you call him that."

This guy made no sense at all. I turned towards the sound of the door backstage and cool air rushed in; Ricky was coming back. I spun around to notify the guy but he was already gone.

"Emma, are you there? It took me ages, the belt got stuck in the door. I could barely-. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, yeah. Why wouldn't it be?" I smiled and pulled the grocery bag from his hand. Ricky shrugged and climbed onto the stool. I dug into the bag and pulled out a package of Doritos chips. I threw him the package,

"Next time it's McDonald's; my treat," I winked. I turned my attention back to the grocery bag and pulled out a plastic bag with crimson apples. I frowned.

"Ricky, do you have a friend named Steve?" I eyed him carefully as he opened the Doritos bag.

"No," he crunched on the chips sloppily, " why do you ask?"

"No reason," I bit into an apple and pulled the last item out of the bag. A box of sparkler fireworks. I squealed in excitement and rushed to wrap my arms around Ricky almost knocking him off the stool.

"Whoa there, woman!" Ricky grinned and ruffled my hair.

"I can't believe it! Where did you get these?" I loved fireworks; the crackling sounds, the burst of colors and the smell of burnt sulfur.

"It was in the last season boxes at the mart. I wanted to surprise you," he laughed at my childish excitement.

"Let's go!" I pulled him towards the stairway backstage. It led to the roof where Ricky and I had messed around before. It was a flat surface with a low parapet wall. We had kept a couple camping chairs up there and a few blankets. We sat on the parapet wall with our lighted sparklers and watched the firework dance. It sizzled and burst into sparks of white.

After we used up the dazzling entertainment of sparks and finished the snacks, we watched the stars from the camping chairs.

“It’s a beautiful night,” I mumbled sleepily. Ricky glanced at his watch,

“Yeah it is, and it’s also time to get going.”

“You have plans tonight?”

“Nah, just tired,” he smiled.