Ringo's Requiem

Chapter 12: Finding the Note

"And... Why are we heading to the studio early again? It's only ten past seven."

George rolled his eyes as he listened to John's statement.

Paul stayed silent, walking along with his friends.

"It just seems efficient, considering how little we got done yesterday," George said.

Paul turned his head over to him.

"Um... What are we going to do about Ringo?"

John looked at the ground for a moment, trying to hide his nervous expression.

"Lets just..."

He sighed

"I don't know. Try to comfort him?"

George scratched the back of his head.

"Now that I think about it, we have been getting at each other a lot lately..."

John and Paul looked away in embarrassment.

"Okay..." Paul stated after a moment, "yer right."

John silently nodded in agreement.

George sighed.

"Maybe it really is time that we try to... Patch things up."

The group looked ahead, seeing that the studio was just a few feet away. The sight made a wave of unease wash over the three Beatles, but all ignored it.

With a sigh, George walked through the door, John and Paul following suite.

"Huh... Well, I suppose that Ringo wouldn't want to come early today..."

George's statement made John and Paul look away from each other.

"So... what do we do?" John asked, stopping next to his usual spot.

"Just... do what we've always done?" Paul suggested, stopping in his place as well.

As the two got on with a conversation, George noticed something odd on Ringo's drum set.

Brow furrowing, he stepped closer to it.

It was...

A paper?

George turned his head back to John and Paul for a moment, and then took the paper in his hands and held it up to read.

John noticed George's movements, but he didn't pay any attention to them.

"Listen Paul..." He started, voice unnaturally quiet.

"I uh... I just w-want to say that... I'm sorry."

"I'm... sorry too," Paul responded in a quiet voice as well.

The pair looked away from each other.

For a moment, there was nothing but silence.

Until...

"L-lads..."

George's shaky voice made John and Paul turn to him.

The guitarist turned around, eyes wide and face a little pale as he presented the paper in his hand.

"I... I t-think you'd might w-want to read this..."

John and Paul both stood up, the former reaching out his hand and grabbing the paper.

They moved moved net to each other to read it.

After a long moment, John slowly lowered his hand down, eyes just as wide as Paul's.

He moved his head to stare at George, who just stared back.

"You... You don't think..."

"W-what else could it be?"

George swallowed, breath starting to become heavy.

"W-what do we do?"

Paul blinked, remembering the phone conversation that they had with Maureen. And idea formed in is head.

"W-well... he p-probably went to... t-that place Maureen told us about, remember?"

John let the paper fall to the floor.

"Well... what are we waiting for!? We need to f-find him before it's too late!"

George walked towards the pair, face still pale.

They all knew what Ringo was about to do, and they hadn't noticed the signs until now.

"W-what if he's not there?" George asked quickly.

"Then... I don't know, but..." John paused.

"If he is, then we need to go there right now."

The three Beatles all quickly walked to the door.

"Oh... we messed up big this t-time..." Paul said quietly as they exited the studio.

"I... I couldn't have even thought a-about... something like this..." John whispered to himself.

The three stopped, think about which direction they should head in.

"Say... do either of you know exactly where it is, or..."

George was met with two nervous stares, and they made his panic rise even more.

"Okay, okay, this isn't that bad, just think for a moment."

John took in a breath and pointed to the right.

"I think we go this way."

Paul nodded in agreement.

"I just hope you're right," the bassist said as they all began to jog in that direction.

George swallowed.

"L-lets just hope that h-he hasn't already done it..."