"Adam, you got any ideas?" Jake asked, sounding stuck. They were in Max's garage, practicing. They had needed more tracks. They'd been playing the same original songs over and over at gigs. This was Max's moment. "Hey guys." He started, heads turning toward him.
"I think I have a good song idea." He said, pulling out some scribbled down lyrics and guitar chords. He handed the papers to their two guitarists, Jake and Bennet. Jakes eyes lit up as he looked at the chords. "Awesome! This'll sound fresh!" Max smiled as Jake grabbed his guitar, testing it out.
"And Adam, this song goes in 3/4 time, so that shouldn't be too hard for you. You think you could come up with something?" Max said, glancing at Adam. "Yeah that should be good. I just need to hear the guitar first." He said, grabbing his drumsticks from the dirty garage floor.
Jake began to play the chords, and after a few minutes, Bennet came in with the base line. "Cool! I can jam to that!" Adam exclaimed, starting up a beat. Max smiled, waiting for them to finish the song. A slow guitar solo ended the piece, causing an eruption of smiles from the quartet.
Max looked at all of them, his eyes smiling. "You guys wanna try the lyrics now?" He said, hooking the microphone cord to the amp. "Yeah!" Sounded collectively throughout the room as Max walked back over. "Alright! Hit it, Adam!" He hollered with excitement.
After a few seconds, Jake started to play, with Bennet joining in the base. Now it was Max's turn to belt out the lyrics. The first word left Max's mouth in a grunge sort of hush, calm but menacing. Words flowed from his lips in a soft, daring melody, putting them all in a trance. They were so focused on the music that they had no idea of the crowd gathering outside the garage.
Max sang the last words, ending the song in a final emotional burst of perfection. The members started to whoop with excitement at the song, until clapping sounded from in front of them.
"That was so good!!!" Someone hollered from behind the half opened garage door. More applause followed, as people poked their heads under the door to give more applause. It was only about six people, but it was still cool.
"Hey! Looks like we have a fan club!" Adam said, smiling to the rest of the band mates. Max went over to the door, hoisting it up and waving a hello to the small crowd. They waved politely. Most of them were just kids from the junior high, and a few high schoolers.
"You guys should do a gig." Someone said to Max, making him blush. "Well, thanks! We'll consider!" Jake hollered excitedly, whooping.
The crowd started back down to the road, some giving a thumbs up to the band members as they left. "Well that was unexpected!" Adam said, energetic and fidgeting with his drumsticks.
"Say, shall we work on some more songs?" Max said enthusiastically, seeing that there were still near fifteen minutes till they would head over to Adams house for dinner. After all, it was Friday, and the friends hadn't had a sleepover in months.
"Sure!" Bennet hollered, happily striking an entrance chord on his bass.
The next few songs went by in a flash, wearing the quartet out. They started to pack up the equipment, max storing the amps where they usually hid under the dusty shelves in the garage. With new talk of a possible gig on their minds though, the group was still excited.
They grabbed their bikes, Max eyeing Bennett's bike as always, with its fashionable looking flames on the sides. They rode over to Adam's, greeting his mom at the door.
"Hey guys, we should order pizza and microwave some popcorn...who's in for some Nightmare on Elm Street?" Jake said enthusiastically, grabbing the phone on the wall. A collective mass of shouts came from the group, signaling the the pizza order.
After prank calling two places first, they finally placed their order, set to come in fifteen minutes. Max went over to the fridge, grabbing cokes for them all. They gratefully took them, the collective noise of the cans popping open sounding throughout the house.
A few minutes later, the pizza arrived, and they started the movie. Max was terrified of horror movies, but he didn't believe in them anyway. Not that anyone should. Besides, no one has knives for fingers anyway. The only thing Max couldn't stand about horror movies was the nightmares. That's why, often he would watch them all night when he did, and try not to fall asleep.
Freddie Crouger had entered the scene, sneaking up behind a girl in her dreams. He laughed, and it sent chills down Max's spine. He shook it off. Suddenly, the scene turned into a gorey mess, guts and blood everywhere. Max gagged, looking away. He rose up from his comfortable spot on the floor in his sleeping bag, heading upstairs to the bathroom.
He never liked the hallways in Adams house. They were always narrow and dark. And creepy. And the creepiest thing was that he had a huge staircase, staring right into the attic. And he had to pass it to get to the bathroom.
He walked in front of the stairs, feeling cold, a shiver running along the back of his neck. He hurried on to the bathroom, shutting the door and turning the faucet on. He swallowed, feeling the goosebumps on his body.
He sloshed his hands around in the water welling up in the sink, the drain broken from the time they had shoved toy dinosaurs into it as kids. He raised his hands to his face, letting the cold water drip down his neck.
He froze, feeling a presence behind him. He took a deep breath, reminding himself that it was just his imagination. None of this stuff was real.
But to Max's surprise, a hand slid onto his shoulder. He gasped, causing the hand to slide off. He swallowed hard, mustering the courage to look behind him and-
"Max? What's wrong?" Adams voice startled Max out of his daze, flooding his cheeks with crimson. He regretted ever coming up here. Of course Adam would follow him. He had been Max's best pal since practically birth.
"S-sorry Adam, I should've told you where I was going..." Max said, the words barely coming out. Adam smiled sadly, but friendly. "You got scared again, didn't you?"
Max rolled his eyes at himself, wanting desperately to be back at his own house. "No, I just got bored with the movie..." He said, his voice hoarse. Adam sighed, clapping a hand to Max's back.
"Dude, I don't care if your scared of horror movies. Why would that ever matter? Just look away or something. Maybe try to fall asleep?" Adam said confidently, smiling at Max. He spun the two of them out of the bathroom door into the hallway, starting to walk towards the stairs.
Adam stopped in front of the attic stairs, talking about how hyped he was about the few places they might be able to get a gig. Max just kept nodding, the information going in one ear and out the other. The blackness coming from the attic door seemed to surround the hallway, enveloping it in a meaningless haze.
He couldn't resist the urge anymore. "Adam!" Max whisper shouted, fear ringing his voice. "Can we just go back downstairs?" Adam looked at Max in question, but just shrugged and went over to the other staircase.
The stairs creaked in protest as they descended. Adam glanced awkwardly around the stairway. "...your afraid of my attic?" He said questioningly, looking at Max now. Max's cheeks reddened again. "...not necessarily the attic, just the fear of things that are, well...creepy? Unknown? That sort of thing." He said calmly. Adam nodded, clearing his throat. "Well, don't worry. Since I can tell you'd be embarrassed, I'll make sure never to tell the boys. Just try and have fun, ok? Hey, we'll watch something else next time." Max nodded, reassured, as they walked casually into the living room, Max walking over to the big bowl of popcorn and shoveling a handful of it into his mouth.
He walked over to the kitchen, grabbing two conjoined slices of pizza. He headed back to his sleeping bag, nibbling on them, trying hard to watch the movie. After awhile he started to drift off, his eyelids getting to heavy for him to suspend.
He fell asleep pleasantly, the television screen shining through his eyelids into his dreams, snoring to wake the dead, till the rest of them had passed out on their sleeping bags on the floor in the middle of the living room. The next morning, the wake up call would be quite a surprise compared to the alarms that they were accustomed to waking up with each morning for their high school routine.
In fact, it would be devastating.