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I open my mouth and just trip over sounds
But my eyes speak goodbye
The silence tells us all we need to know
-Silence (Pretending’s So Comfortable) by As It Is
“Dude, chill out” Joe told Andy
“No” Andy responded “I know what your friends are like, this party can only be chaotic”
The pair of them were on their way to a party that one of Joe’s friends was holding. The thing was, Andy didn’t even know who the host was and only went as Joe’s plus one (Joe would have taken Marie but she was busy), so he wasn’t really going to know anyone there. But if there was one thing he did know, it was that he didn’t really get along with Joe’s friends. They were like Joe but...worse.
“Why don’t you like my friends?” Joe asked “I mean, you’re my friend and you’re alright, why aren’t they?”
“I could give you a list” Andy told him.
“Tell me,then” Joe demanded.
“Well they always sm-”
“Other than that” Joe interrupted.
“And they always dr-”
“That too”
“They’re just way too troublesome,Joe” Andy said “They just...I can’t explain”
“Andy, just quit complaining or don’t come”
“Fine. I’ll stop complaining for now. But to be fair, you always complain, it’s my turn now”
“I don’t always complain”
“You do. You’ve even admitted that you complain most out of the band”
“But I don’t always complain, I’m not complaining right now”
“Yes, you are” Andy said, trying not to laugh “You’re complaining about me saying that you complain a lot”
“Oh,shut up” Joe responded.
Andy just burst out laughing. Joe let out a slight giggle and muttered “Asshole”
All of a sudden, the car stopped. This wouldn’t have been a problem at any other point in the journey, but this neighbourhood had a bad reputation, to say the least.
“Dammit” Andy murmured. The pair got out the car and both immediately began looking at the tires, because it didn’t sound like the engine had caused the problem.
“Hey, Andy” Joe called from one side of the car “Think I’ve found the problem”
“What is it?” Andy responded.
“The tire’s popped”
“Let’s see”. Andy walked around the car to observe the tire. It was well and truly destroyed. “How on earth did this happen?” Andy asked.
“I don’t know” Joe replied “But luckily we’ve still got the spare tire in the trunk”
“I’ll get it” Andy said.
As he stood up, his vision turned black and he felt something cover his face. He then felt hands grabbing him and tying his hands behind his back. He kicked and pushed, but he couldn’t escape. His incredible strength was, in that one moment, useless. “JOE!” He yelled.
“ANDY! ANDY! HELP!” he heard a familiar voice screaming. Suddenly, Joe’s voice became a series of murmurs, muffled by something.
Andy felt the hands that were holding him shove him down onto a solid surface. But he could tell that it wasn’t the floor. He began guessing what it was and a sudden bang from behind him confirmed his suspicions.
He was in the trunk of a car.
Never in his whole life had Andy been this terrified, this angry, this...hopeless. “Joe!” he shouted “Joe! Where are you?”. He began moving his arms and legs around as much as he could to find Joe, but they only hit the edges of the trunk. “HELP!” he yelled. He started kicking and screaming. Then he heard the car engine start up. “No” he muttered to himself “nononono”. He began kicking whatever and wherever he could to get out of that damn car. “PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP!” he begged, screaming at the top of his lungs. Normally, he hated to ask anyone for help, but at this moment he had nothing to lose.
After a long journey filled with shouting, screaming, and begging, he finally heard the car engine fall silent. A pair of hands grabbed him and pulled him out of the car. Once again, he began shouting “STOP! STOP! PLEASE!”. Then he realised that there were more than two sets of footsteps. It had to be at least four people. “Joe?! JOE?!” he yelled. He only heard a muffled response, but he knew it had to be Joe.
Andy felt himself being forced onto a chair and tied to it. The whole time he kept saying.“Joe?! Joe, are you there? Please, stop. Please!”. When he was tied down, the cover from his face was lifted. The first thing he saw was a masked man. “Who are you?” Andy asked, his voice shaking “What do you want?”. The man remained silent and pointed to Andy’s left. Andy looked where the man was pointing and the sight made his eyes fill with tears.
It was Joe,kneeling and tied up, with a black bag over his face.
“Joe?!” he said quietly “No. Please, no. Don’t hurt him!”. Suddenly, the masked man raised a gun. Andy’s heart stopped for a moment before starting to race. The man removed the bag that was covering Joe’s face and Andy got a good look at the terror in Joe’s eyes. He also noticed that Joe’s mouth was covered with duct tape. Andy never wanted to see Joe in this state. Never. Joe then began struggling against the bonds holding him in place. “Joe...Joe, we’ll be okay” Andy reassured him “Trust me”
The masked man put the bag back over Joe’s head with Joe still struggling and writhing around. The figure then pointed the gun directly at Joe’s temple and Andy’s eyes widened in shock. “No!” he begged with tears in his eyes “Please! Don’t!”. The man cocked the gun. “Please! What have we done?! You can’t kill him! HE’S ALL I HAVE!”. Andy’s voice grew louder and louder with each word he spoke. The tears began streaming down his face as he used all his strength in an attempt to get off the chair. Nothing. He couldn’t even loosen the ties. “NO! NOT JOE! DON’T HURT HIM!”
The man slowly walked up to Andy and placed a finger on his own lips, telling Andy to be quiet. Andy fell silent, afraid of what might happen if he didn’t. The masked man walked back over to Joe and pointed the gun back at him. Andy wanted to shout and scream and tell the man to stop, but his mouth refused to produce any sound. He just stared at the gun,waiting.
Bang
A single moment that seemed to drag on forever. It repeated in front of Andy’s eyes over and over and over again. He pulled at the binds that were tying him to the chair in an attempt to get to his friend. “NO!” he cried out “NO! NOT JOE! NO!”. And he just broke down. The tears streamed down his face as he shouted. Eventually, it wasn’t even words that escaped his mouth, it was just sounds.
Blood. All he could see was the blood. Dripping out of Joe’s head. Running along the floor. The fluid that once kept him alive was now flowing from his dead body.
Then the masked man pulled the bag off of Joe’s head and Andy could barely look. He just glared at the man holding the gun. The man that had just killed his best friend. The man that Andy now despised. “WHY?!” he screamed at the man, not even thinking about what he was saying “WHY JOE?! WHAT DID HE DO TO DESERVE THIS?! I’M GOING TO KILL YOU. WHY WON’T YOU EVEN SHOW YOUR FACE? YOU COWARD!”. And then he fell silent. He was speechless. He’d said all he could say.
He looked back over at Joe and observed every detail. The eyes that were once full of life that now had nothing in them. The mouth that used to be constantly smiling that was now covered in tape. The hair than once flopped around everywhere that was now lying on the floor. Andy looked closely at everything on Joe’s body. He spent the most time staring at his tattoos. His eyes locked on the diamond on his elbow and he could only think of one person. Ruby. The poor girl who would never see her dad again.
The diamond tattoo was the last thing he remembered. Andy was knocked out and woke up in front of his house. “Joe” was the first word that slipped out of his mouth when he woke up. He ran inside and grabbed his phone, then sprinted to his room. He went onto his contact list and pressed ‘Pete’. Pete answered incredibly quickly. “Hey, Andy” he said “How was the party last night?”
“The party?” Andy responded. He’d completely forgotten about it “We didn’t end up going”
“Why not?”
“That’s what I need to tell you. Joe...Joe’s…” Andy said,struggling to get the words out. Tears filled his eyes.
“What’s wrong,Andy? What happened?” Pete asked. Andy couldn’t speak. “Andy, tell me. What happened?” Pete pushed on.
“Joe...Joe’s dead”
“What? How?!”
“I don’t want to talk about it. I just want you to know that he’s dead and I can’t go on. I can’t cope with seeing what I saw. I’m sorry. Also, let Patrick know what I’ve just said”
“Andy, you’re not going to…”
“Yes”
“Please don’t. We can get through this”
“You can. I can’t. I’m sorry, Pete”. And with that, Andy hung up.
He grabbed one of the many guns that he kept in his house and just held it in his hands. He raised it and lowered it. He bounced it around a bit. Then, it was time to get down to business- he slowly raised it to his chin, tears in his eyes, his mind racing. But even with all these thoughts, he could only say one sentence. “I’m sorry,Joe”.
And he pulled the trigger.
The silence tells us all we need to know
Pretending’s so comfortable
But I have to go for the last time
-Silence (Pretending’s So Comfortable) by As It Is