(Lyrics taken from Linkin Park ‘Hybrid Theory’-One Step Closer)
(Book excerpt from ‘The Shining’ by Steven King)

Brooke slept in late the next morning due to the fact she hadn’t been able to fall asleep easily the night before. She had tossed and turned in the unfamiliar bed, the silence ringing loudly in her ears. In Bowie, her old house had bordered near to a main street and she was used to the sounds of passing cars and the occasional siren lulling her to sleep. When she finally found a comfortable position in bed and felt her eyes drooping, it was close to three in the morning. Now at noon, she was still tired but forced herself to get out of bed. She could see from out her window that the sun was shining and decided to go running. She quickly changed into a pair of sweat shorts, a tank top, and a pair running shoes.

When she went downstairs, she found a note from JC telling her he was getting groceries. She added her own note under his, saying where she would be in case he came home before she did and then she left the house. She wasn’t too familiar with Orlando, but as she started jogging down the sidewalk, she decided if she stayed on the main roads, she would be able to find her way back to the house. As she ran, she pushed out all thoughts from her mind and focused on the sound of her feet hitting the pavement and the wind whipping through her hair.

She ran for almost half an hour before turning around and starting back to the house.

When she reached the driveway, she saw the garage door was open and JC’s jeep was parked inside. Slowing down to a walk, she unlocked the door and went inside, immediately going to the kitchen to get a drink. JC, who was sitting at the table reading the newspaper, looked up when she entered.

“Have a good run?”

She nodded, trying to catch her breath, and pulled a bottle of water from the fridge.

“Where did you go?”

She took a long drink of her eater before answering. “Just around. I was mostly on a long street north of here.”

“That’s Rovers Road. I see a lot of joggers there.” He pushed back his chair from the table and crossed his ankles. “Did you sleep okay last night?”

“Honestly? No. It’s really quiet out here at night.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I found that too when I moved out here. Especially compared to Bowie. You get used to it.” He was quiet for a moment. “Hey, I have to go to the studio in a bit. Want to come?”

She nodded. “Sure. I have nothing else to do. When?”

He checked his watch. “Maybe around two thirty?”

“Okay. I’m going to go take a shower then.”

“Alright.”

She left the kitchen, taking the water bottle with her, and went upstairs to the bathroom by her room where there was a shower. She took off her sweaty clothes and stepped inside the shower. After staying under the hot water for twenty minutes, she shut off the water and got out of the shower, wrapping a towel around her body and going to her room. She dug through her dresser and pulled out a pair of jeans and a red spaghetti strap tank top. She quickly changed into the clothes and then went into her bathroom. By time she had finished blow drying her hair and putting on her makeup, it was almost two thirty. She grabbed a notebook from her desk and a novel she was reading before slipping on a pair of sandals and running down the stairs two at a time. JC was waiting by the garage door for her.

“Ready?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yeah.” She followed him out the door and got into the passenger’s side of the jeep. JC had the top lowered and the wind blew through the vehicle as they drove the twenty minute drive to the recording studio. She recognized the other guy’s cars when JC pulled into the parking lot.

“Are all the guys here?” she asked as they walked towards the front doors of the building.

“Yeah. We’re just starting the recording for the new album. We were scheduled to start last week, but we put it on hold when I was in Bowie.”

“How long do you think you’ll be here today?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. A few hours probably.” He opened the door and stepped to the side so she could enter before him. She shivered slightly as the blast of the cold air from the air conditioning hit her. She slipped on her jacket that she had brought with her.

“Is it always this cold in here?” she asked him as she followed him through a hallway.

“The air conditioner's always screwed up. It usually kicks in full blast in the morning and tapers off a bit during the day. The studio’ll be warmer though.” He pulled open a door marked ‘Studio Four’ and then led her inside. An older man sat at the soundboard, adjusting dials and knobs and speaking through a microphone to Joey who was in the sound booth. Justin, Lance, and Chris were all stretched out on a couple couches that were pushed up against the wall. Chris looked up from his gameboy when JC and Brooke entered.

“Hey, Shorty,” he said to her. “What are you doing here?”

Brooke rolled her eyes at the nickname that Chris at been calling her ever since the night before. “I had nothing else to do,” she said, sitting on the couch beside Lance, “so I thought I’d come watch you guys record.”

“Be prepared for a boring day,” Lance warned. “Joey’s been in there for at least an hour working on one part of a song.”

“What’s that?” Justin asked, looking up from the book he had been reading and pointing to the notebook she held.

She looked down at the notebook. “Oh, just something I was working on.”

“School?”

“No, something for myself.”

“Oh.” His eyes returned to his book and she opened the front cover of the notebook. She leafed through the pages, reading poems and songs she had written over the past few years. She had never let anyone read anything she wrote, though. Each entry represented different times in her life and emotions that had come with it. She had written two poems since her parents had died, both having a depressed feeling to them. She read over the two poems once each and then turned to a fresh page and tapped her pencil against the paper lightly. After thinking for a minute, her pencil came to life.

I cannot take this anymore
I'm saying everything I've said before
All these words they make no sense
I find bliss in ignorance
Less I hear the less you'll say
But you'll find that out anyway
I find the answers aren't so clear
Wish I could find a way to disappear
All these thoughts they make no sense
I find bliss in ignorance
Nothing seems to go away
Over and over again

She leaned her head against the back of the couch and closed her eyes, the words replaying over in her mind. She had been feeling so lonely over the past week, although she knew she had JC and all the other guys around her. She had so many emotions going through her but had nowhere to put them. She didn’t want to talk to anyone about what she was feeling. She had found, for her, the best way to deal with things was by herself.

She opened her eyes and read over the words on the page one more time before closing the cover of the notebook and picking up her novel, soon becoming lost in the plot.

He brought the mallet down again and this time she rolled toward him, down the stairs, inside the arc of his swing. A shriek escaped her as her broken ribs thumped and grated. She struck his shins with her body while he was offbalance and he fell backward with a yell of anger and surprise, his feet jiggling to keep their purchase on the stair riser. Then he thumped to the floor, the mallet flying from his hand. He sat up, staring at her for a moment with shocked eyes.

“I’ll kill you for that,” he said.

He rolled over and stretched out for the handle of the mallet. Wendy forced herself to her feet. Her left leg sent bolt after bolt of pain all the way up to her hip. Her face was ashy pale but set. She leaped onto his back as his hand closed over the shaft of the roque mallet.

“Oh dear God!” She screamed to the Overlook’s shadowy lobby, and buried the kitchen knife in-

“Brooke?”

Brooke jumped a foot at the sound of Justin’s voice and dropped her book on her lap with a gasp. “Holy crap, you scared me, Justin!” she said, clutching at her rapidly beating heart.

He picked up the book from her lap. “The Shining, huh? First time reading it?”

“Yeah. Josh had it sitting around so I thought I’d see what it’s like.”

“And?”

“Scariest book I’ve ever read.”

“It’s good though.” He handed the book back to her. “I was going to go pick up something for us all to eat. Wanna come?”

“Yeah, sure.” She got up from the couch and started towards the door of the studio, Justin close behind her. As they left the room and went into the hallway, he suddenly grabbed her sides and yelled, “REDRUM!” in her ear.

She shrieked and jumped out of his hands. Her face grew red as she saw the other people in the hallway staring at her. She turned around and hit him in the arm. “You loser!” she said softly. “Way to embarrass me!”

He laughed and threw an arm around her shoulders, walking her towards the front door of the building. “I try.” He led her outside and over to his car.

“Where are we going?” She asked as she got into the passenger’s side of the car.

“Joey called into a deli and ordered some food. They said it’d be ready when we got there.”

“Okay.” She looked out the window at the passing scenery silently for a moment before saying, “How much longer do you think you guys’ll be at the studio?”

He turned his car off the main street and pulled into the parking lot of a small deli restaurant. “Another few hours at least. We’ll have to come in again tomorrow though. Are you going to come then?”

She got out of the car and she and Justin began to walk to the front door of the deli. “Probably not. I still have to write those two final exams and I need to study for them.”

“Do you have to go into a school to write them?” he asked as they stepped into the deli.

“No. Someone just has to supervise me when I do them. Josh said he’d do it.”

“Which exams are they?”

“Chem and Social.”

“Will they be hard?”

“I don’t think so. I got everything that were in the subjects.”

“That’s good.” He stopped talking as a waitress came to the hostess stand.

“Can I help you?” she asked politely.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m here to pick up an order for Ernesto Michelangelo.”

“Just a second.”

Brooke raised an eyebrow at Justin as the waitress walked towards the kitchen. “Ernesto Michelangelo?” she repeated.

He grinned. “Couldn’t use my own name.”

She smiled. “I guess not,” she said as the waitress appeared again, this time with two large white bags in her hands.

“The total come to $37.24, sir,” she said, setting the bags on the hostess stand.

He pulled out two twenty dollar bills from his pocket and gave them to the waitress.

She quickly got him the change and then handed Brooke and Justin each a bag.

“Have a good day,” she said.

“You too,” Justin returned and then he and Brooke turned to leave the restaurant. When they got into his car, he gave her his bag and then started the engine.

“What did Joey order?” she asked, opening one of the bags and looking inside.

He shrugged. “I dunno. He just said he got enough for everyone. What’s in there?”

“Mostly sandwiches,” she said, closing the bag. “Looks like some potato salad or something too.”

“Sounds good.” He was silent for a minute before glancing over at her and casually asking, “So, who are you dating?”

“Me?” she asked, surprised. “No one. Why?”

“Just wondering. I thought JC said you were going out with some guy from your school. Shawn or something.”

“Shawn Haysack? I was for a couple months but we broke up a little while ago.”

“How come?”

“Mutual things. We didn’t want the same things out of the relationship.”

“Oh.”

“What about you?” she asked. “Are you seeing anyone?”

“Nah, not right now.” He parked his car by JC’s jeep and grabbed one of the deli bags from her. She picked up the other one and then got out of the car, closing the door behind her and going inside the building with him. They made their way back to the studio where the rest of the guys were. She handed him her bag as he opened the door.

“I’m just going to wash my hands,” she told him.

“Okay.” He disappeared through the door and she walked across the hallway where there was a small bathroom. She stepped inside and quickly washed her hands and then looked at her reflection in the mirror, seeing herself, but not. She stared at herself for a minute, not believing how much her life had changed in the past couple weeks. I look different, she decided. Like I finally figured out how much life sucks. She broke her gaze away from the mirror when there a soft knock on the door.

“Brooke, are you coming?” She heard Justin ask.

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a sec.”

“Okay.”

She sighed and dried off her hands before leaving the bathroom, letting the door shut with a quiet click behind her.

Chapter Four

Index