CURE THE NIGHT By Harry Ubhi

CHAPTER FOUR

The open party seemed odd just like everything about her, teens here and there, some young adults, and few adults. Ethan observed as the rock music sent everyone into frenzy, all paired and having fun, it’s been a long time since Ethan had little fun himself, he wouldn’t be here if not for the dream, it got worse, it kept on repeating and repeating and Amber was always in it, the lack of sleep hence, forced him to the party.

A girl walked past with a tray of jelly, Ethan reached and picked one up, he had to do something about his rumbling stomach. The girl noticing this, halted.

“Umm.. that’s for the boys, you can get some over there” She said pointing at a tent, with the word “JELLY” boldly painted on it.

“well, I want this one, dame.” Ethan replied.

The girl wore a frown as she walked away, Ethan actually thought he would be slapped, he poured the contents of the cup into his mouth, scanning for Amber, but she wasn’t anywhere here so far. The music kept on roaring into the night and Ethan could tell he saw several drunks. Taking a resolve, Ethan headed for the tent, only to be stopped by a hand on his left shoulder.

Ethan turned to meet a guy, short hair, long face, he wore a Lakers fan top and knee length shorts. Behind him were three other guys, and by their looks, Ethan knew they weren’t here to laugh.

“So you’re the trouble maker, huh? You couldn’t get your own Jelly?” The guy with short hair said, coming face to face with Ethan.

Ethan moved even closer to him that their noses almost touched

“what the f*ck are you going to do about it?” Ethan challenged, his right hand squeezed into a fist.

Ethan heard a growl from his challenger, his eyes sparkled under the influence of the lights around the place, Ethan observed, luckily his three friends were tolerating the standoff so far as they made no move. The standoff was lasting about a minute till someone came between Ethan and the guy, it was Amber. She pushed both parties away.

“stop it Darris” She said to the guy.

“she saved your as* dude, see you around” Darris said with that strange look still in his eyes, “let’s go guys” he said to his three friends, as they all ran back into the mood of the party, already cheering and howling as they went.

Amber turned to Ethan, a plea evident in her features, she wore a short sleeved blouse and skirt, her hair still on a pony tail, it made her look so young. “sorry for that, my brother, Darris has got quite a temper”

“he should know where to put it next time” Ethan replied, still a little angry.

“anyways, you came, wasn’t expecting you to come, don’t get me wrong, I’m so happy you came, of course” Amber said with a smile

“believe me, it was the last thing on earth I could do”. Ethan put up a straight face.

“well, at least you came, ummm…. I don’t know your name”

“Ethan. If you don’t mind, I was about to get a….” Ethan was about to say Jelly but on seeing a bar, “…drink” he completed.

“sure”, Amber replied

Ethan walked towards the bar, noticing that Amber had followed, Damn! She is really a stalker. Ethan took a stool at the bar, Amber taking another close to him.

“haven’t you got a party to run?” Ethan asked

“actually, its like a little get together, we do this every month, so, its kind of everyone’s thing”

Ethan looked away, casting his gaze on a bon fire, the youths around it, cheering and laughing, a flag stood nearby, waving frantically to the breeze. On it was the symbol, the ‘V’ in a circle, same one he saw at Amber’s room the other night. A knot tied in his stomach.

“what the f*ck is that symbol?”Ethan asked, his gaze fixed on the flag, but for some reason Amber hasn’t answered

“Here is your drink, I’ll be right back” she said as she walked away, the jug of beer starring at Ethan, she knew his favorite, wait! Did she just chicken out because of his question about the symbol? Ethan smirked, look on the bright side, he had his beer and had gotten rid of Amber, things couldn’t have gotten any better.

***

The world went round and round, Ethan’s sight was blurred, he had wanted this, he was on his sixth jug already, the music seemed louder than ever, his legs were giving away, on more than one occasion he heard “are you okay man?” but he never noticed who said it as he walked towards no direction, his legs finally giving way and he crashed face down to the ground, he turned, looking up, the stars starring down at him, they were so small, why are they so small? If he could just reach for one of them. The music continued, people passing by his left and right as he lay on the ground and he saw him, the man in a hood, starring down at him or was it just the drink? Ethan blinked, the man was gone, his vision getting blurred and the last thing he saw was Amber reaching for him.

“Sh*t!”.