Ripping Wounds [James Hetfield]

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟔

After a long 6 hours ride from Los Angeles, they were finally able to lay their restless bodies. But their car ride didn't end there, because they had to go around 25 miles outside San Francisco, straight to Castro Valley where Lexy and Syd lived. Steven, the one who drove the van, dropped her a few blocks away from her own house, in front of the Burton's.

Lexy, with her gig bag in one hand, knocked the front door while shivering from cold. Her body couldn't deny the fact that standing outside someone's house on December wasn't a good idea at all, but she had no choice.

"Lexy? Oh come in!" the door was opened by a middle-aged woman with a surprised expression on her face.

"I'm so sorry I didn't open it up earlier, I told Cliff to open the door but apparently he didn't hear it!" She said with a slightly guilty tone. Fortunately, there's barely any snow in Castro Valley but 6⁰C would make anyone shivered if they're not wearing a proper winter outfit.

Lexy gave her an assuring smile, "It's okay, he's probably playing his bass," she chuckled.

"Yeah most likely, what else would he possibly do?" The lady walked towards the kitchen, left Lexy alone with her guitar in the warm living room.

"Stay here 'till Christmas night, will you?" She yelled from the kitchen. The older lady she was talking to was Cliff's mother, Jan Burton. A motherly looking woman who would treat Lexy like her own daughter and invite her to have dinner at their house almost every single day. Little did she know that Lexy thought of her as a mother figure, since she had lost hers years ago.

"No, Jan. I'm just here to leave my guitar, going to Cliff's room," Lexy shouted her answer and walked towards the first room right beside the living room.

Without knocking the door, she stormed in and found an odd view which she or anybody would never expect. Cliff Burton, a towering young man with a great enthusiasm for his bass guitar, covered himself with a dark blue blanket that you couldn't even see a single part of his body except his bass. It was like seeing a dark blue, faceless version of Casper playing an instrument and headbanging. Not to mention that the sound came out from the amp sounded awful, owing to the fact that both his hands were inside the blanket and tried to play the damn bass guitar. Lexy's mouth were slightly opened, not sure how to greet her friend. "He doesn't even know I'm inside his room!" she thought.

"If a robber was here, you wouldn't even know until they shoot you," she said, still observing what Cliff was trying to do with that weird experiment.

The bass sound wasn't heard anymore as he stopped playing and ripped the blanket away, just to see a figure standing exactly in front of him.
"Holy fuck, what are you doing here?" he jumped a little bit, didn't know that his friend was standing there while watching him doing weird stuff. Or should we call it creative?

"What are you doing?" she asked with a snap at the word you. Anyone would ask the same question after witnessing such a rare thing.

"I'm trying something new. How long have you been standing there?" Cliff sat down on the edge of his bed while his fingers were back to where it meant to be, plucking each strings on the bass.

A thud sound was heard as Lexy laid her gig back that was used to carry her guitar, on the footboard of Cliff's tiny bed.
"Long enough that it's getting weird you didn't notice me. Just here to leave my guitar for a few days," she sat on the top of a small desk, watched him playing his bass without caring about the world around him.

"Hello Mr. Burton, care to explain what were you trying to do with the blanket?" Lexy snapped her fingers to get his attention, knowing well that Cliff hated it when someone distracted him from playing his bass, but she'd known him for a long time that it felt incomplete if she didn't try to upset him.