"All But Sadness" (Ice Nine Kills fanfiction)

Ricky

I slap Spencer awake. I know it's mean, but he's tossing on the couch. He's still wearing the suit.

Spencer startles awake.

"Jeez, dude. I've been calling you forever!"

"What?..."

I roll my eyes. "Have a nightmare or something?" His eyes are frightened, so I assume he had one.

"Come on, the boys are waiting. Change, too, you've been in that all night." I stand up and go over to the coffee pot.

Spencer eventually gets out of the other room, and walks over to me. He's sweating, like he was running in his sleep. He's now in a white shirt and pants. He grabs some coffee, rubbing his forehead. His black hair is messy.

"Ricky..."

I look at him. "Yeah?" I'm trying to keep my calm that he slept in. He had a nightmare, so I shouldn't be that harsh. "Was it a good nightmare?"

Spencer blankly stares at me with his green eyes like he's reliving the dream. "I just... I had a nightmare that... Nadia hung herself."

I stay silent for a minute. "Oh. I'm sorry, bud. That must be..." How can you say something meaningful to that? That's awful.

Charnas nods slowly, sipping his coffee. "It felt so real. I was staring at her. Blood was on her. And before, I was locked—"

"Spencer. Don't worry. It's just a dream, okay?" I hug him, and he hugs back. Plus, it's the morning and I don't want to hear it right now.

"What's going on? We're gonna be late for the meeting!" Dan calls.

Yes, right, the meet-and-greet. I turn to Spencer, both setting down our cups.

I guess Spencer forgot, too.

"Are you all right going?" He nods.

I nod and we both go outside to the blazing sun.

"There you are, man! What happened?" Patrick says to our frontman as we step on the grass.

"Yeah," he says, "I just slept in. I forgot, sorry."

"Alright. Let's go meet our fans!"

Spencer forces a smile. I can tell he's uneven.

I would be, too.

We walk to our booth. It's a great one, with the banner naming Ice Nine Kills on it, and an IX behind the words in red. There's a line full of our fans—maybe two hundred? It's only eight-am, and we're supposed to be here ten minutes ago.

Patrick waves to the people, yelling, "Sorry we're late! Spencer overslept!" The crowd laughs.

After twenty minutes, I see Spencer being himself again. I guess he realized that it was just a dream, after all.

We finish our signing and pictures around nine. As we walk back, a little girl and a man walk over to us.

Spencer says hello to them.

The girl comes close to Spencer, gripping his arm. She stares into his eyes, creepy. She whispers something to him so quiet I don't even hear.

Spencer cowards back, rubbing his arm that has dent marks from the girl's nails.

"Are you okay?" I ask. The girl and man walk away.

Spencer says nothing for a minute. He just nods and walks back to the bus with us, silent all the way.

I wonder what the girl had said.

"Well," Joe says, "off to Arizona now."

I smile. I love Arizona. I love all the states we play in.

Spencer sits down on the couch and the driver hits the pedal.

We're off to another show. Shevy put everything in the back for us during the meeting.

I put the cards and shirts I got from fans down on the table and sit next to Spencer.

He's strangely quiet.

He just sits there, with his hands on his knees.

"Spencer?" He looks at me. "Are you okay?"

He opens his mouth to say something, but then closes it.

Maybe his mind went to the dream again.

A loud bang comes, one after another. A scream comes with it.